Best Of

@BatteryCorrectHorse

You asked a very valid polite question about gender on the previous thread.

Can I suggest that you wait until the outcome of the FWS appeal to the Supreme Court later this month because that judgment, whatever it is, will set out what the law currently means and may or may not solve the issues or make them worse.

There is plenty of detailed legal analysis of the legal issues the court will have to determine, much of it quite dry and complex. The proper approach to statutory interpretation is not exactly a topic to set the pulse racing. If you want links to that analysis and indeed the published legal arguments by some of the parties let me know.

I also think it unwise to rely on US statistics about child gender surgery for what is happening here because the approach there is very different to the approach taken here and the statistics and medical information / approach need to be carefully analysed. The Cass Report is probably the best starting point for anyone interested in the U.K. position. There is also a recent Family Court decision which is illuminating in this regard.

The position in relation to women's rights is best approached by reading the now significant number of judgments by Employment Tribunals on cases brought by women. Again the judgments are long and often very technical but well worth reading if you want to understand the legal issues and why so many women have been winning such cases.

The interesting question is why, pace the CoE, so many institutions are making the same mistakes and not learning any lessons.

As to which see about a million previous posts from me ...... 😀

@BatteryCorrectHorse

You asked a very valid polite question about gender on the previous thread.

Can I suggest that you wait until the outcome of the FWS appeal to the Supreme Court later this month because that judgment, whatever it is, will set out what the law currently means and may or may not solve the issues or make them worse.

There is plenty of detailed legal analysis of the legal issues the court will have to determine, much of it quite dry and complex. The proper approach to statutory interpretation is not exactly a topic to set the pulse racing. If you want links to that analysis and indeed the published legal arguments by some of the parties let me know.

I also think it unwise to rely on US statistics about child gender surgery for what is happening here because the approach there is very different to the approach taken here and the statistics and medical information / approach need to be carefully analysed. The Cass Report is probably the best starting point for anyone interested in the U.K. position. There is also a recent Family Court decision which is illuminating in this regard.

The position in relation to women's rights is best approached by reading the now significant number of judgments by Employment Tribunals on cases brought by women. Again the judgments are long and often very technical but well worth reading if you want to understand the legal issues and why so many women have been winning such cases.

The interesting question is why, pace the CoE, so many institutions are making the same mistakes and not learning any lessons.

As to which see about a million previous posts from me ...... 😀

Nice to see you back BTL @Cyclefree!

Who still believe this is a Christian country in the 21st century?

Besides HYUFD and the anachronism of our constitution.

The answer to your question is going to depend on what is meant by it. At one end of the scale: Does the population as a whole attend Christian worship and believe a version of the Christian faith? 100% No

At the other end: Is the UK a collection of nations formed by Christian faith and culture from roughly 400CE onwards in which Christian self-identification forms the largest coherent group to this day? 100% Yes.

No, it's not.

We are not formed by either the Christian faith nor Christian culture.

We are formed by European culture which has evolved from the Graeco-Romans onwards predating Christ and with vast jumps in cultural improvement postdating religion too.

I think that probably understates the impact of 1500 years of a very strong religious cultural impact, specifically of Christian variants.

I don't go the whole hog of thinking that defines almost all aspects our present day culture and mores, even ones as a reaction against Christian cultures, as in effect because of them, but I think we can discuss it a bit too easily as well.

I've called the country culturally christian, in historical terms, without being a christian myself. Depends what one means by it.

Not really as culturally our society was stifled for those 1500 years with very little significant progress in that time.

Progress happened in the Graeco Roman era and from the Enlightenment onwards. The millenia plus between the fall of the Roman Empire and the fall of the Roman Empire may have been dominated by religion but not much progress occurred then.

Your understanding o& history is someone basic if you genuinely believe that.

A lot of history happened, yes, as far as one monarch fighting another and borders shifting in Europe and that kind of stuff.

But as for culture, philosophy, science, technology etc?

Pre Dark Ages and post Enlightenment is where the real strides were made.

Huge changes. Don’t fall into the dark ages trap.

Some changes. Some science and philosophy absolutely, some cultural progress.

But utterly insignificant compared to post enlightenment and Graeco Roman contributions.

We are an enlightened country far more than a Christian one.

Graeco-Roman contributions? The Romans were a slavery based society. What were their great achievements? Arguably an empire based on a unique way of funding an army and selling the idea of Rome to conquered nations (well strictly speaking conquered elites). Be just like us, live with villas with underfloor heating, pay your taxes and all will be well. Roman science was stifled by the ever present slave.
In the times from 1066 on huge cathedrals were raised across Europe, Military tactics and weapons evolved. Nations arose and trade flourished. It’s too simplistic to look at the Enlightenment and regard the centuries before as moribund.

What did the medievals ever do for us?

1. The invention of Just War theory. An idea that would have seemed outlandish to Caesar.

2. The abolition of domestic slavery. Propose that to an ancient, and it would have seemed like you were suggesting he walk on the ceiling.

3. Musical notation.

4. Double-entry book-keeping. That made banking possible.

5. The creation of borough councils, diets, parliaments. The idea that rulers were subject to the will of God, and could be deposed for misconduct.

6. Cathedrals and castles. Masterpieces of beauty, and military technology.

7. The heavy plough and windmills. They transformed agricultural productivity.

8. Spectacles. They could add a decade to the working life of an artisan.

9. An enduring body of great literature, art, and music.

10. Gunpowder and firearms.

11. A culture of debate, of questioning authority, and logic.

Listen TSE- you call us a Christian country.

But surely you have to be something of a numpty to believe in supernatural events whichever background you come from.


I think I was aged about 3 when I realised that religion was complete bollocks...about the same time when I learnt about Santa Claus. It amazes me that anyone older than the age of 3 still believes in any of this nonsense.....

Christ is the saviour of all mankind, as you will discover on the day of judgement

I think I'm pretty representative of about 75% of British people.

I was baptized C of E but I don't regularly go to church except for life's biggest events (birth, marriage and death) and I've always said I'm agnostic...

But... but... but...

At my absolute pit of despair and at the worst time of my life, which was in 2022 while I myself was being treated for cancer and my mother, who I was longtime carer for, was dying from metastatic breast cancer, I found myself calling out to a higher power and asking Him for the strength to get through the trials that I knew were ahead. And I did feel some comfort. Was that just my mind trying to ease itself? Or did a higher power hear me?

I personally would describe myself as "spiritual" in that I do believe our energy goes on beyond death and I hope that one day when my time comes, I'll see those I loved and lost. Where "religion" fits into that, I don't know, but that's my own personal belief. 🙏

Issues in the US election: Few Democrats had anything to say about the problem of synthetic opioids. That's understandable, because so many Democrats in big cities are of the "tune in, turn on" persuasion.

But synthetic opioids are our biggest public health problem, and the main reason US life expectancy began to decline in the last year or two of the Obama administration.

Opioids are a much bigger problem in the USA than other western countries. I wonder why that is.

The American Pain Foundation: which was a "not for profit" entirely funded by US pharmaceutical companies that produced research and pressured doctors to prescribe more opiates.

There are - I'm sure - "charities" that are net negatives to the sum of human happiness. But I doubt many come close to the American Pain Foundation for evil inflicted on the world.