Financing local Government is one of those issues which nobody, if they've got any sense, wants to go anywhere near. The fact we are dealing with a hastily imposed settlement brought in as a result of the overthrow of Margaret Thatcher speaks volumes.
30+ years on and the consequences of that stupidity are clear. We have a banding system which bears little or no resemblance to the value of the properties to which it relates and the main reason for its creation - to allow local authorities to fund themselves without having to rely on central Government largesse - has also failed to be addressed.
In some authorites, up to two thirds of expenditure is on the provision of care for vulnerable adults and children as well on children with Special Education Needs (SEN). SEN referrals have increased exponentially since the end of lockdown but the provision of suitable teaching accommodation and the supply of qualified teachers has not. The funding of transport for SEN children is a particular area of concern with many authorities cutting it for children over sixteen.
The central question is what do you want local councils to do? In theory, adult social care could be taken out of local authority control and run by a national care agency which would ensure adequate levels of residential care, specialist (including dementia) care and domiciliary care across the country based on the maxim the older population should be treated with respect and dignity and the care offer should provide that. At the same time, the agency should be promoting in-family care where possible and acting as a positive help for carers of all ages and types. Caring should be viewed as a vital part of family life and carers should be encouraged as much as possible (employers hsould be given huge tax breaks to employ carers).
How do you fund the rest of local Government? With the pressure off in terms of care, other functions can be looked at - we need local community hubs where a range of services and advice are available and very often just a place for the lonely and the alone to go and meet other people. This needs to be a 24 hour a day, seven day a week service provision - the message being if you're lonely, you don't have to be alone.
How this society deals with the alone and the lonely is reprehensible and a shame to us all. Sport, for example, should be leading on this getting people out and about providing free or discounted admission so those who have no social life can have the opportunity to live a little.
Back to funding? @Sandpit rails against property taxation and the truth is there is no fair form of local Government funding. The truth is those with high value properties are doing very well out of the current system and any changes will disadvantage them (and they will whinge) and benefit the providers of Council Tax software (who won't).
Easy. Abolish local government. Everything gets run from the centre and everyone gets the same. Massive efficiencies are made.
The cherry on the top is killing off local politics, so that local busybodies never get any power.
As I'm sure your tongue is firmly in your cheek, let's play.
You'd have a National Refuse Collection Service presumably, a National Library Service, a National Fire Service, a National Police Service, a National Street Cleaning Service and a National Parking Management Agency and bring all locally-owned land and property assets under the Property Services Agency.
Can't quite see these efficiency savings.
No doubt somebody will pipe up about getting Planning abolished except for "national guidelines" - let's define those guidelines, shall we? Let's allow huge overdevelopment in one area and no development in another. Can you imagine recruiting the hundreds of civil servants required to adopt the National Plan - they could be recruited from all the local Planning departments perhaps?
It sounds rather like the creation of ICL (by Tony Benn IIRC???) were the govt of the day "raided" various IT dept.s up and down the country and produced the "British IBM". The main problem was that many of the "recruits" were not the finest members of their respective organisations who knew a good clearing out opportunity when they saw one...
ICL did some good stuff, but there was always a slightly "naff" feel to their kit.
Hmm. ICL became Fujitsu Systems iirc.
But imo they suffered most from being a political plaything.
While the Graun includes the Badenoch/Tennant spat deep in its rolling coverage, there is no mention at all of it, still less any story on its election website front page.
It's on their main election news feed, and has been for mcuh of today. There is only so much space on the page itself.
"...The PA news agency have a bit more detail on the comments from David Tennant and Kemi Badenoch. Tennant won a prize for being a “celebrity ally” at the British LGBT awards last week and used his speech to target the equalities minister. Badenoch has faced criticism over her approach to trans rights.
Tennant said in his acceptance speech:
"...If I’m honest I’m a little depressed by the fact that acknowledging that everyone has the right to be who they want to be and live their life how they want to live it as long as they’re not hurting anyone else should merit any kind of special award or special mention, because it’s common sense, isn’t it? It is human decency. We shouldn’t live in a world where that is worth remarking on. However, until we wake up and Kemi Badenoch doesn’t exist any more – I don’t wish ill of her, I just wish her to shut up – whilst we do live in this world, I am honoured to receive this...”
In response to Tennant’s comments, Badenoch said:
"...I will not shut up. I will not be silenced by men who prioritise applause from Stonewall over the safety of women and girls. A rich, lefty, white male celebrity so blinded by ideology he can’t see the optics of attacking the only black woman in government by calling publicly for my existence to end. Tennant is one of Labour’s celebrity supporters. This is an early example of what life will be like if they win. Keir Starmer stood by while Rosie Duffield was hounded. He and his supporters will do the same with the country. Do not let the bigots and bullies win...”
"calling publicly for my existence to end".
Kemi Badenoch seems to have reckoned without the fact that we can read.
>everyone has the right to be who they want to be and live their life how they want to live it as long as they’re not hurting anyone else
See the bit in bold. That's the point which this very male-dominated forum keeps on missing. Men who go into women's changing rooms and act as voyeurs (voyeurism is a crime, btw) making women feel uncomfortable and distressed - see the case of the nurses in Darlington - are not living their lives without hurting others.
They want to live their lives as they want regardless of whether or not they hurt others. In some cases, hurting women seems to be the aim. Why else would young masked men gather to shout abuse at women or hold up placards threatening violence against them.
That's the point which is missed and which, when raised on here or elsewhere, gets abuse or contemptuous dismissal, such as being told to shut up.
That's exactly the problem with this sort of rhetoric. It is tantamount to saying that trans women who are allowed to use women's changing rooms or loos are criminals.
It's the same as saying Muslims are terrorists, or Romanians are pickpockets, or gay men are paedophiles.
It's othering, pure and simple. And if you look at polling of women on this subject it gives the lie to the idea this is a battle between the sexes.
There have been enough instances of non-trans people (men!) installing peepholes or cameras in female bathrooms and spaces or even dressing up in rubber "woman" suits
Besides, what do we do with trans-men? Should this guy be told to use the ladies just because his birth certificate says "female"?
The men don’t care who uses the men’s room.
Not only is that completely wrong, it is not the point. If Trans-women are not women and should use the men's toilets then trans-men are not men and should use the women's toilets.
You cannot say that birth is biology and then claim it only applies to one group.
As to your earlier point, how many lads would be comfortable at the urinals whilst this person uses her "birth gender toilet"?
The complaints about bathrooms and changing rooms and prisons and shelters and sports days are not coming from men, the complaints are coming exclusively from women.
Some women. Not even a majority. Most of us have no problem if trans women prefer to use ‘our’ spaces, especially as I’m sure they feel safer.
As ever, a strident minority who shout loudest seem to think they represent the majority. Well they don’t.
A quick look at the state of the LLG vs RefCon combined votes in the most recent I can see online, and it's remarkable how little has changed since before the campaign started. All the noise has been between Con and Ref, and between the 3 centre-left parties.
More in Common: 56:37 Norstat: 57:38 Ipsos: 60:34 WeThink: 59:36 JLP: 57:40 (JLP always the highest scoring for the right) Survation: 58:32 (that's the lowest for the right) R&W: 60:37
So a range of only 4 points between highest and lowest LLP, and 8 between highest and lowest RefCon
A bit of tightening, Lab under 40 again and reform slip back, keeps it interesting to a degree!
We have accumulating evidence of Reform losing support due to Farage's Russian apologia.
How can we know what it is due to? It could be his Putinphilia but it could just as easily be reversion to trend after a publicity induced bounce.
Yes, we do tend to over-scribe poll movements to specific events, but I think in this case the change is large enough, the timing fits well enough, and the story was big enough, that it's reasonable enough to make the connection.
After all, it was a prime-time TV interview in which he made the comments, so it doesn't really fit with a reversion to the mean after losing media attention.
While the Graun includes the Badenoch/Tennant spat deep in its rolling coverage, there is no mention at all of it, still less any story on its election website front page.
It's on their main election news feed, and has been for mcuh of today. There is only so much space on the page itself.
"...The PA news agency have a bit more detail on the comments from David Tennant and Kemi Badenoch. Tennant won a prize for being a “celebrity ally” at the British LGBT awards last week and used his speech to target the equalities minister. Badenoch has faced criticism over her approach to trans rights.
Tennant said in his acceptance speech:
"...If I’m honest I’m a little depressed by the fact that acknowledging that everyone has the right to be who they want to be and live their life how they want to live it as long as they’re not hurting anyone else should merit any kind of special award or special mention, because it’s common sense, isn’t it? It is human decency. We shouldn’t live in a world where that is worth remarking on. However, until we wake up and Kemi Badenoch doesn’t exist any more – I don’t wish ill of her, I just wish her to shut up – whilst we do live in this world, I am honoured to receive this...”
In response to Tennant’s comments, Badenoch said:
"...I will not shut up. I will not be silenced by men who prioritise applause from Stonewall over the safety of women and girls. A rich, lefty, white male celebrity so blinded by ideology he can’t see the optics of attacking the only black woman in government by calling publicly for my existence to end. Tennant is one of Labour’s celebrity supporters. This is an early example of what life will be like if they win. Keir Starmer stood by while Rosie Duffield was hounded. He and his supporters will do the same with the country. Do not let the bigots and bullies win...”
"calling publicly for my existence to end".
Kemi Badenoch seems to have reckoned without the fact that we can read.
>everyone has the right to be who they want to be and live their life how they want to live it as long as they’re not hurting anyone else
See the bit in bold. That's the point which this very male-dominated forum keeps on missing. Men who go into women's changing rooms and act as voyeurs (voyeurism is a crime, btw) making women feel uncomfortable and distressed - see the case of the nurses in Darlington - are not living their lives without hurting others.
They want to live their lives as they want regardless of whether or not they hurt others. In some cases, hurting women seems to be the aim. Why else would young masked men gather to shout abuse at women or hold up placards threatening violence against them.
That's the point which is missed and which, when raised on here or elsewhere, gets abuse or contemptuous dismissal, such as being told to shut up.
That's exactly the problem with this sort of rhetoric. It is tantamount to saying that trans women who are allowed to use women's changing rooms or loos are criminals.
It's the same as saying Muslims are terrorists, or Romanians are pickpockets, or gay men are paedophiles.
It's othering, pure and simple. And if you look at polling of women on this subject it gives the lie to the idea this is a battle between the sexes.
There have been enough instances of non-trans people (men!) installing peepholes or cameras in female bathrooms and spaces or even dressing up in rubber "woman" suits
Besides, what do we do with trans-men? Should this guy be told to use the ladies just because his birth certificate says "female"?
The men don’t care who uses the men’s room.
Not only is that completely wrong, it is not the point. If Trans-women are not women and should use the men's toilets then trans-men are not men and should use the women's toilets.
You cannot say that birth is biology and then claim it only applies to one group.
As to your earlier point, how many lads would be comfortable at the urinals whilst this person uses her "birth gender toilet"?
I couldn't give less of a shit if any woman uses the men's bathroom.
Plenty do to skip the queues which are often insane for the ladies but nowhere near as bad in the men's (thanks to our availability of urinals).
Men using the ladies is a different matter.
A lot of the focus is on a vocal minority claiming they feel unsafe if a trans woman uses our spaces.
You say ‘you couldn’t give a shit’ but a lot of women might not feel safe in men’s loos.
It’s a tedious bit of culture war gaming and, thankfully, is going to be put behind us as we move on with a sensible middle path.
Anyway, back to Emma Raducanu who is possibly about to win her first ever v top 10 opponent.
While the Graun includes the Badenoch/Tennant spat deep in its rolling coverage, there is no mention at all of it, still less any story on its election website front page.
It's on their main election news feed, and has been for mcuh of today. There is only so much space on the page itself.
"...The PA news agency have a bit more detail on the comments from David Tennant and Kemi Badenoch. Tennant won a prize for being a “celebrity ally” at the British LGBT awards last week and used his speech to target the equalities minister. Badenoch has faced criticism over her approach to trans rights.
Tennant said in his acceptance speech:
"...If I’m honest I’m a little depressed by the fact that acknowledging that everyone has the right to be who they want to be and live their life how they want to live it as long as they’re not hurting anyone else should merit any kind of special award or special mention, because it’s common sense, isn’t it? It is human decency. We shouldn’t live in a world where that is worth remarking on. However, until we wake up and Kemi Badenoch doesn’t exist any more – I don’t wish ill of her, I just wish her to shut up – whilst we do live in this world, I am honoured to receive this...”
In response to Tennant’s comments, Badenoch said:
"...I will not shut up. I will not be silenced by men who prioritise applause from Stonewall over the safety of women and girls. A rich, lefty, white male celebrity so blinded by ideology he can’t see the optics of attacking the only black woman in government by calling publicly for my existence to end. Tennant is one of Labour’s celebrity supporters. This is an early example of what life will be like if they win. Keir Starmer stood by while Rosie Duffield was hounded. He and his supporters will do the same with the country. Do not let the bigots and bullies win...”
"calling publicly for my existence to end".
Kemi Badenoch seems to have reckoned without the fact that we can read.
>everyone has the right to be who they want to be and live their life how they want to live it as long as they’re not hurting anyone else
See the bit in bold. That's the point which this very male-dominated forum keeps on missing. Men who go into women's changing rooms and act as voyeurs (voyeurism is a crime, btw) making women feel uncomfortable and distressed - see the case of the nurses in Darlington - are not living their lives without hurting others.
They want to live their lives as they want regardless of whether or not they hurt others. In some cases, hurting women seems to be the aim. Why else would young masked men gather to shout abuse at women or hold up placards threatening violence against them.
That's the point which is missed and which, when raised on here or elsewhere, gets abuse or contemptuous dismissal, such as being told to shut up.
That's exactly the problem with this sort of rhetoric. It is tantamount to saying that trans women who are allowed to use women's changing rooms or loos are criminals.
It's the same as saying Muslims are terrorists, or Romanians are pickpockets, or gay men are paedophiles.
It's othering, pure and simple. And if you look at polling of women on this subject it gives the lie to the idea this is a battle between the sexes.
There have been enough instances of non-trans people (men!) installing peepholes or cameras in female bathrooms and spaces or even dressing up in rubber "woman" suits
Besides, what do we do with trans-men? Should this guy be told to use the ladies just because his birth certificate says "female"?
The men don’t care who uses the men’s room.
Not only is that completely wrong, it is not the point. If Trans-women are not women and should use the men's toilets then trans-men are not men and should use the women's toilets.
You cannot say that birth is biology and then claim it only applies to one group.
As to your earlier point, how many lads would be comfortable at the urinals whilst this person uses her "birth gender toilet"?
I couldn't give less of a shit if any woman uses the men's bathroom.
Plenty do to skip the queues which are often insane for the ladies but nowhere near as bad in the men's (thanks to our availability of urinals).
Men using the ladies is a different matter.
"Well I'm not dumb but I can't understand why she walked like a woman and talked like a man... and I know what I am in bed, I'm a man and so was Lola".
You'd have thought that in the 54 years since Ray Davies wrote Lola we'd be more broadminded. It would seem not.
While the Graun includes the Badenoch/Tennant spat deep in its rolling coverage, there is no mention at all of it, still less any story on its election website front page.
It's on their main election news feed, and has been for mcuh of today. There is only so much space on the page itself.
"...The PA news agency have a bit more detail on the comments from David Tennant and Kemi Badenoch. Tennant won a prize for being a “celebrity ally” at the British LGBT awards last week and used his speech to target the equalities minister. Badenoch has faced criticism over her approach to trans rights.
Tennant said in his acceptance speech:
"...If I’m honest I’m a little depressed by the fact that acknowledging that everyone has the right to be who they want to be and live their life how they want to live it as long as they’re not hurting anyone else should merit any kind of special award or special mention, because it’s common sense, isn’t it? It is human decency. We shouldn’t live in a world where that is worth remarking on. However, until we wake up and Kemi Badenoch doesn’t exist any more – I don’t wish ill of her, I just wish her to shut up – whilst we do live in this world, I am honoured to receive this...”
In response to Tennant’s comments, Badenoch said:
"...I will not shut up. I will not be silenced by men who prioritise applause from Stonewall over the safety of women and girls. A rich, lefty, white male celebrity so blinded by ideology he can’t see the optics of attacking the only black woman in government by calling publicly for my existence to end. Tennant is one of Labour’s celebrity supporters. This is an early example of what life will be like if they win. Keir Starmer stood by while Rosie Duffield was hounded. He and his supporters will do the same with the country. Do not let the bigots and bullies win...”
"calling publicly for my existence to end".
Kemi Badenoch seems to have reckoned without the fact that we can read.
>everyone has the right to be who they want to be and live their life how they want to live it as long as they’re not hurting anyone else
See the bit in bold. That's the point which this very male-dominated forum keeps on missing. Men who go into women's changing rooms and act as voyeurs (voyeurism is a crime, btw) making women feel uncomfortable and distressed - see the case of the nurses in Darlington - are not living their lives without hurting others.
They want to live their lives as they want regardless of whether or not they hurt others. In some cases, hurting women seems to be the aim. Why else would young masked men gather to shout abuse at women or hold up placards threatening violence against them.
That's the point which is missed and which, when raised on here or elsewhere, gets abuse or contemptuous dismissal, such as being told to shut up.
That's exactly the problem with this sort of rhetoric. It is tantamount to saying that trans women who are allowed to use women's changing rooms or loos are criminals.
It's the same as saying Muslims are terrorists, or Romanians are pickpockets, or gay men are paedophiles.
It's othering, pure and simple. And if you look at polling of women on this subject it gives the lie to the idea this is a battle between the sexes.
There have been enough instances of non-trans people (men!) installing peepholes or cameras in female bathrooms and spaces or even dressing up in rubber "woman" suits
Besides, what do we do with trans-men? Should this guy be told to use the ladies just because his birth certificate says "female"?
The men don’t care who uses the men’s room.
Not only is that completely wrong, it is not the point. If Trans-women are not women and should use the men's toilets then trans-men are not men and should use the women's toilets.
You cannot say that birth is biology and then claim it only applies to one group.
As to your earlier point, how many lads would be comfortable at the urinals whilst this person uses her "birth gender toilet"?
I couldn't give less of a shit if any woman uses the men's bathroom.
Plenty do to skip the queues which are often insane for the ladies but nowhere near as bad in the men's (thanks to our availability of urinals).
Men using the ladies is a different matter.
Sound common sense but horrifying blasphemy for those obsessed with equality.
While the Graun includes the Badenoch/Tennant spat deep in its rolling coverage, there is no mention at all of it, still less any story on its election website front page.
It's on their main election news feed, and has been for mcuh of today. There is only so much space on the page itself.
"...The PA news agency have a bit more detail on the comments from David Tennant and Kemi Badenoch. Tennant won a prize for being a “celebrity ally” at the British LGBT awards last week and used his speech to target the equalities minister. Badenoch has faced criticism over her approach to trans rights.
Tennant said in his acceptance speech:
"...If I’m honest I’m a little depressed by the fact that acknowledging that everyone has the right to be who they want to be and live their life how they want to live it as long as they’re not hurting anyone else should merit any kind of special award or special mention, because it’s common sense, isn’t it? It is human decency. We shouldn’t live in a world where that is worth remarking on. However, until we wake up and Kemi Badenoch doesn’t exist any more – I don’t wish ill of her, I just wish her to shut up – whilst we do live in this world, I am honoured to receive this...”
In response to Tennant’s comments, Badenoch said:
"...I will not shut up. I will not be silenced by men who prioritise applause from Stonewall over the safety of women and girls. A rich, lefty, white male celebrity so blinded by ideology he can’t see the optics of attacking the only black woman in government by calling publicly for my existence to end. Tennant is one of Labour’s celebrity supporters. This is an early example of what life will be like if they win. Keir Starmer stood by while Rosie Duffield was hounded. He and his supporters will do the same with the country. Do not let the bigots and bullies win...”
"calling publicly for my existence to end".
Kemi Badenoch seems to have reckoned without the fact that we can read.
>everyone has the right to be who they want to be and live their life how they want to live it as long as they’re not hurting anyone else
See the bit in bold. That's the point which this very male-dominated forum keeps on missing. Men who go into women's changing rooms and act as voyeurs (voyeurism is a crime, btw) making women feel uncomfortable and distressed - see the case of the nurses in Darlington - are not living their lives without hurting others.
They want to live their lives as they want regardless of whether or not they hurt others. In some cases, hurting women seems to be the aim. Why else would young masked men gather to shout abuse at women or hold up placards threatening violence against them.
That's the point which is missed and which, when raised on here or elsewhere, gets abuse or contemptuous dismissal, such as being told to shut up.
That's exactly the problem with this sort of rhetoric. It is tantamount to saying that trans women who are allowed to use women's changing rooms or loos are criminals.
It's the same as saying Muslims are terrorists, or Romanians are pickpockets, or gay men are paedophiles.
It's othering, pure and simple. And if you look at polling of women on this subject it gives the lie to the idea this is a battle between the sexes.
There have been enough instances of non-trans people (men!) installing peepholes or cameras in female bathrooms and spaces or even dressing up in rubber "woman" suits
Besides, what do we do with trans-men? Should this guy be told to use the ladies just because his birth certificate says "female"?
The men don’t care who uses the men’s room.
Not only is that completely wrong, it is not the point. If Trans-women are not women and should use the men's toilets then trans-men are not men and should use the women's toilets.
You cannot say that birth is biology and then claim it only applies to one group.
As to your earlier point, how many lads would be comfortable at the urinals whilst this person uses her "birth gender toilet"?
The complaints about bathrooms and changing rooms and prisons and shelters and sports days are not coming from men, the complaints are coming exclusively from women.
Some women. Not even a majority. Most of us have no problem if trans women prefer to use ‘our’ spaces, especially as I’m sure they feel safer.
As ever, a strident minority who shout loudest seem to think they represent the majority. Well they don’t.
Let’s move on from this. It’s petty.
So it’s only some women who object to a penis in their locker room, and those bigots should just shut the fuck up?
Labour to bring in automatic voter registration under plans to boost franchise
Labour is planning to introduce automatic registration for voting under plans to add millions more people to the electoral roll for future elections, especially young people, the Guardian has learned.
Starmer is not going to waste any opportunity to put finger on the scales once he gets power. Where as the Tories spent 14 years not really gaining a massive advantage of the much watered down redrawing constituencies (remember the more radical proposal originally was far fewer seats) and the voter id stuff which is nothing like the gerrymandering type stuff in the US.
I can see a scandal coming of people being auto registered who end up not being eligible.
Votes for 16 and auto enrolment.
How long before compulsory voting ?
I’m guessing the same people who condemned the Tories over their attempts to game the system will be as equally condemnatory here.
While the Graun includes the Badenoch/Tennant spat deep in its rolling coverage, there is no mention at all of it, still less any story on its election website front page.
It's on their main election news feed, and has been for mcuh of today. There is only so much space on the page itself.
"...The PA news agency have a bit more detail on the comments from David Tennant and Kemi Badenoch. Tennant won a prize for being a “celebrity ally” at the British LGBT awards last week and used his speech to target the equalities minister. Badenoch has faced criticism over her approach to trans rights.
Tennant said in his acceptance speech:
"...If I’m honest I’m a little depressed by the fact that acknowledging that everyone has the right to be who they want to be and live their life how they want to live it as long as they’re not hurting anyone else should merit any kind of special award or special mention, because it’s common sense, isn’t it? It is human decency. We shouldn’t live in a world where that is worth remarking on. However, until we wake up and Kemi Badenoch doesn’t exist any more – I don’t wish ill of her, I just wish her to shut up – whilst we do live in this world, I am honoured to receive this...”
In response to Tennant’s comments, Badenoch said:
"...I will not shut up. I will not be silenced by men who prioritise applause from Stonewall over the safety of women and girls. A rich, lefty, white male celebrity so blinded by ideology he can’t see the optics of attacking the only black woman in government by calling publicly for my existence to end. Tennant is one of Labour’s celebrity supporters. This is an early example of what life will be like if they win. Keir Starmer stood by while Rosie Duffield was hounded. He and his supporters will do the same with the country. Do not let the bigots and bullies win...”
"calling publicly for my existence to end".
Kemi Badenoch seems to have reckoned without the fact that we can read.
>everyone has the right to be who they want to be and live their life how they want to live it as long as they’re not hurting anyone else
See the bit in bold. That's the point which this very male-dominated forum keeps on missing. Men who go into women's changing rooms and act as voyeurs (voyeurism is a crime, btw) making women feel uncomfortable and distressed - see the case of the nurses in Darlington - are not living their lives without hurting others.
They want to live their lives as they want regardless of whether or not they hurt others. In some cases, hurting women seems to be the aim. Why else would young masked men gather to shout abuse at women or hold up placards threatening violence against them.
That's the point which is missed and which, when raised on here or elsewhere, gets abuse or contemptuous dismissal, such as being told to shut up.
That's exactly the problem with this sort of rhetoric. It is tantamount to saying that trans women who are allowed to use women's changing rooms or loos are criminals.
It's the same as saying Muslims are terrorists, or Romanians are pickpockets, or gay men are paedophiles.
It's othering, pure and simple. And if you look at polling of women on this subject it gives the lie to the idea this is a battle between the sexes.
There have been enough instances of non-trans people (men!) installing peepholes or cameras in female bathrooms and spaces or even dressing up in rubber "woman" suits
Besides, what do we do with trans-men? Should this guy be told to use the ladies just because his birth certificate says "female"?
The men don’t care who uses the men’s room.
Whilst possibly true, changing the law to make genetic sex the denoter would make trans-men go in women's loos.
People miss this. The common complaint is not about trans people using the other loos, it's about trans women using the women's loos. Suggestions requiring "sex" to mean "biological sex" will not fix this. To do so the law would have to be explicitly sexist, a point everybody is wilfully ignoring.
Phone masts in urban areas should not have restrictions.
Sorry to make this point again but planning has come up and it's my area.
Yes, they should. You don't want them plonked in the middle of a school playing field, the flight path of an airport, or in a cemetery.
Come on. This anti-NIMBY stuff is starting to get a bit silly.
You don't need planning to deal with the former or the latter, the owners of the field or cemetery should determine what is appropriate with their own land. No need for NIMBYs to stick their oars in.
As for flight paths, flight safety is already dealt with separately under specific regulations, again no need for nosy neighbours to get involved.
So it's only the regulations that you personally don't like that should be ignored?
No, regulations should be set by the law, debated in Parliament.
Then people should be free to liberally do whatever they please within the law, without their neighbours having a say.
The origins of our legal system lie in creating a more peaceful way to resolve disputes than violent blood feuds. In a similar way, our planning system has to accommodate the reality that most people do care about what their neighbours do with their land.
Having some rules, and a process, around it helps to ameliorate frustration and bad feeling, and reduces the likelihood of a dispute leading to violence.
While I can respect that you hold this idealistic position that posits they people shouldn't care, do you not acknowledge the value of a planning system to deal with the reality that people do care?
No, Barty doesn't recognise their right to care.
They can care, bitch and moan all they please.
But if what is being developed is legal and by consenting adults on their own land it should be allowed and objections should have no say at all.
Just as if people object to a gay couple, or interracial couple, they should be allowed to care but not have the right to get involved and object to what consenting adults do on their own land.
There's a difference between what people do as an activity and what they do to change the environment.
Why is there?
If its their own land, what difference is there?
Do you oppose restrictions on noise pollution?
I think there should be legal restriction on noise and other pollution in land zoned for residential housing, and so long as whatever you're planning doesn't violate those noise or any other restrictions it should be perfectly legal.
If it does, there ought to be consequences, but you don't need NIMBYs or planning to deal with that.
Ah so there should be restrictions on things that bother you but not on things that bother others....got it
Comments
But imo they suffered most from being a political plaything.
NEW THREAD
As ever, a strident minority who shout loudest seem to think they represent the majority. Well they don’t.
Let’s move on from this. It’s petty.
More in Common: 56:37
Norstat: 57:38
Ipsos: 60:34
WeThink: 59:36
JLP: 57:40 (JLP always the highest scoring for the right)
Survation: 58:32 (that's the lowest for the right)
R&W: 60:37
So a range of only 4 points between highest and lowest LLP, and 8 between highest and lowest RefCon
After all, it was a prime-time TV interview in which he made the comments, so it doesn't really fit with a reversion to the mean after losing media attention.
You say ‘you couldn’t give a shit’ but a lot of women might not feel safe in men’s loos.
It’s a tedious bit of culture war gaming and, thankfully, is going to be put behind us as we move on with a sensible middle path.
Anyway, back to Emma Raducanu who is possibly about to win her first ever v top 10 opponent.
You'd have thought that in the 54 years since Ray Davies wrote Lola we'd be more broadminded. It would seem not.
😂
How long before compulsory voting ?
I’m guessing the same people who condemned the Tories over their attempts to game the system will be as equally condemnatory here.
People miss this. The common complaint is not about trans people using the other loos, it's about trans women using the women's loos. Suggestions requiring "sex" to mean "biological sex" will not fix this. To do so the law would have to be explicitly sexist, a point everybody is wilfully ignoring.