A slight twist on the usual story - I feel like every year we hear some story about train drivers, or school boys, or whoever, not being allowed to wear shorts, and 'getting around' that by wearing skirts instead. And so if the report is right in this case the school has short cutted that by just saying, yeah, skirts are fine.
Society is tying itself up in knots trying to cope with gender. Let's just have a common sense approach to it.
We're in Chester on a short break, and I have just completed my 1,000th walk logged for my website!
Woohoo!
It's quite an emotional moment. One thousand days of walking, over 17,500 miles in rain, shine, wind and snow, over nearly twenty years. Much of mainland Britain 'covered', although there are still lots of places I still need to visit.
Still boycotting Uber? Seriously, congratulations and KBO.
Mr. Stopper, nice thought. I'll believe it when I see it.
An old duffer like me can't really see past simple male and female, with intersex in the middle. Now, I fully understand that people can feel they are in the wrong body, and if they want to be known as something different, that's fine, and society should accommodate them. I just having a hard time getting my head around all the different pronouns! This school case could be easily and sensibly sorted out.
Mr. Stopper, indeed. Trans stuff doesn't (necessarily, at least) require new pronouns, that's if you don't believe in gender binary terms. As an aside, it mildly amuses me that female actresses now seem to prefer, often, to be called actors. Even if one believes a gender neutral term is better (and actor is masculine) there already is one: thespian.
Anyway, I must be off. Dragons won't draw themselves, you know.
Mr. Stopper, indeed. Trans stuff doesn't (necessarily, at least) require new pronouns, that's if you don't believe in gender binary terms. As an aside, it mildly amuses me that female actresses now seem to prefer, often, to be called actors. Even if one believes a gender neutral term is better (and actor is masculine) there already is one: thespian.
Anyway, I must be off. Dragons won't draw themselves, you know.
I actually don't mind what people call themselves, just don't expect me to remember it all!
A slight twist on the usual story - I feel like every year we hear some story about train drivers, or school boys, or whoever, not being allowed to wear shorts, and 'getting around' that by wearing skirts instead. And so if the report is right in this case the school has short cutted that by just saying, yeah, skirts are fine.
Society is tying itself up in knots trying to cope with gender. Let's just have a common sense approach to it.
In fairness I think this aspect of the argument is far more about oppressive uniforms, as some who gets hot and sweats very easily I would happily wear a skirt that would keep me much cooler than a pair of trousers if shorts weren't allowed, I'd hope that would end up in me being allowed to wear shorts but if not I'd rather wear a skirt than melt.
The gender angle simply seems a good way to attack it that makes it difficult for a company/school to turn round and say no.
The more sensible approach would be to have a discussion about work/school uniforms in general and how much people should be made to suffer to look a certain way. Women can look good in heels for example, or men in trousers rather than shorts (I guess?) to what level should they be forced to endure discomfort for that reason and in what jobs is that essential?
A slight twist on the usual story - I feel like every year we hear some story about train drivers, or school boys, or whoever, not being allowed to wear shorts, and 'getting around' that by wearing skirts instead. And so if the report is right in this case the school has short cutted that by just saying, yeah, skirts are fine.
Society is tying itself up in knots trying to cope with gender. Let's just have a common sense approach to it.
In fairness I think this aspect of the argument is far more about oppressive uniforms, as some who gets hot and sweats very easily I would happily wear a skirt that would keep me much cooler than a pair of trousers if shorts weren't allowed, I'd hope that would end up in me being allowed to wear shorts but if not I'd rather wear a skirt than melt.
The gender angle simply seems a good way to attack it that makes it difficult for a company/school to turn round and say no.
The more sensible approach would be to have a discussion about work/school uniforms in general and how much people should be made to suffer to look a certain way. Women can look good in heels for example, or men in trousers rather than shorts (I guess?) to what level should they be forced to endure discomfort for that reason and in what jobs is that essential?
I agree with all that, and no one should be made to suffer for any uniform. In the case of a school uniform, surely a skirt, trousers or smart shorts would be acceptable, with anyone being allowed to wear all three of them would be the way to go.
The uniform thing has now entered the realms of utter farce.
Allow tailored shorts, skirts and trousers and simply let anyone wear any of them.
In all reality, most girls will wear skirts and most boys trousers (or shorts) so the situation will be almost exactly the same but we’ll be spared the banal stories.
The uniform thing has now entered the realms of utter farce.
Allow tailored shorts, skirts and trousers and simply let anyone where any of them.
In all reality, most girls will wear skirts and most boys trousers (or shorts) so the situation will be almost exactly the same but we’ll be spared the banal stories.
The uniform thing has now entered the realms of utter farce.
Allow tailored shorts, skirts and trousers and simply let anyone where any of them.
In all reality, most girls will wear skirts and most boys trousers (or shorts) so the situation will be almost exactly the same but we’ll be spared the banal stories.
If only such sense could be had. We need something for slow news days!
The uniform thing has now entered the realms of utter farce.
Allow tailored shorts, skirts and trousers and simply let anyone wear any of them.
In all reality, most girls will wear skirts and most boys trousers (or shorts) so the situation will be almost exactly the same but we’ll be spared the banal stories.
Well for some reason these schools are opposed to boys wearing shorts
A slight twist on the usual story - I feel like every year we hear some story about train drivers, or school boys, or whoever, not being allowed to wear shorts, and 'getting around' that by wearing skirts instead. And so if the report is right in this case the school has short cutted that by just saying, yeah, skirts are fine.
Society is tying itself up in knots trying to cope with gender. Let's just have a common sense approach to it.
In fairness I think this aspect of the argument is far more about oppressive uniforms, as some who gets hot and sweats very easily I would happily wear a skirt that would keep me much cooler than a pair of trousers if shorts weren't allowed, I'd hope that would end up in me being allowed to wear shorts but if not I'd rather wear a skirt than melt.
The gender angle simply seems a good way to attack it that makes it difficult for a company/school to turn round and say no.
The more sensible approach would be to have a discussion about work/school uniforms in general and how much people should be made to suffer to look a certain way. Women can look good in heels for example, or men in trousers rather than shorts (I guess?) to what level should they be forced to endure discomfort for that reason and in what jobs is that essential?
It’s a slightly different debate with work uniforms because - in most cases - you know the dress code before you take the job (or you could ask). I vaguely remember a case recently where a girl got into trouble for wearing flat shoes, which seemed to centre on whether she was aware of the heels policy prior to accepting the post.
The uniform thing has now entered the realms of utter farce.
Allow tailored shorts, skirts and trousers and simply let anyone wear any of them.
In all reality, most girls will wear skirts and most boys trousers (or shorts) so the situation will be almost exactly the same but we’ll be spared the banal stories.
Well for some reason these schools are opposed to boys wearing shorts
Indeed. Not sure why. My son’s school allows tailored shorts (for boys) and they look much smarter than the trousers!
The uniform thing has now entered the realms of utter farce.
Allow tailored shorts, skirts and trousers and simply let anyone where any of them.
In all reality, most girls will wear skirts and most boys trousers (or shorts) so the situation will be almost exactly the same but we’ll be spared the banal stories.
If only such sense could be had. We need something for slow news days!
I suspect some of these headteachers do this stuff as a cheap publicity stunt!
The Colorado and Belfast bakery cases seem to have some pretty significant differences.
In the Northern Ireland case, to me it seems pretty black and white that the Bakery were not discriminating on the sexuality of the customer but on the political message they wanted on the cake, in fact I think they said they would have declined the request for the bespoke cake even if it had come from a straight couple. If the court case is found against the bakery, will a Muslim baker now be forced to produce a cake with the Danish cartoon printed on it? Such a precedent would seem to be the case...
In the Colorado case, the gay couple simply wanted to buy a wedding cake and did not discuss any bespoke message/decorations. The baker simply said he would not supply a gay wedding. Given the product request was identical at this stage to a 'straight;' wedding, this seems quite clear to me to be discrimination against the sexuality of the customer, i.e providing the identical service to one person and not another.
Justice Gorsuch's opinion in this decision seems to basically say that a cake has some kind of magic powers, and were you to take a cake from a straight wedding, pick it up and move it to a room next door hosting a gay wedding, the cake somehow is different. This seems madness to me, you could argue the same applies to a bowl of crisps or a bottle of wine in the same situation!
Eventually the supreme court will have to deal with the bigger issue here. Hopefully it will come down on the side of common sense.
Compared to Boris, Sadiq Khan has been a terrible mayor, he is just so anonymous and uninspiring. However if Labour put up a Cheese Sandwich as their candidate it would win the Mayoral Election at the moment, such is Labour's dominance of the Capital. 2/5 is a great price for Khan.
I don't think he has been anonymous and uninspiring at all – he's rather charismatic and makes a good leader for London.
Boris and to a slightly lesser degree Ken were larger than life mega-characters, but then so are all politicos compared to that pair.
Actually I think Khan arrived at the right time – after 16 years of rampantly egotistical mayors it's nice to have someone a bit more normal.
Agreed. And Khan has been quite astute - his main campaigns on air pollution and Brexit broaden his appeal to many Londoners at a very low cost to the mayoral budget. He has ended Boris's vanity projects and gives the impression of down-to-earth commitment to the city (and the City). And he doesn't make enemies - he might not be the most charismatic kid on the block but that's no bad thing when you consider the calamitous record of more charismatic leaders at national level in the past few years.
So how has his pledge to build 80,000 affordable homes a year worked out?
No idea but no one is going to believe that a Tory mayor would be more committed to social housing than the boy from the Tooting council house.
How is TFL doing now passenger numbers are both falling and fares cannot be increased?
My phone has popped up a news story about a massive explosion in Derby but it won't load.properly. Nothing on BBC and doesn't seem to be discussed here. Anything happened?
My phone has popped up a news story about a massive explosion in Derby but it won't load.properly. Nothing on BBC and doesn't seem to be discussed here. Anything happened?
My phone has popped up a news story about a massive explosion in Derby but it won't load.properly. Nothing on BBC and doesn't seem to be discussed here. Anything happened?
It fails to point out that manufacturing employment has increased over the last seven years or that between 1998 and 2008 manufacturing employment reduced by over 1.4 million.
My phone has popped up a news story about a massive explosion in Derby but it won't load.properly. Nothing on BBC and doesn't seem to be discussed here. Anything happened?
Compared to Boris, Sadiq Khan has been a terrible mayor, he is just so anonymous and uninspiring. However if Labour put up a Cheese Sandwich as their candidate it would win the Mayoral Election at the moment, such is Labour's dominance of the Capital. 2/5 is a great price for Khan.
I don't think he has been anonymous and uninspiring at all – he's rather charismatic and makes a good leader for London.
Boris and to a slightly lesser degree Ken were larger than life mega-characters, but then so are all politicos compared to that pair.
Actually I think Khan arrived at the right time – after 16 years of rampantly egotistical mayors it's nice to have someone a bit more normal.
Agreed. And Khan has been quite astute - his main campaigns on air pollution and Brexit broaden his appeal to many Londoners at a very low cost to the mayoral budget. He has ended Boris's vanity projects and gives the impression of down-to-earth commitment to the city (and the City). And he doesn't make enemies - he might not be the most charismatic kid on the block but that's no bad thing when you consider the calamitous record of more charismatic leaders at national level in the past few years.
So how has his pledge to build 80,000 affordable homes a year worked out?
No idea but no one is going to believe that a Tory mayor would be more committed to social housing than the boy from the Tooting council house.
How is TFL doing now passenger numbers are both falling and fares cannot be increased?
TfL Fares are being increased by RPI - for the majority of commuters who purchase annual, monthly and weekly travelcards. The freeze only applies to people who buy single - mostly contactless payment - tickets and the related caps.
It fails to point out that manufacturing employment has increased over the last seven years or that between 1998 and 2008 manufacturing employment reduced by over 1.4 million.
The uniform thing has now entered the realms of utter farce.
Allow tailored shorts, skirts and trousers and simply let anyone wear any of them.
In all reality, most girls will wear skirts and most boys trousers (or shorts) so the situation will be almost exactly the same but we’ll be spared the banal stories.
I've read this 5 times and I still agree with you. OMG!!
I'm getting fed up with the way the talk about NI and Brexit often ignores fundamentals.
If Theresa May were to tell the DUP they've got to choose between a border with RoI (which would mean a return to the Troubles) and a border with GB (which would mean a united Ireland), then it's obvious the DUP would bring down the government. But what would they choose? And would they have the NI people behind them?
I imagine that whatever they did choose they probably would have at least the Protestant community behind them. These guys knew populism long before Trump. For a party founded in 1970 the DUP has been highly successful. They have known when to polarise and when to compromise, when to use religion and when not to.
I reckon most people in NI would choose the right to be treated by the NHS over the right to drive across the border without meeting any checks. But since people aren't rational, that doesn't mean they'd vote accordingly. Perhaps they'd vote for what they didn't want and then moan about it afterwards.
As for the business community, they are only a small minority of the population, and to most of them who don't live within 20 miles of the border it's probably irrelevant whether the border is invisible and not even marked by cowpats, or whether it's got three coils of NATO wire along it and regularly spaced searchtowers. Half of them sitting in Belfast thumping the table about the border are basically acting out.
I'm a mere provincial who lived in London for 7-8 years, but has Sadiq Khan achieved *anything*? At all - apart from demonstrating that he is dramatically less effective than Boris, and twiddling his thumbs?
He has pledged to plant umpteen million extra trees, then declared that the pledge on his campaign website 'was not a pledge'. Presumably someone realised that the original promise was from cloud-cuckoo land.
He has pledged not to increase fairs then increased fairs.
He has accepted 10s of k from Taxi Drivers then gone for Uber as they desired, with an evidence free case that may well cause him to get spanked in Court - just as happened when he went for them immediately after being elected.
He has commissioned a report demonstrating (before they were made) that Mr Corbyn's claims about Tory undermining of fire service capabilities were baloney.
He has priorised cycling then waiting about 20% of the way through his term to appointed his world-transforming Czar.
I am in the Midlands now. What has the guy actually done, apart from pander to PC-types by banning some posters that are alleged to be offensive, and done a bit of virtue-signalling?
Mayor Sadiq has trained me to be very skeptical.
Edit: Perhaps he has started to address TFL, one of the most entrenched bureaucracies in the country.
Heard a good story today. A friend of mine who has sat as a JP for many years went on a self funded international tour of how they advise on sentencing around the world. His best experience was in LA. He attended and the presiding Judge said, “today we have a Justice from Scotland observing.” Everyone, including the Judge, sat that bit straighter and tightened their ties. Because they only have 9 Justices in the United States.
I have backed Shaun Bailey at fancy prices but I doubt he will make it.
He pitched against Vicki Bordewich for Kensington and was hugely unimpressive. (I backed Charlotte Vere but the whole thing was hard wired from the beginning)
Comments
Anyway, I must be off. Dragons won't draw themselves, you know.
The gender angle simply seems a good way to attack it that makes it difficult for a company/school to turn round and say no.
The more sensible approach would be to have a discussion about work/school uniforms in general and how much people should be made to suffer to look a certain way. Women can look good in heels for example, or men in trousers rather than shorts (I guess?) to what level should they be forced to endure discomfort for that reason and in what jobs is that essential?
The uniform thing has now entered the realms of utter farce.
Allow tailored shorts, skirts and trousers and simply let anyone wear any of them.
In all reality, most girls will wear skirts and most boys trousers (or shorts) so the situation will be almost exactly the same but we’ll be spared the banal stories.
In the Northern Ireland case, to me it seems pretty black and white that the Bakery were not discriminating on the sexuality of the customer but on the political message they wanted on the cake, in fact I think they said they would have declined the request for the bespoke cake even if it had come from a straight couple. If the court case is found against the bakery, will a Muslim baker now be forced to produce a cake with the Danish cartoon printed on it? Such a precedent would seem to be the case...
In the Colorado case, the gay couple simply wanted to buy a wedding cake and did not discuss any bespoke message/decorations. The baker simply said he would not supply a gay wedding. Given the product request was identical at this stage to a 'straight;' wedding, this seems quite clear to me to be discrimination against the sexuality of the customer, i.e providing the identical service to one person and not another.
Justice Gorsuch's opinion in this decision seems to basically say that a cake has some kind of magic powers, and were you to take a cake from a straight wedding, pick it up and move it to a room next door hosting a gay wedding, the cake somehow is different. This seems madness to me, you could argue the same applies to a bowl of crisps or a bottle of wine in the same situation!
Eventually the supreme court will have to deal with the bigger issue here. Hopefully it will come down on the side of common sense.
https://twitter.com/AP_Politics/status/1003647255138709504?s=20
https://tinyurl.com/ybbwp4am
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jun/04/uk-manufacturing-has-lost-600000-jobs-in-a-decade-says-union
It fails to point out that manufacturing employment has increased over the last seven years or that between 1998 and 2008 manufacturing employment reduced by over 1.4 million.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/timeseries/jwr7/lms
Nor do I remember the GMB being overly concerned at the time about all those manufacturing job losses during the Blair and Brown governments.
If Theresa May were to tell the DUP they've got to choose between a border with RoI (which would mean a return to the Troubles) and a border with GB (which would mean a united Ireland), then it's obvious the DUP would bring down the government. But what would they choose? And would they have the NI people behind them?
I imagine that whatever they did choose they probably would have at least the Protestant community behind them. These guys knew populism long before Trump. For a party founded in 1970 the DUP has been highly successful. They have known when to polarise and when to compromise, when to use religion and when not to.
I reckon most people in NI would choose the right to be treated by the NHS over the right to drive across the border without meeting any checks. But since people aren't rational, that doesn't mean they'd vote accordingly. Perhaps they'd vote for what they didn't want and then moan about it afterwards.
As for the business community, they are only a small minority of the population, and to most of them who don't live within 20 miles of the border it's probably irrelevant whether the border is invisible and not even marked by cowpats, or whether it's got three coils of NATO wire along it and regularly spaced searchtowers. Half of them sitting in Belfast thumping the table about the border are basically acting out.
100% Gov't owned but not in the D of T
NEW THREAD
He has pledged to plant umpteen million extra trees, then declared that the pledge on his campaign website 'was not a pledge'. Presumably someone realised that the original promise was from cloud-cuckoo land.
He has pledged not to increase fairs then increased fairs.
He has accepted 10s of k from Taxi Drivers then gone for Uber as they desired, with an evidence free case that may well cause him to get spanked in Court - just as happened when he went for them immediately after being elected.
He has commissioned a report demonstrating (before they were made) that Mr Corbyn's claims about Tory undermining of fire service capabilities were baloney.
He has priorised cycling then waiting about 20% of the way through his term to appointed his world-transforming Czar.
I am in the Midlands now. What has the guy actually done, apart from pander to PC-types by banning some posters that are alleged to be offensive, and done a bit of virtue-signalling?
Mayor Sadiq has trained me to be very skeptical.
Edit: Perhaps he has started to address TFL, one of the most entrenched bureaucracies in the country.
1) In the middle of an unpopular Labour government.
2) With a popular Mayor against a clapped out Labour candidate
Neither will apply in 2020.
edit: oh bu**er.