I wonder what these MPs trying to undermine the legal decision reaction to Boris playing fast and loose to legal decisions when it came to Brexit. I bet their tweets show some interesting receipts.
Yeah, MPs in “want to change the law” shocker. It’s not like that’s their job or anything. Good grief.
But do they want to change the law, or weasel their way around it?
If they want to change the law that is their prerogative - but given it would ride roughshod over Labour's Equality Act they might find it tricky and face years of Human Rights litigation - for example, women from certain religious groups cannot get changed in front of men - do you want to exclude them from sports and the public sphere?
The current law is now crystal clear - and the difficulties of trying to fudge it is quite possibly why Stonewall et al never campaigned openly for change, because of all the issues it would throw up.
I dunno what they want to do. I don’t see how they could “weasel their way around it”. The Supreme Court has decided. It is what it is, for now.
Parliament could do a 1 line bill and oust the HRA if they wanted. I don’t think they will though.
Tim Montgomerie 🇬🇧 @montie · 8h I'm hearing this a lot. Many friends are reporting that Church attendance is growing - especiallly amongst men and in significant numbers
Does he draw any inference from his unsupported anecdote? A source and a theory as to why would be interesting. But it isn't. Just the random burblings of an attention seeking hack bewildered by the utter chaos the Tories and Trump have caused implementing his ideology. If there is a God (spoiler no) he isn't on your team.
It is a phenomenon of the American Right that Church attendees are now more male than female, for the first time in modern history.
I suspect like in so many things Britain is apeing America.
Adam Brooks AKA EssexPR 🇬🇧 @EssexPR · 10h I live near a church and have done for a decade, I’ve never seen the road as full with cars.
#EasterSunday
===
Either, there really has been an uptick this year in christian church attendance this easter or there is some kind of organized rightwing social media campaign to tell us there has been - because X is full of these kinds of statements today.
Tim Montgomerie 🇬🇧 @montie · 8h I'm hearing this a lot. Many friends are reporting that Church attendance is growing - especiallly amongst men and in significant numbers
Does he draw any inference from his unsupported anecdote? A source and a theory as to why would be interesting. But it isn't. Just the random burblings of an attention seeking hack bewildered by the utter chaos the Tories and Trump have caused implementing his ideology. If there is a God (spoiler no) he isn't on your team.
It is a phenomenon of the American Right that Church attendees are now more male than female, for the first time in modern history.
I suspect like in so many things Britain is apeing America.
Adam Brooks AKA EssexPR 🇬🇧 @EssexPR · 10h I live near a church and have done for a decade, I’ve never seen the road as full with cars.
#EasterSunday
===
Either, there really has been an uptick this year in christian church attendance this easter or there is some kind of organized rightwing social media campaign to tell us there has been - because X is full of these kinds of statements today.
The road outside the church in my village seemed exactly the same as normal for what it’s worth
The term “Judeo-Christian” was made up by right-wingers in the U.S. at some stage, probably the 1980s, to sound less exclusionary than the simple term “Christian” and to include neo-con Jews in its dog-whistling appeal to traditional values.
I’m not surprised to see Jenrick reference it.
Well according to wiki…
First used in the 19th century to refer to Jewish converts to Christianity it became widely used during the Cold War to present a unified political bloc against communism.
The ‘debate’ here yesterday was instructive. The people obsessed and commenting/sneering about toilets were predominantly pro trans men. Not those gender critical trying to protect women only spaces.
I’m afraid I think you will end up losing. With all the problems in the world and in this country this clearly will be a big focus for many MPs.
That's the issue, you use the terms battle and war. I don't think it should be a war. In my idea of the world everyone just gets on with their own lives, unhindered by anyone else and not hindering anyone else. That's a world where trans people go to public toilets to use the toilet, where trans people can access the medical and social support that they need. It's not a war, no-one need get harmed.
But a group of evangelical Christians decided to make it into a war, those people wanted to punish transgender people due to a rather stretched reading of Genesis 1:27. They have a lot of money and if they succeed they will be after lesbians and gays next. They are already attacking same-sex marriage in the United States and it's sad to see some LGB people fall for these divide and rule tactics.
I understand some of Cyclefree and Carlotta's points. I understand that there is some TRA overreach. They are both formed of fear of the other side. The Gender Critical people fear that somehow trans women will overwhelm woman, making them a sort of third class gender. Trans Rights Advocates fear any pushback because that might lead to trans people being erased from society. I still think that we can discuss things in a mature fashion.
Puberty Blockers: The Cass Review in its initial report said that the evidence base for the safety of puberty blockers to treat gender dysphoria. That was in March 2022, NHS England announced there would be a clinical review starting in 2024 which would last for 7 years, it still hasn't started, in fact they haven't even got approval yet and Sex Matters are lobbying for it never to happen. I hope that most people would agree that having clinical evidence about the best ways to help children with gender dysphoria is a good thing.
Sport: I think there are some sports where trans women should be excluded from competitive events and even a couple where they should be excluded entirely. But not all sports. We need to look at each sport differently, ideally with scientific data. The scant information on running shows that trans women who have had 12 months or more of HRT are not advantaged against a cis woman. In swimming the scant evidence shows that transwomen retain an advantage because the lack of muscle mass does not compensate for the heavier frame and importantly in swimming wingspan and hand size. Chess and darts you would have to convince me there's any way trans women would have an advantage against cis women, but if there's any scientific data to support that, it would change my mind.
Maybe I'm too kumbaya over this. But I would like it not to be a war and I don't want anyone to get hurt.
I only used the term as a phrase I’m familiar with to mean they may have won this stage but it’s far from being all over.
I, personally, have no skin in this game. I support GC feminists as an ally. Not actively. It’s their battle. We have plenty of people saying they are men so it’s not their battle and they then go on to mansplain feminism. I won’t do that. I’ll just support cyclefree and carlotta and other women from the sidelines.
There are plenty of women who don't support GC feminists, all polls show that men are more hostile to trans rights then women are. For example YouGov December 2024 have 57% of men saying that trans women shouldn't use women's toilets and 53% of women. (interestingly it's very left-right too, 34% of Lib Dem voters say no, 83% of Reform voters say no). Feminists are split, I feel it's about 40/60 but that's just my gut feeling. I do have a reason to speak out because I've got friends who are affected and I want to defend my friends, that's a natural human reaction.
I don't want any trans people to suffer. They should have changing rooms available to them.
Which you think is entirely acceptable for you to suggest to people like Nurse Peggie as a solution while claiming you "don't want a war". So if you really don't want a war, why don't trans people get changed elsewhere like you suggest, and leave women to get changed in peace in their own changing room?
He doesn't want a war he just wants people to surrender and not fight it
I genuinely don't think that giving trans people the right to use the toilet corresponding to their gender identity is hurting anyone. I'm a libertarian, people should be allowed to go around doing what they like as long as it doesn't harm anyone else. If you can show me harm then I'm happy to change my mind.
Toilets as in cubicles aren't really an issue, but then unisex cubicles are possible for that reason.
'Toilets' as a phrase that includes changing rooms, then it absolutely 100% includes harm. Harm for women who have to get naked in front of men, whom they don't want to, or harm of women being exposed to naked men for whom they don't want to see either.
Changing rooms with your own sex are bad enough, getting changed in front of the opposite sex - nobody should be compelled to do that who does not want to. And the solution isn't to make the women who don't want to, to go elsewhere instead.
Is any of that unreasonable?
I think it is. I don't know about you but I don't go into changing rooms with the intention of viewing as much genitalia as possible. I go to get changed. I assume that most women just go into a changing room to get changed too and aren't looking around.
It's late and I don't want to get embroiled in a dispute, but may I just point out one thing. Men may not be aware of this, but there is a thing where women sometimes feel that some man is "undressing them with their eyes". That happens in ordinary social occasions and it makes women feel very uncomfortable.
To have a male person physically present when we are actually undressing ourselves is more than uncomfortable. Any intercepted glance, however inadvertent, will be interpreted as ogling.
That, presumably, is why doctors etc leave one to undress behind a screen; and not only male doctors. It is presumably standard practice.
Other cultures may have avoided inculcating such responses in women but ours has not avoided it.
That is just a statement and intends no value judgement of anyone.
Taking advice from Liz Truss on dealing with the mythic "Blob" is only useful if you do the opposite.
It's a bit like how Labour decided to take advice from John Ashworth on campaigning. A man who lost one of Labour's safest seats during a Labour landslide, and then found his office a bit useless.
She will be advising him to do the opposite. Liz Truss didn't deal with the blob - she sacked one or two key underperformers which resulted in ear splitting squealing in the media (and on PB). NF will be laying waste to the Blob from day 1 and rightly so.
We’ve seen now what an anti-Blob approach is like from Trump and the Republicans: global economic crash, rising government debt, break down of the rule of law, mass corruption. We absolutely do not want that, be it delivered by Farage or Truss.
Classic misrepresentation. The Trump/Musk/DOGE approach is not the same as all “anti-blob approaches”.
As I see it, the Trump/Musk/DOGE approach is "let's salt the earth in the USA so that it will take a century to build a tolerant, civilised society". Their practical guiding value is nihilism, whatever else they call it.
Trump won't care ... before long he'll be in his coffin six feet under, with a urinal installed on his gravestone.
One of the things they have started destroying this week has been the "Americorps", which is the inside-the-USA version of the Peace Corps. For anyone not in the know, that is a national volunteering programme which engages young adults. To quote:
AmeriCorps is an independent agency of the United States government that engages more than five million Americans in service through a variety of stipended volunteer work programs in many sectors. These programs include AmeriCorps VISTA, AmeriCorps NCCC, AmeriCorps State and National, AmeriCorps Seniors, the Volunteer Generation Fund, and other national service initiatives. The agency's mission is "to improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster civic engagement through service and volunteering". (Wiki)
The equivalent here would be taking out the National Citizen Service and all the engagement activities of setups such as the National Trust, taking away Community Service Volunteers, and many other parallel programmes.
I am in no way a fan of what they are doing. There is so much good that is being thrown out and utterly destroyed - longitudinal studies for example. There is also a looting of the public sphere and a complete disregard for standards in public life.
On the other hand government doesn’t work in the UK at the moment - it’s sclerotic and borderline corrupt in the intertwining of the third sector with government. Of course government needs to be careful, and it will be slow because of the impact it can have on individuals. But that doesn’t mean all reform is a bad thing.
But @bondegezou was conflating any attempt to reform the public sector with Trump/Musk/DOGE.
THAT is what I was objecting to. Misrepresentation. And then he has the gall to say that supporters of my position need to “clearly differentiate” ourselves. Quick suggestion: how about you don’t lie about your opponents instead?
As I said before, I was responding to someone talking about Liz Truss, who is a strong Trump supporter. A Trussite anti-Blob approach can be safely conflated with a Trumpian one. It’s not my fault that you jumped in without reading the context.
As for conflating… we were talking about anti-Blob approaches and you have now switched to “any attempt to reform the public sector”, as if those are the same thing. I am all for reforming the public sector. Most reforms of the public sector have nothing to do with “the Blob”. Most reformers of the public sector don’t feel the need to jump in and defend “Blob” language.
So, to get Christian (it is the season), Matthew 7:3-5.
Adam Brooks AKA EssexPR 🇬🇧 @EssexPR · 10h I live near a church and have done for a decade, I’ve never seen the road as full with cars.
#EasterSunday
===
Either, there really has been an uptick this year in christian church attendance this easter or there is some kind of organized rightwing social media campaign to tell us there has been - because X is full of these kinds of statements today.
I was surprised at how many cars were outside the Catholic Church on Hayling island this morning, but then it is Easter, one of the big ones for those who believe.
To everyone celebrating today, Michelle and I hope you have a blessed and happy Easter.
Bloody hell, that's almost as provocative and controversial as Starmer's Easter diatribe.
Wait until you see what The Royal Family had to say, they are supposed to be the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, it is so vanilla. #RepublicNow
✝️🐣 He is Risen!
Wishing a peaceful and happy Easter Sunday to all who celebrate.
"Live, laugh, love" vibes. I wish their social media delved into the history and mystery of royalty and religion, not this infantile stuff. I'd be fascinated in how an Anglo-Saxon or Pictish King observed Easter, for example.
I don't think the picts were Christian, so probably didn't celebrate. Easter is an Anglo-Saxon word, and involved both bunnies and eggs, but got combined with the Christian story.
The Picts very definitely were Christian until they were wiped out around 840.
Curiously the graphic design in that quintessentially Irish work the Book of Kells is mostly Pictish. Which raises interesting questions of nationality. If the Northmen hadn't invaded Iona necessitating the removal of the book to Ireland and - massive if - the book had survived, it would now be seen as a treasure of early Scottish art.
I wonder what these MPs trying to undermine the legal decision reaction to Boris playing fast and loose to legal decisions when it came to Brexit. I bet their tweets show some interesting receipts.
Yeah, MPs in “want to change the law” shocker. It’s not like that’s their job or anything. Good grief.
To be sure, though I think the point was that there could be prior messages from those MPs criticising those who disagreed with or sought to work around Supreme Court judgements - we shall see.
I'm confident that I for instance have been consistent that Parliament is sovereign and if it wants to alter things that's their prerogative, but even though MPs should know that too, when your side is on the winning end of a court decision that does not always hold up.
Especially if any of them are like many people know and assume our SC is like the US SC.
Tim Montgomerie 🇬🇧 @montie · 8h I'm hearing this a lot. Many friends are reporting that Church attendance is growing - especiallly amongst men and in significant numbers
I wonder what these MPs trying to undermine the legal decision reaction to Boris playing fast and loose to legal decisions when it came to Brexit. I bet their tweets show some interesting receipts.
Yeah, MPs in “want to change the law” shocker. It’s not like that’s their job or anything. Good grief.
To be sure, though I think the point was that there could be prior messages from those MPs criticising those who disagreed with or sought to work around Supreme Court judgements - we shall see.
I'm confident that I for instance have been consistent that Parliament is sovereign and if it wants to alter things that's their prerogative, but even though MPs should know that too, when your side is on the winning end of a court decision that does not always hold up.
Especially if any of them are like many people know and assume our SC is like the US SC.
If even MPs don’t understand our legal system then god help us
Germans who are much less puritanical than the English tend to have mixed saunas in hotels. I don't know how these new rules would work if applied. I think most European countries would struggle. They just don't share the same hang-ups we do. Ads are the same.
Disturbing as hell that our formerly reliable ally has become a rolling clusterfuck, but you have to laugh at the sheer absurdity.
I know official channels are probably clunky and awkward sometimes, but politicians of all stripes are so bad at these matters I'm surprised they don't just livestream all their sensitive discussions and be done with it.
I wonder what these MPs trying to undermine the legal decision reaction to Boris playing fast and loose to legal decisions when it came to Brexit. I bet their tweets show some interesting receipts.
Yeah, MPs in “want to change the law” shocker. It’s not like that’s their job or anything. Good grief.
To be sure, though I think the point was that there could be prior messages from those MPs criticising those who disagreed with or sought to work around Supreme Court judgements - we shall see.
I'm confident that I for instance have been consistent that Parliament is sovereign and if it wants to alter things that's their prerogative, but even though MPs should know that too, when your side is on the winning end of a court decision that does not always hold up.
Especially if any of them are like many people know and assume our SC is like the US SC.
If even MPs don’t understand our legal system then god help us
There's 650 of them, so I'm sure most of them do. But without going hunting for examples there's definitely cases where plenty of MPs do not understand it, or are pretending they don't in order to score social media points.
I mean, every time we switch PMs without an election MPs for the opposition (whoever it is at the time) pretend there is no 'mandate' to govern, rather than just restrict to suggesting the new leader is a coward if they do not go for an election.
Tim Montgomerie 🇬🇧 @montie · 8h I'm hearing this a lot. Many friends are reporting that Church attendance is growing - especiallly amongst men and in significant numbers
Does he draw any inference from his unsupported anecdote? A source and a theory as to why would be interesting. But it isn't. Just the random burblings of an attention seeking hack bewildered by the utter chaos the Tories and Trump have caused implementing his ideology. If there is a God (spoiler no) he isn't on your team.
It is a phenomenon of the American Right that Church attendees are now more male than female, for the first time in modern history.
I suspect like in so many things Britain is apeing America.
How committed are they?
I can't speak for America, but the new attenders we see in my church are fairly regular rather than casual drop ins.
Taking advice from Liz Truss on dealing with the mythic "Blob" is only useful if you do the opposite.
It's a bit like how Labour decided to take advice from John Ashworth on campaigning. A man who lost one of Labour's safest seats during a Labour landslide, and then found his office a bit useless.
She will be advising him to do the opposite. Liz Truss didn't deal with the blob - she sacked one or two key underperformers which resulted in ear splitting squealing in the media (and on PB). NF will be laying waste to the Blob from day 1 and rightly so.
We’ve seen now what an anti-Blob approach is like from Trump and the Republicans: global economic crash, rising government debt, break down of the rule of law, mass corruption. We absolutely do not want that, be it delivered by Farage or Truss.
Classic misrepresentation. The Trump/Musk/DOGE approach is not the same as all “anti-blob approaches”.
As I see it, the Trump/Musk/DOGE approach is "let's salt the earth in the USA so that it will take a century to build a tolerant, civilised society". Their practical guiding value is nihilism, whatever else they call it.
Trump won't care ... before long he'll be in his coffin six feet under, with a urinal installed on his gravestone.
One of the things they have started destroying this week has been the "Americorps", which is the inside-the-USA version of the Peace Corps. For anyone not in the know, that is a national volunteering programme which engages young adults. To quote:
AmeriCorps is an independent agency of the United States government that engages more than five million Americans in service through a variety of stipended volunteer work programs in many sectors. These programs include AmeriCorps VISTA, AmeriCorps NCCC, AmeriCorps State and National, AmeriCorps Seniors, the Volunteer Generation Fund, and other national service initiatives. The agency's mission is "to improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster civic engagement through service and volunteering". (Wiki)
The equivalent here would be taking out the National Citizen Service and all the engagement activities of setups such as the National Trust, taking away Community Service Volunteers, and many other parallel programmes.
I am in no way a fan of what they are doing. There is so much good that is being thrown out and utterly destroyed - longitudinal studies for example. There is also a looting of the public sphere and a complete disregard for standards in public life.
On the other hand government doesn’t work in the UK at the moment - it’s sclerotic and borderline corrupt in the intertwining of the third sector with government. Of course government needs to be careful, and it will be slow because of the impact it can have on individuals. But that doesn’t mean all reform is a bad thing.
But @bondegezou was conflating any attempt to reform the public sector with Trump/Musk/DOGE.
THAT is what I was objecting to. Misrepresentation. And then he has the gall to say that supporters of my position need to “clearly differentiate” ourselves. Quick suggestion: how about you don’t lie about your opponents instead?
As I said before, I was responding to someone talking about Liz Truss, who is a strong Trump supporter. A Trussite anti-Blob approach can be safely conflated with a Trumpian one. It’s not my fault that you jumped in without reading the context.
As for conflating… we were talking about anti-Blob approaches and you have now switched to “any attempt to reform the public sector”, as if those are the same thing. I am all for reforming the public sector. Most reforms of the public sector have nothing to do with “the Blob”. Most reformers of the public sector don’t feel the need to jump in and defend “Blob” language.
So, to get Christian (it is the season), Matthew 7:3-5.
But you are the blob. You are the status quo. You are the resistance to change. You are the roadblock to reform.
It is, IMO, sad little bureaucrats like you that need to be purged from the public sector. We could cut 50% of public administration jobs like yours overnight and no one would notice any difference, we'd just be able to borrow £50bn less per year and our bond yields would drop and we'd pay less debt interest and lowe mortgage rates. State services are already shit, it really can't get any worse.
The ‘debate’ here yesterday was instructive. The people obsessed and commenting/sneering about toilets were predominantly pro trans men. Not those gender critical trying to protect women only spaces.
I’m afraid I think you will end up losing. With all the problems in the world and in this country this clearly will be a big focus for many MPs.
That's the issue, you use the terms battle and war. I don't think it should be a war. In my idea of the world everyone just gets on with their own lives, unhindered by anyone else and not hindering anyone else. That's a world where trans people go to public toilets to use the toilet, where trans people can access the medical and social support that they need. It's not a war, no-one need get harmed.
But a group of evangelical Christians decided to make it into a war, those people wanted to punish transgender people due to a rather stretched reading of Genesis 1:27. They have a lot of money and if they succeed they will be after lesbians and gays next. They are already attacking same-sex marriage in the United States and it's sad to see some LGB people fall for these divide and rule tactics.
I understand some of Cyclefree and Carlotta's points. I understand that there is some TRA overreach. They are both formed of fear of the other side. The Gender Critical people fear that somehow trans women will overwhelm woman, making them a sort of third class gender. Trans Rights Advocates fear any pushback because that might lead to trans people being erased from society. I still think that we can discuss things in a mature fashion.
Puberty Blockers: The Cass Review in its initial report said that the evidence base for the safety of puberty blockers to treat gender dysphoria. That was in March 2022, NHS England announced there would be a clinical review starting in 2024 which would last for 7 years, it still hasn't started, in fact they haven't even got approval yet and Sex Matters are lobbying for it never to happen. I hope that most people would agree that having clinical evidence about the best ways to help children with gender dysphoria is a good thing.
Sport: I think there are some sports where trans women should be excluded from competitive events and even a couple where they should be excluded entirely. But not all sports. We need to look at each sport differently, ideally with scientific data. The scant information on running shows that trans women who have had 12 months or more of HRT are not advantaged against a cis woman. In swimming the scant evidence shows that transwomen retain an advantage because the lack of muscle mass does not compensate for the heavier frame and importantly in swimming wingspan and hand size. Chess and darts you would have to convince me there's any way trans women would have an advantage against cis women, but if there's any scientific data to support that, it would change my mind.
Maybe I'm too kumbaya over this. But I would like it not to be a war and I don't want anyone to get hurt.
I only used the term as a phrase I’m familiar with to mean they may have won this stage but it’s far from being all over.
I, personally, have no skin in this game. I support GC feminists as an ally. Not actively. It’s their battle. We have plenty of people saying they are men so it’s not their battle and they then go on to mansplain feminism. I won’t do that. I’ll just support cyclefree and carlotta and other women from the sidelines.
There are plenty of women who don't support GC feminists, all polls show that men are more hostile to trans rights then women are. For example YouGov December 2024 have 57% of men saying that trans women shouldn't use women's toilets and 53% of women. (interestingly it's very left-right too, 34% of Lib Dem voters say no, 83% of Reform voters say no). Feminists are split, I feel it's about 40/60 but that's just my gut feeling. I do have a reason to speak out because I've got friends who are affected and I want to defend my friends, that's a natural human reaction.
I don't want any trans people to suffer. They should have changing rooms available to them.
Which you think is entirely acceptable for you to suggest to people like Nurse Peggie as a solution while claiming you "don't want a war". So if you really don't want a war, why don't trans people get changed elsewhere like you suggest, and leave women to get changed in peace in their own changing room?
He doesn't want a war he just wants people to surrender and not fight it
I genuinely don't think that giving trans people the right to use the toilet corresponding to their gender identity is hurting anyone. I'm a libertarian, people should be allowed to go around doing what they like as long as it doesn't harm anyone else. If you can show me harm then I'm happy to change my mind.
The fear it can generate in others is harm
To deliberately expose genitals in order to cause distress and alarm is already the offence of exposure.
Disturbing as hell that our formerly reliable ally has become a rolling clusterfuck, but you have to laugh at the sheer absurdity.
"Unlike the chat in which The Atlantic was mistakenly included, the newly revealed one was created by Mr. Hegseth." NY Times
Bye. Don't trouble the door on your way out.
Isn't he meant to, er, enjoy a good drink as well?
Doesn't feel worth it for Trump to be honest - he surely has no shortage of people who think exactly the same as Hegseth and will do exactly as they are told, who won't be so stupid.
Even more drama! Vafaei won dramatically. Wakelin 9 Robertson 8. All sorts in frame 18. Wakelin screws back in off when 40 ahead and cruising. Robertson plays an incredible canon to pot a red over the pocket whilst snookered. And goes in off. Wakelin goes in off. Then is put back in and leaves a free ball...
Tim Montgomerie 🇬🇧 @montie · 8h I'm hearing this a lot. Many friends are reporting that Church attendance is growing - especiallly amongst men and in significant numbers
Does he draw any inference from his unsupported anecdote? A source and a theory as to why would be interesting. But it isn't. Just the random burblings of an attention seeking hack bewildered by the utter chaos the Tories and Trump have caused implementing his ideology. If there is a God (spoiler no) he isn't on your team.
Adam Brooks AKA EssexPR 🇬🇧 @EssexPR · 10h I live near a church and have done for a decade, I’ve never seen the road as full with cars.
#EasterSunday
===
Either, there really has been an uptick this year in christian church attendance this easter or there is some kind of organized rightwing social media campaign to tell us there has been - because X is full of these kinds of statements today.
The ever popular non-answer is that it could be both. It does feel like a message is being coordinated, and certain sections of the online right are probably taking a cue from the more overt religiosity of the american right, but anecdotally I feel like I have encountered more people of open faith in the last few years. And it is probably easier to have a proper religious message break through secular stuff at this holiday.
Which makes sense to me to be honest, as it feels odd, as a non-believer, that Christmas would be a bigger deal than Easter.
Even more drama! Vafaei won dramatically. Wakelin 9 Robertson 8. All sorts in frame 18. Wakelin screws back in off when 40 ahead and cruising. Robertson plays an incredible canon to pot a red over the pocket whilst snookered. And goes in off. Wakelin goes in off. Then is put back in and leaves a free ball...
Taking advice from Liz Truss on dealing with the mythic "Blob" is only useful if you do the opposite.
It's a bit like how Labour decided to take advice from John Ashworth on campaigning. A man who lost one of Labour's safest seats during a Labour landslide, and then found his office a bit useless.
She will be advising him to do the opposite. Liz Truss didn't deal with the blob - she sacked one or two key underperformers which resulted in ear splitting squealing in the media (and on PB). NF will be laying waste to the Blob from day 1 and rightly so.
We’ve seen now what an anti-Blob approach is like from Trump and the Republicans: global economic crash, rising government debt, break down of the rule of law, mass corruption. We absolutely do not want that, be it delivered by Farage or Truss.
Classic misrepresentation. The Trump/Musk/DOGE approach is not the same as all “anti-blob approaches”.
As I see it, the Trump/Musk/DOGE approach is "let's salt the earth in the USA so that it will take a century to build a tolerant, civilised society". Their practical guiding value is nihilism, whatever else they call it.
Trump won't care ... before long he'll be in his coffin six feet under, with a urinal installed on his gravestone.
One of the things they have started destroying this week has been the "Americorps", which is the inside-the-USA version of the Peace Corps. For anyone not in the know, that is a national volunteering programme which engages young adults. To quote:
AmeriCorps is an independent agency of the United States government that engages more than five million Americans in service through a variety of stipended volunteer work programs in many sectors. These programs include AmeriCorps VISTA, AmeriCorps NCCC, AmeriCorps State and National, AmeriCorps Seniors, the Volunteer Generation Fund, and other national service initiatives. The agency's mission is "to improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster civic engagement through service and volunteering". (Wiki)
The equivalent here would be taking out the National Citizen Service and all the engagement activities of setups such as the National Trust, taking away Community Service Volunteers, and many other parallel programmes.
I am in no way a fan of what they are doing. There is so much good that is being thrown out and utterly destroyed - longitudinal studies for example. There is also a looting of the public sphere and a complete disregard for standards in public life.
On the other hand government doesn’t work in the UK at the moment - it’s sclerotic and borderline corrupt in the intertwining of the third sector with government. Of course government needs to be careful, and it will be slow because of the impact it can have on individuals. But that doesn’t mean all reform is a bad thing.
But @bondegezou was conflating any attempt to reform the public sector with Trump/Musk/DOGE.
THAT is what I was objecting to. Misrepresentation. And then he has the gall to say that supporters of my position need to “clearly differentiate” ourselves. Quick suggestion: how about you don’t lie about your opponents instead?
As I said before, I was responding to someone talking about Liz Truss, who is a strong Trump supporter. A Trussite anti-Blob approach can be safely conflated with a Trumpian one. It’s not my fault that you jumped in without reading the context.
As for conflating… we were talking about anti-Blob approaches and you have now switched to “any attempt to reform the public sector”, as if those are the same thing. I am all for reforming the public sector. Most reforms of the public sector have nothing to do with “the Blob”. Most reformers of the public sector don’t feel the need to jump in and defend “Blob” language.
So, to get Christian (it is the season), Matthew 7:3-5.
But you are the blob. You are the status quo. You are the resistance to change. You are the roadblock to reform.
It is, IMO, sad little bureaucrats like you that need to be purged from the public sector. We could cut 50% of public administration jobs like yours overnight and no one would notice any difference, we'd just be able to borrow £50bn less per year and our bond yields would drop and we'd pay less debt interest and lowe mortgage rates. State services are already shit, it really can't get any worse.
The term “Judeo-Christian” was made up by right-wingers in the U.S. at some stage, probably the 1980s, to sound less exclusionary than the simple term “Christian” and to include neo-con Jews in its dog-whistling appeal to traditional values.
I’m not surprised to see Jenrick reference it.
Well according to wiki…
First used in the 19th century to refer to Jewish converts to Christianity it became widely used during the Cold War to present a unified political bloc against communism.
So, nah.
There's a well-known book, typically bound in black leather, whose contents could best be described as Judeo-Christian. I haven't read it in years but little snippets are forever cropping up in conversation. For example, a popular song, I know that my redeemer liveth, has been in the news today.
The term “Judeo-Christian” was made up by right-wingers in the U.S. at some stage, probably the 1980s, to sound less exclusionary than the simple term “Christian” and to include neo-con Jews in its dog-whistling appeal to traditional values.
I’m not surprised to see Jenrick reference it.
Actually, that's not quite true: it was regularly used in the 1930s when governments in the UK and the US were trying to persuade sceptical populations to accept more German Jewish refugees.
Taking advice from Liz Truss on dealing with the mythic "Blob" is only useful if you do the opposite.
It's a bit like how Labour decided to take advice from John Ashworth on campaigning. A man who lost one of Labour's safest seats during a Labour landslide, and then found his office a bit useless.
She will be advising him to do the opposite. Liz Truss didn't deal with the blob - she sacked one or two key underperformers which resulted in ear splitting squealing in the media (and on PB). NF will be laying waste to the Blob from day 1 and rightly so.
We’ve seen now what an anti-Blob approach is like from Trump and the Republicans: global economic crash, rising government debt, break down of the rule of law, mass corruption. We absolutely do not want that, be it delivered by Farage or Truss.
Classic misrepresentation. The Trump/Musk/DOGE approach is not the same as all “anti-blob approaches”.
As I see it, the Trump/Musk/DOGE approach is "let's salt the earth in the USA so that it will take a century to build a tolerant, civilised society". Their practical guiding value is nihilism, whatever else they call it.
Trump won't care ... before long he'll be in his coffin six feet under, with a urinal installed on his gravestone.
One of the things they have started destroying this week has been the "Americorps", which is the inside-the-USA version of the Peace Corps. For anyone not in the know, that is a national volunteering programme which engages young adults. To quote:
AmeriCorps is an independent agency of the United States government that engages more than five million Americans in service through a variety of stipended volunteer work programs in many sectors. These programs include AmeriCorps VISTA, AmeriCorps NCCC, AmeriCorps State and National, AmeriCorps Seniors, the Volunteer Generation Fund, and other national service initiatives. The agency's mission is "to improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster civic engagement through service and volunteering". (Wiki)
The equivalent here would be taking out the National Citizen Service and all the engagement activities of setups such as the National Trust, taking away Community Service Volunteers, and many other parallel programmes.
I am in no way a fan of what they are doing. There is so much good that is being thrown out and utterly destroyed - longitudinal studies for example. There is also a looting of the public sphere and a complete disregard for standards in public life.
On the other hand government doesn’t work in the UK at the moment - it’s sclerotic and borderline corrupt in the intertwining of the third sector with government. Of course government needs to be careful, and it will be slow because of the impact it can have on individuals. But that doesn’t mean all reform is a bad thing.
But @bondegezou was conflating any attempt to reform the public sector with Trump/Musk/DOGE.
THAT is what I was objecting to. Misrepresentation. And then he has the gall to say that supporters of my position need to “clearly differentiate” ourselves. Quick suggestion: how about you don’t lie about your opponents instead?
As I said before, I was responding to someone talking about Liz Truss, who is a strong Trump supporter. A Trussite anti-Blob approach can be safely conflated with a Trumpian one. It’s not my fault that you jumped in without reading the context.
As for conflating… we were talking about anti-Blob approaches and you have now switched to “any attempt to reform the public sector”, as if those are the same thing. I am all for reforming the public sector. Most reforms of the public sector have nothing to do with “the Blob”. Most reformers of the public sector don’t feel the need to jump in and defend “Blob” language.
So, to get Christian (it is the season), Matthew 7:3-5.
But you are the blob. You are the status quo. You are the resistance to change. You are the roadblock to reform.
It is, IMO, sad little bureaucrats like you that need to be purged from the public sector. We could cut 50% of public administration jobs like yours overnight and no one would notice any difference, we'd just be able to borrow £50bn less per year and our bond yields would drop and we'd pay less debt interest and lowe mortgage rates. State services are already shit, it really can't get any worse.
Any starting point of just assuming that X can be cut without impact is silly and so easily dismissed, since it's committing to a target utterly arbitrary and openly declaring there won't even be any assessment of impact. And it is so easy to fix the silliness without losing the focus either - just stick to saying there's a great deal of waste and inefficiency, perhaps even suggest 50% could be cut and that will be the goal, that an assessment process will be followed but it will be done within, say, a financial year. Not entirely unarbitrary, but demonstrates it will be quick but not instant, and that there will be consideration without being diverted from the need to reduce, so accusations of random or illogical cutting will have less impact.
Sure, 'the blob' will resist it, but that's the thing about bureaucracies, if a process is followed there's only so much that could be done, and since the public don't like institutional bureaucracy anymore than the next person, doing it in a way which seems rational and unemotional, rather than vindictive and dismissive, helps the PR and limits the effectiveness of union outrage.
So it seems to me the overdramatic stuff is done when people are not serious about the goal and are looking to posture rather than get things done - there will be people in any institution who will get on board with the goal, if they are made use of.
The term “Judeo-Christian” was made up by right-wingers in the U.S. at some stage, probably the 1980s, to sound less exclusionary than the simple term “Christian” and to include neo-con Jews in its dog-whistling appeal to traditional values.
I’m not surprised to see Jenrick reference it.
Well according to wiki…
First used in the 19th century to refer to Jewish converts to Christianity it became widely used during the Cold War to present a unified political bloc against communism.
So, nah.
There's a well-known book, typically bound in black leather, whose contents could best be described as Judeo-Christian. I haven't read it in years but little snippets are forever cropping up in conversation. For example, a popular song, I know that my redeemer liveth, has been in the news today.
I know it well. I have it is multiple different translations. Personally I like the sonorous majesty of KJV for oral usage, but am more familiar with NIV in privacy of my own home
Disturbing as hell that our formerly reliable ally has become a rolling clusterfuck, but you have to laugh at the sheer absurdity.
"Unlike the chat in which The Atlantic was mistakenly included, the newly revealed one was created by Mr. Hegseth." NY Times
Bye. Don't trouble the door on your way out.
Even Orange Face isn't gonna stand for this stupidity.
Oh, I suspect Orange Face will stand for this stupidity, either dismissing this as liberal lies or he’ll just say he’s not heard anything about it.
Not that I'm amazed they still back him, times are what they are, but it does surprise me how often Trump reaches for the obviously nonsense 'I don't know X' or 'I haven't heard Y' excuses, which usually undercut his media supporters who up to them will defend things on the basis of Trump knowing and approving of things and people.
It's about one step up from criminals like SBF portraying themselves as geniuses up until they hit trouble, when suddenly they know nothing about anything going on in their companies - because being ignorant and stupid is not a crime.
Adam Brooks AKA EssexPR 🇬🇧 @EssexPR · 10h I live near a church and have done for a decade, I’ve never seen the road as full with cars.
#EasterSunday
===
Either, there really has been an uptick this year in christian church attendance this easter or there is some kind of organized rightwing social media campaign to tell us there has been - because X is full of these kinds of statements today.
I stay in quite a religious area (of many faiths) and didn't spot any uptick in one or the other today. Though it was quite sunny and the local park was quite busy - so possibly all celebrating in their own way.
I am surprised after the revelations of how liberally ministers used WhatsApp (and the way they mixed government, party and personal) during COVID that there hasn't been more pressure to codified what should and shouldn't be allowed.
I am surprised after the revelations of how liberally ministers used WhatsApp (and the way they mixed government, party and personal) during COVID that there hasn't been more pressure to codified what should and shouldn't be allowed.
I suspect there's a lot of guidance that gets circulated a lot but rarely adhered to.
Convenience will always win out if there's not really any practical consequences.
I am surprised after the revelations of how liberally ministers used WhatsApp (and the way they mixed government, party and personal) during COVID that there hasn't been more pressure to codified what should and shouldn't be allowed.
If I were a Chief Whip I'd make What's App group membership a sackable offence for all but family gatherings and playdates... Of course, I'd sternly lay down this Law on the Party What's App.
I am surprised after the revelations of how liberally ministers used WhatsApp (and the way they mixed government, party and personal) during COVID that there hasn't been more pressure to codified what should and shouldn't be allowed.
If I were a Chief Whip I'd make What's App group membership a sackable offence for all but family gatherings and playdates... Of course, I'd sternly lay down this Law on the Party What's App.
One obvious thing that anybody who isn't a numpty would do is have a personal for government / MP business and one for personal. And you keep the government business one the same you would do with email, you write messages in a straight forward tone with the presumption that it is likely that they could become part of the public record at any time.
Adam Brooks AKA EssexPR 🇬🇧 @EssexPR · 10h I live near a church and have done for a decade, I’ve never seen the road as full with cars.
#EasterSunday
===
Either, there really has been an uptick this year in christian church attendance this easter or there is some kind of organized rightwing social media campaign to tell us there has been - because X is full of these kinds of statements today.
I stay in quite a religious area (of many faiths) and didn't spot any uptick in one or the other today. Though it was quite sunny and the local park was quite busy - so possibly all celebrating in their own way.
I suspect this is some kind of semi-organized alt-right social media thing to be honest.
Tim Montgomerie 🇬🇧 @montie · 8h I'm hearing this a lot. Many friends are reporting that Church attendance is growing - especiallly amongst men and in significant numbers
Does he draw any inference from his unsupported anecdote? A source and a theory as to why would be interesting. But it isn't. Just the random burblings of an attention seeking hack bewildered by the utter chaos the Tories and Trump have caused implementing his ideology. If there is a God (spoiler no) he isn't on your team.
It is a phenomenon of the American Right that Church attendees are now more male than female, for the first time in modern history.
I suspect like in so many things Britain is apeing America.
How committed are they?
I can't speak for America, but the new attenders we see in my church are fairly regular rather than casual drop ins.
I think he's referring to Section 11 of the Mental Health Act.
The term “Judeo-Christian” was made up by right-wingers in the U.S. at some stage, probably the 1980s, to sound less exclusionary than the simple term “Christian” and to include neo-con Jews in its dog-whistling appeal to traditional values.
I’m not surprised to see Jenrick reference it.
Apparently not, according to Wikipedia:
… Friedrich Nietzsche used the German term "Judenchristlich" ("Jewish-Christian") to describe and emphasize what he believed were neglected aspects of the continuity which exists between the Jewish and Christian worldviews. The expression appears in The Antichrist, published in 1895 but written several years earlier; a fuller development of Nietzsche's argument can be found in the prior work, On the Genealogy of Morality.
The concept of Judeo-Christian ethics or Judeo-Christian values in an ethical (rather than a theological or liturgical) sense was used by George Orwell in 1939, along with the phrase "the Judaeo-Christian scheme of morals". According to theologian Richard L. Rubenstein, the "normative Judaeo-Christian interpretation of history" is to treat human suffering, such as a plague, as punishment for human guilt.
According to historian K. Healan Gaston, the term became a descriptor of the U.S. in the 1930s, when the country sought to forge a unified cultural identity in an attempt to distinguish itself from fascism and communism in Europe…
True that the Neocons seized on it.
It's a bullshit term unless it refers to Judaists who believe Jesus was the Messiah and who reject ideas such as reincarnation (gilgul) etc.
Dunno who Richard L Rubenstein is or was, or whether he gets or got out of his house much, but viewing human suffering as punishment for human guilt is in no way restricted to Judaism and Christianity.
The term “Judeo-Christian” was made up by right-wingers in the U.S. at some stage, probably the 1980s, to sound less exclusionary than the simple term “Christian” and to include neo-con Jews in its dog-whistling appeal to traditional values.
I’m not surprised to see Jenrick reference it.
Well according to wiki…
First used in the 19th century to refer to Jewish converts to Christianity it became widely used during the Cold War to present a unified political bloc against communism.
So, nah.
There's a well-known book, typically bound in black leather, whose contents could best be described as Judeo-Christian. I haven't read it in years but little snippets are forever cropping up in conversation. For example, a popular song, I know that my redeemer liveth, has been in the news today.
Maybe give the sarcasm a rest. Not many Judaists think Jesus by suffering and dying on the cross redeemed humanity from sin.
I am surprised after the revelations of how liberally ministers used WhatsApp (and the way they mixed government, party and personal) during COVID that there hasn't been more pressure to codified what should and shouldn't be allowed.
If I were a Chief Whip I'd make What's App group membership a sackable offence for all but family gatherings and playdates... Of course, I'd sternly lay down this Law on the Party What's App.
One obvious thing that anybody who isn't a numpty would do is have a personal for government / MP business and one for personal. And you keep the government business one the same you would do with email, you write messages in a straight forward tone with the presumption that it is likely that they could become part of the public record at any time.
"Someone might see this one day" might inhibit discussion a little bit, but it's such an obvious and commonplace rule (especially in the days of FOI and frequent inquiries) that it shouldn't be impossible to maintain the discipline not to message the PM with 'Oh sh*t we f*cked up' or an offensive meme or something. Even in modern times among the top bods they can be face to face or on the phone when they want to get very real.
Tim Montgomerie 🇬🇧 @montie · 8h I'm hearing this a lot. Many friends are reporting that Church attendance is growing - especiallly amongst men and in significant numbers
Does he draw any inference from his unsupported anecdote? A source and a theory as to why would be interesting. But it isn't. Just the random burblings of an attention seeking hack bewildered by the utter chaos the Tories and Trump have caused implementing his ideology. If there is a God (spoiler no) he isn't on your team.
The Old Testament God certainly is very rightwing
The Old Testament God could be right-wing, but he could be pretty left-wing too. He demands obedience and dishes out some harsh justice, sure, but he also commands care for the poor, widows, orphans, and foreigners. He institutes debt forgiveness, land redistribution every fifty years, and insists on fair wages and honest treatment of workers. The Sabbath itself is a form of universal rest: even animals get a day off.
Tim Montgomerie 🇬🇧 @montie · 8h I'm hearing this a lot. Many friends are reporting that Church attendance is growing - especiallly amongst men and in significant numbers
Does he draw any inference from his unsupported anecdote? A source and a theory as to why would be interesting. But it isn't. Just the random burblings of an attention seeking hack bewildered by the utter chaos the Tories and Trump have caused implementing his ideology. If there is a God (spoiler no) he isn't on your team.
The Old Testament God certainly is very rightwing
The Old Testament God could be right-wing, but he could be pretty left-wing too. He demands obedience and dishes out some harsh justice, sure, but he also commands care for the poor, widows, orphans, and foreigners. He institutes debt forgiveness, land redistribution every fifty years, and insists on fair wages and honest treatment of workers. The Sabbath itself is a form of universal rest: even animals get a day off.
Maybe the inhabitants of Jericho were all posh? Thinking of a kind of 'Bash the Rich' march in a different epoch.
Disturbing as hell that our formerly reliable ally has become a rolling clusterfuck, but you have to laugh at the sheer absurdity.
I know official channels are probably clunky and awkward sometimes, but politicians of all stripes are so bad at these matters I'm surprised they don't just livestream all their sensitive discussions and be done with it.
I’m just offended that no one invited me to the chat.
Tim Montgomerie 🇬🇧 @montie · 8h I'm hearing this a lot. Many friends are reporting that Church attendance is growing - especiallly amongst men and in significant numbers
Does he draw any inference from his unsupported anecdote? A source and a theory as to why would be interesting. But it isn't. Just the random burblings of an attention seeking hack bewildered by the utter chaos the Tories and Trump have caused implementing his ideology. If there is a God (spoiler no) he isn't on your team.
The Old Testament God certainly is very rightwing
The Old Testament God could be right-wing, but he could be pretty left-wing too. He demands obedience and dishes out some harsh justice, sure, but he also commands care for the poor, widows, orphans, and foreigners. He institutes debt forgiveness, land redistribution every fifty years, and insists on fair wages and honest treatment of workers. The Sabbath itself is a form of universal rest: even animals get a day off.
Yes, you don’t hear much about the original meaning of jubilee these days.
Mind you, the New Testament guy was a radical leftie.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Matt 25)
@KemiBadenoch A mob of trans-activists waving death threats at women isn't protest—it's criminal incitement. If the law isn’t enforced, we don’t have equality, we have two-tier justice.
It’s time for Labour to stop being on the side of these extremists and start defending women.
Tim Montgomerie 🇬🇧 @montie · 8h I'm hearing this a lot. Many friends are reporting that Church attendance is growing - especiallly amongst men and in significant numbers
Does he draw any inference from his unsupported anecdote? A source and a theory as to why would be interesting. But it isn't. Just the random burblings of an attention seeking hack bewildered by the utter chaos the Tories and Trump have caused implementing his ideology. If there is a God (spoiler no) he isn't on your team.
The Old Testament God certainly is very rightwing
The Old Testament God could be right-wing, but he could be pretty left-wing too. He demands obedience and dishes out some harsh justice, sure, but he also commands care for the poor, widows, orphans, and foreigners. He institutes debt forgiveness, land redistribution every fifty years, and insists on fair wages and honest treatment of workers. The Sabbath itself is a form of universal rest: even animals get a day off.
Maybe the inhabitants of Jericho were all posh? Thinking of a kind of 'Bash the Rich' march in a different epoch.
Tim Montgomerie 🇬🇧 @montie · 8h I'm hearing this a lot. Many friends are reporting that Church attendance is growing - especiallly amongst men and in significant numbers
Does he draw any inference from his unsupported anecdote? A source and a theory as to why would be interesting. But it isn't. Just the random burblings of an attention seeking hack bewildered by the utter chaos the Tories and Trump have caused implementing his ideology. If there is a God (spoiler no) he isn't on your team.
The Old Testament God certainly is very rightwing
The Old Testament God could be right-wing, but he could be pretty left-wing too. He demands obedience and dishes out some harsh justice, sure, but he also commands care for the poor, widows, orphans, and foreigners. He institutes debt forgiveness, land redistribution every fifty years, and insists on fair wages and honest treatment of workers. The Sabbath itself is a form of universal rest: even animals get a day off.
Yes, you don’t hear much about the original meaning of jubilee these days.
Mind you, the New Testament guy was a radical leftie.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Matt 25)
As Thatcher said the good Samaritan would not have been much use if he didn't have any money.
Jesus was also pretty clear marriage should be between one man and one woman in faithful union for life
Tim Montgomerie 🇬🇧 @montie · 8h I'm hearing this a lot. Many friends are reporting that Church attendance is growing - especiallly amongst men and in significant numbers
Does he draw any inference from his unsupported anecdote? A source and a theory as to why would be interesting. But it isn't. Just the random burblings of an attention seeking hack bewildered by the utter chaos the Tories and Trump have caused implementing his ideology. If there is a God (spoiler no) he isn't on your team.
The Old Testament God certainly is very rightwing
The Old Testament God could be right-wing, but he could be pretty left-wing too. He demands obedience and dishes out some harsh justice, sure, but he also commands care for the poor, widows, orphans, and foreigners. He institutes debt forgiveness, land redistribution every fifty years, and insists on fair wages and honest treatment of workers. The Sabbath itself is a form of universal rest: even animals get a day off.
Yes, you don’t hear much about the original meaning of jubilee these days.
Mind you, the New Testament guy was a radical leftie.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Matt 25)
Ephesians 6:5
"Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ" (KJV)
"Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ." (NIV)
Tim Montgomerie 🇬🇧 @montie · 8h I'm hearing this a lot. Many friends are reporting that Church attendance is growing - especiallly amongst men and in significant numbers
Does he draw any inference from his unsupported anecdote? A source and a theory as to why would be interesting. But it isn't. Just the random burblings of an attention seeking hack bewildered by the utter chaos the Tories and Trump have caused implementing his ideology. If there is a God (spoiler no) he isn't on your team.
The Old Testament God certainly is very rightwing
The Old Testament God could be right-wing, but he could be pretty left-wing too. He demands obedience and dishes out some harsh justice, sure, but he also commands care for the poor, widows, orphans, and foreigners. He institutes debt forgiveness, land redistribution every fifty years, and insists on fair wages and honest treatment of workers. The Sabbath itself is a form of universal rest: even animals get a day off.
Maybe the inhabitants of Jericho were all posh? Thinking of a kind of 'Bash the Rich' march in a different epoch.
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
Or the Yippies trying to levitate the Pentagon in 1967.
Tim Montgomerie 🇬🇧 @montie · 8h I'm hearing this a lot. Many friends are reporting that Church attendance is growing - especiallly amongst men and in significant numbers
Does he draw any inference from his unsupported anecdote? A source and a theory as to why would be interesting. But it isn't. Just the random burblings of an attention seeking hack bewildered by the utter chaos the Tories and Trump have caused implementing his ideology. If there is a God (spoiler no) he isn't on your team.
The Old Testament God certainly is very rightwing
The Old Testament God could be right-wing, but he could be pretty left-wing too. He demands obedience and dishes out some harsh justice, sure, but he also commands care for the poor, widows, orphans, and foreigners. He institutes debt forgiveness, land redistribution every fifty years, and insists on fair wages and honest treatment of workers. The Sabbath itself is a form of universal rest: even animals get a day off.
Yes, you don’t hear much about the original meaning of jubilee these days.
Mind you, the New Testament guy was a radical leftie.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (Matt 25)
As Thatcher said the good Samaritan would not have been much use if he didn't have any money.
Jesus was also pretty clear marriage should be between one man and one woman in faithful union for life
In the words of the great Mitt Romney, "I believe marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman... and a woman... and a woman."
rcs1000 - If you are interested in comparing murder rates, here are the "age adjusted" CDC 2022 murder rates for the US states. (The age adjusted part is important, since, to put it bluntly, the more young men a state has, the more violent crime it will have.) https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/homicide_mortality/homicide.htm
The ‘debate’ here yesterday was instructive. The people obsessed and commenting/sneering about toilets were predominantly pro trans men. Not those gender critical trying to protect women only spaces.
I’m afraid I think you will end up losing. With all the problems in the world and in this country this clearly will be a big focus for many MPs.
That's the issue, you use the terms battle and war. I don't think it should be a war. In my idea of the world everyone just gets on with their own lives, unhindered by anyone else and not hindering anyone else. That's a world where trans people go to public toilets to use the toilet, where trans people can access the medical and social support that they need. It's not a war, no-one need get harmed.
But a group of evangelical Christians decided to make it into a war, those people wanted to punish transgender people due to a rather stretched reading of Genesis 1:27. They have a lot of money and if they succeed they will be after lesbians and gays next. They are already attacking same-sex marriage in the United States and it's sad to see some LGB people fall for these divide and rule tactics.
I understand some of Cyclefree and Carlotta's points. I understand that there is some TRA overreach. They are both formed of fear of the other side. The Gender Critical people fear that somehow trans women will overwhelm woman, making them a sort of third class gender. Trans Rights Advocates fear any pushback because that might lead to trans people being erased from society. I still think that we can discuss things in a mature fashion.
Puberty Blockers: The Cass Review in its initial report said that the evidence base for the safety of puberty blockers to treat gender dysphoria. That was in March 2022, NHS England announced there would be a clinical review starting in 2024 which would last for 7 years, it still hasn't started, in fact they haven't even got approval yet and Sex Matters are lobbying for it never to happen. I hope that most people would agree that having clinical evidence about the best ways to help children with gender dysphoria is a good thing.
Sport: I think there are some sports where trans women should be excluded from competitive events and even a couple where they should be excluded entirely. But not all sports. We need to look at each sport differently, ideally with scientific data. The scant information on running shows that trans women who have had 12 months or more of HRT are not advantaged against a cis woman. In swimming the scant evidence shows that transwomen retain an advantage because the lack of muscle mass does not compensate for the heavier frame and importantly in swimming wingspan and hand size. Chess and darts you would have to convince me there's any way trans women would have an advantage against cis women, but if there's any scientific data to support that, it would change my mind.
Maybe I'm too kumbaya over this. But I would like it not to be a war and I don't want anyone to get hurt.
I only used the term as a phrase I’m familiar with to mean they may have won this stage but it’s far from being all over.
I, personally, have no skin in this game. I support GC feminists as an ally. Not actively. It’s their battle. We have plenty of people saying they are men so it’s not their battle and they then go on to mansplain feminism. I won’t do that. I’ll just support cyclefree and carlotta and other women from the sidelines.
There are plenty of women who don't support GC feminists, all polls show that men are more hostile to trans rights then women are. For example YouGov December 2024 have 57% of men saying that trans women shouldn't use women's toilets and 53% of women. (interestingly it's very left-right too, 34% of Lib Dem voters say no, 83% of Reform voters say no). Feminists are split, I feel it's about 40/60 but that's just my gut feeling. I do have a reason to speak out because I've got friends who are affected and I want to defend my friends, that's a natural human reaction.
I don't want any trans people to suffer. They should have changing rooms available to them.
Which you think is entirely acceptable for you to suggest to people like Nurse Peggie as a solution while claiming you "don't want a war". So if you really don't want a war, why don't trans people get changed elsewhere like you suggest, and leave women to get changed in peace in their own changing room?
He doesn't want a war he just wants people to surrender and not fight it
I genuinely don't think that giving trans people the right to use the toilet corresponding to their gender identity is hurting anyone. I'm a libertarian, people should be allowed to go around doing what they like as long as it doesn't harm anyone else. If you can show me harm then I'm happy to change my mind.
As I noted yesterday....dont have an issue with toilets personally as they are cubicles
However single sex changing rooms, wards, prisons, refuges, rape therapy groups hell yes there is harm.
If I drop my trousers in front of a random woman it is called flashing and prosecutable as the offence of indecent exposure. Why in your view is it different because the penis bearer has declared themselves to be female?
We had this out yesterday, but apparently the lesson didn’t stick: Intent matters.
The crime of Indecent Exposure requires the intent to cause alarm or distress. No intent? No crime.
Outraging Public Decency might be made to work, but in an environment where the EHRC stated that it was legitimate & legal for a transwoman to change in a female changing room you’re going to have a really hard time making that charge stick.
Post Supreme Court decision things might change for the latter charge I guess, but the former will still require intent to charge. You’d still have to prove that a transwoman changing was “a lewd, obscene, or disgusting act” to make OPD stick which might be an uphill struggle even post-supreme court decision.
A transwoman changing is not lewd.
Using the women's changing room to do so, however, is.
That would be for a court to decide. A small counter example: nudist beaches are clearly not regarded as lewd, despite putting everything on display. (Obviously all parties there consent to seeing everything, but it makes the point that the mere fact that people are naked does not make something lewd, obscene or disgusting.)
I confess (thankfully) that I am completely unfamiliar with the case law on OPD & what exactly has counted as lewd in the past & hope to remain in that blissful state of ignorance.
The court did just decide that.
People are consenting to be nude at a beach. What people consent to is entirely reasonable.
If a changing room is unisex, ie open to all sexes, then a male who identifies as a female going in there to get changed is not lewd.
If a changing room is open to only females, then a male who identifies as a female is in the wrong.
For any males who identify as a female if the changing room is only open to women then they need to do what was suggested earlier in the thread as a suggestion for a nurse by @DM_Andy as an alternative and "they can change somewhere else."
The ‘debate’ here yesterday was instructive. The people obsessed and commenting/sneering about toilets were predominantly pro trans men. Not those gender critical trying to protect women only spaces.
I’m afraid I think you will end up losing. With all the problems in the world and in this country this clearly will be a big focus for many MPs.
That's the issue, you use the terms battle and war. I don't think it should be a war. In my idea of the world everyone just gets on with their own lives, unhindered by anyone else and not hindering anyone else. That's a world where trans people go to public toilets to use the toilet, where trans people can access the medical and social support that they need. It's not a war, no-one need get harmed.
But a group of evangelical Christians decided to make it into a war, those people wanted to punish transgender people due to a rather stretched reading of Genesis 1:27. They have a lot of money and if they succeed they will be after lesbians and gays next. They are already attacking same-sex marriage in the United States and it's sad to see some LGB people fall for these divide and rule tactics.
I understand some of Cyclefree and Carlotta's points. I understand that there is some TRA overreach. They are both formed of fear of the other side. The Gender Critical people fear that somehow trans women will overwhelm woman, making them a sort of third class gender. Trans Rights Advocates fear any pushback because that might lead to trans people being erased from society. I still think that we can discuss things in a mature fashion.
Puberty Blockers: The Cass Review in its initial report said that the evidence base for the safety of puberty blockers to treat gender dysphoria. That was in March 2022, NHS England announced there would be a clinical review starting in 2024 which would last for 7 years, it still hasn't started, in fact they haven't even got approval yet and Sex Matters are lobbying for it never to happen. I hope that most people would agree that having clinical evidence about the best ways to help children with gender dysphoria is a good thing.
Sport: I think there are some sports where trans women should be excluded from competitive events and even a couple where they should be excluded entirely. But not all sports. We need to look at each sport differently, ideally with scientific data. The scant information on running shows that trans women who have had 12 months or more of HRT are not advantaged against a cis woman. In swimming the scant evidence shows that transwomen retain an advantage because the lack of muscle mass does not compensate for the heavier frame and importantly in swimming wingspan and hand size. Chess and darts you would have to convince me there's any way trans women would have an advantage against cis women, but if there's any scientific data to support that, it would change my mind.
Maybe I'm too kumbaya over this. But I would like it not to be a war and I don't want anyone to get hurt.
I only used the term as a phrase I’m familiar with to mean they may have won this stage but it’s far from being all over.
I, personally, have no skin in this game. I support GC feminists as an ally. Not actively. It’s their battle. We have plenty of people saying they are men so it’s not their battle and they then go on to mansplain feminism. I won’t do that. I’ll just support cyclefree and carlotta and other women from the sidelines.
There are plenty of women who don't support GC feminists, all polls show that men are more hostile to trans rights then women are. For example YouGov December 2024 have 57% of men saying that trans women shouldn't use women's toilets and 53% of women. (interestingly it's very left-right too, 34% of Lib Dem voters say no, 83% of Reform voters say no). Feminists are split, I feel it's about 40/60 but that's just my gut feeling. I do have a reason to speak out because I've got friends who are affected and I want to defend my friends, that's a natural human reaction.
I don't want any trans people to suffer. They should have changing rooms available to them.
Which you think is entirely acceptable for you to suggest to people like Nurse Peggie as a solution while claiming you "don't want a war". So if you really don't want a war, why don't trans people get changed elsewhere like you suggest, and leave women to get changed in peace in their own changing room?
He doesn't want a war he just wants people to surrender and not fight it
I genuinely don't think that giving trans people the right to use the toilet corresponding to their gender identity is hurting anyone. I'm a libertarian, people should be allowed to go around doing what they like as long as it doesn't harm anyone else. If you can show me harm then I'm happy to change my mind.
Toilets as in cubicles aren't really an issue, but then unisex cubicles are possible for that reason.
'Toilets' as a phrase that includes changing rooms, then it absolutely 100% includes harm. Harm for women who have to get naked in front of men, whom they don't want to, or harm of women being exposed to naked men for whom they don't want to see either.
Changing rooms with your own sex are bad enough, getting changed in front of the opposite sex - nobody should be compelled to do that who does not want to. And the solution isn't to make the women who don't want to, to go elsewhere instead.
Is any of that unreasonable?
I think it is. I don't know about you but I don't go into changing rooms with the intention of viewing as much genitalia as possible. I go to get changed. I assume that most women just go into a changing room to get changed too and aren't looking around.
I assume most women who go into a unisex changing room aren't looking around and are OK with men going into the unisex changing room too, to get changed.
If its a women's-only changing room then that is for women. Actual women, as the court has entirely rightly determined, not men who identify as women.
You have already proposed "they can change somewhere else" as an alternative - so it is an entirely valid alternative for men who identify as women, not for women, if the changing room is a women's changing room.
Comments
Parliament could do a 1 line bill and oust the HRA if they wanted. I don’t think they will though.
I suspect like in so many things Britain is apeing America.
Adam Brooks AKA EssexPR 🇬🇧
@EssexPR
·
10h
I live near a church and have done for a decade, I’ve never seen the road as full with cars.
#EasterSunday
===
Either, there really has been an uptick this year in christian church attendance this easter or there is some kind of organized rightwing social media campaign to tell us there has been - because X is full of these kinds of statements today.
First used in the 19th century to refer to Jewish converts to Christianity it became widely used during the Cold War to present a unified political bloc against communism.
So, nah.
Hegseth Said to Have Shared Attack Details in Second Signal Chat
The defense secretary sent sensitive information about strikes in Yemen to an encrypted group chat that included his wife and brother, people familiar with the matter said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/20/us/politics/hegseth-yemen-attack-second-signal-chat.html
Disturbing as hell that our formerly reliable ally has become a rolling clusterfuck, but you have to laugh at the sheer absurdity.
To have a male person physically present when we are actually undressing ourselves is more than uncomfortable. Any intercepted glance, however inadvertent, will be interpreted as ogling.
That, presumably, is why doctors etc leave one to undress behind a screen; and not only male doctors. It is presumably standard practice.
Other cultures may have avoided inculcating such responses in women but ours has not avoided it.
That is just a statement and intends no value judgement of anyone.
Goodnight, everyone.
As for conflating… we were talking about anti-Blob approaches and you have now switched to “any attempt to reform the public sector”, as if those are the same thing. I am all for reforming the public sector. Most reforms of the public sector have nothing to do with “the Blob”. Most reformers of the public sector don’t feel the need to jump in and defend “Blob” language.
So, to get Christian (it is the season), Matthew 7:3-5.
I'm confident that I for instance have been consistent that Parliament is sovereign and if it wants to alter things that's their prerogative, but even though MPs should know that too, when your side is on the winning end of a court decision that does not always hold up.
Especially if any of them are like many people know and assume our SC is like the US SC.
Pentagon turmoil deepens: Top Hegseth aide leaves post
“There is a complete meltdown in the building,” one official said.
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/18/defense-secretary-chief-of-staff-joe-kasper-departure-00299508
I mean, every time we switch PMs without an election MPs for the opposition (whoever it is at the time) pretend there is no 'mandate' to govern, rather than just restrict to suggesting the new leader is a coward if they do not go for an election.
Bye. Don't trouble the door on your way out.
Even Orange Face isn't gonna stand for this stupidity.
It is, IMO, sad little bureaucrats like you that need to be purged from the public sector. We could cut 50% of public administration jobs like yours overnight and no one would notice any difference, we'd just be able to borrow £50bn less per year and our bond yields would drop and we'd pay less debt interest and lowe mortgage rates. State services are already shit, it really can't get any worse.
It is also a completely different point to Tye one I was making.
Doesn't feel worth it for Trump to be honest - he surely has no shortage of people who think exactly the same as Hegseth and will do exactly as they are told, who won't be so stupid.
Wakelin 9 Robertson 8. All sorts in frame 18. Wakelin screws back in off when 40 ahead and cruising. Robertson plays an incredible canon to pot a red over the pocket whilst snookered.
And goes in off.
Wakelin goes in off. Then is put back in and leaves a free ball...
Which makes sense to me to be honest, as it feels odd, as a non-believer, that Christmas would be a bigger deal than Easter.
Summat in the air?
Sure, 'the blob' will resist it, but that's the thing about bureaucracies, if a process is followed there's only so much that could be done, and since the public don't like institutional bureaucracy anymore than the next person, doing it in a way which seems rational and unemotional, rather than vindictive and dismissive, helps the PR and limits the effectiveness of union outrage.
So it seems to me the overdramatic stuff is done when people are not serious about the goal and are looking to posture rather than get things done - there will be people in any institution who will get on board with the goal, if they are made use of.
It's about one step up from criminals like SBF portraying themselves as geniuses up until they hit trouble, when suddenly they know nothing about anything going on in their companies - because being ignorant and stupid is not a crime.
Convenience will always win out if there's not really any practical consequences.
Of course, I'd sternly lay down this Law on the Party What's App.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5ojbEIX8Nw
Dunno who Richard L Rubenstein is or was, or whether he gets or got out of his house much, but viewing human suffering as punishment for human guilt is in no way restricted to Judaism and Christianity. Maybe give the sarcasm a rest. Not many Judaists think Jesus by suffering and dying on the cross redeemed humanity from sin.
Mind you, the New Testament guy was a radical leftie.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
(Matt 25)
Kemi Badenoch
@KemiBadenoch
A mob of trans-activists waving death threats at women isn't protest—it's criminal incitement. If the law isn’t enforced, we don’t have equality, we have two-tier justice.
It’s time for Labour to stop being on the side of these extremists and start defending women.
https://x.com/KemiBadenoch/status/1914041742153990613
Jesus was also pretty clear marriage should be between one man and one woman in faithful union for life
"Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ" (KJV)
"Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ." (NIV)
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/homicide_mortality/homicide.htm
Note that murder rates are down in the US since 2022. (COVID increased murders in the US because far too many young men had time on their hands.) https://www.brookings.edu/articles/why-did-u-s-homicides-spike-in-2020-and-then-decline-rapidly-in-2023-and-2024/
People are consenting to be nude at a beach. What people consent to is entirely reasonable.
If a changing room is unisex, ie open to all sexes, then a male who identifies as a female going in there to get changed is not lewd.
If a changing room is open to only females, then a male who identifies as a female is in the wrong.
For any males who identify as a female if the changing room is only open to women then they need to do what was suggested earlier in the thread as a suggestion for a nurse by @DM_Andy as an alternative and "they can change somewhere else."
If its a women's-only changing room then that is for women. Actual women, as the court has entirely rightly determined, not men who identify as women.
You have already proposed "they can change somewhere else" as an alternative - so it is an entirely valid alternative for men who identify as women, not for women, if the changing room is a women's changing room.
https://bsky.app/profile/hankgreen.bsky.social/post/3lnaxjeobnc2v