Kemi did rather well at PMQ's yesterday, didn't she?
Perhaps her best outing as LOTO so far?
Sir Kier all over the place (bit like Labour's position on trans/sex/gender/, etc)
It was a classic case of not answering the questions asked, although the questions asked were along the lines of "Do you agree you are weak?", "Why are you scared to say what you really think?" etc
I thought Kier was silly not to take the opportunity not to reach out across the chamber to Rosie. Blair would have done so (but then again Blair wouldn't have got himself into such a pickle over whether a man can have a cervix in the first place, lol)
Watching Trump and Xi duke it out is a bit like watching a wasp landing on a stinging nettle.
You hope they both get stung to death, because it will be very funny.
The damage to the world economy is a bit of a bugger in this case, of course.
The thing is China isn’t doing anything beyond sitting there watching the US panic.
There are stories that Chinese / us shipping is down 60% and that will mean Costco and Walmarts selves will be relatively beat come June, if that extends Christmas with empty shelves and few Christmas presents for sale will be fun for Trump
Kemi did rather well at PMQ's yesterday, didn't she?
Perhaps her best outing as LOTO so far?
Sir Kier all over the place (bit like Labour's position on trans/sex/gender/, etc)
Yes, her best outing yet. But it was like a home game against weak opposition - on her favourite subject. It remains to be seen whether she can replicate her incisiveness on more substantive issues than this particular culture war.
Kemi did rather well at PMQ's yesterday, didn't she?
Perhaps her best outing as LOTO so far?
Sir Kier all over the place (bit like Labour's position on trans/sex/gender/, etc)
It was a classic case of not answering the questions asked, although the questions asked were along the lines of "Do you agree you are weak?", "Why are you scared to say what you really think?" etc
I thought Kier was silly not to take the opportunity not to reach out across the chamber to Rosie. Blair would have done so (but then again Blair wouldn't have got himself into such a pickle over whether a man can have a cervix in the first place, lol)
I am sure that if an official review, or the Supreme Court, explicitly says "Rosie Duffield was right about the trans thing" Sir Keir will express in no uncertain terms that this has brought much needed clarity to the issue
Find Out Now has Ref UK 28%, Con 20%, Lab 20%, Lib Dem 14%, Green 13%.
The gives 340 seats, 50, 199, 62, 5.
Kaboom
Find out now! So no kaboom.
They were the first pollsters to discover that Labour were more likely to poll 33% than the 45% the others misled us into believing, albeit they overestimated Reform as well
Labour a point behind now on an all pollster average with a 1 month cut off and within a breath of crossover even if you chose to exclude FON. The trend suggests Reform will lead even without FON in the next week:
Kemi did rather well at PMQ's yesterday, didn't she?
Perhaps her best outing as LOTO so far?
Sir Kier all over the place (bit like Labour's position on trans/sex/gender/, etc)
Yes, her best outing yet. But it was like a home game against weak opposition - on her favourite subject. It remains to be seen whether she can replicate her incisiveness on more substantive issues than this particular culture war.
Apparently (I wasn't even born at the time) it took Mrs Thatcher around six months or so get into her stride as LOTO
One under-perceived thing (among many no doubt) we have in the UK about the US is the prevalence of the Gilead world view. It doesn’t seem a direct transfer to our angry incel movement here yet, though who knows after the recent convulsion of excited righties acclaiming a resurgence of church going.
Margaret Atwood is a very wise woman, she might turn out to be the Orwell of our age.
I think our alt-right follow so much US Social Media that they are moving down the same track on religion. In some Pentacostal style churches they are probably correct, but by and large British Christians are more socially than politically minded, albeit often from a sense of noblesse oblige.
When you hear alt-righties speak of Christian culture, their view of that culture is rarely formed or informed by attending church, but rather is a euphemism for white European culture.
I had a strange night in the pub at the weekend where a friend of my wife's family was trying to tell me that Russia is the last bastion of Christianity, and that the Nazis were Socialists (i think he meant this pejoratively!). He was clearly treading in the shallow end at least of the delusional right.
Social Media is leading into a new dark age of incels, misogyny and conspiracy theory paranoia.
When JD Vance was interviewed by Joe Rogan pre the US election, he was laughing about how left wing people were now calling keeping in good physical shape "Right Wing"... but I think there is a kernel of truth in that there is a trend now on social media for "lift weights, don't drink alcohol, get 8 hours sleep, take supplements, wake up early, take responsibility for yourself & family..." and so on, that is all good advice, but is also mixed in with a kind of right wing attitude somehow I think. A bit of a strongman model perhaps, that is anti the more left wing feminisation of men
It's something we see frequently in various areas: the binarification of things. In this case: to be a 'man' in the eyes of some on the right, you have to be fit. But not just fit: you need to be visibly fit: muscly and manly. The 'take care of your family' is meant only in a very traditional your-wife-stays-at-home-whilst-you-provide way.
I have seen a couple of these 'men' take the p*ss out of people who are fit but do not life weights: e.g. runners. They are aparently not manly men, despite being fit.
Basically: Vance's ideal of fitness will be a very muscular, weight-lifting idea of fitness. Which is only one form of fitness. But a very manly one.
I find it regrettable that kids will make up and adopt new gender identities. But when you see the concept of 'masculine = gym-bodied, tattooed and scowling: feminine = lip-fillered, false-eyelashed, heavily make-upped and pouting', youcan kind of see why other alternatives are sought.
(tbc, my view is that gender is a myth, there are two sexes, but no 'right' way for individuals of either of those sexes to present themselves - though I reserve the right to tut or roll my eyes like the old man I almost am at appearance or lifestyle choices the youth might make.)
As I've mentioned before, I have colleagues who were involved in studies commissioned to support the Cass Review. One thing that came out of the qualitative work was this kind of idea among some who had either de-transitioned or gone straight to a non-binary identity - the idea that what your bits are is less important if society is less hung up on what is a man and what is a woman.
That was only some people, of course. Others had a very strong longstanding discomfort with their physical sex. But I suspect some of the explosion in diagnoses has been more about people being pushed into societal norms, where the answer is to identify as opposite to birth sex rather than simply as an atypical person of birth sex.
ETA: Someone like Grayson Perry is interesting here - he seems very comfortable as identifying as 'he' but presenting, often, as a (stereotypical version of a) woman. My own cousin's journey to transition started with similar cross-dressing, but she (born he) has taken a very different route (and seems far more content with a female identity). I do wonder what different routes they might each have taken if born in each other's times or whether they are inherently different.
Quentin Crisp was quite interesting on this, from a perspective of someone born before the op:
"The only thing in my life I have wanted and didn’t get was to be a woman. It will be my life’s biggest regret. If the operation had been available and cheap when I was young, say when I was twenty-five or twenty-six, I would have jumped at the chance. My life would have been much simpler as a result. I would have told nobody. Instead, I would have gone to live in a distant town and run a knitting wool shop and no one would ever have known my secret.
I would have joined the real world and it would have been wonderful."
Prohibit unsafe behaviours in the workplace including cross-dressing by male staff on duty, where this undermines professional boundaries, dignity, or the ability of patients to give informed consent.
How do you propose to let ill, confused or elderly patients give informed consent to intimate care if they are not clear on the sex of the carer?
I'm generally in agreement with you, but here is where I'm going to strongly disagree.
People should be able to dress how they want, within laws on public decency, regardless of their sex. What does cross dressing even mean? Women can wear suits, is that cross dressing? Why should men not be able to do the reverse and wear traditionally female clothing? As for a hospital setting, everyone is in scrubs in any case.
A patient should be able to request someone of their same sex treats them and staff members respect that. That has no bearing on how staff choose to present themselves.
People do not have a right to know what sex someone is by looking at them. That's just ridiculous and infringing on the rights of men and women everywhere to dress how they see fit.
I agree people should be free to be whoever they believe they are - I don’t subscribe to gender identity theory.
How do you reconcile those two sentences? If people believe they are gender misaligned to their biological sex, and a significant number of people do, shouldn't they be free to be who they think they are?
It is at least as offensive to "gay away the Trans" as to "Trans away the gay" why can't both exist?
They can - when they are adults.
“Transing away the gay” referred to children at the Tavistock.
What did you think of the Cass review?
What do you think of the Cass review? Let's take puberty blockers. The Cass Review said that the clinical evidence supporting using blockers for children with gender dysphoria was weak so they should only be prescribed as part of a clinical trial. Do you support there being a clinical trial on if puberty blockers save children's lives? Because Sex Matters have successfully blocked the clinical trial that was meant to start over a year ago.
SexMatters do not have the power to block a clinical trial - if they have asked questions clinicians have been unable to answer that’s down to clinicians.
Some gender critical people, including James Esses, are planning to launch a judicial review against it
When a future Gibbon writes a decline and fall of the West - or perhaps a decline and fall of humanity - the “trans debate” will deserve a chapter all of it own. That so many educated people became obsessed with such a niche issue - even as the world collapsed around them - and eagerly sought to believe obviously stupid things…
It will be a bleak chapter, as welll as bizarre
(narrator: when Leon refers to "Gibbon" it's a reference to the historian Edward Gibbon, not the long-armed furry ape. Try not to confuse the two, especially in a library)
How long would it take a thousand gibbons on typewriters to produce a balanced, non-hysterical piece on the state of things for the Spectator?
Find Out Now has Ref UK 28%, Con 20%, Lab 20%, Lib Dem 14%, Green 13%.
The gives 340 seats, 50, 199, 62, 5.
The day we get a '1' on the front of that tory number is going to be terrific.
You would rather have a REF government than a Tory one?
Absolutely. They are intrinsically more entertaining in the same way that Trump is preferable to Weekend at Biden's.
In government the tories managed to make themselves hated by one half of the country by doing brexit and then, and this is the good bit, they then made themselves hated by the other half by doing the brexitwave immigration explosion.
They are dismal, boring and pointless with a terrible leader who is permanently irritated by everything except alt-right social media.
Kemi did rather well at PMQ's yesterday, didn't she?
Perhaps her best outing as LOTO so far?
Sir Kier all over the place (bit like Labour's position on trans/sex/gender/, etc)
It was a classic case of not answering the questions asked, although the questions asked were along the lines of "Do you agree you are weak?", "Why are you scared to say what you really think?" etc
I thought Kier was silly not to take the opportunity not to reach out across the chamber to Rosie. Blair would have done so (but then again Blair wouldn't have got himself into such a pickle over whether a man can have a cervix in the first place, lol)
I am sure that if an official review, or the Supreme Court, explicitly says "Rosie Duffield was right about the trans thing" Sir Keir will express in no uncertain terms that this has brought much needed clarity to the issue
Talking of lovely Rosie Duffield here's Victoria Derbyshire on once-serious Newsnight asking Rosie whether she bears any "responsibility" for the fact a man identifying as a woman is upset after the Supreme Court reaffirmed the fact he is a biological man... 🤦♂️
Gas and grocery prices are WAY DOWN, just like I said they would be. Eggs are plentiful, and down 87%. NICE!
You should be censured for reposting Trump bollocks.
Reliable citation needed.
It appears they are now being sold for $10 a dozen in some stores, although the wholesale price is down a bit on March when they hit record highs (I'm assuming that will take time to work through the system).
If they are $10 a dozen that means they were originally at $80 a dozen if they have dropped in price by 87%!!
Prohibit unsafe behaviours in the workplace including cross-dressing by male staff on duty, where this undermines professional boundaries, dignity, or the ability of patients to give informed consent.
How do you propose to let ill, confused or elderly patients give informed consent to intimate care if they are not clear on the sex of the carer?
I'm generally in agreement with you, but here is where I'm going to strongly disagree.
People should be able to dress how they want, within laws on public decency, regardless of their sex. What does cross dressing even mean? Women can wear suits, is that cross dressing? Why should men not be able to do the reverse and wear traditionally female clothing? As for a hospital setting, everyone is in scrubs in any case.
A patient should be able to request someone of their same sex treats them and staff members respect that. That has no bearing on how staff choose to present themselves.
People do not have a right to know what sex someone is by looking at them. That's just ridiculous and infringing on the rights of men and women everywhere to dress how they see fit.
The end state of TERFism is the rigid enforcement of the gender presentation & dress of women.
It gives me no joy whatsoever to be predicting more attacks on non-feminine presenting women as a consequence of the rise of anti-trans rhetoric following the SC judgement.
I dunno. As a man who doesn't fit traditional male stereotypes I've always felt that the ideology of some trans advocates has threatened my identity as a non-traditional male. Something they have in common with the right-wing bigots.
Terfs have never threatened my identity in the same way.
I find your comment interesting - "As a man who doesn't fit traditional male stereotypes". There are surely many, many male stereotypes. Are you suggesting that the traditional ones would be 'manly' (strong, sporty, tough guy etc)?
I'm thinking lads, banter, cars, bbq sort of thing.
My wife is the more expert on car maintenance than me, but if we ever take the car together to some place people will default to talking to me about it, as though I know the first thing. But I know enough about knitting to be able to translate patterns from French.
Yesterday he was saying Russia was ready for peace. He's so full of crap.
This is all a performance so that he can walk away from supporting Ukraine and not be blamed for the consequences.
This is rapidly becoming existential for Europe now. If Europe isn't able to defend a European democracy from Russian attack then European democracy cannot survive..
That's an odd framing. It's not democracy under attack but Ukraine specifically and our constitutional arrangements don't depend on the position of Russia's borders.
Constitutions only exist because people believe in them. If Europe fails to defend Ukraine then it leads to a massive loss of self-belief in the ability of European democracy to defend itself against the authoritarians, and conversely it emboldens the authoritarians to push democracies around.
Comments
You hope they both get stung to death, because it will be very funny.
The damage to the world economy is a bit of a bugger in this case, of course.
That gives 223 RefUK, 174 Lab, 133 Con, 55 Lib Dem, 4 Green.
All polls now put RefUK in the lead, so I expect they'll have a very good result next Thursday.
https://x.com/TristanSnell/status/1915367307347476585
There are stories that Chinese / us shipping is down 60% and that will mean Costco and Walmarts selves will be relatively beat come June, if that extends Christmas with empty shelves and few Christmas presents for sale will be fun for Trump
Ref 24.9
Labour 23.9
Con 22.1
LD 14
Grn 9
"The only thing in my life I have wanted and didn’t get was to be a woman. It will be my life’s biggest regret. If the operation had been available and cheap when I was young, say when I was twenty-five or twenty-six, I would have jumped at the chance. My life would have been much simpler as a result. I would have told nobody. Instead, I would have gone to live in a distant town and run a knitting wool shop and no one would ever have known my secret.
I would have joined the real world and it would have been wonderful."
https://www.thepinknews.com/2017/11/21/quentin-crisp-reflects-on-trans-identity-in-exclusive-final-autobiography/
* https://xcancel.com/MrMennoTweets/status/1904191234366652833
The study is still proceeding and is in the recruitment phase
* https://fundingawards.nihr.ac.uk/award/NIHR167530
* https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMK461/research-assistant-pathways-study-based-in-warrington
NEW THREAD
In government the tories managed to make themselves hated by one half of the country by doing brexit and then, and this is the good bit, they then made themselves hated by the other half by doing the brexitwave immigration explosion.
They are dismal, boring and pointless with a terrible leader who is permanently irritated by everything except alt-right social media.
https://x.com/BBCNewsnight/status/1915176760842371124
https://xcancel.com/ElectionMapsUK/status/1915399486001512588#m
https://bsky.app/profile/leftiestats.bsky.social
Plugging those numbers into StatsForLeftie's model yields this:
Points to note
My wife is the more expert on car maintenance than me, but if we ever take the car together to some place people will default to talking to me about it, as though I know the first thing. But I know enough about knitting to be able to translate patterns from French.