Sums it up nicely:
If you say that a self-selecting group of men can freely access women’s toilets, changing rooms, or other areas where women may be vulnerable or in a a state of undress, what kind of men would you honestly expect to self-select?
— Sam Morgan (@CrunchAlias) November 3, 2024
rres?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@antonioguterres gets Community Noted … again, over Russia and Ukraine. How utterly embarrassing and self-created by this pathetic man of a so-called leader. pic.twitter.com/seOXVwmkjx
— Arsen Ostrovsky 🎗️ (@Ostrov_A) October 27, 2024
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[Photos © Cafe Royal Books/Mark Campbell]
Ninth image, Arthur Scargill and "Thatcher", to remind us of those grim times. Further down, legendary steeplejack Fred Dibnah. Second from bottom, "Self-portrait, site of the City General Hospital".
n that same period, millions of other people were driven across borders in Europe and Asia, amid the same post-colonial turmoil, in more violent circumstances, their homes seized, their relatives killed, their cultures lost and their families fragmented. Yet their stories have been buried by history.
Who laments the plight of the Greek Orthodox Christians, or the Indian Hindus and Sikhs, or the Armenians, or the Irish refugees created after the bloody British partition of 1921, or the 12million ethnic Germans expelled from Eastern Europe on Churchill’s instigation after the Second World War? Or the Jews of the Middle East, for that matter?
That’s not to say that Israel’s sins must not be condemned, or that the Palestinian injustice should be forgotten. It’s simply a question of exposing demonisation. And no nation it seems is more singled out and demonised than Israel.
The Mayor of Chicago is fully capable of acknowledging hate crimes—just not the ones against Jews. pic.twitter.com/gqhYYq5R7T
— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) October 30, 2024
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From Jerry Coyne:
A random shoot-out: In Chicago, a West African migrant went to a Jewish neighborhood and shot a Jewish man on his way to a synagogue—while screaming “Allahu Akbar.” He then ran around shooting anyone he could find near the synagogue until police came. It’s all captured on video, even the Allahu Akbar part. But here’s how the Chicago Tribune covered it:
e: 11pt”>But I’m also a realist. And it may be way past the time to stop any of that.
Wish us Americans luck this week. We truly are going to need it.
irs game, on the Scouts website, advises adults: “By taking part in this activity and learning about pronouns, we can celebrate the inclusion and diversity we’re so proud of. “
The game itself is played by turning over cards which depict Sam the dog, who uses “he/him” pronouns, Leslie the ladybird, who uses “she/her” pronouns, and non-binary Billy, who uses “they/them” pronouns.
When the cards are turned, children must form a sentence about the character in question using their preferred pronouns, with an example given for Billy as “they ate a sandwich”.
Or, perhaps, "they can fuck right off".
Here we are – Pronoun Pairs:
Learn about pronouns, gender neutral language, and what to do if you misgender someone in this quick card matching game.
To show respect for people, we need to use the pronouns that they feel most comfortable with. By respecting someone’s pronouns, we make feel people included and remind people that they’re loved and accepted for who they are. We can also show support to the LGBTQ+ community by being non-judgemental, avoiding assumptions, being accepting of everyone, challenging language misuse, and reporting any homophobic or transphobic bullying to an adult.
Next to the lovely new Pride-friendly Scouts Logo:
Over the summer, I went to the very North of the Isle of Lewis on a field trip to map the geology there with a close friend of mine. The google street view car went past. We had a geological hammer. The following masterpiece, now on google street view, was the result pic.twitter.com/NIBPnxuIl5
— Gideon Futerman (@GFuterman) October 29, 2024
Two buildings housing Jewish charities in North London were vandalized with red paint overnight.
It’s already bad enough when protesters target Jewish businesses; now they’re even attacking charities?
How does that help the Palestinian cause? pic.twitter.com/jQPyslG10G
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) November 2, 2024
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Nothing to do with Palestine, of course: this is straight up antisemitism – with a hint of Kristallnacht for good measure.
n Trust is that trans staff can self-identity into any changing room they choose. The women were offered a small office in which to change and keep their clothes (initially on the floor) but it has no loos or showers and opens straight on to a corridor so, as Lockey puts it, “if you’re not careful, everyone gets an eyeful”.
This policy is pure Stonewall playbook, part of the trans “toolkit” of measures it has long insisted every institution or company adopts, especially the rule that it is unhappy women who must be banished from their own facilities rather than — as the nurses have requested — a dignified third space being found for a trans person.
When the nurses lodged their complaint, Lockey contacted Unison for advice but received no answer. Other women were members of the Royal College of Nursing which sent a rep to a meeting with HR, but only as an observer. Around 25 nurses attended, some coming in from days off, but their worries were wafted away by an HR official who said she’d gladly change with men as she was “ex-forces”. The nurses, including the sexual abuse survivor, were told to “broaden their outlook”.
Snubbed by their unions, the women formed their own group, the Darlington Nursing Union, both to organise for their pending legal action and to demand private facilities for women in all professions. With such contempt for female members, it’s little wonder the trade union movement is haemorrhaging women, with 83,000 leaving last year alone.
After Steve North’s outburst I called Unison. Will it defend women members compelled by management to undress with trans-identifying males? “The union is not involved in the [Darlington] case,” said a statement, “and it wouldn’t be appropriate for us to comment.” A cowardly swerve. The truth is its policy states “trans people are entitled to use single-sex facilities in accordance with their gender identity”. So why won’t Unison defend it?
An official told me, with some exasperation, that North was “elected by a very small group of activists, whose views don’t reflect those of the wider membership”. No kidding. The Darlington nurses, like most members, loyally paid their subs but rarely attended meetings, let alone drafted motions or stood as conference delegates. It is activists, with the most extreme ideological agenda, who formulate policy. “And the first thing we knew about it,” Lockey says, “is when it smacked us in the face.”
Since trans self-ID became a hot issue, debate within unions has been stifled. Feminists arguing it impinges on women’s rights were vilified and censured. At the Scottish Labour conference in February, the GMB, Unite and Unison all refused to support a motion acknowledging the “principle of women’s sex-based rights”. Even a trans woman, Debbie Hayton, was driven from office in the NASUWT for holding gender-critical views.
The phrase "union dinosaurs" comes to mind. The battling trade unions of old, campaigning against the excesses of a rampant Victorian capitalism, have long since atrophied into stale depositories of a parody "working class" male entitlement.
Just when you think the gender war is over, women have to battle for the most basic right: to undress in their workplace without being watched by a man.