Hate in numbers
The Scottish Parliament will today almost certainly pass a dangerously misleading and inaccurate motion to mark “Transgender Day Of Remembrance”, and in doing so will join countless other institutions across the UK captured by trans ideology to the great detriment of women’s rights, freedom of speech and general sanity.
So we thought we’d mark it with a very short fact check.
The image above is taken from the intranet of a UK police force. It claims that 2,540 “transgender hate crimes” were recorded across the UK in the past year.
We’re not sure if that figure includes the verbal abuse directed at four young London men dressed as women (one of which penis-possessing individuals the Daily Mail described as a “mother of four”) before they violently and brutally assaulted the person who offended them, breaking his eye socket, and then escaped prison because it’s now apparently fine to beat the living hell out of people who hurt your feelings.
But anyway.
According to trans pressure group Stonewall there are roughly 600,000 trans people in the UK. That means that 0.4% of trans people were victims of a hate crime last year (or put another way, 99.6% weren’t). The actual figure is almost certainly even lower than that because multiple crimes committed against the same person as part of the same incident are counted individually.
So we can’t quite work out why MSPs and MPs are claiming the figure is 41%.
That’s just over 100 times the reality. But Sultana claims that figure by including “hate incidents”, a nebulous and deeply disturbing phenomenon whereby the police record things that aren’t crimes and have no supporting evidence, purely on the say-so of the supposed victim, and keep them on people’s police records without their knowledge.
Almost 120,000 “hate incidents” were recorded by 34 UK police forces from 2014 to 2019 (weirdly, by far the most were in South Wales for some reason). There are 45 UK police forces in total, so we could reasonably pro-rata that up to around 160,000 and then divide it by the six years to get very roughly 27,000 per year.
We know that hate crimes currently run somewhere in the region of 100,000 a year in England and Wales, with Scotland proportionally slightly lower, so let’s round the total up to 110,000. And we know from the start of this post that transgender hate crimes made up 2,540 of those, which is 2.3%, so it seems reasonable to assume that they’d be a similar proportion of hate incidents.
But what the heck, let’s double it and call it 5%. That would mean we’d need to add 5% of 27,000 to the “crime” figures to also cover “incidents”, which would be 1,350 on top of the 2,540 for a total “transgender hate crimes or hate incidents” of 3,890.
That would mean that 0.65% of trans people had suffered either a hate crime or a hate incident in the past year, not 41%.
(And we know that the barrier for “hate incidents” is so low as to encompass things as awful as – steel yourselves, sensitive readers – being asked “invasive questions” or believing yourself to have been subjected to non-specific “discrimination”.)
Holyrood motions of course have no legal effect in themselves. But they signal the mind of the Parliament, and so the likely outcome of future legislation, and issuing a statement – which may well end up being a unanimous or at least unopposed one – with such staggering disregard for both reality and public opinion will be just the latest in a series of disturbing signs about the direction of Scottish politics.
And we just don’t know what to do about that. Because we don’t know who you call when everyone in power – including all the people you’re trusting to lead your reason-based independence movement – has gone mad.
Will no one consider poor rhiannon’s feelings ?
Any msp who votes for these lies will have a great deal of explaining to do before May. And then hopefully suffer the same fate as rhiannon.
We are supposed to be too busy fighting a ‘deadly pandemic’ to be expending our energies on woke causes, no?
Thanks for making the numbers clear. The amount iof time and energy and good will being spent on such a small number of incidents compared to any number of other more dangerous & more prevalent issues is truly shocking. How we all feeling about the #DontVoteWoke campaign’s apparent success in excluding mall but 2 including sadly the spectacularly underwhelming but over paid Somerville? Also am I right in thinking that despite apparently failing to distribute any kind of CVs for the NEC candidates there are moves at the grassroots to vote for anyone BUT the current incumbents? Does anyone have a list of the candidates to which we can collectively try to append some sort of ideas about who they are & what the stand for?
Day of Rememberance? How can we ever forget?.
-David Rogers-
The far left don’t take a day off. The pandemic has been idyllic for them because all the little people have been at home obeying the rules.
WTF is “doxxing”??? I’m reluctant to Google it.
ffs….what a way to run a country, I think the end of this devolved gutless talking shop is nearly on us.
Good grief, every day’s a wankheid day nooadays.
I’m sick to hell of all the trans shit we’re expected to swallow. Very few trans people seem to have sex dyshoria ( judging by the percentage who keep their tackle). So that leaves a majority who are just fetishists. I mean why else get bolt ons yet keep your tackle? And women and girls are supposed to accept this breaching of their sane boundaries on the exhortation to ” be kind” while the fetishists are getting their jollies. No thanks.
This tendency toward manufactured victim hood has been doing my head in for a while but this has cranked it up a whole new level.
People who are not as good at critical thinking as the rest of us could easily be lead to believe that Scotland is a illiberal country full of hate-fuelled Neo-Nazi’s waiting to bash in the heads of anyone who can be considered a minority. Which is absolutely bollocks obviously, but the narrative the SNP and others are pushing could easily lead the gullible to believe that.
We are a liberal, tolerant, live and let live country, nobody gives two fecks what people do in there or personal lives or what people identify as. But this issue isn’t about that. Rights of women, and our collective right to free speech are under savage attack from our own government, from within our own movement.
Get emailing, get resisting. Dinnae tread on me
On another note, any body see that a certain Alan Smyth is leading a campaign to ban Scots from setting off fireworks in our own gardens?
“WTF is “doxxing”??? I’m reluctant to Google it.”
It means people revealing personal data about you (from “docs” as in “documents”), eg if you tweet as “Gloria Delicious” and someone reveals that you’re actually Jim Tadgercock from Norwich. It originally meant publishing serious information like your home address, but now it’s frequently used to just mean “anything you didn’t want publicised”, even if it was something you actually published yourself.
For example, Cameron Archibald claimed we’d “doxxed” him when we revealed he still lived with his parents, even though we didn’t say anything about where his parents lived other than the startlingly obvious fact that it was somewhere very broadly in the Stirling area.
I’m just surprised the presumably environmentally conscious Green Party are so supportive of this agenda.
The shear volume of chemicals and packaging used in all that unnecessary makeup and hair dye must be a detriment to sustainable ecology.
#ItsGreenerToBeBeige
Nicola Sturgeon today “It is not in the natural instinct of politician do do things people don’t like or would be unpopular”
Really?
“On another note, any body see that a certain Alan Smyth is leading a campaign to ban Scots from setting off fireworks in our own gardens?”
TBH it’s one of the few things I’d back him on. Home fireworks are pathetic and absolutely not worth the grief they inflict on pets and young children and folk just wanting a bit of peace and quiet in their own home. Go to a proper display that’s actually worth seeing.
Reads last sentence… must resist urge to quote Robert Owen… aaargh the hammers!
Has anyone else noticed how frequently the FM is now using variations on ‘You have the right to disagree with this, even to disagree vehemently, but it is necessary’?
In other words, ‘You don’t like it? Tough.’
She has used precisely the same tactic re GRA ‘discussion’ i.e. there isn’t one, and there won’t be one. Patrick Harvie takes it one step further but it’s fundamentally the same message: ‘No debate.’
What possible justification is there for such a stance in a ‘democracy’?
All MSPs would do well to remember that when they vote – if they don’t challenge this nonsense at each and every opportunity then they are tacitly supporting it.
-Livionian-
Well said. Scotland is a progressive and tolerant society, indeed, one of the most so in the world.
The judiciary in Weimar Germany were generally lenient when it came to sentencing SA members who had beaten up people.
“It means people revealing personal data about you (from “docs” as in “documents”), eg if you tweet as “Gloria Delicious” and someone reveals that you’re actually Jim Tadgercock from Norwich. It originally meant publishing serious information like your home address, but now it’s frequently used to just mean “anything you didn’t want publicised”, even if it was something you actually published yourself.”
FFS I was worried a Google search would turn up triple x-rated porno sites dedicated to weird fetishes or something.
Worth pointing out on this day of “remembrance” that this is about trans people other than actual transsexual people who in the main want nothing to do with gender identity theory and those who identify as transgender – they are the trans people who are actually suffering from this institutionalised insanity.
If you’ve been upset by anything Sultana tweeted, could you accuse her of a hate crime?
Ah thought doxxing wiz the clamp used when getting de balled witch a lot of trans people dont want to do , if they want tae wear ah frock lode the balls ,and I dont give two feks about Rhiannon’s feelings nor any other Wokists feelings .
I just wonder if researchers for MSPs are an extinct species.
Is it actually beyond them to look at the figures just as you have done before putting aside time at Holyrood to discuss inaccuracies as fact.
It’s incredible. Someone somewhere must be hunouring them for a reason
Susanxxx “while the fetishists are getting their jollies”. Quality, but prob offensive to non-jolliests or somesuch.
When language is traduced in such a way as to make it meaningless, we’re all losers. The vast majority of people would be for ‘equality’ and against ‘hate’. But when the word hate is used to define a slight discomfort that some people may feel at invasive questioning, the word hate loses its meaning.
Such use of language offends me. Where is my survey? Where is my voice in parliament? Ffs, unionism offends me. Seriously annoys and upsets me. Where is the legislation saying that humans with penises dressing in hyper-stereotypical versions of what they deem a ‘woman’ to be are offensive? Where is the law that says its offensive that people seem to fall for the God delusion? Where is the law against Ed Sheeran? When oh when will people start getting fined for the needless and repetitive use of ‘in terms of’? Now, while these things ‘offend’ me, you know what, I can get on with my life without getting them all banned. What I think is what I think and I think Im right.
In fact, what I think we might be doing here is confusing the words ‘offend/offensive’ and ‘annoy/annoyance’.
If any of this post annoys or offends you, get over it!!!
@Frazerio (1.01) –
‘Where is the law against Ed Sheeran?’
🙂 🙂 🙂
Jill Sharpe at 12.52
Madam, That seems to sensible a viewpoint to be made in regard to this extraordinary topic. ?
Thatcher was condemned for claiming that society doesn’t exist, and now neoliberal politicians in all parties are celebrated for claiming that sex doesn’t exist.
The LGB struggle was to remove the state from personal lives – to let adults have the consexual sex that they desired.
Today we have the LGBTQA+ rainbow warriors demanding that the state punish people who refuse to believe that Brian from IT Support is actually Tiffany, a brave and stunning woman who is also a member of the most persecuted minority on the planet.
The state is trying to convince you that some women have always had penises. Maybe question your MSP before you vote for them.
@Ian Brotherhood 12:49pm
Except, we don’t have that right, certainly against current Bills, it would be construed a hate incident at the very least, if not a crime.
Probably Humza didn’t CC that info to the FM… or if he did, she wasn’t informed and no-one has any recollection of it – so she certainly can’t be accused of misspeaking – though we can.
This whole Circus was at first a bit annoying now it’s like a Boil on yer arse nothing associated with it makes sense or improves the life of the recipient .
Way past time this particular Boil was lanced if it’s not it could lead to further uncontrollable infection , far from attracting sympathy and understanding the underhand methods used all in secret will make sure ordinary people will go out of their way to block anything proposed however ever well intentioned, in fact it might make people look at what exactly have these self identifying people managed to change if the majority are not in agreement why not change it all back , then you will hear the screams of indignation and the wringing of hands , Tough shit eh I don’t give a add your own phrase as required to complete that sentence .
Rev, the constant banging on about grans this, and grans that is doing my box in.
It’s becoming a crime against humanity, the non trans that is.
People have the right not to be intruded upon and that is what the whole grans thing is now doing.
Time they put a sock in it. Honestly.
@Bob Mack,
Today’s researchers are next years woke MSPs.
Oh Well if I was asked what doxxing was on thon millionaire gameshow I would probably have said
“Cutting the tail aff a dug” but take it that’s docking.
Oh well, thick fecker I am.
If Scotland had voted Yes in 2014 we would be busy here discussing who’s going to win the upcoming second Scottish general election since independence. Instead we have to deal with this sort of garbage fostered by Sturgeon, Humza and SAS of the Subaltern Nation Party.
“Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil”. Machiavelli
Every single Opposition party in every western democracy has either been infiltrated and/or ideologically influenced to become a ‘well-meaning’ patsy to this LGBT ‘supra’ propaganda, which just part of a wider #GenderAgenda divide & rule *set-up*.
The point of the ‘Transgender Day of Remembrance’ messaging is to, by its very association with and proximity to recent Armistice Remembrance, is to *agitate* good ‘common sense’ people by undermining the overwhelming majority’s hard-wired belief-system housed in the memory of The War Dead – which will especially resonate with right-wing white heterosexual males who will view this as an assault on their memory. That’s the *point*.
Because it is an assault – a policy/propaganda assault on ALL of us to elicit a *predictable* emotional behavioural response, for which, ALL minority groups are being set-up by ‘supra-propaganda’ (e.g. ‘Is COVID Racist?’ Channel4, 23rd Nov) to be at the *forefront* of the predominantly white male *backlash*. And who with this *Remembrance* messaging will also find some sympathy with the demoralised police (in England who are already on the edge of lashing out) and belief-system sympathy too, from many military personnel.
“Propaganda must facilitate the displacement of aggression by specifying the targets for hatred”. Goebbels
But it’s a response that can only be elicited on upon a single, large scale trigger (see The Ferret website & restart of the dilapidated Hunterston) the mass reaction for which in UK, #ToryAnalytica need to re-direct the public ‘focus’ away from themselves – to minorities – to result in a Krystallnacht on steroids and thereby avoid the ‘venting’ whilst providing their own pretext to militarise UK ‘democracy’, which they can only do with ‘assistance’ – or ‘rescue’ – by the ‘Special Relationship’.
?“Original minds are not distinguished by being the first to see a new thing, but instead seeing the old, familiar thing that is overlooked as something new”. Friedrich Nietzsche.?
It’s all been done before. It simply took the next *logical* step matching its scale of ambition which is principally housed in a globally-sealed media…
‘The #MeToo Truth of Nr5 #RampantSexism’ by #GaslightingGilligan https://wp.me/p94Aj4-1Y2 (*free download*)
Yes Kapelmeister @1:24pm and we would have a choice of Scottish parties to suit our views, not be blackmailed into this trans shit because it’s the only (currently) way to vote for independence.
Stu, reading about all these very controversial subjects that the Scottish government have gone absolutely woke crazy over, as you are well aware if you follow the funding for these issues and people who are changing Scotland without consulting the Scottish people, it will often take you outside our country,
We need desperately to change our politicians and political parties, the way we view ourselves as having no voice, choice or Avenue to make the changes,
I believe we do though, not through the treaty of the union, having been rendered void and obsolete on many occasions, as this is a long term plans that involves court hearings or ECHRs hearings and challenges. Great backup to be used for the following I am about to suggest.
I am seeking your research abilities and wisdom on the “Claim of right”
The claim of right does not mention referendums, it does not mention snp or the devolved Scottish government and does not mention Westminster,it does not mention that it is once in a generation or lifetime,
It does mention that “we” the Scottish have the right to choose who governs us, this would include any new choice we make, thus if we could apply this method to gain independence, or even scare the sh.t out of the wokeraty Snp,
if they thought for one moment that we could by pass them, that the Scottish people had an alternative to the Snp, section 30, the Scottish government or Westminster, and choose ourselves a new government, there are no restrictions on us doing that with the claim of right, or time limits. And as “the claim of right” indicates, this can be done when we are not enthralled with the governance we have presently,
It would set the cat among the useless pidgions we could at least stir up a storm,
From the last graph, I’m somewhat surprised that given the apparent climate of “hate” that pervades every corner of our society that the number of assaults is so low, compared to the total number of incidents.
Also, what would be very revealing is the country of origin of these so called hate-crimes since the nature of the vast majority of incidents would indicate they took place online.
So the solution to Hate Crime is simple – delete your twitter account. There, problem solved.
My quick thought on fireworks, speaking as a dog owner with an auld wee dug that doesn’t like them. (He was fine with them when he was young, or seemed so, but he’s 14 now and it’s sad to see him desperately looking for a hiding place which he never needs 364 days a year).
You don’t have to ban fireworks, just ban the percussive ones that go off with a huge bang. It’s the noise which freaks out the doggelys, and sometimes organised displays are worse because they let off bigger and louder explosions.
And when you see how a firework can freak out a wee dog, spare a thought for all Scotland’s marine creatures having their their systems shattered with the shockwaves from military exercises at sea.
Does anyone have data on the effective blast range of underwater ordinance for terrifying / injuring / maiming / killing aquatic sea life? I can’t help but wonder whether schools of fish beaching themselves are doing so because their brains have been scrambled, or their delicate perception mechanisms fried to the sonar equivalent of blindness/deafness.
-Johnny MacNeil-
They’ll never understand, these woke folk, the backlash they’re building up. It’s petrifying.
In 1931 the Spaniards overthrew the right-wing dictator, a sex-mad, oafish Trump/ Johnson-like chancer called Primo de Rivera. The leftists celebrated the dawn of a new age and set about getting rid of the church. This finally provoked the conservative section of society so much they rose up in revolt, led by Franco- who actually **believed** in Catholicism and hierarchy and all that shit, was highly intelligent, and governed Spain with an iron fist for forty years. The only fascist dictator to die in his palace and get his state funeral.
In 1974 the unions were thrilled that Heath had lost office, in 1979 they got Thatcher who beat the living daylights out of us.
Mark my words, after Trump and Johnson, you’ll have Priti Patel here and Tom Cotton in the states. They are fanatics and neither of them are going to fuck about. A terrifying prospect.
Breeks,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_mammals_and_sonar#Naval_sonar-linked_incidents
The following sections in the article are interesting too, particularly the mitigating effects which show that sonar is a significant problem for whales.
As for underwater ordnance, probably just multiply these effects by a few orders of magnitude.
Put another way – 2540 hate crimes or incidents reported against trans people (transgender or transsexual? It matters to me which one). 45% of trans people have experienced one of these events. So doing the maths, there are how many trans people? 2540/45% = 5645 trans people, not the 600,000 claimed. Which makes more sense? Both viewpoints cannot be true. Are there really 600,000 transgender/sexual people in the UK?
@ Johnny McNeill at 1.27pm: I’m sorry, but your comment is impenetrable word-salad to me. I have no idea what point you’re attempting to make.
Yesterday 19th was international men’s day, is that a coincidence?
Anyway glad that hullabaloo is over for another year, ye get so sick of them going on and on and on and on.
Its going very well for them on twitter.
https://twitter.com/scotgov/status/1329742347727499265
Breeks @1:47.
Not just military exercises far worse IMHO are seismic surveys done regularly for exploration.
@ Rev. Stuart Campbell at 12.42pm: I agree that fireworks are a public nuisance, dangerous, and completely unnecessary. People have been calling for them to be banned for as long as I can remember, but nothing is ever done. Personal freedom should not include the freedom to do things which make other people’s lives a misery.
P.S. If you lived in the centre of Edinburgh as I do, you would be sick-to-death of fireworks. It’s like a bloody warzone here, especially during the festival.
imteresting how the nature deniers never post anything about the trans predators and the danger young people in particular face.
Michael Laing re: Johnny McNeill at 1.27pm
He’s saying that the primary purpose of the whole woke thing is to get everybody up in arms. That makes life a whole lot easier for the people who want to see, shall we say, a more “Conservative” future, where society is purged of the more undesirable elements.
The report from the Daily Mail of the incident at Leicester Square tube station seems to suggest that the UK legal/justice system:
1. Considers verbal abuse (as defined by ?) to be sufficient to be classified and recorded as a “Hate Crime.”
but
2. Violently assaulting someone (which takes some effort and internal motivation) in response is not sufficient to be considered, classified or recorded as a “Hate Crime.”
If this is an accurate summary of the report and the report itself is an accurate summary of the position it seems reasonable to surmise that should the head of the WEF, Klaus Schwab get his own way most of the planets population will be permanently locked up for hate thought crime by 2030.
https://winteroak.org.uk/2020/10/05/klaus-schwab-and-his-great-fascist-reset/amp/
I think Sultana is a Fruit Cake.
Everyone should be protected equally no one especially.
No one should be calling you names but why not walk away
from such an incident or if you want, give it back but it can
Lead to physical violence.
What you are after will lead to more serious crimes against those born as
women so I am forever against Trans with Willies going near women’s
Toilets or Changing rooms.
I’d support NHS willie removal otherwise it could cause mental health issues and costs.
Never for reversals though.
It’s one shot only!
Boris breathtakingly suggesting bullying is fine
if you say you didn’t realise?
Patel states in office despite his pledge to prevent
Bullying and misappropriation of public finds when
he took office.
Too Civil Servant with impeccable record who found Patel
Guilty, again, resigns due to Boris insulting him and the civil service
and using Orwell’s Double Speak to bluff over it.
You are know free to rob a bank, just as long as you were not aware you were doing so?
Brexit deal close now as there is no where else to go for Boris.
It won’t be good for us, but Double Speak gives you the £350 million per week,
Empire building,Get it Done, Oven Ready Whack a Mole Great deal
For money launderers and tax avoiders!
Controversial thought for the day… Transactivism is trying to be in 2020 what Punk was back in the early ‘70’s.
It’s trying to be obnoxious and radical, it’s trying to court controversy and shove itself in your face.
It’s trying to do to societal ‘norms’ what punk rock did to music in the ‘70’s… a little bit of hellraising to shake people out of their comfort zone.
Their ‘big’ problem is that a lot of the generation they’re trying to shock grew up with punk, loving it, hating it, or actually living it… and part of punk’s legacy is that ‘shock’ was normalised, and nowadays it’s actually quite hard to shock people and do something properly ‘edgy’.
So what, you’ve got your bit’s and bobs pieced, and your eyeballs tattooed. It’s weird, kinda daft and shortsighted, but the point is, it’s not shocking anymore. It’s like watching a tribute act, when you’ve actually been raised rocking about with the real thing.
And that’s where it all goes wrong.
Transactivism not a punk band like the Sex Pistols encouraging kids to rebel and shock their parents and teachers, it’s leading vulnerable young people at a very delicate time in their development to wander down paths they really don’t want to be led down, contemplating irreversible changes to their bodies before their bodies have even stopped growing.
Because the world is more numb to shock, Transactivism has to go further to get noticed. It has to hurt people, it has to impact on their social media, it has to actually threaten people, even actually assault them, just to get a reaction.
It has to manufacture ‘enemies’ to justify it’s rage, a bit like American survivalists who need to invent a threat to justify having sixteen handguns, an assault rifle in every room and a grenade launcher in the bathroom. It’s not ‘madness’ if you’re convicted you need them. And because it’s a young male thing, you can bet there’s racism and misogyny involved, and that sooner or later their “enemy of convenience“ will be the long suffering womankind.
It’s not about genuine transgender people. (Though many will be swept up in it). It’s fundamentally about angry and damaged people – being angry and damaged.
Somehow, (the path isn’t clear), but something good and vibrant came out of punk, because something resonated. It catered for a need which people didn’t know they had. After a shaky start, it very definitely made the world a better place.
But this transactivism is different. It’s forcing itself onto feminists, it’s pursuing a wholly inappropriate and deeply troubling fixation with young people and their sexuality, it seems to embrace conspiracy as it’s primary modus operandi, rigging selections and candidacies to embed its own people into strategic positions of power, and the one thing they all seem have in common is straightforward megalomania.
Against all odds, I’d say the punk era had a happy ending and a positive legacy. For this ‘revolutionary’ Transactivism,… nah. It’s more like Brexit. It’s a bad idea from the beginning and it’s only ever going to get worse, before ending badly for everybody… and the SNP really needs to go and have a lie down and not get up again until it’s come to it’s senses.
And those cretins in the SNP who allowed Transactivists to hijack Scotland’s Independence Campaign should be hung from the battlements in a gibbet until they’re sorry.
-Breeks-
Interesting idea, you might be on to something there
Well said Breeks @3:11pm. It will end badly for them and I for one will not be sorry. Not one iota, queer theory is evil.
1: I actually thought this was a tribute to Transgender members of the Armed Forces…which in itself is a snide marketing connotation to start levelling up “perceived hate crimes” with actual war/conflict victims.
2: I notice the definition of Hate Crime above doesnt mention actual gender, just transgender, surely most hate crimes are against women?..it seems weird to me at least that gender isnt specified but trans is.
3: The whole “Eye of the beholder” is coming at us fast…cue the Hate Crime Bill which like the awfully scripted OBFA had a Policewoman claiming “Well I was offended” when they actually misheard a fan singing but that perception alone was still enough to warrant an arrest and a case going to court in Inverness…how long before we go down the road of “i thought it, but didnt say actually it!” defences for people accussed of the sheer crime of having the opinion that an arsehole is an arsehole.
Well from all the information and comments on here, we can presume that what is legal and what is law depends on who you favour in the upper crusts, it’s ok to bully depending on who you know. Transgender rights are above women’s and children’s rights, blm are above wlm, history has to be clung to in Britain, except if your a politician that treats people despicable, abused children in the care of councils, grenfell tower. Bailing out big banks, highland clearances, closing down our railways, decommissioning fishing fleets, underfunding nhs, privatisation of public bodies and amenities etc
We can presume that those pushing climate change on us have turned a blind eye to big chauffeur driven cars, aeroplanes, private jet flights, travelling to test your eyesight while in lockdown contamination, under water sonar and ordinance surveying, fracking, manufacturers of plastic, making batteries for electric cars that don’t decompose in land fill,, abandoning perfect working cars to scrap heaps to replace them with perfect in-disposable plastic cars, driven by lithium battery, don’t know the.shelf life of, cars that are built on the backs of child labour in foreign countries down mines in appalling conditions, and of corse the wind turbines pushers that turn a blind eye to how there made, or the quarrying it involves on a massive scale to obtain the metals and materials, in which no one discusses what happens when they are rust heaps and no longer in use, nuclear poisonings and dumping.
The worlds gone crazy for the ordinary person on the street in any country,
And the only thing we can be sure of is, it is not us driving these agendas, and we seldom benefit or profit from it as do the politicians,
I will NEVER submit to calling a trans identifying male a woman, nor the pronoun nonsense. That’s compelled speech.
Breeks – no totally wrong actually the opposite of punk, we thought for ourselves we didn’t try to fit into labels created by others.
I was told by a trans supporter that there are more trans women killed by partners than natal women. Aye right! To state something as insulting and erroneous as that should be a hate crime according to the authoritarians.
If you go to the doctor and you say: hey, doc, I can’t sleep, you will be asked umpteen questions and, perhaps, given a week’s supply of sedatives to help you sleep – rightly so. Same if you go with anything you are worried about. If you need an antibiotic, you will get a small dose (rightly) to see you through the worst until your own immune system kicks in, and, again, the doc will want to know the details before making a diagnosis.
So, can anyone explain why a person who ‘feels’ he might be a woman (instead of gay, or a fetishist or someone with a cross-dressing habit) just be able to self-diagnose and get access to hormones/surgery/women’s safe spaces and rights on his say-so? Yes, it is madness. It is dangerous madness. Psychiatrists are warning that true body/gender dysphoric people are a tiny minority, and that others might require a very different diagnosis.
Why is nothing being asked about the numbers of teenage girls and young women who are convinced they are trans because those numbers are enormous now in comparison to what they were even ten years ago? Might not the way our society is structured have something to do with this, or is it that females are not so amenable to considering that they might be gay? Whatever, something is not right here.
Questioning this whole trans ideology – leaving aside body/gender dysphoria, which is a recognized condition – opens one up to being accused of hatred and bigotry, but people have a right to ask questions when what appears to being asked is that the entire population colludes in one massive, science-denying, biology-denying, logic-denying ‘Emperor is in the altogether’ delusion.
Women have a right to ask what the hell is going on when they are expected to give up their safe, sex-based spaces and rights to male-bodied people who claim to be female. I really don’t care if someone is offended by asking these questions because no other condition or state of being in the history of the planet has ever just been accepted on someone’s say-so. Where that has happened, and been discovered later, the people have actually been suffering from Munchhausen’s Syndrome, which is a mental condition. I’m not saying that trans people suffer from this; what I am saying is that it is very dangerous to imply accept a persons own diagnosis, and especially highly dangerous when it is a on behalf of a child that the diagnosis is being made.
Female to male trans people who have committed crimes are never placed in male prisons because the authorities are well aware of what could happen to them, yet male-bodied trans women who have committed some of the worst sexual assaults against women and children are placed in the female prison estate alongside vulnerable female prisoners and female staff. It is beyond belief, but this is what the SNP parliamentary party advocates. It also advocates that all women’s spaces should be opened up to trans people. Will that include female medical wards where male-bodied trans women can commandeer a bed because it will be illegal and a hate crime to deny them, although not illegal or a hate crime to deny women waiting for treatment who cannot get a bed? Why is misogyny not a hate crime?
This madness has to stop. I am reluctant to give the SNP even my first vote now, although I rate my own MSP very highly. They have to be made aware that this will not go through without the Mother of all fights, and that we will hold each and every one of them personally responsible for the safety and well-being of women and girls in Scotland. If even one woman or child is injured, either mentally or physically, or is denied a sex-based right because a trans women has snatched it, they will be made to answer for their wilful disregard of public opinion. 2021 might well be the last SNP administration we ever see, and even that might not last long.
@Breeks says:
20 November, 2020 at 3:11 pm
“Controversial thought for the day… Transactivism is trying to be in 2020 what Punk was back in the early ‘70’s.”
That is the most sensible comment I’ve seen about the whole affair.
Tranactivism is nothing like punk! Where does this ridiculous notion come from – trans activism is regressive, to do with men’s rights and is backed by big business and the patriarchy!
Oh yes – I remember the police wearing Sex Pistols badges and pogoing at our gigs!
@Lorna 4.07pm
I agree with every well-chosen word. It is impossible for a biologist to go along with this madness.
And as for this latest evidence of madness. I cannot get my husband (also scientist) to believe that there could possibly be such a thing as Transgender Remembrance Day. He says it has to be a piece of fake news. No sane person would dream of equating Remembrance Day with a tiny minority of the population.
The 20th of November is celebrated the world over as UN Children’s Day. It was on 20.11.1959 that the UN General Assembly passed the Declaration of the Rights of the Child.
Curious that radical trans activists want to appropriate just that day, out of the 365 available ones, to draw attention to themselves.
@ Lorna Campbell at 4.07pm: I agree with all you’ve said, and with everyone who thinks there’s something very strange and profoundly wrong with all this transsexual ideology stuff. I’d add that, while I’m generally opposed to censorship and don’t have an issue with nudity or sexual imagery, the internet is awash with ‘ladyboys’ and transsexual porn. If you type ‘stockings’ or ‘tights’ into google, you’ll get multitudes of pictures of men wearing women’s underwear. I find that creepy and repulsive, but I suspect that this may be what’s encouraging and legitimising those males who are aroused by impersonating women. I’m not for banning porn, but if as a society we consider transsexualism undesirable or unacceptable for whatever legitimate reason, I feel we must be free to say so. Why is it now acceptable for people to shove their weird perversions in our faces all the time? Most people don’t feel the need to do that. It’s time we stood up to it.
What’s stopping (subjective/objective) ‘perception’ being exploited and weaponised by bad Actors.
Again there is confusion – transsexualism is not the problem in all this – transsexuals do not want affirmation or validation they know who they are. The problem is men with autogynephilia who are addicted to their fetish and demand affirmation and validation of their fantasy in ever increasing doses.
The transgender issue has now become part of international politics but its point of origin is the US. Very quickly, its agenda has superimposed itself on all of the western world.
I was slow to comprehend the ramifications of transgenderism and I think that much of the population is still unaware of those hidden (for them) ramifications.
It was first proposed as just ‘being kind’ to people who found themselves unable to identify with the role assigned to them by society. This struck a chord with many feminists who had felt the same, that society was constantly but subtly imposing a stereotypical image and set of behaviours (or ‘feelings’) on them as being intrinsically female and therefore, inescapable.
When Simone de Beauvoir in her work ‘The Second Sex’ declared that one is not born a woman but made a woman this resonated with many feminists. Those women who felt that the assigned role of being homemakers and carers was constricting and were frustrated by the constant reiteration of their very personality and individualism as being defined within those parameters.
Therefore, it was easy to welcome those who similarly felt themselves defined in a way that did not recognise their individuality, their right to an emotional life that didn’t fit conventional thinking and to follow a life-style that might challenge those set conventions.
Yet here we are, with many of those same feminists realising that those they wished to support, were actually bent on reinforcing those very stereotypes which feminists had wished to escape.
Transgenderism actually rejects de Beauvoir’s contention and firmly believes that you are actually born a woman and this is an actual fact even if your biology is male from birth. They know this, apparently, because from an early age they knew that they were females because they had ‘feminine’ feelings and yearned to dress in a stereotypical way.
So far, even this could be accommodated if it were simply a difference of opinion but the politics of transgenderism seems set on assuming rights to women’s spaces and the right to silence those with whom you disagree. There is now a clash of rights and many politicians, including female politicians, seem impervious to the repercussions. I would assert that it is for political reasons – largely due to blindly identifying with transatlantic politics just as they do with supporting NATO etc.
To all intents and purposes they generally tick all the boxes that would agree with Democrats in the US and those who define themselves as vaguely ‘liberal’ in other western countries, as well as legions of media types. Hence Nicola Sturgeon’s support and that of her female cohort within the SNP. But all of the opposition parties have joined for exactly the same reasons.
As for certain notable female academics who have joined the movement well, that is beyond belief. They can keep on declaring their support, only don’t ask them searching questions about why they accept unscientific ideas or they will complain that they are being abused.
Everything about this movement is disturbingly cult-like – the refusal to engage in debate, the wish to silence those not in agreement and the demand for unconditional support of their beliefs. ( Having to believe six impossible things before breakfast as the Red Queen demands.)
Why this does not concern people who are staunch defenders of democracy disappoints me. Yes, there are people, a small minority with issues that need kindness and support, but those set on undermining science and bending institutions to their will are not their friends.
With regard to any connection between punk and wokism, I had a sudden epiphany the other day regarding this line from one of Crass’s best-known songs:
“Black man’s got his problems and his way to deal with it,
So don’t fool yourself you’re helping with your white liberal shit.”
(‘White Punks on Hope’, from Stations of the Crass, 1980)
I always wondered why Crass appeared to be directing their fire at their natural allies (RAR/ANL), but I now see that they were taking issue with identity politics forty years ago. I don’t think there’s much of a connection between anarcho-punk and wokism.
I reckon that because the idea of ‘God’ (as a religion) is losing foothold in the world then those with power have to work out other ways of control. And bringing in laws to protect an ignorant, often illiterate (whatever they believe of themselves) and weak minority is a way of keeping the masses down and feeling guilty on many occasions . Most human beings don’t like bullies and don’t like the thought that they might be classed as a bully. Laws are always open to a variety of interpretations and bringing laws into being which simply ignore scientific facts and meaning is both dangerous and foolish and the sign of a weak government or a government that wants total control.
holymacmoses@4:54pm Very true as is the “white guilt” trope also being pushed, often by the same people. I have no “white guilt”, even if my great great grandfather was a slaver, I still haven’t. It was his doing, not mine and finally slavery is judged as wrong and illegal now but it was legal back then. So no guilt from me.
Isn’t there a significant amount of politicians at Holyrood that are for the lack of a better word gay, and couldn’t that be the reason why they’re driving this preposterous agenda, that the majority of Scots don’t see as important.
They have the blinkers on, as to how everyone else outside their bubble thinks about the pushing of this agenda.
The majority of voters in Scotland by a big margin didn’t vote in Sturgeon to fufil this minorities agenda, they voted her in to create good social policies and to bring independence to Scots.
Falsely inflated hate crime figures, and hearsay hate incidents that didn’t occur won’t endear the general public to look sympathetically upon this groups claims.
I have far more sympathy for our real women who are seeing their rights eroded right in front of their very eyes.
More importantly to the wider public is the Scottish government/SNP wandering off the reservation and doing their own thing without our permission.
(A correction of my own comment, ‘even if your biology is male from birth’. It should be ‘even if your biology is male from conception.’)
@ Breeks, 3.11pm 2011.2020
Very interesting and insightful piece. I don’t wholly agree but I think you’re onto something.
Young people always want to “rebel” against the oldies. Heck, the Ancient Greeks deplored the youth of their day. 😀
Been there, done that. Sometimes good, lasting things come out of these grassroots “youth rebellions”.
Present day transactivism doesn’t seem like a grassroots youth thing. It seems well-funded and orchestrated from the top, sucking young people into a cult-like belief system to be the biddable (and ultimately disposable) foot soldiers.
Transactivism seems very authoritarian, very regressive, very misogynistic and very homophobic. In short, has quite a few fascist features.
Genuine transsexual people exist, gender dysphoria is a real thing, and people with this condition should have the care and support they need, be treated with respect and dignity.
However, the trans umbrella has been spread so wide that genuine transsexuals have become a minority and an afterthought in transactivism, which now seems more like a movement supporting men with various sexual fetishes, supporting their imposition on the female sphere, their desire to redefine womanhood to their liking. Deny women the right to define themselves. Because men are better at “womaning” than actual women, eh?
Also, it always seem to be about transwomen (men). Very little attention is given to transmen (women). Curious, that, no?
It’s like transmen are forced into supporting the misogynistic TRA movement because it seems the only way to bring about trans rights. Just like Scottish independence supporters are forced to vote for the SNP because ATM they seem the only political way to independence.
I’d better stop now, even though I feel like ranting forever, ha ha!
Enjoyed your “rant” lumilumi@5:04pm
Transgenderism is anti gay! Some of you need to get up to speed!
Perhaps television with shows like Ru Paul and cinema with films and West End shows like Rocky Horror have more influence than we think.?
Amazing what people will latch on to, to be seen as different. I see them as chewing gum for the brain rather than a lifestyle choice.
Perth & Kinross Council have illuminated Perth Bridge in blue, pink and white to mark Transgender Day of Thingy.
Wishart approves since he’s retweeted.
That Sultana person is one raisin short of a fruit scone.
I’m beginning to wonder if the Scottish government along with other parties members have taken “donations” from the hormone/puberty blocking companies to push this unwanted agenda.
I know the Lib/Dems took £100,000 pounds from such companies, or was it far more cash.
https://nationalfile.com/pro-trans-liberal-democrats-receive-300k-from-puberty-blockers-firm/
Well the logical conclusion to identity politics is that you can choose your race. I can’t wait to see that unfold – except it won’t as this has nothing to do with identity and everything to do with hatred of women and feminists in particular.
Just being a Scot is to experience hate crimes. We got the too poor too wee too stupid to filthy too drunken and too drugged etc to be Independent from the anti Scottish bigots and Racist Yoons for years and we still get it.
I recently got an invitation on FB from a rabid inbred Yoon to travel to Glasgow so he could kick ma heid in. His details are on the way to the Police. He thought might be tame in comparison to the Feminazis who want to cut ma baws off. They have zero sense of humor that lot.
I could get worse abuse and hate I suppose. I could be a tinker or gypsy or a Gaelic speaking traveler. At the risk of being hateful – In other words Fuck the bleeding heart Trannies because there are others who get it far worse.
It might seem strange but today young people are much accepting of of people’s gender and the related issues they are dealing with.
As I think back to school we all knew who the gay boy or girl was and treated them very badly. It is refreshing that in tomorrows Scotland people will be kinder.
There will always be bad rascals. It is for the rest of us not to mirror the bad rascals.
Gender is a harmful social construct. Its nothing to do with being gay.
shug – transgenderism’s backers are out to destroy that tolerance – this is about returning society to narrow gender stereotypes.
Sorry Rev but this article/argument is a bit weak.
If you only count crimes or incidents as having happened by the police recording these then sexual offences (for example) are much rarer happenings than we believe.
And women are never victims of hate crime at all.
@Stu,
Don`t know if you have seen or heard of a Canadian clinical psychologist and a professor of psychology called Jordan Peterson,
just been watching some of his talks and interviews on You Tube,
like yourself he uses facts and science against feelings and fake news,
says his own Canada is totally in thrall to wokism,cancel culture and the transactivist (not transgender folk) ,
covers lots of issues, don`t know if i agree with everything but he certainly knows his stuff,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZYQpge1W5s&t=16s
also been watching American comedian Bill Burr who has the heehaws to cover some delicate wokeist issues,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlJk8Wo9UX4
@ Lorna Campbell @ 4.07pm 2011.2020
Thank you for your well-considered and well-argued piece. I might not agree on everything but we’re on the same side.
What I dislike about present-day social media culture is the black-and-whiteness of it all. No nuance. “You must accept and agree to ALL our tenents or you’re an enemy” – the purity spiral. Here’s a good description of it.
https://unherd.com/2020/01/cast-out-how-knitting-fell-into-a-purity-spiral/
I, as a keen knitter, am a member of that knitting community, but I don’t engage in their social aspect, just look for knitting patterns or share my own – even so, I been called a sizeist for not providing XXXXL instructions to a design I made for myself, size L. I’m not a professional knit designer, I don’t need to cater to XS to XXXXL knitters. People (especially US people) seem so entitled. I knitted a cardie for myself, shared what I did, and they scream at me for not giving them instructions for their different size. I tell them to measure, knit a sample, count the stitches/rows to 10 cm (4 inches) and do the maths, it’s not rocket science.
OK, sorry for this O/T but this entitlement and outrage/offended culture is just so pervasive in the western (English-speaking) world, the TRA is just one, albeit more dangerous than most, aspect of it.
Nikla when is our independence referendum remembrance day , I forget the date was it in 2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,or is it in the future or will you concoct a DRAFT BILL for it to be discussed, or will bozo have to give his permission for us to have one
@ kapelmeister at 5:28 pm
Great to see the council’s and elected official’s priorities in these austere times.
Maybe we should have a Pavement Remembrance Day, lest we forget a’ the rural pavements that we paid for and that used to afford us safe passage, but are now due to lack of maintenance being reclaimed by nature forcing folk nearer to or onto the road.
lumilumi @ 5.04pm
‘Deny women the right to define themselves. Because men are better at “womaning” than actual women, eh?’
Excellent comment. De Beauvoir actually referred to this more sophisticated misogyny of men of letters of seeming to elevate woman as ‘the privileged Other’. Just another way of defining the role of women as being born to certain behaviours and feelings which made them quite unlike men and held to standards which were deemed by men to be essential to their female ‘maternal’ nature.
Any woman who did not act according to those behaviours was therefore ‘unwomanly’. ( The Stepford Wife syndrome.)
I also agree with you about how very well funded this movement is, particularly by wealthy interests in the US. Some time ago I read an article (sorry, can’t remember his name) by someone who contended that this was a right-wing attack on democratic rights and the attack on feminism was deliberate. He said that women’s movements had been in the vanguard of the struggle for human rights on many platforms such as civil rights in America and the struggle for gay rights. To destroy and divide feminism was intentional since as a central pillar of all democratic struggles it would be an emblematic victory for the forces of the right. They could also make some money on the way, of course.
At the time I thought it a bit OTT but now…I could be persuaded that we are not seeing the real actors behind all this or what their true goals are. To disrupt and fragment society in this fundamental way could lead to chaos and distrust, perfect conditions for the ill-intentioned to take control.
So Nicola is ‘scunnered’, well so am I at all this GRA shite.
As ever, agree with Lorna Campbell and others. Earlier today dropped my MSP an email, like others here, asking for the figures for Trans attacks /murders in Scotland, knowing all the while it’s none.
Pointed out the numbers of women killed week in week out in Scotland and politely asked when such women get a ‘Rememberence’ day.
Rapidly moving from scunnered to utterly furious.
Sorry to go o/t: it occurred to me that judging by present attitudes and policies, a future SNP- green led Indy Scotland would be a joyless place, a grim and earnest endeavour to wokeism in all its forms.
THIS, A TRILLION TIMES:
“Rev. Stuart Campbell says: 20 November, 2020 at 12:42 pm
“On another note, any body see that a certain Alan Smyth is leading a campaign to ban Scots from setting off fireworks in our own gardens?”
TBH it’s one of the few things I’d back him on. Home fireworks are pathetic and absolutely not worth the grief they inflict on pets and young children and folk just wanting a bit of peace and quiet in their own home. Go to a proper display that’s actually worth seeing.”
“Black man’s got his problems and his way to deal with it,
So don’t fool yourself you’re helping with your white liberal shit.”
Quote of the day for me. Its freaky how all these professional victims and their enablers always latch on to the struggle that black people face in attaining racial equality, as if some deviant male who wants to get off in women’s change rooms shares some form of kinship or similarity.
Intersectionality/queer theory/ trans activism are concepts of white elites, that bear no relationship to the reality of black cultures or value systems. Just a bunch of white middle and upper class people with little experience of the world outside the narrowly defined parameters of a weird western sub culture and another sick version of civilising the savages.
I say this as someone who is married to an incredible, highly educated African women,
and as a proud parent of a Scotttish/Nigerian child.
Truths
If someone went into a school in my wife’s country of birth and started telling kids that boys could be girls and girls could be boys, the best they could hope for is making it to Kiri Kiri prison alive.
My child will never set foot in a Scottish state school.
Swinney, You can shove your transgender, porn promoting, grooming education up your arse
In Scotland, over 50% of females were murdered by a partner or ex-partner.
In 2018-19 there was 1 homophobic murder. In the ten years to that date only 2% of murders had either a racist or homophobic cause.
Figures from the Scottish Government’s own website.
Regardless of the reason, any assault is reprehensible, but domestic abuse vastly outnumbers homophobic / transphobic cases.
Why is there not a “Remembrance Day” for these victims?
@ Dan: you are lucky. You have got a pavement. Where I live there is only the single-track road – no room for a footpath, there is only the one road, speed limit 60 mph, and so we walk and cycle and sheep graze whilst all motor vehicle drivers think they have priority over us.
Highland Council said they “weren’t minded” to change the speed limit despite nearly everyone asking for one.
It’s rather crazy that politicians are making these decisions against the majority wishes of ordinary folk and then tell us that they are taking the same decisions on our behalf.
We don’t want them to happen.
I have come to the conclusion that somewhere along the line the SNP have received a “donation”, shall we call it, to promote this misguided agenda.
Dunno about embdy else but I take great solace from reading comments by Lorna Campbell and Lumilumi, Lizg and all the other actual women here, and on Twitter, who refuse to kowtow to demented bullies.
It’s hard enough being a teenager, or entering puberty, without being the focus of creeps who use social media to openly groom children. They’ve always been around, aye, but they never ever had the legitimacy being granted them now by institutions whose primary responsibility is to protect all of us, not just a favoured, fashionable few.
Ten, twenty years hence, it’ll be a forgotten fad, a historical oddity, but many thousands of adults will be staring at their mangled genitals in the mirror or while showering, wondering why, oh why was it ever allowed to go so far?
@ Lorna Cambell @ 4.07pm 2011.2020
I got tangled in some knitting yarn in my earlier comment. I appreciate and mostly agree with your comment for raising issues.
How is it that trans rights seem to be all about transwomen (men). Where is the discussion, the fight for transmen’s (women) rights?
Could it be that the wide umbrella of “trans” includes men with autogynephilia, men with fetishes. Women aren’t important to them, just toys and objects of appropriation for their narcissistic pleasure.
What I especially dislike in this movement is mangling language. Sex is a biological fact, “gender” is a social role.
Another thing I strongly dislike is reinforcing regressive “gender” sterotypes. Boys do this, girls do that. The TRA movement is advocating regressive sterotyped “gender” roles. A boy who’s kind and caring must be a girl, a girl climbing trees and playing robbers and cops must be a boy. (By that definition, I was a boy. I’m a woman.)
Gender ideology is all but progressive. Very regressive. They want to reinforce sex-based gender roles. Not challenge them.
A girl can behave in “unfeminine” ways, do “boy” things but still be a girl, a woman. (I am one.)
TRA allies seem to given up, gender-non-confirming kids are transed. Which kind of points to gender-non-confirmity being a bad thing.
As a woman (adult human female) I feel chilled, scared, that nowadays tomboys are being told they’re actually boys/men, and they can get the hormones and surgeries to become men.
Sorry. They’ll never become men. Biological men might be nice and kind but never see them as men.
Why can’t a girl work out her social gender nonconfirmity to become a social gender non-conforming woman? Must she be transed into being a transman – never accepted as a real man.
Men will never accept transmen as men.
Women are expected to accept self-identified “women”, transwomen, into every facet of their life.
Do you see a pattern? Men exerting power over women, women vilified and silenced for standing up for their sex-based rights.
Oh, now it’s all “transphobic”. All women trying to protect their hard-won rights are transphobic bigots. A neat way to nix valid opposition, heh?
Just because I sometimes feel a need to let you know that I’m still on your team, I am absolutely 100% supporting your stance on fireworks in gardens. Also I agree with the premise of the entire post. Regards
Re. Fireworks
Always miffs me that the sale of what are explosive devices isn’t more regulated.
People got ASBOs which were often meted out for making excessive and unwanted noise such as loud music or parties.
Yet folk can set off noisy fireworks at all hours disturbing the peace.
The randomness of the times individuals set them off makes it all but impossible for folk to prepare and shield themselves and animals from the din.
Hearing companion dogs can be particularly affected by the noise.
My now departed dog was fine with noise when he was young as was often at the garage where we were tuning motorsport cars so revving engines and the odd backfire was the norm. However as he got older he became more and more unsettled with hearing fireworks, and I’d gently stuff his ears with cotton wool and turn the music up in the house to try to obscure the random bangs.
Sometimes going for a drive was another option. But these measures only really work if you know the specific start and finish time of when any fireworks are being set off.
@ Sarah
Well the only reason the pavements are still passable at all in places near me is because I go out and spend hours clearing back the growth and litter.
I do actually quite enjoy the work as I can highlight to folk who pass by the folly of ceding power away from more more local control.
The council in the big toon certainly don’t have the local rural roads as a priority. When it snows or is frosty the council will always prioritise their resources clearing and gritting the areas with higher population densities.
Chatting with folk in this way can often lead to all sorts of further interesting conversations and they can see they are talking to someone that actually gets on with physically improving things, rather than just talking about it.
All that said I’m still awaiting a council tax rebate for the dozens of hard graft hours I’ve spent as a “roadman”. I assume it will be in the post anytime now…
To date one elderly neighbour has given me a jar of jam in appreciation for my efforts.
These days when I see smartly dressed folk with pristine hands and fingernails talk of land reform, I often wonder if they have any comprehension of just how much time and effort is required to maintain land, and whether they would actually be capable of doing it day after day.
I best not get onto the subject of village speed limits…
@ lumilumi (and Graf Midgehunter if reading in)
As you are both outwith Scotland, can I ask if where you live have decent plastic recycling / reprocessing initiatives in place?
I feel like we are in the dark ages over here with the amount of plastic I see going to landfill.
Emulating an existing policy that works elsewhere would be a good plan for any budding political party.
Lumilumi@8.03
Spot on re. Trans ideology reinforcing the old gender stereotypes.
It’s all pink brain/ blue brain nonsense.
I’m a very recently retired Civil Engineer who used to attend school career nights as well as the (now defunct) Construction Industry Training Board events. Seeing a woman there used to raise a few eyebrows but recently I’ve been hearing from young girls- they don’t think they’ll fit in because they like nice clothes and make-up.
In the last few years there seems to be a glitterisation of young girls and I’ve no doubt, if I was in primary school these days, ‘Mermaids’ would be trying to convince me that I was actually a boy. Good at Maths and I used to play with my brothers Meccano.
Wee girl next door (age 8) wants makeup for Xmas. What the Fk has happened?
Whatever happened to the girl power era?
I despair frankly. All I can do if vote accordingly.
Sorry if I’m being slow, or missed it, but do we know if the motion was passed after all?
I as don’t read newspapers anymore and little tv news I was wondering if the MSM is covering this insanity and if not why not.
This is quite telling…
A tweet from a happy Leslie Evans – just this very morning! – busy working with like-minded souls on the ‘upcoming report on intersectionality & next set of recommendations for #genderequality in Scotland’
Worth noting who she’s talking to:
https://twitter.com/PermSecScot/status/1329731914673090570
Dan @ 8.31pm 20.11.2020
Plastic recycling… In my country, it’s the law to recycle plastic packaging, and there are receptables, usually by local shops/supermarkets. You’re not supposed to put other plastics in there – the scheme is partly financed by supermarkets (= main sources of plastic packaging). People still ditch their old other plastic things there. Environmentally good, not good for the monetized recycling scheme. Ha ha.
At a very basic level, most trans people I have encountered in the workplace or in polite society conform to one or both of the following:
– Mental illness (pre and/or post any “transition”)
– Narcissism (essentially *massive* attention seeking)
Is it therefore wrong to point out that most people responding to the survey above will not exactly balance reality vs their perception/paranoia, and therefore will ALWAYS be the victim in any conversation/encounter that doesn’t go 100% their way?
Essentially, every criticism/negativity they encounter can ONLY (in their minds) be a result of their trans-status, thus unless a degree of mental stability/aptitude is established (and signed off) first, this “hate crime” will always exist no matter what laws exist (now or in future).
I’m tempted somewhat to draw a rough parallel with Humza, who could have 99% fair & polite/constructive criticism, but only highlights the 1% of bampots that cross the line, thus making everyone think all his critics are “Islamophobic” and that his crazy notions were therefore justified to start with.
@ Dan: good on you for another of your community-minded efforts. You deserve many pots of jam!
@ Nally Anders
Meccano For The Win. Perfect way to teach young’uns how to build and fix stuff. A practical skill sadly missing in our society today when one sees bicycles getting discarded becaause of a puncture or lawnmower tossed in skip for the sake of a spark plug change or 2 quid diaphragm.
As a bairn my old man gave me a model steam engine which we managed to incorporate with the Meccanno and built a power crane in the living room.
Not sure many bairns these days would be allowed to set fire to a meths burner and raise steam in their living room!
We were so poor I got given an old sturmey archer 3 speed gear hub as a jigsaw puzzle. 😉
Jeezo. Stated with all the timing and passion one can muster from a faulty autocue.
https://twitter.com/ScotGovFairer/status/1329862079847616512
@ Sarah
Unfortunately it seems the only confiture we can expect is government issue carrot jam the morra… 🙁
For those who may have missed it, here’s the harassment committee session from last Tuesday, starring the dashing, devil-may-care Lord Advocate Wolffe, ably supported by the somewhat memory-challenged Leslie Evans.
One of the many highlights is at approx 2hrs33m, when Margaret Mitchell starts losing her ‘temper’ with Evans, and has to be hauled off by Linda Fabiani. The latter doesn’t utter the phrase ‘Leave it Mags, FFS! She’s not worth it!’ but she might as well have done.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj4Niv8FeS4
@ Dan – ever the optimist. 🙂
Dan
Fireworks. I agree with you.
It may be exciting for small children to set off loud bangs in their garden but irresponsible teenagers should not be allowed to get their hands on explosives. Round here the bangs go on for a whole week around the 5th Nov. and it is always young thoughtless males. I used to be one too but grew up to realise it is stupid and antisocial.
There is a place for official organised firework displays but private purchase should be banned.
@ Nally Anders @ 8.48pm 2011.2020
Yeah, girls at school, why are they turned away from maths, science. Why are they encouraged to look pretty, discuss make-up and hair-do tips, never mind worry your pretty little head about maths and science, eh.
I feel like a ("Tractor" - Ed) because I’m only mid-level mathematical gifted but super high-level linguistically gifted, so kinda confirming a stereotype.
Maths was my favourite subject in high school. The only subject I actually diligently did all the homework for. You had to. It was an intellectual challenge, it was fun. We also had a circle of friends, “dunces at maths” who sat right up to the teacher’s desk, always asking questions, always wanting to show off our solutions. The real maths geniuses sat in the back and antisocially did their maths thing.
I never did physics or chemistry beyond the compulsory courses. Not my thing. Many of my female schoolmates did physics, chemistry, whatever. Went on to get Master’s degrees in engineering. Breaking some cultural boundaries.
But oh no, they’re not gender conforming! They’re women doing serious careers in “manly” fields. They’re not obsessed about make-up and hair and all those things some transwomen think women should be only concerned about.
Many of the newfangled “transwomen” want to perpetuate old sexual stereotypes. Apprpriate womanhood, their sexist, stereotypical idea of womanhood. Lipstick and a dress.
You have no idea.
Women are many and varied. It’s offenssive for bearded woke bros to culturally approriate our thing. Eff off, we don’t want your male privilege, your male aggression. We don’t want to be colonised.
Does anyone know if Nicola commented on the Priti Patel story? She usually comments on stuff like that. More specifically, it would be nice to know what Nicola’s position was on breaching the ministerial code.
Watched the video from the Daily Mail report. Horrific.
The man they attacked could have been killed if others hadn’t intervened. They were kicking him in the head. The newspapers at the time reported it as an attack by women.
And the judge actually refers to the man as the “so-called victim”. Just unbelievable.
@ Hatuey 11.03pm 2011.2020
“to know what Nicola’s position was on breaching the ministerial code.”
Ha ha, I like your sly positioning, statement.
Well, Nicola Sturgeon will let all that slide because she’d be caught as well.
Gods, the Scot gov, the SNP has become such a cesspool.
Lumilumi: I have challenged ‘woke’ males to explain to me why they do not campaign for the acceptance of trans women – not those who have body/gender dysphoria because I do not think they could be reconciled in any situation, and they actually, most of them, understand that they are trans women and not ‘women’ – to be part of the male sexual spectrum. I was talking about all those men who come under the trans umbrella and who are cross-dressers, fetishists, etc. Answer came there none.
I have come to the conclusion that it is access to women’s spaces and rights that is the entire object, part of the sexual pleasure to be gained. That is why there can be no compromise with them because, once they have access, they will steadily take over until women are on the very margins of society again, and the fight for their rights will have to start all over again. So many of them appear to be narcissists, totally self-absorbed. Most people, and certainly most women I have talked to, have an idea of a trans woman as being someone who has had all the hormones and surgery, and when you explain that, no, most will be male-bodied, they cannot believe it. Then, they start to get angry.
The trans lobby and their supporters snigger and bring the whole issue down to the level of women’s toilets, but, even here, there is a problem: women’s toilets almost invariably have queues, and add any more on to that number, and the wait can become intolerable. Many women, after childbirth, after the menopause and certainly after radical surgery for abdominal cancers, have continence problems that might be minor or severe, and there are disabled women to consider, too, who need access quickly to toilet facilities. Just add a few male-bodied persons to their number, and you increase the problem for women.
If you have a ward for women where, say, a couple of the beds are occupied by trans women with male bodies, you are preventing two women from having the medical treatment they require. Once the self-ID legislation comes into play, it will be illegal to deny a trans woman anything that you cannot deny a natal woman because the word, ‘woman’ will no longer mean a born woman but anyone who claims to BE a woman even if he has testicles and a penis. The protections of women’s sex-based spaces and rights, enshrined in the 2010 Equality Act will become meaningless – by the backdoor, because the SNP leadership and their acolytes will it so.
If you match a trans woman with a natal woman, as happened in The States, and without the natal woman’s knowledge, in a boxing match, the natal woman is going to come off worst – as, indeed, happened in this case, where the natal woman sustained severe head injuries. Women’s sports will soon become dominated by trans women, and natal women will drift away, and anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is a liar because it is already happening.
If you place trans girls and trans women leaders in a Girl Guide pack and take them on a camping holiday, you could end up with trans girls sleeping in the same tent as natal girls and trans women leaders sleeping with natal women leaders, and even natal girls. The result? Girls will drift away from their organizations as their parents seek their safety above all else.
In the end, there will be no women in women’s spaces and their rights will be lost to cross-dressing men, and it is hard not to believe that that is precisely what the intention is. That stupid natal women actually help to facilitate this take-over of their spaces and rights should not be surprising to anyone. Women are so often their own worst enemy as the recent statue depicting a representation to celebrate the life and works of Mary Wollstonecraft, the pioneer of women rights, by a female sculptor, shows. Can you imagine any sculptor, male or female, depicting David Hume or Adam Smith with their accoutrements on show as if their sex organs were the sum total of those great men of the Englishtenment? No, neither can I.
@hatuey.
I was thinking the same. Snp ranted about Dominic Cummings. Silence pretty much over Patel. I did a twitter and internet trawl on it. Couldn’t find anything.
Sometimes silence speaks volumes. Let’s face it what can they say if Nicola is up for breaking the ministerial Code too?
@Lorna Campbell –
Do you have your own blog?
If not, you should have.
I know you post elsewhere, e.g. Craig Murray, but your commentary surely deserves the broadest possible audience.
Bestest
😉
@ Dan, 9.53pm 20.11.2020
Meccano?!
No. Lego!
I grew up in a time before Lego was branded with US entertainment industry brands, before Lego was split into pink (girls’) and black/blue (boys’) Lego.
Before Lego made prefabricated pieces to “guide” kids’ creativity.
We just had the brics and made our own thing. Built castles or cities, had all kinds of knights, all kinds of characters. Our favourite character was “childhood friend” (blue legs, white top).
My brother got into “tech Lego”, with its cogs and wheels, I mostly built houses, trying to make kitchen and toilets/bathrooms near each other because plumbing. Also trying to fit a staircase, trying to make windows and doors OK from the inside but make the house look OK on the outside. Basic architecture.
We kids accummulated a massive amount of Legos. Nephew and niece were given them, almost a cubic metre. Old fashioned Legos. No pink “girl” Legos or prefabricated superhero “boy” Legos.
@ lumilumi: Lego was my favourite toy when I was wee too. As I recall, most of the pieces I had were plain red bricks, with the occasional white or grey one. Nothing was branded or preformatted, which to me completely defeats the purpose of it. I used to build planes and trains with it. The idea that it was a toy intended for one sex (or should I say gender?) or another never entered my head. And where does creativity and imagination come in if kids are just following a set of instructions?
Sadly for such a long time I’ve been very sceptical that a May 2021 election would actually happen..
FM/SG anticipating the potential to make temporary change to the traditional voting arrangements, scheduled to take place on 6 May next year, have drawn up contingency plans this week!
I completely missed this. Corona Virus Bill and Policy Memorandum introduced 16 November. Did anyone follow it at the time?
Are we destined to have an entirely postal vote over multiple days, or be delayed for up to six months?
This: “The presiding officer would have qualified power to postpone the vote to a new date that is as soon as reasonably practicable within six months of 6 May 2021 if they consider it “necessary or appropriate for any reason to do so”. “!!
Regarding fireworks, I agree that they should be banned, or at least heavily restricted as to when they can be bought and what types.
When I was a teenager in the early 80s, we would let a few bangers off or let rockets off on the road. No excuse for my behaviour but you could only get a limited number of fireworks and only in the run up to Nov 5.
These days shops open – one in Rutherglen Main Street – where you can buy just about anything including a few that resemble Polaris missiles. One arsehole across the road from me spends a fortune in the week running up to Nov 5. Come Christmas and New Year he will be off again. Every year the bloody same.
I’m not into banning things coz I’m getting older, but the sale of fireworks is out of control.
Lol @ “sly positioning“
Lumilumi, I’m just a ordinary fella asking ordinary questions, and she is usually keen to chip in on these things ?
So, anyway, that’s us in tier 4. Just about everybody is still going to be working and going to school. McDonald’s McDrive-Through is still open (that’s key). Supermarkets, still open. You can still have plumbers working in your house, plumbing things.
They’re doing all this because they love us and care for us so much. That’s what keeps me going.
Okay, I’ve read a multitude of comments on this trans subject. The recurring theme is the negative impact on the rights of women. I get it.
Tragic as all that may be, my overwhelming feeling is that there’s never been a worse time to be a normal heterosexual guy than right now. Look at the various characters that have been implicated in the Salmond scandal; about 90% of them are women in top jobs.
Now, not content with shoehorning women into the top spots, they’re also trying to force these trans-gendered folks on us too, in politics and elsewhere.
If everyone else is arguing from their selfish gender/sex-based position, it ought to be legitimate for me to do that too. But I’m not.
Didn’t we all once agree that people should get jobs on merit? When did we dump that idea?
If an ordinary guy asked me for advice on getting a job, I’d advise him to wear a dress and lipstick at interviews.
Intellectuals and social scientists have messed everything right up.
Where’s Cam B?
JGedd @ 6:04 pm
Back in the late 70s and very early 80s, I watched the feminist movement in London get torn apart by class/race based identity politics. Anyone who wasn’t clearly working class and poor, or black, was likely to be bullied out of the ‘movement’.
One friend, who had grown up extremely poor in Glasgow, had severe physical problems due to malnourishment as a kid. She was declared ‘middle class’ and treated like crap because she’d had the temerity to get to university and gain a degree.
Thing is, all this was going on in Left-wing feminist/gay groups that I hung around with – there weren’t any Right wingers or Conservatives in sight.
Queer Theory introduced trangenderism, and again it’s origins are Left-wing. It’s main interests back then seemed to be about promoting sex work and promoting S&M.
On a superficial level it is about sexual thrills but on a deeper level it is all about power. The power to breach boundaries and invade otherwise off limits spaces.
Transphobia is a nonsense term, any fear of mentally ill or fetishists is a valid one just as with islamophobia. Events around Europe and the world justify these fears more often than not.
Lorna Campbell nailing it again . Trouble is , the more you elucidate the implications of ” all this ” the angrier I get ,in particular at the shower of delusional facilitators we’ve ended-up with as our Government and supposed liberators from the tyranny of Union . Nothing will ever dissuade me from the rightness and absolute necessity of Independence , but these fckn idiots have lain such a dark , heavy pall over the entire subject there is barely a glimmer of light escaping from the black hole of the present SNP administration – a no-event horizon . One such glimmer of light is this site and the brilliant , enlightening and encouraging intelligence of the commentary .
OMG.
Tras people are mentally ill fetishists.
Transphobia is justified and so is Islamophobia.
Susan X, I think you are on the wrong blog dearie. That is definitely not what Stu has been saying. Wrong end of the stick altogether.
Try Storm front, lots of peeps with views similar to yourd
OMG.
Tras people are mentally ill fetishists.
Transphobia is justified and so is Islamophobia.
Susan X, I think you are on the wrong blog dearie. That is definitely not what Stu has been saying. Wrong end of the stick altogether.
Try Stormfront, lots of peeps with views similar to yourd
I have been wondering what our SNP MSPs have been doing while our First Minister was beavering away at the pandemic – excuse the terminology.
Now that I know the particulars I remain disappointed as I had hoped that somewhere along the line independence might be being honed – with economic , social ,education, defence , land reform topics fully aired , debated and costed.
Anybody noticed that the numbers of trans whores on escort sites over the last year or two has shot up?
No, me neither. 🙂
Tells you something, though.
Oh get stuffed Scots Renewables. Twist everything into your holier than thou stance.
Holy shit. More and more I understand how the witch-burning craze took hold
@JinnysJoe
Today, a letter called for Women in Ireland, who have concerns and objections to the GRA and gender ideology, to no longer have political representation.
This letter has been signed by @amnesty
@AmnestyIreland
@NWCI
among others. 1/6
https://twitter.com/JinnysJoe/status/1329847671063015424
susanXX at 12:26, ronnie anderson 1t 12:57, both 20 November 2020:
“As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!”
Bible verse (Galatians 5:12) from the apostle Paul.. who was talking about those back then who insisted all ‘true’ believers had to get circumcised.. but what the hey! It fits here, today.
susanXX says:
21 November, 2020 at 10:10 am
Oh get stuffed Scots Renewables. Twist everything into your holier than thou stance.
A curious comment considering your apparent justification of Islamophobia.
You do realise it is people like you Humza’s bill is aimed at, don’t you?
Oh, of course you do 🙁
The comment about the Rocky Horror show is nonsense. I love the film but it doesn’t mean that I’m going to dress up like a hoor in distress and going out wiggling my arse to every Tom, Dick or Harry.
Also the comment about conflating Punk with this activism is way off. It really is about vulnerable young adults who haven’t been given any boundaries and allowed to ‘express themselves’. Given no guidance of who they are as individuals, they are allowed to take this expressing to an extreme that has no limits and in doings so, makes them come into contact with individuals who doesn’t have their best interests at heart.
Why are the SNP obsessed with identify politics? As I’ve said before, it costs little to implement, virtue signals to middle class liberal media types who influence ordinary right-on middle class luvvies and above all, allows the SNP to show they are doing something radical without actually doing something that is like tackling poverty or getting the rich to pay their fair share in society.
The corrosive cynicism of such political manoeuvring is depressing.
I always thought that Daddy Bear
Was who Goldilocks most should fear
And Mummy Bear besides, that day,
From whom she ought to run away:
Since they both think it fitting to
Snatch safety-hood from you know who,
Especially a girl in places
Where she used to think safety is.
But what of baby bears? Aww, fluff!
Let’s say ‘don’t teach them such mad guff
At home, at school, by legal rule’ –
‘Tis crime that adults play the fool
And gender-bend till meanings snap –
Nae porridge swallieing, but crap!
I agree that the GRA is flawed and the Hate Crime bill needs serious reconsideration.
But these are issues that affect a tiny minority. I mean, seriously, the length of queues for women’s toilets? Just how many penises do you think There are in the average queue?
I find the obsession with these issues thoroughly unhealthy and verging on obsessional on BOTH Sides of the debate.
And nothing, absolutely fuck-all to do with independence.
Criticizing regressive and damaging gender ideology and Islamic theology is not phobic. It’s a perfectly valid stance to take. And by the way I have no respect for any religion, all subjugate women or otherwise demean them.
Strikes me there are probably a lot of things you have no respect for, ‘SusanX’
Criticising Islam is fine if you have a doctorate in comparative theology, saying Islamophobia is a reasonable position for ordinary people to take is not fine under any circumstances IMO.
Apologies if I misunderstood you on this, I am hoping I did.
“ I find the obsession with these issues thoroughly unhealthy and verging on obsessional on BOTH Sides of the debate.”
You wouldn’t say that if a bunch of transformers were hanging around in your toilet.
Hatuey says:
21 November, 2020 at 11:24 am
“ I find the obsession with these issues thoroughly unhealthy and verging on obsessional on BOTH Sides of the debate.”
You wouldn’t say that if a bunch of transformers were hanging around in your toilet.
Perhaps you could provide some credible evidence to support your paranoia?
@ PacMan at 10.53am: I would make a similar point about people growing up with no boundaries. I think that if a child experiences confusion about their masculinity or femininity when they reach puberty, as I’m sure many do, telling them that it’s gender that dictates which sex they are and that they’ve been ‘born in the wrong body’, is going to be very unhelpful. That can only lead to deeper confusion. It would be so much better if they were enabled to accept and embrace the fact that they are the sex that they physically are, and that being that sex doesn’t mean they have to adopt gender stereotypes which have no factual basis and are just arbitrary social conventions.
But these are issues that affect a tiny minority. I mean, seriously, the length of queues for women’s toilets? Just how many penises do you think There are in the average queue?
Then why is so much time and resources expended on only one side of it?
Answer: Professional/Managerial fashion and the welcome distraction it allows.
@ ScotsRenewables: Quite clearly, people thinking they are the opposite sex to that which they actually are, and adopting and exaggerating the gender-stereotypes of the opposite sex, is highly aberrant behaviour. It stands to reason that physically-normal males or females who do this either have serious mental problems or are sexual perverts. What people do in private is nobody’s business, but when they shove their deviant sexuality in everybody’s faces, that’s a different matter and people are going to object. Scotland is one of the most tolerant and socially-liberal countries in the world but there is a limit to what society will tolerate, and there comes a point where the majority are going to say ‘enough is enough’.
Well said Michael Laing.
Be grateful if you would have a read of this one please Rev Stu. (I should’ve sent it sooner TBH)
‘The purpose is to undermine these indoctrinated ‘belief systems’; to #Invalidate their literally schooled sense of ‘British (& US) exceptionalism’, by propaganda ‘attacking’ not only their place in Britain but Britain itself, as well as their collective perceived ‘elevated standing’ in the world, which again, is deliberately engineered *now* to #Emasculate them as a white heterosexual male dominated demographic – individually and organisationally (police/military) who crucially as #ToryAnalytica know all too well – are the key to owning the streets; which are the roots of any dictatorship. How do I know that? Goebbels told us’.
‘Victimhood – The Favoured Fascist Narrative’ by #GaslightingGilligan
https://wp.me/p94Aj4-1Zu
Militarisation is *inevitable*. #TickTockTroops
The thing is, hairy bearded perverts wanting to have a dodgy wank in the women’s toilets are not the people the GRA is aimed at or designed for, and any such behaviour will still be proscribed by existing legislation.
It is going to be a less serious problem numerically than almost any other social issue you could think of.
The fact that some on here are obsessed by it, and the use of terms like sexual deviance, aberration, mental problems I am afraid makes you part of the problem and not part of the solution.
ScotsRenewables says: at 11:03 am
“I agree that the GRA is flawed and the Hate Crime bill needs serious reconsideration.
But these are issues that affect a tiny minority.”
Well the way to address the issue of flawed policies is to amend or oppose them, or you’re effectively giving tacit approval to them.
Some individuals and groups have tried to highlight their concerns in direct communications with the Scottish
GovernmentAdministration but have been effectively ignored.You are also incorrect in stating the Hate Crime Bill will affect a tiny minority, as potentially anybody who states something which another considers hateful could find themselves on the punitive side of the legislation, such as merely pointing out biological science in relation to the male and female of the human species.
You could be on sticky ground too, what with calling us haters and a rabid pack dogs the other day. I find it particularly derogatory and hurtful to be classed as such when I currently identify as a badger.
ScotsRenewables – I actually agree that the obsession on this ludicrous subject from both sides is ridiculous. Beyond sick of hearing about it. He-said-she-said nonsense. Scottish politics right now is a joke, Groundhog Day shite. Depressing and boring. Wake me up if we ever get another insured date. Apart from that…fuck it.
Addendum: ‘another indyref date.’Fuck predictive texting.
Dan/Cage: for natal women, this is as much an existential problem as remaining part of the Union is for independence-minded Scots. It is a fairly safe bet to say that Scots will gradually disappear from the UK equation once Brexit kicks in properly and the Tory One Nation (England) State evolves to its apex position; and the same goes for women. You might see the GRA threat as an obsession, but Unionists see independence as an obsession. It all depends on your perspective and how you, personally, might be affected. If the SNP lose the women’s vote, bye-bye independence from that quarter. The Rev understands that. Many of us understand that.
The issue is presented as a flow of hatred from women when it is nothing of the kind. Nobody has ever been able to explain why trans people cannot campaign for their own spaces or compromise, or why it is women who must give up their spaces and rights. Cage, if you believe that the legislation will not permit fetishists and cross-dressers the same access and facilities and amenities as those who have body/gender dysphoria, you haven’t read it properly. From the legal viewpoint, it is a disaster in the waiting, and will afford ‘womanhood’ to all comers. If you cannot see that, you are not looking. The 2010 Equality Act provisions and the EHRC recommendations are being steamrollered aside.
The claim that it is a tiny minority, so cannot harm women’s rights is laughable. Just wait and see, if this stuff gets pushed through. The tiny minority are those people who are body/gender dysphoric, and who deserve our compassion and understanding. I’m sorry, but to open up the gates to all comers is so stupid and misogynistic as to be quite beyond any understanding, and women and girls will be eliminated from public life eventually, will be attacked and hurt and will suffer mental health issues because they have no places left that caters for their dignity and privacy. We know that because it is already happening. A wealth of evidence exists from other jurisdictions to show that this will be the end results.
Renewables: try having your insides removed through cancer, then having chemo and radium treatment that affects your internal organs, and discover whether toilet queues have no meaning. Women don’t stand in lines at a communal urinal, so they are often forced to queue. Women also take small children into the female toilets. Your sniggering put-downs are so stupid and so biased as to be verging on the grossly insulting. It has everything do with independence because many women are thinking twice about lending their precious votes to the SNP if they are prepared to treat them in this way on behalf of a vanishingly small minority who are claiming to be what they are patently not – scientifically, biologically or logically. Women comprise 51-2 % of the population of the f*****g planet.
You put things much better than I do Lorna Campbell. Bravo!
Well said Lorna Campbell – I cannot understand how any women can see this so differently. Thank you.
And now for something completely not different. 🙂
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/tories-win-clackmannanshire-east-council-112056343.html
@ Lorna
Looking back at my post I see how it could be construed as dismissive of the threat women face. That was not my intent as I recognise the issues, but I was mainly focusing on the Hate Crime Bill aspect in response to SR’s post.
While here I’d also like to thank you for your thoughtful and articulate input on various subjects.
I’m in agreement with much of what you eloquently state.
It is true that this GRA subject has been floating around for considerable time. That being the case many folk have previously contributed their views on the matter, and have now either left the site or can no longer be bothered repeating their input every time it could be added.
I mostly just sit on the sidelines here and read the comments with equal amounts of frustration and delight., But I am getting pig sick of all the trans talk and think the SNP have lost the plot so I have cancelled my membership.Will be happy to rejoin as soon as they have a new managment team in place.Keep up the good work Rev.
Lorna Campbell, I find it hard to believe you are serious when you talk about my ‘sniggering putdowns’ and call me stupid.
My partner suffers from frequent urinary urgency, and sometimes has to queue. However, she never has to queue behind big hairy blokes, and does not expect to have to do so even if the GRA is passed in its present form because that simply is not going to happen. This is a made-up issue designed to scare you away from the SNP, the same as Tory doorknockers telling pensioners they will get no pension after indy.
My wife of 38 years died of cancer, and I have considerable personal experience of urinary complications of cancer, so your pathetic attempts at virtue signalling cut no ice with me. In fact, how bloody dare you lecture me.
Now apologise, or at least grow up a little when conversing on the Internet.
@ScotRenewables
Lorna doesn’t owe you anything. I don’t believe you’re stupid, you just lack empathy and are a continuing stain on the BTL comments here. It’s pretty obvious from your inputs here generally that you’re way out of step with what most WoS supporters believe and support, and are in fact a pretty nasty piece of work.
In general it’s a good rule of thumb to consider Maya Angelou’s words: when people show you who they are you should believe them. You’ve repeatedly shown who you are in comments in here, and frankly it doesn’t look good.
If a woman is telling you her concerns about GRA reform and how this impacts women’s rights, it behoves you to listen.
Nobody can force you to exhibit empathy, still less in your case apparently have any it seems, but you could at least cease to belittle and downplay the concerns of the group of people this directly impacts, which doesn’t include you.
Wow, Andy Ellis, what an unpleasant post you really are a piece of work.
I express my opinions peacefully, and in a largely non-personal, non-confrontational way and in return I get called
Sniggering
Stupid
Utterly biased
A stain
A nasty piece of work
I am sorry, but the level of response to my entirely justified criticisms is that of a playground bully in a not particularly good school.
I realise you consider me a ‘stain’ floating in the outpouring of vitriol that now comprises 90% of Wings’ BTL output, but the attempt to drive all posters who dare to disagree with you away is not the way to convince others.
I feel sorry for you after reading that last hectoring, bullying post. It smacks of the authoritarian, the bully, the man who has never, ever been wrong and never ever could be.
Echo echo echo….
An excellent article and analysis Stuart, demonstrating how easily data and statistics can be amplified, exaggerated and manipulated to make the microcosmic appear macrocosmic. I think the same thing is happening in relation to the pandemic: 100% control measures being imposed for a virus with a fatality rate of approximately 1% or less.
f a woman is telling you her concerns about GRA reform and how this impacts women’s rights, it behoves you to listen
Why? I am as entitled to an opinion as anyone, and I listen to plenty of women on this matter, including Joanna Cherry.
I believe the GRA act needs careful looking at, it does not need a massive outpouring of hysteria by people who see it as a weapon to destroy the SNP and poison the independence debate.
Saffron Robe says:
21 November, 2020 at 4:27 pm
I think the same thing is happening in relation to the pandemic: 100% control measures being imposed for a virus with a fatality rate of approximately 1% or less
1% of the population of the planet is seventy million people. Some of us consider that a significant number of lives.
In Scotland that is 52,000 people, and is almost certain to include one or more of your nearest and dearest.
And if it all happens at once and the NHS is overwhelmed, then many more will die.
But hell yes, let’s roll the GRA and Covid restrictions into a big shouty mess to beat the Scottish government with.
The antivaxxers will be along to join in any minute.
@Scots Renewables
On the contrary, I have no issue with people disagreeing with me and debating with those exhibiting good faith and who exhibit empathy. Your contributions show you lack both qualities. Even roasters like Cameron Brodie occasionally had a point: the reason many tried to get him removed was his MO and intolerance as much as his spamming of the threads.
You come on here with a similar MO even if your opinions aren’t the same as his. Your cliched unreasoning support of the party line is as lame as your ability to argue a point. The SNP doesn’t need the help of anyone outside to destroy it, it seems to be doing a great job as it is, ably assisted by folk like you.
Most of the poison in the indy debate comes from TRA extremists and their useful idiots inside the SNP pushing an agenda which has negligible popular support, backed up by atavistic tub thumping “wheesht for indy” ultras like you.
We see you, know your like and will be having none of it thanks all the same.
Andy Ellis, you obviously haven’t actually read any of my posts have you?
If you had you would realise how stupid it is to refer to me as an SNP Ultra.
I am thoroughly disillusioned with the SNP at the moment, but your fact-free counsel of despair is equally dismaying, as is your bizarre determination to squeeze all discussion through the cracked prism of Nicola Sturgeon and the GRA.
AFAICS The difference between you and I is that I am dismayed by events within the SNP but I an trying to build things, you are only concerned with tearing them down.
I am going to Conference (virtually) this year for the first and probably last time. The reason? So I can vote for Craig Murray for President rather than that conceited prig Mike Russell.
That is trying to do something to effect change what are you doing, apart from being extremely unpleasant to people who are theoretically on the same side as you?
Your belligerent attitude makes no sense to me at all, and I really cannot fathom what you hope to achieve by alienating the majority of Indy supporters.
Oh and Andy, why am I a useful idiot for the TRA extremists? Please point to anywhere I have said I support them or the GRA.
Because I don’t and you can’t.
You need to realise that not everyone who disagrees with you is the enemy. If you can’t do that then you appear as an enemy of democracy, not a friend – and I am fairly sure that is not the case.
I utterly refute these outrageous allegations!
Kind regards
Gloria
@ScotsRenewables
“AFAICS” appears to require the aid of an electron microscope in your case. I have read your comments, as have others. Being mildly critical of the SNP isn’t going to cut it when your general MO is still “wheesht for indy” and we’ll sort everything else out afterwards. You and your ilk are part of the problem, not part of the solution. I’m not going to stop pointing that out until you…you know….stop doing it.
I’m not trying or actually viewing everything thru’ the lens of GRA and Nicola Sturgeon, but only the wilfully blind (or ill intentioned?) would fail to see they are perhaps the 2 most vital issues facing the movement at present.
So which one are you? Given your output I’m betting on both.
I wish you and others trying to effect change in the party well, but I see little chance of it succeeding. I will however be the first to congratulate all concerned if they succeed. The SNP may not be my party any more, and I can no longer bring myself to vote for it, but (sadly I think) we are stuck with them as the motor of the indy charabanc at least in the short term.
I’m not alienating the majority. I certainly don’t accept that you or your views represent the majority of indy supporters. You’d appear to represent a faction within in the SNP who want to simultaneously effect change, but keep us all voting for an SNP majority that will achieve precisely nothing, because it’s vanishingly unlikely you’re going to succeed. I will of course happily admit my error if you succeed, but I won’t be losing any sleep over the bet.
You are a useful idiot in as much as you’re within a party bent on imposing the TRA agenda and Hate Crime Bill. If and when you succeed in having the current leadership replaced and ensuring both are binned, get back to us. Until then, wear your useful idiot hat with pride.
Democracy is safe in my hands, and the hands of those who agree with the majority of Scots and indy supporters: that majority oppose the current SNP leadership’s agenda, whether relating to GRA, the Hate Crime Bill, the apparent attempt to fit up Alex Salmond and spike the guns of the enquiry into their malfeasance, and/or the gradualist GC “Gold Standard” S30 Order referendum shilly shallying.
Whether democracy is safe in the hands of you and other who think like you is open to considerable doubt. The clear and present danger to achieving independence sooner rather than later isn’t Westminster, it’s people like you tolerating and making excuses for the failing SNP government.
Andy Ellis . Indeed ?
Sorry Andy , that ? should have been an ” applause ” emoji . Well said
Out of interest, if being asked “invasive questions” counts as a “hate incidents”, does that mean that every time any survey includes questions any LGBT+ question (e.g. monitoring forms for job interviews), this is a hate incident?
ScotsRenewables,
I am not suggesting we do nothing. The proportionate response to the virus is to protect the vulnerable (the elderly and those with co-morbidities). Did Nicola Sturgeon protect the vulnerable when patients were discharged from hospital directly into care homes without even being tested? Or testing positive?
Scotsrenewables: yes, I was out of order in calling you stupid, but I was not virtue signalling. I do not see myself as a victim. I am very angry that it is so often women themselves who have pushed this stuff. Queueing for toilets is a very serious issue if you have problems.
The point I was trying to make is that women already have problems in gaining quick access to toilets, many of which have disappeared from the pubic domain. We need our own spaces where we can change menstrual pads or incontinence pads without fear that a bloke in a frock is in the vicinity. I don’t believe that men want to poo in public, so they have cubicles for that. Well, women need a cubicle for more than just peeing in.
It’s not so much fear of attack – although that is always at the back of our minds when we are vulnerable – but the need to have our dignity and privacy. You say that it will not be many trans women in our spaces, but even a few will make a difference, put a strain on our facilities. We are talking here about men who say they are women. If you cannot see how that is challenging, there’s no help for you. How can a woman or a child tell if a man is a trans woman or just a man?
As for trying to put anyone off the SNP, mate, I was pounding pavements and chapping doors from the age of 13. I want independence. What I do not want is to live in an independent Scotland that is going to take all my hard-won rights away from me just as we reach our goal. You are asking me and every other woman to sacrifice everything our forbears fought for so that we can have an independent Scotland that eliminates us from the equation. You really believe we should be required to do that?
It is not being childish to stand up for your rights; it is not being childish to state that reducing the issue to a question of toilet access is crass and stupid because toilet access is also a fundamental right in a civilized society. Nobody mentioned queueing behind hairy men, but, logistically, if you add to a number that has been worked out to afford a steady use of facilities to each sex, by increasing the use of women’s toilets (trans men would use the cubicles in men’s toilets) that will impact on the access of that facility for women. That is logical. The same goes for medical facilities, beds in female wards. The implications have simply not been worked out.
No doubt trans women have been using women’s toilets, but the GRA reform will open up ALL female spaces to ANY man who says he is a woman. That is a massive change to the law and breaches existing law. No, I will not apologize for what I said. Being a woman, I think I know better than you do about women’s problems, women’s toilet facilities and lack of them, etc., you patronizing person. I think I also know better than a man who says he is a woman. Oh, and I know about cancer, too, and its side effects – personally – and the last thing I would wish for is your, or anyone’s, pity or even sympathy, so park it where the sun don’t shine. I was not lecturing. I was explaining from a female perspective, or are you taking possession of female experience, as well?
Exactly how many trans women will be in the average toilet queue?
The real point is not what I think, but that womens’ organisations across Scotland including C Rape Crisis Scotland, Scottish Women’s Aid, Women 50:50 and Zero Tolerance, support reforming Scotland’s gender recognition laws.
It is very tiring agreeing with you and applauding you all the time Lorna Campbell, but I will continue to do so as your comments and arguments against these regressive bills are truthful with no malice but VERY personal and informative and I thank you on behalf of my wife and daughter
@twathater
I also approve wholeheartedly of Ms Campbell’s logical and very well put comments. I used to be merely indignant, but now am genuinely horrified, at the extent to which the Scottish Government is willing to take up an extreme anti-scientific position with regard to scientific FACTS.
As a member of the scientific community, I must pose the question: what will happen to the science curriculum in schools? Has anyone thought through this yet? John Swinney is too busy defending another indefensible position, it would seem.
Are we, the Scottish nation, descendants of the Scottish Enlightenment, to follow humbly in the steps of the unenlightened creationists? To recreate the fsmous Tennessee monkey trial? Only this time it will concern something far less controversial – the fsct of biological sex.
Who will be given the publishing contracts for the new updated text books?
Will there be prison sentences for Scottish biology teachers if they dare to demonstrate that biological sex exists?
Has the current FM included the current scientific debate in her inclusive reading list?
I think it would be appropriate for me to sign myself off this Sunday morning as SCUNNERED SCOT.
Apologies for inadvertent typos: famous, facts
Dave Beveridge says:
20 November, 2020 at 12:52 pm
“FFS I was worried a Google search would turn up triple x-rated porno sites dedicated to weird fetishes or something.”
I made that mistake several years back whilst trying to research a piece of music played by accordionist Dick Black. Never again.
On the subject of hate crime I was declared a “looney” online by an infamous Twitter uber-yoon who lives nearby for supporting independence. I had no luck with the police in asking for this to be considered a hate crime. At the same time the perpetrator reported a friend for calling these actions out online. The friend received a visit from plod who went away with his tail between his legs.
twathater/MargaretE: thank you for your kind comments. I am also deeply worried for the future of science and biology, and, of course, logic, in our schools, colleges and universities. Teachers and lecturers cannot be expected to tell young people on the one hand, that anti science is fine in relation to one human group, but that science, biology and logic must be given due respect, on the other. The day-to-day impracticalities of redefining what a woman is and isn’t that a gross insult in itself? – are also going to prove to be impossible to reconcile with reality and women’s long-term well-being and good mental health.
Every other struggle for human rights has been just that, and trans people already have all the same human rights as the rest of us (enshrined in the 2004 GRA and various other pieces of legislation). What they want now, which is self-ID without any medical assessment or ‘gate’ and as short a waiting period for the GRC and full birth certificate change as possible, is simply irreconcilable with women’s human rights and sex-based spaces and rights unless these are eliminated. This is the first time, I think, that one group’s rights are being gained actually at the expense of another’s, and in circumstances that are utterly in opposition to all accepted norms of biological science.
It simply beggars belief that any sane, rational person could support this, the capturing of a whole society in a common delusion that is untenable by any rational measurement, let alone advocate it. I am terrified of where this could lead. I am also quite certain, having read the original human rights stuff on trans that it was never envisaged that women’s rights should not be protected and that, while trans people would have all the same rights as the rest of us, women’s sex-based spaces and rights would be protected in each jurisdiction, and trans people not being made an exception at all. That’s not what has happened, and, now, even in Ireland, where self-ID, etc. have been in operation for about five years, the realities for women are just being discovered and Irish women are very, very angry at the loss of their spaces and rights. We should avoid making the same mistakes, because they will be very difficult and very costly to correct.
“The real point is not what I think, but that womens’ organisations across Scotland including C Rape Crisis Scotland, Scottish Women’s Aid, Women 50:50 and Zero Tolerance, support reforming Scotland’s gender recognition laws.”
Because their Scottish Government funding (ie pretty much ALL of their funding) depends on it.
Point well made, Stu.
A tad depressing though.
I would also like to add my voice to those in support of Lorna Campbell’s brave and honest comments. As Andy Ellis said, it behoves us to listen.
And I fully support Stuart’s comment regarding fireworks. I had to listen to the sound of distressed birds in the back garden this past fireworks night, and it was truly heart-breaking to hear.
@Stu Campbell
Any new party or pro indy movement could do worse than making it plain that there has to be a good deal more in the way of separation of powers between these special interest groups, political parties and elected officials. The poison of such influence pedalling is all too apparent in relation to this issue. Open government and transparency dictates that we should ensure this kind of thing can’t happen in future.
Agreed.