He has forgotten about the post-it notes around his house: “never go full fash, Nige (not until you remove democracy)”.

You’ll want to redo this post.

I’m happy to help fill his hod with bricks so he can get that first course down.

It couldn’t happen here!

Chap at the top is claiming “Christianity is part of European identity” but the image contrasts the pagan religions of Europe 2,000 years ago (you can throw in the Celts, Romans and Greeks too) on the left with Christianity which has it’s roots in various Middle Eastern religions (Judaism, Zoroastrianism, etc) on the right.

“Elaha” (ܐܠܗܐ) is the Aramaic for “God” and “Alaha” (ܐܲܠܵܗܵܐ) is the same word in Syriac (both languages used by the early Church), which is similar to other Semitic languages like Hebrew (Elohim) and Arabic (Allah).

The article touches on this to some degree:

Creasy told the broadcaster that she felt “sick” to learn about the images and that “none of this is about sexual pleasure, it’s all about power and control”.

I presume the psychology behind this activity is varied - for example, I could imagine some people being so insecure that they feel the need to degrade powerful women. However, there may be others who get off on that sort of thing.

I suppose this is Rule 34 in full effect but it’s still depressing to hear about.

Welcome to thr Bizarro World of Tory politics. We’ve got an Environment Minister who doesn’t care that the rivers and overflowing with excrement. The Housing Minister hasn’t overseen much housebuilding. And on and on.

I thought this was interesting:

An eye-witness to the JCB incident said: “Firefighters’ union policy is that firefighters should refuse to get involved in such incidents so police brought in a JCB digger and driver to get her down.

The group, now made up of seven young protesters, all 18 or under, has one simple message: Trans Kids Deserve Better: we are not pawns for your politics.

…

It also comes in the context of a General Election campaign where trans people and trans youth have been used as ‘culture war’ talking points, but not allowed to speak for themselves.

That’s what really breaks my heart - this issue is cynically exploited by politicians but it’s people’s lives on the line.

Their protest comes in the wake of the government using emergency powers to ban all access to puberty blockers in the UK, a move that was supported by Labour’s Wes Streeting, likely to be the next Secretary of State for Health.

While Labour will improve the situation on transgender rights, as best I can tell, both they and the Tories are committed to implementing the suggestions in the Cass Review but quite what that means in practice is unclear as some are spinning it to suit their agendas. As Stonewall says:

Puberty blockers and gender affirming hormones: The Cass Review Final Report argues that the evidence on puberty blockers is insufficient, but also acknowledges their efficacy for some trans young people. It recommends that more evidence be gathered through compulsory medical trials, which raises ethical concerns which will need to be addressed. Importantly, the Cass Review did not call for blanket bans on puberty blockers and this needs to be fully reflected in policy and service development with clear guidance issued at the earliest opportunity to prevent any blanket bans being implemented.

That also discusses how the review is being misrepresented in some quarters. So we don’t really know what the difference in policy will be under Labour. Which is worrying.

It’s not exactly Agadoo!

I’d be very surprises if someone wasn’t working on at least a t-shirt design right now.

Once again, I am tapping the sign for people to go watch the two hour video by Shaun on the subject.

Good call, here is a link.

I am/was likely far too old to be in the target demographic for Pottermania but they never worked for me. They always felt a little… safe, reactionary even as they drew on a long tradition of British boarding school books without really addressing or undermining the genre tropes or even using it as a means to examine that culture. It then wasn’t a surprise to find out the author had some questionable views didn’t seem a great surprise to me.

Also, calling Tennant a “Harry Potter actor”, while true, feels like a calculated insult to a man who has played Doctor Who, The Purple Man, and Crawley.

I’m not sure it’s a “calculated insult” but it did read a but oddly (I assumed initially that it was referring to someone else). I presume the writer or their editor went with that angle because because his having appeared in the Harry Potter movies is relevant to an article and fitted the wider context of JK Rowling falling out with HP cast members. I’m not convinced it was the right approach.

Wild. UK folks have people who cosplay as Nazis and have the apologize.

Only following the example set by the Royal Family.

Here in the States, we give them government platforms and call it free speech. Some even march in the streets unafraid.

We do have our own Nazi problem, they killed an MP. However, most of the prominent groups are now banned.

That’s not much.

It’s an incredibly complicated issue, even if you look at individual cases (like Caster Semenya) and there’s almost no easy way to define what you mean by a woman. Ultimately it’s down to the individual sporting organisations to decide how to call it based on expert advice and any decision is going to disadvantage some athletes. If they think the decision is wrong, then there should be a way to appeal decisions because it can come down to difficult analysis based on each individual’s life history.

A compelling argument I’ve heard is that the greatest performance enhancing drug is being exposed to testosterone during puberty and that seems to be the base line a lot of the sporting organisations use. However, even then it is difficult to call for individuals and would need expert testimony on each individual case.

you should never use Wikipedia as a source. and definitely not on politics.

I wasn’t. It’s there for further reading.

And the Award for Least Hateful Tory Student group goes to…