This is Northumberland Calling 02.08.24

The Corruption and violence – a winning combination? edition

Hello America (Particularly Central Ohio) this is Northumberland Calling

A bit later today for unavoidable reasons.

The male in women’s boxing has suddenly concentrated minds. Both boxers failed their ‘gender eligibility’ tests – the tests they took proved that they have XY chromosomes. There is such a thing as DSD where certain males have had development difficulties with their sex organs. Doctors used to mistake such people as female or hermaphrodites. Thanks to medical science, we know they are male and go through a form of male puberty. They should be accepted as male. It is awful and heart-breaking for everyone when the error is uncovered, but people who have failed gender tests should not be allowed to compete in the female (aka no Y chromosome) category.

It is heartening to see retired Olympic athletes like Nicola Adams (2 x women’s boxing champion) supporting this stance. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/olympics/2024/08/02/nicola-adams-boxer-fail-gender-tests-paris-2024/  or https://archive.ph/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/olympics/2024/08/02/nicola-adams-boxer-fail-gender-tests-paris-2024/

The Telegraph leader on the subject (Oliver Brown, one of their sr sports writer has been very good at uncovering all this) about the tension between inclusivity and fairness is excellent.  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2024/08/02/ioc-imane-khelif-boxing-womens-competition/  or https://archive.ph/2HZzI

The far-right are threatening further demonstrations after the Southport murders. Basically they are using it as an excuse to riot.  Is it two-tier policing or do the police simply have long experience due to the football hooliganism of the thuggery of the individuals involved in the organising and are unwilling to give the benefit of the doubt? I suspect it is the later. But the impression is unhelpful https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/02/hampshire-police-migrants-hotel-hunt-protesters-southport/ or https://archive.ph/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/02/hampshire-police-migrants-hotel-hunt-protesters-southport/

Today a judge jailed 5 more Just Stop Oil protesters, saying their actions were disproportionate to their aims and they caused one accident on the M25 and could have caused many more.  He pointed out that it was not their lives which were disrupted, particularly as they were all retired or students but ordinary working citizens’ lives. The sole aim of the protest was publicity, rather than anything productive. So it would appear there is starting to be some balance. For a number of reasons including the huge backlog of cases which was allowed to build up prior to COVID but exacerbated by COVID, justice is very slow in England at the moment. The rule of law is always helped when justice is reasonably swift.   https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/02/judge-just-stop-oil-activists-blase-life-disrupted/  or https://archive.ph/bqHgF

The BBC have admitted that senior management were aware of the possessing child pornography charges against their former top presenter, Huw Edwards at an early stage. They chose to keep paying his salary etc and allowed . They suggest recouping the pension etc will be complicated. Unfortunately the BBC have a history of ‘protecting’ top talent, see Jimmy Savile and Rolf Harris. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/01/huw-edwards-bbc-scandals-history-jimmy-savile-rolf-harris/ or https://archive.ph/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/01/huw-edwards-bbc-scandals-history-jimmy-savile-rolf-harris/

Who funds what interests me. According to research the Telegraph has done, Hilary Clinton has been providing significant funds to Just Stop Oil and Extinct Rebellion through Onward Together’s funding of CEF, a fund started by Aileen Getty. Apparently no mention of this partnership is made on the Onward Together website but it was in financial documents. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2024/08/01/hillary-clinton-funds-just-stop-oil-extinction-rebellion/ or https://archive.ph/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2024/08/01/hillary-clinton-funds-just-stop-oil-extinction-rebellion/

If you have not read the NYT expose of GLAAD’s finances, it is very interesting (this is a gift article as I think it is important) but then I think financial corruption is interesting.  https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/01/business/glaad-ceo-spending.html?unlocked_article_code=1._00.3zRU.Q705CSQU4VHv&smid=url-share

Here I finished my latest revisions on the Viking and hopefully my editor will think I have done enough. I shall hear by 14 August.

Paddy does not like the heat much so we go for walks early in the morning.

The bees however love the heat and sunshine. They are now filling the supers which means honey for me. The brood box is where the Queen lays and there is a Queen excluder which prevents her from entering the supers. This means the wax in the super stays a beautiful yellow, instead of turning black with the remains from generations of bee hatching. Every so often I have to swap out the old frames in the brood box for new ones. Not much wax is generated from that process. Most of my wax I obtain is from when I take the honey off of the supers at the end of the season. Each super frame is half the size of a brood frame.

Hopefully everyone else’s week was a good one. I look forward to seeing you in the comments.

If you like what you read on here, why not subscribe? It’s free and I don’t have any plans to put in a paywall.