This is Northumberland Calling 24.3.23

The Les Mis earworm edition

 

Photo by Samuel Regan-Asante on Unsplash

The barricades are going up in Paris and Bordeaux is burning as the revolt against Macron’s pension reform (lifting the retirement age to 64) grows. No reports on if they were humming ‘Do You Hear the People Sing?’ from Les Mis. The King is due to visit next week on his first state visit and the unions have called for more protests.  https://archive.is/rWqJs

In Scotland the leadership race rumbles on, having claimed the scalps of both the First Minister and her husband.  Yousaf who wishes  to be all things to everyone has proudly proclaimed himself to be a champion of women’s rights. To do so he was photographed with a giant pink heart. It is almost as if he asked around what do women respond to because he has never paid attention before – big pink hearts came the answer and he duly obliged.   https://archive.is/KdWFC

 Anxious not to do a Sturgeon, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has signalled a shift in policy and admitted that self-id needs to have the public behind it. Funny that.  https://archive.is/H2TtC

Also anxious not to do a Sturgeon, the Irish  Taoiseach (prime minister) Leo Varadkar  discovered his red line on violent males being put into female prisons after the Barbie K case was highlighted in the Sunday papers. He claimed that he and his staff knew nothing about the 21 year old male who had changed his name to Barbie Kardashian and obtained a gender recognition certificate and who has just been convicted of threatening to rape, torture and murder his mother (in other words thoroughly dangerous) Under Irish law, Kardashian was supposed to be housed in a female prison. After a public outcry, this placement will now be altered. Ironic in a way. https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/taoiseach-leo-varadkar-says-violent-biological-males-should-not-be-in-womens-prisons-42398546.html

When the price of food goes up, people’s wallets are hit far more than what might be term occasional purchases. In the UK certain food stuff has more than doubled in price in over a year. Cooking oil swiftly followed by milk, cheese and eggs have led the way. The Bank of England raised interest rates to curb inflation which of course puts more pressure on the hard pressed populace. More ear worms from Les Mis. https://archive.is/aelOv

Fairness and safety must come before inclusion in athletics. World Athletics joins rugby, swimming and rowing and protects the female category --  yielding to scientific data and wishing to maintain fairness and safety, people will now compete in their natal sex category. DSD testosterone levels have been significantly reduced. This is a result of a five year  campaign by Sharron Davies and others. https://archive.is/bVuY9

Royal Holloway, University of London students unable to understand the difference between a joke and something else. Baroness Fox cancelled because of her support for Ricky Gervais being able to tell a joke. In this case a transgender one. The University principal claimed the university was committed to the principle of free speech but health and well being were important as well. Perhaps she should read the letter from the dean of Stanford Law School…Baroness Fox plans to bring up the incident when she speaks on why the protections for free speech on campus need strengthening.  https://archive.is/O7ptG

Finally, after an appeal by the Sun  and Rishi Sunak a veteran’s funeral will be overflowing with mourners and people coming to pay their respects. Flight Sergeant Peter Brown who died aged 96 and who answered the plea for help from Britain to fight the Nazis when he was in Jamaica  and was one of over 450 West Indians to serve as an air gunner and radio operator will have a proper send off. He never married and had no children, but was considered to be a very kind and humble man who greatly loved and admired the late Queen. And his service shows the enormous contribution that service personnel from across the Commonwealth made to the defeat of Nazism which sometimes gets overlooked and should not be. Cue final Les Mis ear worm — Empty Chairs at Empty Tables  https://archive.is/UuBz2