This is Northumberland Calling 7 Oct 2022

The watching certain sacred cows fall edition

This is Northumberland Calling 7 October 2022

This was the week that the Warren Zevon song ‘Send Lawyers, Guns and Money’ seemed to be playing for scandal hit supposedly trans-children supporting charity which is beloved of some many celebrities and institutions Mermaids.

After last week’s revelations about sending chest binders to all who asked and highlighting Discord as an appropriate place for vulnerable children to chat, it was revealed Mermaids’ trustee was paedophile apologist. Once reported in the Times, he duly resigned. Mermaids claimed not to know about it, even though he spoke at a high profile conference in 2011 and his latest book has a chapter on queering (ie removing boundaries) in children’s sexuality.  . https://unherd.com/2022/10/mermaids-is-endangering-children/

The National Lottery which funds a great deal of charity in the UK has paused all money to Mermaids while the investigation is on-going. This is a huge blow to the scandal hit charity. https://archive.ph/OnaiB

On Thursday afternoon, Mermaids pulled its helpline. One of the things they recently put up was something called MANGO (Mermaids Activist Network Group Online) with references to people being creamy and spicy etc. It sounds dodgy because of  the Citrus Scale – something which was used to get around censors on Tumblr where fruit became euphemisms for various sexual acts..

ON Friday morning the Telegraph’s leader was entitled ‘We must learn for the Mermaids’ fiasco’ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/07/must-learn-mermaids-fiasco/

JK Rowling told prominent activist that she wants Mermaids to sue her and her name would be the first on any petition. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11283915/JK-Rowling-takes-thinly-veiled-swipe-Emma-Watson-backing-trans-charity-Mermaid.html?ito=amp_twitter_share-top

JK Rowling has also come out swinging towards the celebrities who supported the scandal rocked charity. Nicola Sturgeon is the first minister of Scotland and claims to be a feminist to her fingertips. She supports self-id. Rowling does not.  https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jk-rowling-t-shirt-calls-nicola-sturgeon-destroyer-of-womens-rights-r2nskrcx5/

This article is also good on the need to protect children from abusers. https://thecritic.co.uk/It-is-not-reactionary-to-protect-children/

The Globe has had to delete its Creative Response  page to  I Joan (the play where Joan of Arc is portrayed as non binary). One of the poems with its violent imagery was very degrogatory towards women in general and Gender Critical women in particular. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/06/shakespeares-globe-rushes-delete-derogatory-poem-transphobic/

The Telegraph is reporting that literacy rates have fallen in primary school aged children due to the lockdown. Unsurprisingly, the poorest children have been hit the hardest. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/06/lockdown-left-children-lowest-literacy-levels-almost-decade/

The UK rate of 75% being able to read at grade level aged 8 is nowhere near as bad as the 2% rate for Black children in Decateur IL where teachers were given 100% marks for excellence by the school administration. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/us-teachers-given-top-marks-pupils-struggle-illinois-262r62pwk

In political news:

The Conservatives are very weak in the polling at the moment because the markets did not like Kwarteng’s mini-budget and interest rates will be going up ( causing huge problems for people whose fixed rate mortgages are ending and potentially crashing the over-heated property market). However, they do not need to hold an election until December 2024 and a couple of years can be a long time in politics. It was their conference this week. Suella Braverman had a good showing as did Kemi Badenoch.  They are now the rising stars. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/05/liz-truss-has-right-vision-uk-not-enough/

Braverman wants to stem the flow of illegal immigration and is resisting a trade agreement with India which would visas being relaxed.  Badenoch also says that she would resist such a plan. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/05/suella-braverman-says-will-resist-open-borders-migration-plan/

The big news this morning is that Britain needs to be prepared for rolling blackouts this winter as basically Britain failed to invest sufficiently in infrastructure, starting back in the late 1990’s. It takes a long time to bring a power plant on stream and nobody considered that Russia would go to war with Ukraine. Apparently it has been discussed that people might be paid £10 to use their washing machines in the depths of the night. ‘Wash your grundies at midnight’ was how one tabloid put it this morning.

My MP the former pensions minister Guy Opperman suggested the government should follow some of the things that France, Germany Spain  etc are doing to save energy. This include:

- no public buildings warmer than 19C (France)

- turn off overnight lighting of buildings / ads etc (Spain and Germany have said lights out by 10 pm for shop windows etc)

- turn off hot water for hand washing / public spaces (Germany)

The dollar continues to be strong against the pound and the euro so now is an excellent time to visit Europe in general. It is a chance to get some bargains and apparently the American tourists have started flocking over. The Telegraph has given a primer on what to expect from the average American tourist and what they are interested in. Sometimes you cannot make up people’s perceptions. A huge eye roll from me…https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/united-kingdom/truth-american-tourists-why-see-lot-year/