buctootim

55 years! You're lucky- or more socially skilled than me. Sorry for your loss. It's obviously hard to adjust but sometimes it also creates space for something new. My exes parents were similar, married 50 years and when her mum died her dad eventually found a second life with ballroom dancing. Men in their 70s are in a minority and highly sought after....

The two kids were worth it. I went for something £2.695m cheaper

I was window shopping for an engagement ring yonks ago and there was a group I liked - all stock numbered (or so I thought) 2.7; 1.8, etc. When I asked how much the 2.7 ring was he just said £2.7 million sir. Turns out yellow diamonds are quite dear, not cheaper....

Yep if that's the metric for winning, its in the bag.

It's not really a surprise tbf. They could have put up a used wank sock and 800,000 Tory true Blues, anti ULEZ and anti immigration voters would have voted for it.

They do, and agree those are the votes they are desperately chasing / trying to hold on to - but they haven't done basic maths. If you add the Tory and Reform vote share together its still 10-15% less than Labour. If you add the total vote share of left leaning parties together (Labour, SNP, Greens, LDs etc) compared with right leaning parties (Tories, Reform and a couple percent for the headbangers) they are outvoted 2:1 The swing votes, the votes every party needs to attract to win, are in the middle. It's a mystery why generation after generation the hard left and right cant grasp that.

He can barely find his way to the pub and back

That's not what the data shows - which whilst inconsistent indicates only around 15% of transwomen want genital and only around half want any kind of surgery at all. Its that data which changed my attitude - until then I has assumed the vast majority wanted to be the 'best' woman they could be. A friend of my daughter claims to be trans - but again doesnt take hormones and doesnt want surgery. He's 6'2" and around 200 pounds. To me he is a camp gay man, exactly what has been accepted to varying degrees since at least ancient Greek and Roman times, no issue. A man who takes no hormones and has had no surgery but claims to identify as a woman is clearly a man imo. He can identify as a woman - I dont object but it doesnt actually make him one any more than Cat Man Denis Avner was actually a cat.

You invented a genital checker scenario, debunked it and then criticised everybody else who never even mentioned it. That approach simply telegraphs to people you have no real argument to put forward. Stats vary but seem to suggest only around 15% of trans women would have bottom surgery - so you have 85% plus walking around with a penis and no desire to change. Do I understand why women do not want to share changing rooms, competitive sport or prisons with people who have a penis, XY chromosomes and on average are 50% bigger than them? Yep sure I do.

tbf though there is a huge difference between people who have fully, ie surgically and hormonally transitioned and people, primarily men who still have the full kit, dont take hormones but who self identify as women. That latter group is the majority. How do you protect women, whether its in prisons or toilets or domestic abuse refuges from men who want to be there to exploit the situation?

Everyone likes a fantastic day...

1. The event was in Waukesha, which is a suburb of Milwaukee 2. The local paper said the attendance was 'hundreds'. Accept it was probably nearer 500. Even so hundreds is a miserable attendance for a President, the state Governor and sheriff at a free event open to the public. 3. You can see how small the venue is here

Interesting how the size of Trump crowds has slumped. Only around 300 at his most recent event in Milwaukee on yesterday compared with 12,000 in the same city for the 2020 election

This is it - this is the core prediction for the UK - more rain, more storms and quite possibly lower temperatures despite a global rise on average. People forget/ don't realise just how far north we are - 51 degrees - on the same latitude as parts of Alaska and way further north than Toronto or Ottawa in Canada. 51 degrees south is the Falkland Islands. We benefit from two phenomenon - the Gulf Stream and the Jet stream which makes us far warmer than other places in comparable locations. Climate change will likely disrupt those and drive them further south, leaving us getting more Alaskan type weather - rain essentially.

There is always a balance between tolerance / acceptance and practical implementation of a policy on every issue though. Not enough thought was given to genuine concerns about safety, fairness in sport, freedom of speech and the fact a small minority of predators / criminals might want to game the system