sadoldgit

Dear Weston, I rarely respond to your posts as you are usually on a wind up, but as you have excelled yourself today I shall make an exception. My original point was that protests and international pressure can make a difference and cited the effect that they had in helping to end apartheid in South Africa, which they did. So, zero “whatsboutery”, just an example to prove a point. The situation in South Africa was completely different to that currently in Gaza and I did not say that they were similar so why are you pretending that I did and why are you going on about 40 years? If you had been paying attention you would know that the protesters are calling for an end now to the killings on both sides which started on 7th October. So two very different sets of circumstances in which outside influence has, and possibly could again, have a meaningful effect. Get it? You either constantly misunderstand the points that your forum targets make or you are being deliberately obtuse. Either way you rarely make any meaningful contributions to these threads. If you aren’t interested in engaging on a level other than that of a WUM, perhaps just give it a rest for a bit and come back when and if you have something relevant to say?

Absolutely. It makes far more sense to say and do nothing. After all, it’s not like the protests and international pressure helped to bring about the end of apartheid in South Africa. Oh, wait…

I think you are right. Although I haven’t had that conversation with Alex since his transition, during our previous conversations and from what he shared in therapy groups, he was also comfortable with his sexuality and was in no doubt that his sexual preference was women. At no time did he give any indication that he wanted to transition but there were issues there that were not being addressed. It did come as a shock to me when I heard that he had completed the process but the complete change in his outlook and general demeanour was incredible. I do get the feeling that his previous mental health problems were down to his struggle with the issue of transition. No mention whatsoever during months of therapy. No mention of it when we would go out for a few drinks and talk about what had taken us to The Priory. I don’t think it is a stretch to say that he was having major issues with talking about wanting to transition and that is where his anxiety and depression stemmed from. I have never asked him about it and I will never bring it up unless he wants to discuss it with me. As far as I am concerned he is in a far better place now as a man than he was all those years ago as a women and that is all that matters. Ok, it is a sample of one and doesn’t prove or disprove anything, but given what I know of Alex’s experience and listening to other people with trans issues, I do believe that there is a lot more than feeling/believing that you have been born in the wrong body than mental illness. I also believe that we shouldn’t dump our own prejudices onto those whose condition we do not remotely understand.

Whilst one person’s experience doesn’t prove anything either way, this is relevant to this discussion. I know someone who was female when we first met. We met in The Priory where we were both being treated for anxiety and depression. At the time she was a lesbian and I assumed that her issues revolved around her sexuality, not that she ever intimated that in any of the group sessions we shared. In our first meetings she was very closed down and would barely speak. After a while we got to talking about her interests - football, fishing, boxing, fit women - and we became friends. Over time her mental health improved although it didn’t seem like she got to the bottom of her depressive and anxiety issues but she seemed to handle her depressive moods much better. We don’t live anywhere near each other so we haven’t meet since we left The Priory, but we have kept in touch via social media. A few years passed and I received a message from her under a new name. She said that she had some news. She was now a he. Alison had now become Alex and had undergone a full transition process. He went on to marry his girlfriend and they now have two lovely kids. If you saw his pictures you would have no idea that he used to be female and he has a better beard than I do! Since he became a he his personality has changed enormously and you wouldn’t find someone who was happier and more contented with their life. The difference in them and their personality is amazing. They have gone from a person who barely spoke more than a few words and was constantly staring at the floor to someone who is living life to the full and couldn’t be more engaging and fulfilled. When we were together in The Priory I never had a clue that they were unhappy with their birth body. They seemed to be ok with being a lesbian and weren’t having issues with lesbian relationships. Now it is clear that they had huge issues and felt they were a man in a women’s body. No matter what those who have a problem with trans people think, unless you are in that situation, you have absolutely zero understanding of what is going on with them and why. I don’t understand what Alex has been through but I do understand what difference the transition has made to his life. Why on earth would anyone have an issue with accepting him now as a man? What difference does it make to you personally that a person born with the body of a woman now has the body of a man, the lifestyle of a man and, for all intents and purposes, is now a man? Don’t bother to answer Batman. If you can’t work out the difference between calling someone a Tory who isn’t and the sexuality and gender identity issues, best you leave the discussion to the grown ups.

Perhaps Starmer should have allowed his MPs to vote with their conscience (or for the will of their constituents) but I can see why he did what he did. He is positioning himself as the next PM and showing an appetite for leadership and the ability to take a difficult decisions that Sunak so plainly lacks. The vote doesn’t change a single thing in the real world though, which means that the self sacrifice of Jess Phillips, who was doing a great job about DV against women, was always going to be for nothing. A cease fire is not going to happen at this time. Surely better to call for something that is more likely to happen and will give a small amount of respite and resupply of aid for the civilians with the possibility of more pauses which could lead to a full ceasefire in time?

Parking the invasion of Iraq, this country was infinitely better off under Blair as PM than it has been under the subsequent Tory PMs. Wherever you look things were so much better. Education, the NHS, public services, still in the EU, pretty much everything was better. How anyone can claim that he was a worse PM than the shitshower that had followed him is beyond comprehension. Does anyone remember people talking about how the country was broken and that nothing worked under Blair? That is all you hear now and it isn’t hyperbole. I didn’t like Blair and didn’t vote for Labour in those days, but by any metric he was far better for internal UK politics and the UK population than Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss (😜) or Sunak.

The question shouldn’t be who is the worst between Brown and Sunak. Every Tory PM since Cameron has done huge and lasting damage to this country. Who is the worst from Cameron to Sunak is probably a better question.

It’s all kicking off at the moment. Nasty Sue-Ellen has come out fighting and it ain’t pretty. It’s always a pleasure to see the Tories implode and the rabid right showing it’s teeth. https://news.sky.com/story/amp/suella-bravermans-scathing-letter-to-rishi-sunak-in-full-after-being-sacked-as-home-secretary-13008331 Anyway, the Cameron appointment is a strange one. Is there so little talent in the Tory Party that they have to bring back the man responsible for austerity and Brexit? The answer of course is yes. What a mess. Hopefully this letter will bring the likelihood of a GE closer. Looking forward to see what the Wokefinder General gets up to given that the Chairman of the Tory Party can’t even define what wokery is!

Nigel Farage appearing in I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here 2023. The first recorded case of an anus eating an anus?

I don’t for one minute believe that we are suddenly going to be transported into some kind of utopian dream under Labour. What I do expect is a government who will prioritise the kind of things that ordinary people find important, want changed or improved and govern accordingly. I want a competent PM who will be taken seriously both nationally and internationally. I want MPs who put their constituents first, not themselves, their careers and the interests of their mates. I don’t think for one minute that things will be perfect, especially given the mess the country is currently in, but it most certainly can be so much better. I am voting for better.

For those poor misguided souls who think that there is little to choose between the two parties - One the one hand we have a party who have gradually been destroying this country over the last 13 years. A bunch of self serving, corrupt, incompetent, misguided, useless individuals who have run down public services, the NHS, trade, the standing of the UK on the world stage, housing, transport the economy etc. etc. On the other hand you have a party who will run the country based on the needs of normal working people, not themselves. Who will rebuild the NHS, public services, education, trade, the economy, housing, transport, the standing of the UK on the world stage etc. etc. Hmmmm…. Who to vote for 🤔 Anyone voting for another five years under these charlatans really needs to seek some professional help.

Given the level of diversity in the Commons I don’t think that the colour of her skin has anything to do with it. The issue with Braverman has everything to do with what comes out of her mouth and what she does. She comes across as just as vile as people like Farage. To try and suggest that she is hated by many because of her skin colour is beyond ridiculous and shows a complete lack of basic intelligence. Apparently only 16% of people polled think that she is doing a good job as HS. Are we to assume that the rest are all racists? Here’s a thought. Perhaps they think she is an awful HS because she is an awful HS, no matter what the colour of her skin?

It’s okay, he knows that he has been around less than ten years ago because when I used to post about him a few years ago he pretended not to know who he was, despite jumping in to defend him every time I mentioned him. Him and Katie Hopkins. Another vile person who loves to post hateful stuff on social media. Both were banned from Twitter but have been allowed back by Musk. Don’t you just love free speech when it involves whipping up hatred against far right targets?

There was more violence and arrests in a previous Countryside Alliance March but I don’t recall a huge outcry from the usual suspects about that. It is not difficult to see that the problem for some people is that the march came about because it is against the killing of mainly Muslims. A lot of UN workers who are not Muslims have also been killed and there is a chance that some of the hostages taken by Hamas on 7/10 have also been killed by Israeli attacks. The marches are for peace and for the end of the killing of innocent people who have nothing to do with the Hamas attack. How anyone can have a problem with that goodness only knows but then some people have a problem with footballers kneeling down in support of anti racism. How anyone can not see that a bunch of right wing thugs who only turned up to defend the Cenotaph from a non existent attack (until they decided to attack the police there) were only intent of causing trouble for the main march is beyond comprehension. Tommy Robinson/Stephen Yaxley/Lennon has a long history of Islamophobia and this event was right up his street. Apparently some of his sidekicks were wandering around London later chanting “There ain’t no black in the Union Jack” whilst making Nazi salutes (the irony of the salutes was probably lost on them given they were there, one assumes, to support the Israeli actions). Pictures are doing the rounds of our Tommy/Stephen proudly holding an automatic weapon whilst standing on a tank during his visit to Israel. I am guessing that he gave the Nazi salute a miss on that occasion. From the numbers I have seen so far, 0.05% of the main march were arrested. If this had been a march against the use of fossil fuels we would probably not even be talking about it today On the basis of police figures, 99.05% of the people marched peacefully in protest at the deaths of innocent people in Gaza and for an end to the war. Is that really such a terrible thing to do? It so obviously was not a “Hate March” and you would be pretty warped not to agree with their aim. Why on earth would you continue to complain about it when it has gone off peacefully in the main when only a relatively few morons acted violently or illegally? I guess there is an element who are happy to see these attacks on civilians continue. How much longer must this go on? https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/11/12/israel-gaza-war-live-israeli-army-surrounding-al-quds-hospital

I don’t disagree with your point about focus being on posters, but this has been going on for years sadly and, let’s be honest, starts from those of a far right or “anti woke” persuasion most of the time I didn’t catch the date, but I just heard that their was a Pro Brexit March a few years ago London on Armistice Day that ended with speeches in Trafalgar Square. I am guessing that Tommy Robinson, his fellow brown shirts and all those who are wringing their hands over today’s March in support if a ceasefire in Gaza probably didn’t kick off about that one? With today’s violence against the police, surely the Home Secretary has to take a lot of responsibility for the hate she has stirred up against the very people she is a government minister for and must now be removed from office.

Why was the last paragraph unnecessary? I have written serious posts about this which certain posters add laughing emojis to. And it not about looking good Whelk, it is about having some very basic levels of humanity. It looks like Tommy Robinson and his thugs have taken Braverman’s bait and are causing trouble in London today. Absolutely no surprise there.

It is good to see a leader from the West growing a pair and calling for an end to the butchery. Hopefully it will encourage a few more to speak out, not that it will make any difference. Too many people are afraid of being labelled antisemites if they don’t continue to support the bombings (Keir Starmer, how many more women and children have to die before you finally say that enough is enough?). Clearly I have missed the joke but those of you who like to use the laughing emojis on posts calling for an end to the killing and destruction, knock yourselves out again.

I have heard this from other vets and also listened to some who feel that is right for the march to go ahead as it uses a different route and is timed not to coincide with the cenotaph activities. It is a hard call and I don’t think there is any right or wrong, just different opinions. Listening to one of the organisers of the march he makes the point that the bombs are still falling and will not stop for our armistice and Remembrance ceremonies. The big concern now is that there are groups who are clearly desperate to cause trouble at the march to prove Braverman right and the Met wrong for allowing it to go ahead. There should be room in this country for people to commemorate the fallen in both world wars and also to call for the end of bombing of civilians in the latest Israeli/Palestine conflict in peace and without hindrance for those with negative agendas. As for being called a xenophobe, considering I have been called out for posting against racism for years on this forum that is bizarre and a bit rich coming from you with your posting history Batman.

Yesterday Channel 4 news ran a filmed report about a Palestinian guy with special needs. He was with a crowd of people throwing stones at some armed Israelis who were about 70 metres away. They fired a couple of warning shots and the crowd dispersed, apart from this guy. He was now on his own and threw two more stones. You could tell by the way he threw them that he was physically impaired. The stones fell well short of their target. One of the Israelis dropped to his knee and shot him through the neck. He died on the spot. Yet another senseless killing of a perfectly innocent civilian of which there now have been tens of thousands over the last month, including those killed by Hamas. People, including many Jewish people, are marching tomorrow, as they have been for the last three weeks, to say enough is enough and are calling to end these atrocities. Why anybody would have a problem with that is down to them but sadly a bunch of far right thugs will see it as an opportunity to give some “snowflakes” a kicking and to prove Braverman (who has been stoking up the hate temperature all week) right. The vast majority of the marchers are not Hamas supporters nor are they antisemites, they just want the killing to stop on both sides of the conflict and moves to be made to find a peaceful solution to the problem that has been festering for decades. Suella Braverman doesn’t want that and has been using her position of Home Secretary to stoke up division. Tommy Robinson doesn’t want that and has been using his recently reinstated X account to drum up hate again. These people clearly want violence to break out on the march on Saturday as it suits their purposes. As has been said several times elsewhere this week, if you can’t march in support of an armistice on Armistice Day, when can you? The only people who have a problem with this are hate filled far right thugs who hate peace almost as much as they hate Muslims. The same people who say that the march should be banned because Jewish people are afraid to leave their homes, completely ignoring the fact that Muslims have been having the same problems too. Why is it so difficult for some people to get their head around the concept that it is entirely possible to be sickened by the Hamas atrocities as it is by the constant bombing of Palestinian civilians and not be antisemitic? Well we know why don’t we. When you are losing an argument the default position is to label the other an antisemite and, all of a sudden, you win. As has been said right from the start, there are no people in white hats here. Hamas are the bad guys. Netanyahu and his cronies are the bad guys and the people paying the price are the innocent Israelis and Palestinians who just want to get on with their lives in peace.

No surprise. No surprise who will support him on here either. It has been made very clear that the march will go nowhere near the cenotaph yet these brave boys will be there anyway to defend something that doesn’t need defending. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/far-right-groups-palestine-march-london-b2445029.html

Ambulances bombed outside a hospital. I will save you the trouble hypo. 😂

Really? I really don’t expect it to happen which is not to say that it shouldn’t. Also I don’t expect those of you who hate Muslims and spend their days plastering laughing emojis on posts sympathising with their plight to give a damn about the thousands of innocent women and children being blown to bits. Odd that no matter how many times you denounce Hamas as a bunch of murderous scumbags who deserve all they get, as soon as you say anything critical of the Israelis you immediately become a Hamas sympathiser and antisemite. As for poppygate, no one mentioned the fact that Sunak wasn’t wearing a poppy whilst blowing smoke up Musk’s arse yesterday. Why would Muslims be insulted by Starmer wearing a poppy when so many of them fought and gave their lives for us in previous conflicts? Just goes to show how little the right wing media have when that is the best they can do (along with the countless days the Mail spent talking about Starmer’s curry during lockdown on the front page). Sad that they didn’t pick up on the point that Sunak seemed far more animated and interested when sucking up to Musk about AI than he ever does when talking about dealing with the problems of getting this country back on its feet.

When Netanyahu is finally brought before The Hague to answer for the allegations of war crimes carried out at his behest, he might take some comfort in the fact that hypochondriac, Duckhunter and Weston will all be in the gallery supporting him. I’m not sure “but Hamas are the only bad guys here” will work as much of a defence there though no matter how often they trot that rot out here. How does two wrongs make a right work again? https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/10/damning-evidence-of-war-crimes-as-israeli-attacks-wipe-out-entire-families-in-gaza/

But there is only one bunch of bad guys here! 🙄 Apparently this is a direct quote from the Israeli Minister of Heritage, Amichai Eliyahu. ”North Gaza is more beautiful than ever. Blowing up everything is amazing. When finished we will hand over the lands of Gaza to soldiers who lived in Gush Katif”. Also Amnesty International has verified that the IDF has used white phosphorus against civilians in Gaza and Lebanon. When this was originally put to the IDF they denied it. I realise that by posting these I am someone claiming that Hamas aren’t so bad after all.

It really isn’t that hard to understand is it? If Hamas is so intent on killing Jewish people, why aren’t they going after the softer targets in Jewish communities in other countries? If that is their sole aim they really aren’t making a very good job of it are they? This is about land.