Please speak up against the ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza

I am urging my readers to speak up about the ongoing, indiscriminate and entirely disproportionate bombing of Gaza by the Israeli Defense Force in retaliation to the Hamas attacks on 7th October. 

The ongoing attacks by the IDF are what is known as collective punishment, an action which is considered internationally to be a war crime.

Opposing these attacks does not mean that you support Hamas or its terrorist attacks; nor that you are in any way anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli or against the civilian population of the State of Israel.

I implore you to speak to your elected representative in your own state. As a British national, I have emailed a letter to my local MP, Lloyd Russell-Moyle. A template for a letter to your MP can be found here. You can send your letter through the form on the site, or email or indeed post it your MP directly. There are other templates available, and for people in other countries, there will be similar templates and methods of contacting your local representative in order that they raise the issue with your national government. 

I would encourage you to personalise the letter as much as you can while maintaining the factual basis and message, in order that it is considered thoroughly; multiple identical letters are more likely to be ignored.

BLACK LIVES MATTER

I've been wondering whether or not to write anything about the current horrific state of affair in the US following the murder of George Floyd. I'm not there, I'm not directly affected, I've already lost friends who are directly affected by the riots and who disagree with my stance.

But I feel it's important to make my stance clear. I've posted about it plenty on social media and I think anyone who follows my blog will know where I stand. I stand with those protesting against the oppression of black people in America.

Am I happy that there are riots? That it's come to violence? Of course not. But every form of peaceful protest has fallen on deaf ears. The system of justice and government in the US is intrinsically against anyone who isn't white, straight, rich and male, but black people are treated the worst. When society is systemically so against you, the only way to fight is to fight.

Still, the vast majority of protests have been peaceful, even in spite of this. Most of the property damage has been by white supremacists or undercover police intending to incite anger against the protesters. There are reams of footage, easy to see online and being reported around the world showing the brutality of the police. Against protesters, against medics, against reporters, against bystanders, against people in their own homes surrounding the conflict. Yes, there are some good cops standing with the protesters and engaging with them, which is wonderful. Yes, there are bound to be some violent thugs and opportunistic looters amongst the protesters. They are the minority. If the violent protesters give the rest a bad name, what do the violent police do to the force? What do the ones who have murdered black people with impunity done to the force?

Now, with Trump ordering the tear-gassing of peaceful protesters in Washington, DC, in order to co-opt a church for a press op, then ordering police and the military to retaliate against the protesters, his presidency has finally tipped completely into a dictatorship. He has declared Antifa - not an organisation, merely a like-minded cloud of people who are opposed to fascism -as terrorists. You are supposed to be against fascism.

A lot of us in the UK have been saying the US is heading towards a civil war, and I'm of the opinion the nation won't exist by 2040. This would seem to be the start of it. It's going to get worse before it gets better, and I am very, very worried about my friends in the States.

And no, I still don't blame the protesters.


REMEMBER: Riots and protests got your your rights. Stonewall was a riot started by a black woman of colour, without which queer people would have few of the rights they have today.

REMEMBER: Just because you don't have it easy, doesn't mean you are not privileged. I've dealt with some difficult things, but my skin colour and racial background has never been the source of that. It is always going to be easier for me in western society than it would be if I were black.

REMEMBER: Yes, Asian, Middle Eastern, Native American, Hispanic and other minority ethnic groups suffer from systemic racism as well, but not to the terrifying degree that black people do.

REMEMBER: Trans women of colour are the single most mistreated group of people in the US, suffering a hugely disproportionate  number of murders and miscarriages of justice.

REMEMBER: We are not innocent in the UK. Our police force is less dangerous and less racist than in the US, but unpunished murders of black people in custody still happens far, far too often.

REMEMBER: It's not about black vs. white, it's about good people vs. racists and brutes.

REMEMBER: There are violent people of all colours and backgrounds. There are good people of all colours and backgrounds. Anyone can do something wrong, but the police should be, must be, held to a higher standard. They should be the best of us, not the worst.

Lockdown ramblings

I think the above is rather beautiful. All the living Doctors (well, nearly) together to praise the doctors and carers and medical supporters of the UK. Matt Smith has a very nice house, I like that Colin Baker's wearing a Thirteenth Doctor T-shirt, and if anyone wants to bitch about Jodie Whittaker and Jo Martin being on there, they can fuck off. It's a pity Eccleston didn't do it, especially as he's such a vocal NHS supporter, but there's a lot of complications between him and the BBC so better not go there. Tom Baker is OK! Although he's looking so old now. David Bradley is missing too, although you can watch him on season two of After Life, if you don't mind crying your bloody eyes out.

It's a good, important message. I've not been joining in with the raucous applause and saucepan rattling, mainly because it winds the dog the hell up as it is, but I totally support people celebrating the NHS like that. I support the idea of Comic Relief and Children in Need coming together (which isn't that big a deal, they're both run by the BBC) to raise money in an impromptu event, to support those in particular need right now. Even though there's still the sour taste left by people in luxurious mansions telling us flat-dwellers "we're all in this together" and the super-rich asking that we delve into our pockets to donate. Stephen Fry and Prince William had better have coughed up some serious money.

That's the problem. With every glorious coming together like this, I can't silence my cynical side. (Which is, you know, my main side. It's probably three sides out of four, like a grumpy rhombus.) The Big Night In event wasn't to raise money for the NHS per se, but that's the unspoken understanding. I'm not going to go into the government's response to the pandemic in much detail, there were mistakes but I think it's been largely sensible except for the baffling refusal to engage with the EU over ventilator supplies. However, having spent ten years systematically defunding the NHS, then making all foreign-born doctors and nurses feel unwelcome in our country, clapping for them seems a bit offensive. The NHS isn't perrfect, but we're lucky to have it, and it's been so utterly shafted by the Conservative government that it's barely able to cope with the normal level of healthcare needed.

No we have old men and women raising money for it, and doing incredibly well. It's amazing that they've achieved that, and if anyone wants to give extra to the NHS, good for them. But the NHS is not a charity, it is a national organisation that is paid for by taxation. We have already paid for the NHS, only to see funds diverted and the organisation eviscerated. This is a clear step along the path to the NHS becoming a private organisation supported by donations, and that is appalling.

Meanwhile, we have tax dodgers like Gary Barlow asking us to donate to national causes, and the Prime Minister, among others who voted against a rise in nurses' pay, clapping the workers they've deliberately harmed. It's sickening.

Please come together and celebrate, and give what you can. But don't believe it when we're told we're all in this together.

Top of the tree in what's ostensibly still the most powerful country in the world, and somehow they still don't think it's good enough.

Imagine if these people ever faced actual oppression. pic.twitter.com/dhPCbtfEjO

— Large Adult Goat (@JuliusGoat) August 12, 2017

They march in, angry that the chief figure of slavery and oppression is no longer permitted as a figure of reverence.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-40912509

And when violence breaks out, as it so easily does, the weight of the law will crash down hardest on those who are fighting to recognise that their people are the oppressed, not these conservative cretins. How many neo-Nazi, modern KKK bastards will face actual consequences for their actions today? How many black counter-protesters will see the inside of a cell?

Women's Rights - February 2017 edition

While MPs in the UK have begun petitioning for legal proceedings against employers to fight against sexist dress codes for female employees, President Trump has insisted that his female staff "dress like women."

Trump has also instructed his education team to begin rolling back the Title IX legislation that has slowly been making US universities responsible for the sexual safety of their students. Betsy DeVos has pledged to review whether Title IX is actually necessary, in spite of what has been decribed as "an epidemic of sexual assault on American campuses." In a related move, the religious freedom movement has allowed a number of Christian schools to apply for the right to waiver Title IX. This would allow them to refuse students who are LGBT or pregnant out of wedlock, and would also have the effect of removing any protection they have against sexual violence. 

Arkansas has passed a law that would make abortion legal under any circumstances, which would have the side effect of allowing rapists to sue their victims if they became pregnant, even in cases of incest. While there is still time to block Act 45, the fact that the legislature of the state passed it in the first place is truly horrific.

Due to the continual reduction of funding to NPOs in England, a clinic and support group for the victims of female genital mutilation will soon be forced to close. A petition exists to help try to prevent this.

The Russian courts have effectively decriminalised domestic abuse, a move that has set women's rights back significantly in a country where spousal abuse is commonplace and thousands of women are killed by their partners every year. The move has even been backed by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Amal Clooney and Nadia Murad are fighting to prosecute the crimes of Islamic State militants, who have systematically abused Yazidi women and children during the ongoing conflict in Iraq, Syria and the surrounding territories. While this piece makes for some very upsetting reading, it is also important to highlight the horrific extent of the abuses by IS, and the complete failure of the West to provide a lifeline for the Yazidi.

And this is just the last week or so.

And the candidates are...

Monstrous hypocrite, entitled posh cretin and general pig-molester David Cameron has marked his decision to leave the posts of Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister. This does, unfortunately, mean that now we will spend the next few months having to hear which evil bastard is actually going to take control. The Conservative Party remains in charge, which means we are restricted to a selection of untrustworthy monsters with the collective moral fibre of the hoards of the Lilim, who will not be elected by the public, but chosen by a ballot of yet more career bastards. Animated ball of belly-button fluff, Boris Johnson, has already dropped from the race, having led himself into an untenable position. Here are our potential insect overlords:

Stephen Crabb:

Positives: Resolutely working class, Crabb grew up on a council estate and would be a huge breath of fresh air after a run of Etonian ponces.

Negatives: A backward, fundamentalist Christian viewpoint. Hugely homophobic, having stated that homosexuality is an illness and can be cured. Basically a genuine threat to the rights of any non-straight individual. Like most candidates, voted to reduce disabled people's living allowance. Basically looks like a bit of a cunt.

Liam Fox:

Positives: A former GP, so likely to have at least a basic scientific knowledge and some indication of human spirit.

Negatives: Breached government policy due to his working relationship with a close friend. Vehemently pro-Leave and is vocally against the free market, so would potentially make the UK's financial position even worse (if that's actually possible). A bit of a fat-faced nonentity, otherwise.





Andrea Leadsom:

Positives: It would be refreshing to have a woman in Number Ten after many years of male dominance.

Negative: With similar views on free trade and free movement as Fox, and a viciously homophobic streak, Leadsom is essentially the female Boris Johnson, albeit with less embarrassing hair.



Theresa May:

Positives: Again, a strong female candidate. Genuinely shrewd and intelligent, and committed to her party.

Negative: Unfortunately, that party is the Conservative Party. While May is, technically, a woman, she's a woman in the same way Thatcher was: basically an approximation of the female human hewn from the very substance of hell. Only she lacks Thatcher's warmth and easy charisma. May is notably homophobic and anti-immigration and seems determined to remove the human rights of anyone who isn't a rich, white, able Briton.



Michael Gove:

Positives: Doesn't appear to actually want to eradicate homosexuality, from what I can see.

Negatives: Massively pro-Leave, being one of the main Brexit campaigners, yet doesn't seem to have the guts to follow it through. Voted to reduce disabled people's living allowances. Was on a one-man mission to utterly undermine the British educational system. Horribly anti-intellectualist, he has made a point of trying to get voters to ignore financial and educational experts. A back-stabbing weasel who looks like a wet sponge in NHS glasses.



Other potential candidates include NHS saboteur and classic rhyming slang Jeremy Hunt and bleary-eyed, coke-nosed incompetent George Osborne. Thankfully, these individuals seem to have ruled themselves out of the race by backing one of the above, although career politicians, especially Tories, are notoriously keen to change allegiance and knife their colleagues in the spine.

The only names to have come up that offer any real hope for a fair and sane PM are Nicky Morgan and John Baron. Unfortunately, Morgan has decided to back Gove for some reason, and Baron appears to be persona non grata. Meanwhile, Labour, rather than taking advantage of this political shambles, is making a concerted effort to be even more shambolic and will probably have torn itself apart by this time next year.