Welcome to LED no. 25….
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Brexit – Prime Minister May Set out Her Vision
The Prime Minister has just given what was probably her most important speech on Brexit. Fortunately for her it is probably her best. I was expecting something far worse. I was wrong. You can find the whole text here – but despite the carping and complaints this is a speech with detail, vision and a great deal of practical common sense. I was pleasantly surprised. Its not what I would want – because I think that the EU can’t be trusted and we should just get out – but given the circumstances in her own party and the continued campaign of the Establishment, funded by billionaires like Soros, against Brexit, its probably the best she could have done. Its also been a week where the old Establishment came out of the woodwork – Blair, Major, Campbell, Heseltine et al claiming that Brexit was a ‘historic mistake’. I accept that given the amount of ‘historic mistakes’ they made, they are the experts in that particular department, but I’m not sure that we should listen to them! How strange to see Sturgeon and the SNP, the Lib Dems and other Left/Liberals praising and siding with Major and Blair….
From a Christian perspective we need to pray because the whole situation is an impossible mess – with stupidity, pride, greed and power games being predominant on all sides. May’s speech was reasonable and offered compromise (too much for my liking) but I doubt it will work or be enough. Mainly because the EU is completely intransigent and the powerful within it don’t have to worry about being re-elected. They are not accountable so they can play hardball with other people’s lives. Plus the EU is not primarily concerned about what is good for trade – they use trade for political ends. And their apologists in the UK speak as though it is just about trade. From a Christian perspective (whatever our political view) all we can do is pray.
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The Beast from the East.
There are lots of stories about the storm currently afflicting the UK. I’ve hardly been out the house for the past couple of days and have had to cancel a few things. I woke up this morning to a frozen house because our boiler was bust – thanks to our Christian Polish plumber, Konrad, for fixing it. And to the joy of hearing Nigg, Portmahomack, Fearn, Arabella and other names from my home area of Easter Ross being mentioned. Here is a photo published in a local newspaper by a Christian farmer friend of mine – showing the roads around my parents house.
Once again we are reminded – that however much we think we are in control, our times are in someone else’s hands. It’s not us who command the elements!
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Scottish Government Consultation on Gender Self- Identity.
Thursday this week was the last day for responses to the Scottish government’s consultation on gender self-identity. I will publish that probably next week but meanwhile here are a couple of stories that again illustrate our societies obsession with this (or at least the elites who run it).
The Bi-Gender Education Convener who doesn’t know what the law is.
Gregor Murray is an SNP councilor and the education convener for Dundee City Council – which makes the following story even more disturbing. Gregor says that he is not a man, but also that he is not a woman. He doesn’t know but strongly objects to my using either he, or she and gets upset if I don’t use whatever preferred pronoun he wants (when The Courier writes about him they have a real nightmare). I however refused to be intimidated by someone who wants to mangle the English language in order to promote his false and twisted Queer Theory ideology. Gregor had a wee twitter spat with me – some of which I reproduce below: it’s worth reading because of the astonishing revelations he makes in it…
“Trepidation” my arse. You’re a hate monger and you thrive on this stuff. The concerted campaigns to respond to this are from those who are mostly against self-ID.
I’m not willing to debate what my rights should or shouldn’t be with you. It makes no difference to your life whatsoever. The fact that you have such strong opinions is frankly creepy.
David, I’ve asked politely, please refrain from using male pronouns. I’m not a man.
No, I am not a woman.
I don’t wish you any harm. I’m confused..If gender isn’t sex are you saying that biology has nothing to do with gender? Or are you saying male and female is not sex but gender. And again can you tell us as well as male and female, how many genders there are? Or are you confused too?
I can’t answer a question that makes no sense. Sex is biological. People are male or female or intersex. Gender is a social construct. People can be men or women or in between or neither or…
You are being ignorant. I believe in being nice to all people, so yes. I think that makes me a better person than you, since you spend your days fighting against social progress and against better rights for the most marginalised in society. It’s not what Jesus would have done.
This consultation IS just about changing paperwork. I’m pretending nothing. That’s literally what this is about, some ADMIN.
Do you deny that if someone self -identifies as a woman legally they will now have to be regarded and treated as a woman? Which one of my scenarios was wrong?
Yes, I deny that, and all of your scenarios. They’re all wrong. Getting a GRC does none of those things.
Ok – this is really important. Let me repeat the question for you. Are you saying that even if I change my gender by self-identity I have no legal right to be regarded or treated as my new gender? Really?
Not by anyone else, or by companies or whatever, or sports clubs, or….. anything really. This is about us and how the state records us for official purposes.
Does changing my gender identity give me the legal right to be regarded as the gender I wish to identify as? Why can’t you give a straight answer?
I did give a straight answer. I’m denying it.
It is just paperwork. You can repeat the same sordid lie over and over as many times as you like, but it won’t make it true. There are no laws in Scotland on changing rooms, toilets, sports, or any of these other things. No one is proposing we have any.
You get the gist. But here we have a city official telling us that being able to self identify as whatever gender you want (of the 71 that apparently exist) is just paperwork and admin. It has nothing to do with the legal right to be regarded as whatever gender you self identify as. I was astounded that he specifically denied that. And then when he said there were no laws about a man going into a woman’s restroom, or prison etc. I was stunned. He actually agreed that I as a man had the right to do that because there are no laws against it. Again you need to remember that this man is in charge of the education of our children. And this poster is an example of the kind of ‘education’ he is pushing.
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The Feminist Sport for Queer and Trans Glasgow Teenagers
I was phoned by a journalist this week and asked to comment on lottery funding being used to help failed asylum seekers (I thought it was a good idea) and also to comment on the following advert.
This latter one seems to me to be a nonsense. Most obviously it claims to be about ‘inclusion’ but proposes to set up an exclusive club for Queer/Trans teenagers. Although they are careful in their questions not to ban the 98% of Glasgow teenagers to whom this does not apply, nonetheless they make it very clear that they are not welcome. I love it that they think that ‘roller derby is inherently feminist’! As the journalist pointed out a disproportionate amount of public money is sent to groups like this – who would not exist without it, because there just isn’t the demand for it. This is not about equal provision for young people. It is about promoting a particular ideology. Think about it this way…can you imagine the government giving me money to promote a club for heterosexuals? Oh – but its for the marginalised. Excellent. If that’s the case then I will be putting in a big grant request for one of the most marginalised groups in Scotland today – Christians. Lets see how equal and diverse our authorities really are!
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Prayer is Harassment
The Labour MP Fabian Hamilton has claimed that people kneeling in prayer outside abortion clinics is harassment.
“Writing in reaction to pro-life vigils outside a Marie Stopes centre, he said such people are part of “fanatical groups” – an accusation rejected by pro-lifers.
He wrote: “Unfortunately, women who use abortion centres are becoming regularly exposed to abuse and harassment from anti-abortion activists standing outside the clinic, often kneeling in prayer”.
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Iceland Seeks to Ban Jews
In a move that would have made Hitler proud, the most atheist/liberal country in the world, Iceland, is proposing to ban Jews. They of course deny this, but in seeking to ban
circumcision they are seeking to ban Jews. It is as though they said Christians are welcome but they are not allowed to baptise! Mind you Iceland would mean that Muslims are banned as well….for the past couple of weeks I have listened to militant secularists defending this and suggesting that it should be applied in the UK and Europe – in order to protect the children of course!
Finally a beautiful song for your edification….
Quote of the week:
“But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.”
1 Corinthians 16:8-9
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
I write on behalf of the SPTE. No, that’s not the defunct Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive. It’s the Society for the Preservation of True English. Our society – well, it’s really my society as I’m the only member – is dedicated to preserving the true English language from becoming Americanised. We are having a tough time of it. Already true English terms such as railway station are becoming replaced by the American version. Fairy cake just had to go. Now the word biscuit is under great threat. But also the word toilet is an endangered species in need of careful protection. Like the American grey squirrel rapidly replacing our native red squirrels, the American term restroom is advancing inexorably in replacement of our beloved toilet. But restroom is a strange word. I mean, how many Americans go into such a room to have a rest? Most of us go in, do our business and get out as quickly as possible. But then, Americans can be strange people. So on behalf of the SPTE I say, give it a rest and call it a toilet. And a fairy cake. And a biscuit. And a railway station.
Okay, there are more important issues than the Americanisation of our English language (although I do feel very strongly about that) so here’s a link to a very good article by Anthony Esolen on pronouns and Jordan Peterson.
https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2018/02/28/profiles-in-courage/
What further delights await us? Well, I can imagine that it won’t be long before we cease walking on pavements and instead use a sidewalk. When we get into a car we won’t be getting into that four-wheeled vehicle that we drive about the place. Oh no. We will be getting into a railway carriage. And when we buy gas it won’t be to heat our homes but to refuel our car – oops, sorry, automobile. The man who drives the train will be called an engineer and a place where you can park lots of automobiles will be a … yes, you guessed it. The big road which goes from Glasgow to Edinburgh will be renamed the F8 as freeway will replace motorway. And you’d better get used to the strange American way of saying Monday to Friday but I’ll leave you to discover that one if you don’t already know it. When I travel to the fifty-first state of the USA (ie. Germany) I hear a lot of these words because Germans nowadays, like a lot of British people, learn their English from watching American films (sorry, movies) and television programmes (sorry, shows). But it’s interesting to see how rapidly a new word or a new use for a word becomes common usage. Somebody decided that impact is now a verb and that it should be used instead of affect. Thus we no longer say, for example, “The snow has affected travel around the country.” And all of a sudden everybody stops using ‘affect’ as a verb. But here’s the thing, whatever process is at work changing our language is also at work changing the way people think. Just think about the way people thought just ten years ago about two men getting married and think about the way most people think about it today. Think transgenderism. And next think polygamy.
I spotted this recently when I was in Trafalgar Square.
http://metro.co.uk/2016/09/18/gay-and-here-to-stay-lgbt-traffic-lights-wont-be-removed-6135953/
It gets sillier and sillier!
“If that’s the case then I will be putting in a big grant request for one of the most marginalised groups in Scotland today – Christians.”
You should, churches get lottery funding all the time!
Hi there David,
I note that you say I’m wrong in law. I’m happy to be corrected if you could show me where in law I have erred.
Thank you,
Gregor.
Yes – your statement that the change in law would not mean that a woman who identifies as a man would legally have to be regarded as such. Your statement that its just paper work.
What was clearly evident before the Brexit vote is becoming obvious to some who voted Remain, the intransigence of the EU, that is now repelling Daniel Finkelstein – see his piece in The Times newspaper March 7th.