The Law Commission set out proposals including measures that would lead to tougher sentences for stirring up hatred against transgender people.
The Government’s official advisers on legal reform also proposed granting special protection from prosecution for those who express ‘gender critical’ views, such as feminists voicing doubts that a man can change his sex to female.
But the most vocal of trans activists consider that very belief to be 'stirring up hatred'. So if you think they are going to sit down and finally shut up, you're very much mistaken...
Judges should be given the power to hand longer sentences to offenders who target transgender people in crimes such as assault, its 545-page report added.
Once more, the punishment will depend on what's in your mind, and not on what violence you actually carried out. It's a recipe for disaster.
The Law Commission’s proposals will now be considered by ministers, who will decide whether to implement them.
Anyone want to take bets on whether the Tories will finally show some moral courage?
A mural challenging the negative stereotypes associated with travellers has sprung up in Basildon.
The town centre mural, delivered by non-profit art organisation Things Made Public, celebrates the town’s travelling communities and heritage.
Painted by Irish artist Irish artist Aches, the mural depicts two children tending to a horse – long part of traveller culture and history.
Artist Aches said:
“This piece was painted to challenge the negative stereotypes associated with the travelling community.The concept appealed to me because it helped shine a light on a minority group who might not have a big voice in the community and can be wrongly stereotyped. ”
Can be rightly stereotyped too. Stereotypes, after all, exist for a reason.
A trio of female thieves - with 16 children between them - went shoplifting at Bluewater Shopping Centre where they swiped £2,500 worth of perfume.
Shoplifters, eh? Professions, eh? Large families, eh?
And when one of the shoplifters - who all identified themselves as Orthrodox Christian Roma women - was later asked why she had done it, she replied: "The devil possessed me!"
As expected. *sighs*
Maidstone Crown Court heard how the three had stashed 21 bottles of expensive perfume among four layers of skirts, with special pockets which were worn over trousers.
First offence? *laughs*
All three live in the Tottenham area in north London and have previous convictions for theft or going equipped to steal.
Each received jail sentences suspended for two years and were ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work for the community.
It'd be funny if it wasn't such a headache for the retail industry.
The judge, Recorder Patricia Hitchcock QC told her: "You are clearly a regular shoplifter, but now that must stop. You said you had no intention of selling the perfume and that you are illiterate and you didn't know how valuable the perfume was.
"But you had 12 of the 21 bottles in pockets in your many layers of skirts. You were clearly going to sell them for profit."
The judge added that while she accepted that their religion and culture involved women wearing long skirts that didn't include special pockets and slits in the material.
Then put them where they belong, judge - behind bars!
It is understood that the government is increasingly blocking reappointments to public sector roles to bring in new individuals to organisations.
And the progressives are fighting back with all they pos...
Oh, wait. No, they aren't. They are flouncing out!
Sir Charles Dunstone, the founder of Carphone Warehouse, reportedly resigned from the Royal Museums Greenwich board after the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, refused to reappoint trustee Dr Aminul Hoque, an education academic at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Heh! Who knew it would be that easy?
Following the Black Lives Matter protests last summer, Dowden threatened to cut funding to museums and galleries that removed statues associated with British colonialism.
In a warning to institutions last October, Dowden wrote: “As publicly funded bodies, you should not be taking actions motivated by activism or politics. The significant support that you receive from the taxpayer is an acknowledgment of the important cultural role you play for the entire country.”
Gosh! Bare your teeth for once, and the opposition crumbles, or runs away!
Peter Riddell said earlier this week that the government had “actively sought to appoint allies to the boards of public bodies” over the past 18 months.
“This is not the first time this has happened. Such attempts tend to go in waves,” Riddell said. “What is different now is the breadth of the campaign and the close engagement of 10 Downing Street.”
...he suffered from what he calls Bl-aquaphobia, a word he coined to describe the inherent fear black people have of water – a fear that’s “very, very different” from their white counterparts, he says.
“With white people, it’s usually to do with something that’s happened – ‘I fell into the water, there was an accident’, something like that. But there are a lot of black people, myself included, that have aquaphobia and don’t even know it.”
Except Nigeria, where there's quite a big swimming culture, apparently...
Sayso, a musician, who wrote the soundtrack to the film, is one of the few young people in the community who admits to liking swimming but that’s only because he grew up in Nigeria where, he says, it was a common activity.
So why isn't it here, since it compounds risk?
According to Swim England, the sport’s governing body, 95% of black adults and 80% of black children in England do not swim, and only 2% of regular swimmers are black.
It’s an alarming statistic that has life-threatening implications, Accura says, with black children three times more likely to drown than white children.
Wait a minute, though! How do they drown? In the bath? Because if they really did suffer from 'aquaphobia' they wouldn't enter the water in the first place, would they?
But back to why it's a UK issue. Well, would you Adam and Eve it!? Of course, it's 'racism'.
The cultural barriers to swimming – from Afro hair to dry skin, to worrying about the myth that black people have heavier bones – are born of institutional and systemic inequalities that you see right across the aquatic industry, says Danielle Obe, founding member of the Black Swimming Association, a charity which launched last year to tackle the lack of diversity in swimming.
Yes, of course. When is it ever anything else?
“Our community perceives swimming as a white man’s sport. Why? Because that’s what they see!” Obe says, arguing that it’s the same messaging you see whether it’s the Swimming Teachers’ Association or The Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
She points to swim caps as a case in point – they were designed by Speedo 50 years ago for Caucasian hair, “but they don’t work for us because our hair grows up and defies gravity”.
*sceptical face*
To encourage her own children to swim, Obe designed a waterproof wraparound scarf – and has been touting it around manufacturers in the hope that one might develop it.
They showed no interest.
“The perception is they don’t swim anyway, so why should we bother?”, Obe says.
So why don't you form your own manufacturing company?
“We have to do something for our community,” she says. “It can no longer be that swimming is not part of our culture.”
Whose culture? It certainly seems to be part of the culture in other majority black countries...
A council spokesman said: “We are also developing our cultural offering and Barking is being increasingly recognised as the new hub for the creative arts in east London.”
Ah, if only Culture Minister Maria Engel had reached for the intercom on her desk and summoned a constable with the words ‘Please help these two gentlemen. It seems they don’t know who they are…’
Speaking after an event that brought together the heads of 23 of England's leading regional theatres, Boyle told the Guardian that the lack of attention to the arts shown by the culture secretary, Maria Miller, was "outrageous".
"Not one of those [artistic directors, including Hytner] has been even approached by this woman," he said.
"That is outrageous. This is cultural life of our country. She is the minister of fucking culture. I mean, come on."
I thought the ‘minister of fucking culture' was the recently-booted out Mr John 'Secretary Shagger' Prescott?
Boyle, Hytner and the 23 other directors, including Erica Whyman from Northern Stage and Gemma Bodinetz from the Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, had gathered to argue the claims of English regional theatre as pressure on their funding increases.
English theatre was, they said, a delicate ecosystem of creative life, nurturing the talents on which events such as the Olympic ceremonies depended.
But, they argued, it is threatened by cuts to public spending, especially from under-pressure local authority budgets. Speaking of the value of theatre in the English regions,
Boyle said: "What they provide is something else to believe in … Something in our cities and towns that isn't Wetherspoons and Walkabout pubs and Mario Balotelli and John Terry."
I see the hyperbole and exaggeration is flowing like...well,. like fine wine at the Arts Council events.
He added that politicians such as Miller appeared to want "to just swan around with the blooming glamour stuff" rather than undertake serious conversations with those at the sharp end of supporting creativity in the regions.
Riiight. The 'sharp end', eh, Boyle? Good lord, you're not in the trenches, man! Maybe, just maybe, you aren't as worthy of praise and exaltation as your circle of luvvies keeps telling you?
This is funnier than the time Polly mounted her Steed of Outrage and started hacking about with her Sword of Dudgeon. Or Rosie Millard's weeping and wailing over the failure of the ConDems to keep the money flowing into things the public just won't pay money to see...
Speaking about the situation in Newcastle, Whyman, who is about to take up a post as deputy artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, said her own organisation had been warned that Newcastle council is considering, unwillingly, completely scrapping its arts budget in the next three years.
"This is not the decision they want to have to make; but they are putting on the table the possibility of removing arts funding," said Whyman.
"If they take that decision, or even a decision less serious than that, it will devastate the cultural landscape. [Newcastle] will not be that home that people are as proud of as they are now."
*looks around at cultural landscape* Oh, it seems to be doing OK to me.
The average donation from visitors to Bristol's £27 million flagship museum M shed is just nine pence.
I guess they weren’t impressed?
That average of 9p a head is way below the recommended donation of £2 per person.
Even for a family of four that's less than 50p in total.
Well, who ‘recommended’ £2 per person? Especially since Hull Bristol residents had already had their pockets picked for this carbuncle:
So far, the 187,000 tax payers in Bristol have already paid roughly £64 each towards the cost of the museum, as the council put £12 million towards the construction costs.
The £27 million total is considerably more than the £19 million the project was expected to cost in 2007, although part of this extra expense was down to redesign of the original idea for the site.
Was there ever a council-run project that didn’t go over budget and over timescale?
It’s only taxpayer’s cash, right?
The original fundraising target was around £2.6 million. The council had raised £860,000 of this from a number of grants, including £250,000 from Imperial Tobacco, £50,000 from The Friends of Bristol Museum and The Friends of Bristol Art Gallery.
So, one grant from the eeeeeeevil Big Tobacco (and you have to wonder what they thought they’d get out of it in return?) and two from museum-lovers? While the public response was a giant ‘Meh!’…
A number of Evening Post correspondents have raised concerns about the costs involved with the museum.
Jane Jenkins said: "M shed is not the success the council claims – something that cost so much, took so long and delivered so little cannot be counted a success.
"There are legitimate concerns over its ongoing running costs.
"There is a real risk pride and arrogance will compound expensive past errors. We have rarely been told the truth about this museum project, but we are paying for it."
Quite! But not paying by dint of putting your hands directly in your pockets, no. Others are doing that for you!
And John Prentice said: "If it was such a great success, such a brilliant new museum, why did the biggest private support come from a tobacco company?
"People vote with their cash, so what are the levels of voluntary donations from the visiting public? Not much I bet."
And my choice for the finale of this week of culture is 'The West Wing'.
What, you say, the Democrat-centric US series beloved of liberals and lefties across the globe? Where is JuliaM and how have you gained access to her blog?!
Well, it's simple.
It's great TV, great acting, great writing, and some of the most balanced political drama you are ever likely to see. Yes, it centres on a Democrat administration winning three consecutive elections over its seven-series span, but it isn't as black and white as you might think. Barlett is a truly flawed President, not a can-do-no-wrong character you might expect. His staff aren't the whiter-than-white characters you may assume them to be either - they are arrogant, passionate, clumsy, foolish, brave, disloyal and unlucky in equal measures - in short, human.
Plenty of Dems are shown to be as venal and corrupt (and stupid!) as the Repubs, and the finale to season five sees a very human portrayal of the Republican Speaker, Glen Allen Walken, who takes the reins as the President's daughter is kidnapped and does a great job of holding the administration together.
It's often lauded as a liberals wet dream of a TV series, and though I disliked the politics of most of the main characters, it was cracking and utterly unmissable TV right up to the very end.
Here's one of my favourite scenes, from the end of season two, as Bartlett has to make a decision, following the revelation of his covered-up MS, whether or not to run again. The senior staff assemble to watch him take the podium, even his Chief of Staff (played by the incomparable and sadly missed John Spencer) unaware of his decision, as his Press Secretary points out to him the 'friendly' journo primed to ask a non-threatening question:
No better introduction to the quirks and foibles of the US political system exists, or is ever likely to be made...
And here ends our week of culture. Thanks to NorthNorthwester for suggesting this meme, and I hope you've all gained something from it, even if - like me - it's just a bigger Amazon shopping list!
A difficult one this, as there are so many sculptures I like - Landseer's lions at Nelson's Column, the golden eagle that marks the Royal Air Force Memorial on the North Bank, the B of the Bang (now sadly dismantled)...
But I settled on Dale Chihuly's wonderful glass exhibition at Kew, because I saw it back in 2005 and never did get to go back with my camera and take some decent photos. Not that they would have done it justice - the fantastic, organic shapes needed to be seen in the flesh, so to speak, nestled among the wonderful plants in the various glasshouses, or drifting gently in the lakes.
If they ever repeat it, it's worth a trip to Kew to see the most amazing, strong yet delicate glass sculptures in the world...
I caught this morning morning’s minion, kingdom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing, As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!
I love this poem, and it's still the only poem I can quote - in full - from memory. I had to do it for O level English, and have never forgotten it. I wonder if it's still on the curriculum?
I love the cadence and rhythm of its opening verse, and the way it drives the reader on to completion of the whole poem.
And what better literature to grow up on, but Rudyard Kipling's classic, 'The Jungle Book'?
Forget, if you can, the Disney version, both cartoon and live action. Forget, too, Korda's 1942 live action film, though it was better (for its age) - they are all aimed at children, yet this book is red in tooth and claw, and not for the faint hearted, or easily upset modern child. Mowgli's entry and exit to the Jungle realm is bought at the price of a life, a hearkening to ancient rites.
And Kipling's beasts and birds may talk, and have their own laws and customs, but they are unmistakably animals. And the wisdom they impart to Mowgli is still relevant today:
"When Baloo hurt my head," said Mowgli (he was still down on his back), "I went away, and the gray apes came down from the trees and had pity on me. No one else cared." He snuffled a little.
"The pity of the Monkey People!" Baloo snorted.
"The stillness of the mountain stream! The cool of the summer sun! And then, man-cub?"
"And then -- and then they gave me nuts and pleasant things to eat, and they -- they carried me in their arms up to the top of the trees and said I was their blood-brother, except that I had no tail, and should be their leader some day."
"They have no leader" said Bagheera. "They lie. They have always lied."
"They were very kind, and bade me come again. Why have I never been taken among the Monkey People? They stand on their feet as I do. They do not hit me with hard paws. They play all day. Let me get up! Bad Baloo, let me up! I will go play with them again."
"Listen, man-cub," said the bear, and his voice rumbled like thunder on a hot night. "I have taught thee all the Law of the Jungle for all the Peoples of the Jungle -- except the Monkey Folk who live in the trees. They have no Law. They are outcastes. They have no speech of their own but use the stolen words which they overhear when they listen and peep and wait up above in the branches. Their way is not our way. They are without leaders. They have no remembrance. They boast and chatter and pretend that they are a great people about to do great affairs in the jungle, but the falling of a nut turns their minds to laughter, and all is forgotten. We of the jungle have no dealings with them."
And what better film for this particular meme than Powell & Pressburger's 'A Matter of Life & Death: One of the greatest films they ever made, and still a classic to this day.
No pandering to the audience in those days - you were expected to know who all these people from history were, there was very little exposition from the main characters, and it maintains its mystery to the end - is Peter dreaming? Is it real?
It was innovative in its day, in its use of technicolour for 'real life' and black and white for the 'trial' scenes, and it remains one film I hope they never remake, because I can't see how it could ever be bettered...
Often derided for his rather, umm, strange plotting, Scottish author Grant Morrison pulls off a taut, gripping tale best described as a cross between 'The Terminator' and 'The Incredible Journey'.
The artwork by the pseudonymous Frank Quitely is a perfect match for the story (which doesn't happen often), capturing the characters' essential natures - despite their bio-engineered suits - as perfectly as the writer does, and you'd have to have a heart of stone not to shed a tear or two at the ending. The author said in a recent interview for 'SFX' magazine that he actually prefers to write in a happy ending because 'life's not like that':
"Happy endings spit in the face of all the evidence and I love the essentially human defiance of that."
What it contains is interesting enough, but it's the Waterhouse building itself that never fails to take my breath away.
The terracotta facade, with its sculptures of extinct and extant beasts and birds, is worth spending a half-hour or so admiring outside, before going in to see the grandeur of the great hall. Alfred Waterhouse, the architect, said of this building:
"...wherever I thought that the particular objects in view could not be best obtained by a strict obedience to precedent, I took the liberty of departing from it."
The new Darwin centre sits a little uneasily beside his masterpiece, as does the Earth Gallery before it, though it was always intended that the west and east wings would be built, but sadly, budgetary considerations put paid to that.
It's a true masterpiece of Victorian design, and no modern building in London can hold a candle to it.
