Off Topic Politics Thread

This is one hell of a response to Hunt, by Rachel Reeves.

 

She is brilliant...

 

After previously denying that there had been any formal complaints about Raab, this confirms that that a formal complaint was made in March by a “group”.


STAFF working for Dominic Raab went to their GPs with stress as he presided over a “perverse culture of fear”, a formal complaint claims.

It says “unreasonable deadlines” had such an impact on Ministry of Justice civil servants that some were signed off for extended periods.

The document, seen by The Times, claims the communication style of the Justice Secretary and Deputy PM, and some working closely with him, was “often abrupt, rude and can be upsetting”.

It goes on: “There have been multiple recent examples of colleagues being left in tears.”

The complainants say they are “extremely worried about the perverse culture of fear permeating this department”.

The document was submitted by a group of Ministry of Justice officials in March. It was resub-mitted this week as staff wanted to be sure it had been understood it was a “formal” complaint.

Previously the Government claimed no formal complaints had been made against Raab.

A close source said that with an investigation under way, it would be be inappropriate to comment.

 

And on NHS expenditure.


BRITAIN has spent around a fifth less on healthcare than other European nations in the last decade.

Analysis shows the UK spent 18% less per head of population on the NHS than the average in the original 14 EU countries.

The NHS faces a staffing crisis and record waits.

Anita Charlesworth, of the Health Foundation, said: “The impact of lower spending is apparent in the challenges facing the NHS today.

 

Couldn't see any reference to the law you mention, but I'll take your word for it. Drag artists have been around for years without any intervention, so why is it that politicians are getting involved now? Have you considered that instead of keeping to the adult entertainment industry, they are now masquerading as children's entertainers and even though you seem to be comfortable with that many people aren't.

You are very selective with your answers, having totally ignored the video clip from an actual drag artist who would have more inside knowledge than you could ever have. So, unless you have some personal experience what makes you feel you know better?

As to the article about a drag artist showing his genitals or not, the "fact" check seems very biased in favour of the drag artist and the manager at the library is hardly likely to admit he's hired a pervert.
Even so, whether or not his tackle was on full view, what is not in doubt is there was a man in a mini skirt with his legs wide open towards the young children. What I find strange about this and a little concerning is that you (and presumably the people that liked your post) see no problem with this whatsoever. Putting the rights of an adult entertainer before children's welfare suggests you have your priorities all wrong. As Drag Queen Kitty Demure says “Spreading your legs and rubbing your breasts for children doesn't make you a queen it makes you a groomer”.

In previous posts you have defended the rights of transvestites over women and girls, where again you said there were no problems with that situation. Rather than deflect away from a welfare problem by saying they are all lies maybe you should address your state of denial.

 

He he he, snigger snigger

 

Here's the law. The underlined are the additions, which mean that i) anything that involves drag automatically renders a venue a 'sexually oriented business', and that any 'sexually oriented business' cannot have children present, even at a different time.

https://t.co/jWIwuM7149

Politicians are getting involved now because a certain subset of the hard right wants to use attacks on trans rights as a means to wedge in other forms of social control over marginalized groups, and to launch the political stars of a few presidential hopefuls. That's it. That's the whole game. There is no actual precipitating event, just as there wasn't when the exact same people started a hysterical panic months earlier about Critical Race Theory being taught in elementary schools. They're using it as a springboard for a broader push for extreme reactionary social policy, as they themselves are all too happy to admit:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-...l-strategy-of-ron-desantiss-dont-say-gay-bill

The original picture is out there, you can see it for your damned self. They just slapped a big black 'censored' bar over a perfectly harmless picture (that was carried by freaking newswire organizations, that's where they took it from) of a fully-dressed person and pretended they were exposing themselves, and you ate it up because it suited your worldview. The people you keep trusting for your information keep lying to you. You keep repeating those lies. Does it not bother you that they have no qualms about making you look silly by repeatedly placing you in this position? Do you not worry that the frequently with which they totally fabricate these things suggests that their arguments might not actually be so strong, because people with strong arguments have actual evidence and do not need to make **** up continuously. Yet they keep making **** up. Continuously! Wonder why.

You keep referring to drag performers as "adult entertainers". You genuinely don't know what a drag show is like, do you? You seem to think it's some sort of stripper thing. It's a comedy show, my dude. The drag performers don't get naked, they make jokes. Sometimes off-colour. Sometimes not! Totally depends on the audience.

 

At a hunch I would guess the “problem” with the clip is that the artist in it is a self admitted conservative. So I can only assume this means their view on this issue is automatically considered biased and should be discounted? Not so sure myself

Perhaps they move in particularly raucous drag shows themselves? But I’m not sure why it would be in their own interest as a drag artist to represent the behind the scenes stuff so negatively.

 

Here is a reason why public transport should be "public" and not owned by prívate companies. Here in.Mallorca, the regional.Government has passed an act permitting residents to travel freely on all forms of public transport in 2023!

 

On the adult entertainer point - I think he is going on the words from the drag artist in the video. The video may not be representative of all drag shows but they say what they say. And not knowing about what you get up to in your spare time I can see why he would place more wait on what the performer in that video says about drag shows than what you do.

Granted it is almost certainly cherry picked and there are probably dozens of videos from drag artists saying the opposite. But equally I assume there is more than just one saying what this one does. No one is going to go an make a catalogue

There is also a bit of a problem with your point about a sub set of the hard right pushing it. That being - it isn’t true. There are lots of people uneasy about this general area and they are not relegated to a sub set of the hard right. You could try and badge them that way if you wish but that would massively broaden the umbrella for the “hard right” to contain a larger chunk of people than you might think. If it was truly how you described then it would be a pretty useless issue to try and launch anyone’s political aspirations. (It still might be - time will tell).

The CRT thing worked as there was enough “smoke” even if it was over exaggerated. And when your response to someone saying “look at all this smoke” is to say “there is no smoke but if someone told us they were going to light a fire we wouldn’t stop them because the smoke isn’t a problem” - then you lose. Like in Virginia

 

From the front pages it looked like only the express seemed to support the budget. The sun buried the criticism. The mail didn’t

 

It absolutely is the hard right pushing it. It's a group of conservative activists, backed by a few conservative governors who have national ambitions. Again, they freely admit this themselves. The quote that I posted, about making attacks on CRT and trans issues and the like the backbone of a new 'social conservativism', because issues like school prayer and gay rights are no longer salient? He supports it.

Attacking marginalized groups in order to foster in-group social obeisance is the oldest play in the reactionary playbook. Which marginalized group is being attacked varies by era, but the tactic -- and the aim -- is always the same.

Funny thing about Virginia: they set up a CRT hotline for parents to call in with all of the instances of CRT being taught in schools. They quietly shut the hotline down because no one was calling, because it was never a thing. There was no fire, only a smokescreen.

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/05/1134...ov-youngkin-last-year-has-been-quietly-shut-d

 

Edit: double-posted, my internet is going haywire.

 

The point I think you might be missing is that it is the hard right pushing this and their aim (with quite some success) has been to make 'lots of people uneasy' about a subject they probably never gave a second of thought to in the past. The 'lots of people' aren't extremists, the pushers are. I'd be prepared to bet that not even a handful of people had any opinion on drag shows before those on the Christian right in the US forced it into public consciousness. That's the insidious thing: people start to worry about something they've never even thought about and have no way of explaining why it's suddenly a reason (as someone's said on here) to vote in a particular way. cf Brexit.

CRT was an obscure minor subsection of law degrees until it was completely redefined* and pushed into public consciousness by exactly the same group of people highlighted above.

Vin

*Into basically anything concerning discussing race in schools, so of course examples could be found.

 

One wonders how many people worried about the impact of panto on young minds previously. (Clue: nobody).

 

Having read all the above, Id be more worried now if someone at a panto shouted out to me “he’s behind you”.

 

This was my point, about the travesti actors in the Commedia del Arte which evolved into the modern pantomime dame. Panto is always on two levels, pure filthy innuendo for the adults but innocent fun from a child's perspective. If people want to start calling it out as being morally corrupt, not only does it ruin everyone's fun, but in itself the calling out becomes a corrupting influence because you then have to start explaining to 6 year olds what's going on.

 

Now can't help but think of this: