Interesting Links for 03-06-2025

[andrewducker]

1. Musk Weighs Return To Politics After 60th Death On 'Elden Ring Nightreign' Tutorial

(tags:ElonMusk satire games politics )

2. Download festival clarifies stance after being slammed by Manchester band in trans bathroom row

(tags:LGBT transgender festival Manchester toilets )

3. Vodafone and Three UK Officially Complete £16bn Merger

(tags:phones business UK )

4. Brits think that we should spend more on defence, but we shouldn't raise taxes or cut other spending to pay for it.

(tags:tax military uk money government )

Comments

4 - Defence spending

[wildeabandon]

I feel like a more accurate description would be "Brits think that we should spend more on defence, but disagree on how to pay for it", as the 29% who think we should raise taxes and the 29% who think we should cut other public spending adds up to more than the 49% who think we should increase defense spending.

There are plenty of examples of the public wanting incompatible things in UK politics, but this doesn't appear to be one of them.

Re: 4 - Defence spending

[andrewducker]

Yes, this is a totally fair point, I wish they'd asked a combined question.

Re: 4 - Defence spending

[danieldwilliam]

And if I'm reading it correctly the question about tax increases included the rider "on people like you."

Brits potentially happy to have increased defence spending if other economic classes pay for it?

Re: 4 - Defence spending

[andrewducker]

Brits potentially happy to have all sorts of things - if other people pay for it.

[cmcmck]

Lush have withdrawn their support from the download festival!

[andrewducker]

I hope they can sort things out.

[cmcmck]

It's simple- download need to drop this nonsense and fast.

[andrewducker]

I misunderstood the article and thought they'd backed down. I'm glad most of the toilets are gender neutral, at least. (Which is what I'd expect at a music festival, thousands of portaloos)

[doug]

Yeah SFAICT this has no more “clarified” the situation than the Supreme Court judgment.

[simont]

"Prime Minister, in politics a clarification is not to make things clear, it is to put you in the clear."

[cmcmck]

And no one seems willing to explain how they'd enforce any of this.

Women both cis and trans, have a tendency to look like women!

[bens_dad]

To paraphrase Lord Sumption, the supreme court says it is not illegal to ban trans people from gendered loos, but you don't have to.

[cmcmck]

That's true enough.

We're off to the Dartmoor folk festival shortly and they have portaloos but also gendered toilets and I'll be using the latter as they are a lot more pleasant, have proper washbasins and mirrors where I can fix my hair or face.

What else do they suppose a woman does in the ladies'?

[andrewducker]

It's what they're for!

[marymac]

I'm trying to think of a situation in which you are reduced to using the Long Drops (ranks of portaloos bolted on top of a portable septic tank, for those unfamiliar) where you give not a flying fuck who's on in the one next to you as long as they can eg: be persuaded to help you find your friends after you drop your phone in one (RIP whoever's phone that was jingling away down there for two days straight at Electric Picnic 2011)...

[calimac]

That's what I thought. Large festival, in a park = portaloos. Which are single occupancy, so sex labeling is needless.

[channelpenguin]

What IS the supposed issue with toilets as opposed to any other place in the world? TO me, they are no special case of anything. To me, if a person commits violence/crime, then it is irrelvant WHERE (or who, or what gender they are). Clearly some very vocal minority think otherwise about toilets in particular. What is the logic? (or "logic").

[cmcmck]

The very vocal minority being a bunch of shouty TERFs egged on by Rowling.

If a guy really wanted to do this (and the numbers of recorded cases are close to zero) he would put on a reflective jacket and carry a mop and bucket rather than wearing a frock yet with all this wanting to ban trans women, they clearly don't intend to do anything about male cleaners in the ladies' (not that they have ever bothered anyone as far as I can see if it means the loos are clean) and the number of cases of trans women abusing cis women in the loos is precisely zero in the past fifty years.

[channelpenguin]

It is utterly daft. For the reasons you state, plus I have seen some APPALLING borderline behaviour in lesbian bars, hence my view that gender and crime are and should be utterly seperate things (and that only the latter needs state attenion!)