Regular readers may remember our recent shamelessly triumphal piece reporting entry at 22 in the top 50 Scottish News Websites, headed by the Daily Wrecker, and synchronistically, just below the more heavily staffed Falkirk Herald, my old local before my move to Ayr in 1984.
This places TuSC in second place for pro-Indy sites behind only Wings at 17. Don’t tell the Rev Stu but the Scottish Trans Alliance is just below us at 38. Readers can see the whole chart at:
Top 40 Scottish News Websites On The Web
Footnote: STV News is at 3 with BBC Scotland News nowhere to be seen.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Shamelessly triumphal? Modestly triumphal surely…
You’ve gathered a good group of contributors too, a good variety and interesting stuff coming up all the time, I think Ludo is still the winner for contributions, I like his presentation style – comment/intro, link, then snippets – I wish my thoughts were as clearly ordered! On that note,,,
Now that you’ve mentioned the T word, I want to share some links of interesting information – I really appreciate what Stu is doing to keep us informed of the ‘debate’, and I think I can assume that most people want to avoid it, it being apparently controversial, and with the mainstream media NOT keeping us informed (I am glad his SNP-bashing has calmed down a bit too – most ‘socially progressive’ (I.e. Not Tory) political parties are on the bandwagon, but I appreciate with the SNP in government there is a danger of them pushing through socially harmful policies if not kept in check). I am not going to link specifically to debate issues here, just origins of money and ideology for a bit of perspective.
A couple of things first – this is a global phenomenon, and many countries are affected, and many institutions have been infected worldwide. There is no ‘best practice’. Gender dysphoria is a mental illness, quite a serious one, and the people that have it deserve compassion, but they also need professional support, psychiatric support. The reason the arguments might not make sense is because there is no rational solution when a serious mental illness is involved, so don’t try to make sense of it. There are already human rights protections in place, and anti discrimination laws. I would say we could, as a society, be far more accepting and compassionate, but the current ideology that is being forced on everyone will not achieve that, and will do more harm than good. The main danger is, of course, to children who do not have the physical or emotional maturity to deal with this.
The GRA reform consultation, well, it is a difficult read. There is a large amount of confusion between a gender stereotype (which can be anything, it’s a social construct) and gender as sex – the two are conflated and not defined. A big issue is they would like to do away with the psychiatric and other kinds of evaluation: I believe this will cause more harm than good. Strangely, they never once suggest removing the fee for a gender recognition certificate – surely as a medical condition, this could be issued free?
So, why has what everyone thought was a fairly small minority group issue started affecting the whole of society, throughout the world? A few clues: money,,, lots of money
The Billionaires behind the LGBT movement – a journalists investigation on the origins of funding, and likely why this has become a huge global issue
https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2020/01/the-billionaires-behind-the-lgbt-movement?fbclid=IwAR3b1dG1oAHGtUhftFwzRlMS-8M2Mff3P_XebcpbnKOSx5SWcun7LVxV7T8
Effectively the large pharmaceutical companies are rubbing their hands in anticipation of selling lots more unnecessary, and dangerous, drugs.
Here is an interesting thread on where the actual ideology likely started…
Twitter thread on psychiatric origin of treatment in gender and it’s redefinition
https://mobile.twitter.com/TwisterFilm/status/1224766770805866499
Here is a link putting in perspective how sometimes we have to accept our bodies the way they are, and a comparison,
Disabled human rights:
https://mobile.twitter.com/TheSkelf/status/1228163975042359303
Letter asking for clarification on the GRA consultation (unanswered?)
https://mobile.twitter.com/mbmpolicy/status/1225379169581883392
During my background checks looking into the institutions involved in PFI deals, I realised how little I knew about how government actually works, and what the civil servants role is in government. I am learning more about it still, but the civil servants will be the part of government that advises on the legal and policy aspects, they say what would work, to a proposed new policy from ministers. It puts into perspective those ‘failed’ policies of the SNP government – if it fails, it could be because the advice given has been inadequate. I started to get very concerned about the Scottish government procedures when they avoided the judicial review that Alex Salmond had brought to court – I detected a distinct lack of transparency – something that we were promised. A judicial review can be a very good thing, and should have been welcomed.
A serious risk assessment needs to be done on the GRA reform bill, particularly on how it will affect children. A new generation all growing up with PTSD from the trauma is not something I would like to see.
John – this will go into moderation because it has too many links, please feel free not to publish it, or if you just want to use any of the links and no comments please feel free to do so too – I certainly don’t want to attract any unwanted attention to your blog!
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Thanks Con
V Impressive
Worthy of a more serious outlet but I’ll def do it tomorrow
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