Current Affairs

Coronavirus – Day #85

~ Cheryl ~ 2 Comments

Well, what a day!

Things began overnight with a certain very rich writer of dubious children’s books spouting transphobia over her Twitter feed. I had to unfollow and block one person, but in general I was very proud of the way my own personal social media bubble rallied round. Good show, people!

Just about when that was starting to die down, the Black Lives Matter demo began in Bristol. I wasn’t able to attend, and indeed many of the Black people I know stayed away because of health fears. Cleo Lake and some other community leaders organised an online protest with the hashtag #BristolTakeTheKnee, which I participated in. And then I got on with some work.

The next thing I knew, people had toppled the statue of Edward Colston and dumped it in the harbour.

For those of you who don’t know, Colston made an huge fortune from slave trading. He did pay some of it back by donating money that helped the city, but that’s no excuse for all the lives he destroyed. However, because of that philanthropy he had various things in the city named after him, and a statue erected in his honour. Much, if not all, of this was done in late Victorian times long after the slave trade had been abolished and when the white population of the city had managed to forget its horrors.

The Black people of Bristol did not forget. For decades now they have been campaigning to have Colston’s name removed from the city. Many of my friends from Ujima have been involved in that. Members of the white establishment have fought them every inch of the way. Last year the concert hall agreed to change its name, but attempts to even acknowledge Colston’s unsavoury habits on the plaque on his statue were ferociously resisted. We all know what happens when attempts at calm and reasonable protest are blocked.

A couple of things are worth noting. Firstly the actual act of toppling the stautue seems, from the video I have seen, to have been done by young white men. When Tim Maughan wrote about the People’s Republic of Stokes Croft in Infinite Detail he wasn’t joking, and didn’t make it up. Secondly, while Avon & Somerset Police maintained a presence at the demonstration, they did not attempt to intervene or attack the crowd. Those responsible for actually toppling the statue will be investigated, but public safety was maintained and there was no violence. This sounds very different from what police in London and Manchester have been up to.

The government is, of course, livid. I would not fancy being Marvin Rees (the Mayor) or Sue Mountstevens (the Police Commissioner) tomorrow morning.

I understand that the BBC has given air time to both David Olusoga and to my friend Olivette Otele, both of whom are more than capable of explaining just why so many people in Bristol want Colston gone.

And now I have to make a radio show. It will air on Wednesday, but I should deliver it by the end of tomorrow. And I won’t have time to do any interviews. I have been collecting civil rights songs to play.

Coronavirus – Day #84

~ Cheryl

It rained quite heavily today. Clearly the English summer has arrived. Are we back to “normal”? Somehow I doubt it.

Anyway, I spent the day reading, writing a paper about Roman philsophers, cooking, and attending an online event. I don’t feel like I’m missing out by not leaving home.

This weekend people seem more angry with the Unpresident than with Bozo, which I’m sure will be a great relief in Westminster.

Coronavirus – Day #83

~ Cheryl

Who would think that radio and TV could be so tiring? Today I recorded an interview for next week’s radio show, and did the broadcast with Dan mentioned in the previous post. Then I collapsed and slept for a couple of hours. Part of me suspects that if I was back having to travel to meetings I would not be coping at all well.

Anyway, stuff got done. Hopefully people will be entertained by it.

The news from the outside world is that the R number in the south west has crept above 1. R is a measure of the nuber of people infected by each infectious person, so an R above 1 means that the number of cases is accelerating. This is not good.

I know that there is a major Black Lives Matter demonstration planned for Bristol on Sunday. Folks, if you are at all at risk, please don’t go. The City Council (which of course means Marvin Rees and Asher Craig, both of whom are Black) has this suggestion for showing solidarity on social media instead.

Coronavirus – Day #83

~ Cheryl ~ 4 Comments

I’m sure I accomplished some things today, but almost none of them were things I had planned to do. There was unexpected Diversity Trust email, unexpected death of a friend, and two good TV documentaries that I had expected to be an hour long and were both two hours. Oh well, I have at least finished the Wizard’s Tower accounts for the month. Now I need to get to bed so that I’m awake to record an interview and to do the thing with Dan tomorrow.

The biggest news in the outside world is that the NHS has updated its guidelines on the provision of cross-sex hormones to trans adolescents. Current regulations say that these can be prescribed at age sixteen, generally after a long period of assessment by the youth gender clinic. The new guidelines are almost laughably unscientific.

They talk about how this treatment might have irreversible effects such as breast growth (in trans girls) or the voice breaking (in trans boys). You don’t say? That’s kind of like saying that cataract surgery can have the irreversible effect of better eyesight.

They note that such treatment might lead to infertility but should not be used as a form of contraception. Really? Who on earth would use it for that? I know that oestrogen is an active ingredient in the birth control pill, but would anyone seriously think of using testosterone?

And finally they talk darkly about the lack of knowledge of the long term effects of such treatment. Well hello! 26 years and counting. And I’m not the only one. There are plenty of us about, many of whom have been on hormones for far longer. But of course no amount of actual evidence will stop these people from scaremongering.

There are two things that we can take from this. The first is that the outcome of the the judicial review into the operation of youth gender clinic has already be decided at a political level. The clinic will be found to be operating unsafely, and it will be shut down, regardless of how much evidence to the contrary is presented, and how many young lives it has improved.

The second is that it won’t stop with kids. The idea that giving trans people hormones is “unsafe” clearly doesn’t only apply to teenagers. GPs now have a carte blanche to refuse to supply them to adults as well. It won’t be long before the adult gender clinics are threatened with closure as well.

Coronavirus – Day #82

~ Cheryl

Back to staying at home and working for me today: day job, Wizard’s Tower accounts, and some stuff with Mike Carey which will all come to fruition in due course.

It was Prime Minister’s Question Time again today, and once again Bozo lost badly. That’s despite the fact that he was caught cheating with an earpiece in so that aides could whisper appropriate responses to him. It won’t be long before he turns up roaring drunk and refuses to answer any questions ever again.

Meanwhile the plan to re-convene Parliament in-person has gone very badly wrong. The Business Secretary, Alok Sharma, has been taken ill and is being tested for COVID-19. If he tests positive that’s presumably a whole bunch of MPs needing to self-isolate, including all of the Cabinet. Jacob Rees-Smaug was apparently heard to say that there was nothing wrong with being undead, and the sooner the whole of Westminster followed his example the better.

Today on Ujima – A Nalo Special

~ Cheryl

I was back on the radio after two weeks off today, and I must admit that it is getting hard to find guests for the show. People are either run ragged or thoroughly depressed by the state of the world. Fortunately I had done those two interviews with Nalo for the One25 fundraiser, and I knew hardly anyone had watched them, so I was happy to run those on the show.

Before I did that, I spent some time reflecting on the current situation in the USA. My thanks to Lyda for sharing her experiences of Minneapolis after the first night of rioting. I figured that things would have got worse by the time the show aired. I don’t think I had quite expected 45 to declare war on his own people.

The show also has some new music from Labi Siffre and from Lianne La Havas. It also has two songs each from the fabulous Canadian women that Nalo introduced me to. Measha’s Brueggergosman’s version of “Both sides now” is a thing of beauty.

Oh, and I played a song for Bozo.

If you missed the show you can catch it via the Listen Again service.

Here’s the playlist:

  • Prince – When Doves Cry
  • Lizzo – Like a Girl
  • Bruce Springsteen – Streets of Fire
  • Bob Marley – Revolution
  • Gil Scott Heron – The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
  • Janelle Monáe – Americans
  • Andy Allo – When Angels Make Love
  • Jimi Hendrix – Angel
  • Measha Brueggergosman & Martin Short – Misty
  • Shakura S’Aida – Brown Sugar
  • Labbi Siffre – Why Isn’t Love Enough
  • Lianne la Havas – Bittersweet
  • Linda Ronstandt – Lies
  • Measha Brueggergosman – Both Sides Now
  • Shakura S’Aida – This is Not a Love Song

Here’s the song that I played for our abomination of a government. (The first one.)

If anyone has something they’d like to promote on next week’s show, please get in touch.

Coronavirus – Day #81

~ Cheryl

I made my weeky visit to Tesco today. All seems pretty much as usual, except that flour supplies are now almost back to normal. Hardly anyone is wearing masks, but at least people are being respectful of distance.

Today was a significant day in the history of the UK’s parliament. During the past few weeks of Lockdown, Parliament has been operating electronically. MPs have been able to debate and vote online. By all reports I have seen, this has worked very well. However, the government, in the person of Jacob Rees-Smaug, has seen fit to insist on a return to in-person meetings. This has had some very negative effects.

To start with, a number of MPs have been completely disenfranchised. That’s because they are elderly, disabled, vulnerable to infection, or caring for someone who is vulnerable. They won’t be able to attend or vote, and the people who voted them into Parliament are effectively disenfranchised too.

Secondly, the new voting system that has been devised to preserve social distancing takes around 45 minutes for a single vote (with MPs having to queue for most of that time, outside in the hot sun). That futher disenfranchises MPs whose health is not good, and it makes the act of voting such a nuissance that MPs will want to avoid it where possible. It also takes time out of the Parliamentary schedule, which makes it harder to scruitinise what the government is up to.

Many Tory MPs are reportedly furious about having to go through this rigmarole, but most of them voted for it anyway because it was only their personal inconvenience that mattered to them.

Practically speaking, of course, an 80 seat majority means that the government can do pretty much what it wants anyway. Not having a functional parliament simply makes it harder for the opposition to find out what they are up to and to challenge it. But we are well on the way to being a country where the Prime Minister, Mr. Cummings, can rule by dictat.

Still, at least it is all very British and civilised. It could be worse, we could have armed Trumpist militias terrorising the populous like they have in the USA.

Coronavirus – Day #80

~ Cheryl

I’ve spent the day reading and editing Wednesday’s radio show. The latter hasn’t been fun because I have had to find things to say about what’s going on over the Atlantic.

The impression I’m getting from social media is that people in the UK are acting as if Lockdown is over now. I’ll know more after I have been to Tesco tomorrow. I’m tempted to stock up for a couple of weeks in case there’s a massive spike in infections by this time next week.

I understand from Facebook that there will be a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Bristol on Sunday. I’m going to prod people at Ujima to see if there is any way that people can participate virtually.

Coronavirus – Day #79

~ Cheryl

Progress! The new Salon Futura is now online, so you can read some of the things I have been writing over the past week. I have also done a couple of online meetings, and got thoroughly depressed about the state of the world, and the USA in particular. Hang in there, American friends!

Tomorrow I get to edit together a new radio show, which means I need to talk about what is happening across the pond. That won’t be fun, but it is very necessary. Now more than ever we need to stand up in support of our PoC friends, in particular Black Americans.

Here in the UK the weekly rolling average number of deaths from C-19 has been more or less flat for about a week now. That’s after it had been falling steadily for over 5 weeks. So of course Bozo has picked this time to tell everyone that it is perfectly safe now. I’ve been seeing pictures of packed beaches on social media. I’ve also been seeing photos of large-scale demonstrations in support of our friends in the USA. I shall be relived, but very surprised, if we don’t see a sharp rise in the number of C-19 cases very soon.

And now, the Q.U.E.E.N. has a message for you.

……………………………………………………………………………….

Coronavirus – Day #78

~ Cheryl

Today has been mostly spent on putting together next week’s radio show. I’m quite nervous about this one because things are moving so quickly these days that it seems a bit unwise to commit to anything a few days in advance. The situation in the USA is particularly volatile. But I can’t go into the studio and if I pre-record I need to give people time to get the files onto the system.

In other news we have our first opinion polls since CumGate. Two different polling organisations have announced new results this evening. One shows a 7-point swing from Tories to Labour. The other shows an 8-point swing in the same direction. Not the best of news for Bozo. He’s busy trying to distract the public from the crisis by re-starting football and horse racing. The phrase, “bread and circuses,” comes to mind, but without the bread.

Coronavirus – Day #77

~ Cheryl

Another day, more stuff written. Today has been quite exciting from a local history point of view.

These days Fridays are Queer Britain Lockdown Hunt days. Queer Britain is a project that aims to build a bricks and mortar queer museum in the UK. Every Friday my lovely pal Dan Vo does a Twitter takeover where they focus on one particular type of queer memorabilia. Today the object was badges, of which I have plenty. So I did my bit and tweeted some photos.

During the day Dan does brief interviews with various queer celebrities, much as he has been doing for Museum from Home. His first guest today was Sue Sanders of LGBT History Month, who had some announcements to make.

First up, the LGBTHM theme for 2021 will be Mind, Body & Spirit. Sue also announced the five “faces” of 2021, one of whom will be Michael Dillon. That’s a perfect choice (if I do say so myself, ahem!). Dillon was an Oxford graduate, and keen thinker, a champion rower in his younger days, a deeply spirital person, and later in life the first Western European to become a Buddhist monk.

This means, of course, that I am likely to be rather busy next February. I’ve already started the planning process, and I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to bring you some as yet unknown Dillon facts when we get there. Watch this space!

Out in the world, the UK government continues to be a laughing stock (or laughing at us in the case of Matt Hancock, the Minister for Death). But events here have been overshadowed by the unfolding disaster in the USA. When I saw the rallies that Donny Little Hands did for the Police Union in 2016 I got the impression that he saw a heavily armed police force as his own private militia that he could turn to should he need military backup. It gives me no pleasure to see this coming true.

Anyway, my very best wishes go out to all of my friends in the Minneapolis/St.Paul region, and to all African Americans wherever in the country you might be.

Coronavirus – Day #76

~ Cheryl

Another day in Lockdown. Not much news. I have written things. You will be able to read some of them soon.

Out in the rest of the UK, things have gone a bit mad.

Our government has been operating virtually for several weeks, but Parliament has now voted (by which I mean that the government pushed through a vote) to “return to work”. Online participation will no longer be allowed.

However, social distancing rules are still being observed in Westminister. No more than 50 MPs will be allowed in the chamber at any one time. There are over 600 MPs.

Furthermore, the utterly archaic system that Westminister uses for voting involved crowds of MPs trooping through Aye and No lobbies, and this is clearly contrary to all social distancing rules. So voting will not be allowed.

Which means that Parliament can debate (sort of), but cannot actually pass any legislation. Which presumably means that the government will be ruling by fiat.

People, if you thought that Cummings going on a road trip was outrageous, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Coronavirus – Day #75

~ Cheryl

Today was mostly a being an historian day. I have a book contribution for which the edits came back last week and which I need to finish this week. That’s mostly done. Can’t tell you much else until the book is officially announced. But I’m glad the project is going ahead despite the craziness.

I also did a food shop. As things are starting to get back to some semblance of business as usual I’m trying to move to shopping once a week rather than once a fortnight so I can make sure I get fresh fruit, veg, etc.. Tesco had some flour today, which I guess is progress.

Elsewhere the rolling weekly average death count in the UK ticked upwards today. One day does not make a trend, but I worry about the combined effects of the glorious weather and CumGate.

Talking of our inglorious leaders, today was Prime Ministers’ Questions day in Parliament. This is a sort of gladiatoral combat entertainment in which opposition MPs line up to try to make the Prime Minister look an idiot. These days it is more like feeding Christians to lions. Bozo is so good at making himself look an idiot that no one has to try very hard. Thankfully the opposition are at last competing among themselves to see who can cut him down in the most elegant and witty fashion.

None of this matters, because he has a massive majority. Sure, a few have got upset over CumGate, but not enough yet that he’s ever likely to lose a vote.

Coronavirus – Day #74

~ Cheryl

Today has been mostly day job again. Code has been written. It isn’t exciting.

Elsewhere the political storm that has become known as CumGate rumbles on. For the benefit of foreigners, the story so far is that our allegedly beloved PM, Bozo the Clown, has fallen under the influence of a charismatic guru called Grigori Rasputin. The people have decided that Mr Rasputin is a selfish and dishonest piece of excrement who is apparently only charismatic to people he is able to blackmail (meaning most of the Cabinet), and he has been caught doing all sorts of terrible things. Even the Daily Malice has had a go at him. But Bozo will not abandon his beloved teacher, and in any case Rasputin has more blackmail data on Bozo than on anyone and would happily leak it to the media if anyone crossed him. A number of junior Tory MPs, who are more afraid of pitchfork-wielding mobs of their local peasantry than of Rasputin, are believed to be plotting an assassination. Their heads are expected to appear on pikes on Westminster Bridge next week.

Coronavirus – Day #73

~ Cheryl

I totally forgot to do a post yesterday, didn’t I? I’m sorry, I was having fun at Wiscon.

Today has been back to work for me, so there’s nothing much interesting to report here.

As to the wider world, the people of Britain are continuing to find out that their government simply does not care what they think of it, and there’s nothing that they can do about it. I suspect that the total refusal to admit any wrong-doing is the point. They want to rub people’s noses in the fact that they can do whatever they want. Once people realise that their anger is futile, it will morph into despair, and then resignation. And then further outrages become possible.

Coronavirus – Day #71

~ Cheryl

Today has been very busy.

I’ve made a start on an academic paper for an online conference that’s happening in 3 weeks time.

I’ve participated on what WE believe is the UK’s first — possibly the world’s first — socially distanced protest march. Thanks to everyone who shared the #PayProtectProtest hashtag on social media.

I watched the Formula E from Virtual Berlin (while doing the ironing).

And I have spent much of the day at Wiscon, which continues to be interesting. Today we saw some of the ways in which online conventions don’t work quite as well as face-to-face ones; or at least we haven’t developed the right techniques yet. Overall, however, I’m still very happy. You can expect a more detailed report in the new Salon Futura (which will be out next week).

On social media the Great British Public has morphed into the Very Angry British Public. Not that it is likley to come to anything, because the government has a majority of 80 and utter contempt for the electorate, but it is good to see that there is something that will get people riled up, and that it is not owning a donkey farm.

Coronavirus – Day #70

~ Cheryl

Hmm, yes, I was going to write about stuff. But I got distracted by an online convention. Which I think is a good thing. I love how people are suddenly willing to try all sorts of solutions to not being able to meet in person.

My main news from today is that I have noticed that after 10 weeks in Lockdown I am starting to get distinctly larger. As I don’t want to have to buy a new wardrobe, I have decided that I ought to start taking my government-mandated daily exercise. Besides, tomorrow the Women’s Equality Party is staging a socially-distanced protest march in support of carers and care workers. I need to go out and walk for that, so I got some practice in today. Somewhat to my suprise, my legs remembered how to walk.

I think that’s enough excitement for one day without looking at the news.

Coronavirus – Day #69

~ Cheryl

Life is slowly returning to normal here. I did some day job work today. But a lot has fallen by the wayside this week. There was no radio show as I was busy all weekend. And I totally forgot to do a new Lockdown Reading book today. Next week.

The main order of business today was food shopping. While I was out I also picked up my prescription, so I am OK for hormones for another 3 months. This is a huge relief.

The weather here is gorgeous. People are going to want to get out and about, especially as we have a bank holiday weekend. I’m planning to stay at home. After all, I’ll be spending quite a bit of time in Virtual Wiscon, which will mess with my time schedule.

Oh, and OutStories Bristol launched a new project today. I’ll tell you more about it tomorrow.

Coronavirus – Day #68

~ Cheryl

OK, the #GiveItUp125 thing is now over. I’m sure a lot of you are relieved. The rest of you, I hope you enjoyed the show.

Tomorrow I get back to normal-ish life.

The news from the “real” world is that MPs have voted to stop meeting remotely and instead convene in person from the beginning of June. The word is that Bozo is failing badly at Prime Minister’s Question Time and he wants to have his baying mob of back-benchers there to support him from now on.

Oh well, at least they are getting very well paid to risk their lives, unlike most NHS staff and other “key” employees.

Coronavirus – Day #67

~ Cheryl

Important as all this fundraising is, I will be glad when this week is over. I might be mostly free of virus-like symptoms, but I’m not fit enough for long work days. Thursday and Friday won’t be quiet as I have to cram a week’s worth of day job into two days, but I don’t have a radio show next week so I won’t be working all weekend.

Today’s bit news from the real world is that Hungary has passed a law banning gender changes. There are going to be a lot of very frightened trans people in Hungary right now. It will be interesting to see how the EU reacts to asylum claims. They must know that the same sort of thing is likely to happen in the UK soon, so anything they do for Hungarians will set a precedent.

I don’t think the UK government will start repealing laws just yet, but what they are doing is issuing “guidance”. Well, the government isn’t doing it. Random politicians are doing it. But that’s just testing the water. What I expect to happen is a new “interpretation” of the Equality Act which defines trans rights as being discrimination on the grounds of sex so, even though trans people are theoretically protected, anyone who tries to give equal rights to trans people will open themselves up to being sued for discrimination under the Act.

Oh, and the government has also been boasting about taking away our freedom of movement. I note that I do not earn enough to be allowed to move to the UK as an immigrant, but I apparently also earn too much to be eligible for income support under the government’s scheme to help the self-employed during the pandemic.