As we all have, I’ve been thinking about Auckland. For some strange reason that great classic film, In the Heat of the Night, keeps popping up in my addled brain. If you haven’t seen it, look away now!! :)
In the film black detective, Virgil Tibbs from Philadelphia (Sidney Poitier) is visiting his mum in a small town in Mississippi when he gets embroiled in a murder investigation and has to work with the racist sheriff, Sheriff Gillespie ( Rod Steiger). To cut a long story short, Gillespie is basically won over by Tibbs.
That’s what we have to keep doing, isn’t it? Look at the perfect storm in Scotland! If Joe and Josephine Public ( I appreciate that they are not the same as Sheriff Gillespie but hopefully you get my drift) actually get to grips with this gender madness, most of them will go with us. All comments welcomed! Am I barking up the wrong tree…in the wrong field? Or what?
They call me Mr Tibbs
No Dresses!!
Isabela Marsans in the Daily Express (Parents' fury as primary school axes summer dresses to make uniform 'gender neutral' 03 April) reports:
A Lincolnshire primary has sparked outrage after it removed the "option to wear a red gingham dress" in a bid to move towards "gender-neutral" uniforms. Parents of children at Huttoft Primary and Nursery School, in the Lincolnshire village near Sutton on Sea, have fumed after they were told summer dresses were no longer an option and "now been removed from the policy".
The email, sent on Friday afternoon … said: "This change has been brought in due to our pupil voice to make our Uniform Policy gender neutral."
However, the primary quickly followed up and said the email sent was an "error in communication" and the summer dress ban was only meant to "assist parents in keeping costs down".
The school has been accused of "backtracking" by a mother whose three-year-old daughter attends the nursery school, adding that parents are angry and the email received fierce criticism especially after being shared online.
She told the broadsheet: "A lot of the parents I have spoken to are quite outraged by it.”
I should coco!
What is a Woman, Mr Prime Minister?
Christopher Hipkins, Kellie-Jay’s favourite ( New Zealand) prime minister, had a bit of trouble over the above question ( this is now called The Sturgeon Moment - well, by me anyway) :
Isn’t that a bit like having trouble over ‘what is 2 plus 2’?
Obviously 5 according to Hipkins…Starmer…Yousaf …Trudeau etc …
The questions were asked of Mr Hipkins by the wonderful Sean Plunket of The Platform:
Apparently the mainstream New Zealand media are not covering this albeit that the rest of the world are on it!
Rita Panahi on Sky News Australia ( of course …go, Rita!) has fun with this:
Glinner Update
Thanks as ever, JL, for a comprehensive round up of (mainly) horror stories . Very interesting that the trans identifying monster Mr Jade is referred to by the media using female pronouns ( even when they include a photo of an obvious bristly bloke) but when reporting on the trans identifying female Nashville killer Audrey Hale the media either use female pronouns or avoid pronouns altogether! If you are writing a piece about an individual it is actually (of course) very difficult and takes a lot of effort to avoid using pronouns! So this is clearly deliberate!!
https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/i/111024382/monday-th-april-this-never-happens
And, of course, then JL cheers us up with the Good News:
https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/a-week-in-the-war-on-women-monday-a5b
EDI Latest
Discussion on mental health amongst teenagers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2wVRmL-Llk&t=25s
Third sector organisations:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lsEK_71T70
Very important letter from EHRC to the Secretary of State re the definition of ‘sex’ in the Equality Act (look at this one if it is the only one you look at):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAKQxaxGreY
Times Round Up
My wonderful friend who sends me loads of clippings from the Times has sent me an absolute shed load…so bear with me on that! I am travelling tomorrow so I have my reading material!! If you see someone reading lots of newspaper cuttings on a train, do say hello :)
If you like this update, please share with a friend. I am out and about tomorrow on paid work, Terven, so bear with me ( Thursday looking a bit difficult as well!). This isn’t over yet! Please subscribe for free, like and comment.