Friday 26 January 2018

New Puritanism Working Against Feminism

The latest #metoo puritannical female hysteria seems to be set dead against the normal feminist agenda.

Instead of promoting the strong woman as an equal to men i.e.feminine equaility, what #metoo is doing is promoting the idea of females as victims.

Seems to me that the whole thing is counter-productive.

If a bloke assaults you, kick him in the nuts, grab his arse back or whatever: don't be a victim. All the hashtags and memes, concerts and the like will not teach women to stand up for themselves. It is not empowering. It is promoting the idea of females as victims and the idea that all men are bogeymen no matter how innocent their intentions.

I mean, even men who have chatted up women are getting smeared by this movement. How nonsensical is that?

Taking it to it's logical conclusion, all the #metoo women should wear more black in support. Maybe a Burka? That's the Muslim solution to predatory men. Why not adopt it in the west?

Of course it's the same mindset: to protect female victims from all men who without exception are predators.

Thursday 25 January 2018

W. T.F.

I'm bemused about fallout from the Presidents Club Dinner.

As far as I'm aware, it was a dinner arranged where men would be the diners and female waitresses were employed to wear skimpy cosutumes while serving.

Each side knew beforehand the sort of occasion that would be taking place. The waitreses were entitled to walk away and not to serve at that dinner if they felt at all intimidated by it. In days gone by women with a backbone would have attended and have given as good as they got. All taken in fun and with no fallout. Not the new puritans and the jelly-spined young women of today it seems.

So I'm staggered that some men are being castigated for being men and touching a couple of lady bottoms. I've seen Hen Parties do exactly the same at  mainly female parties. It's just what people of either gender get up to when the booze starts to flow freely. Lads and Ladettes are just as bad as each other, there is no inequality at all when it comes to the weekend.

I've even more staggered that men who attended the dinner and didn't touch any lady parts are tarred with the same brush and forced to resign/give up fees/whatever the new puritannical social media mob demands. I mean, you wouldn't convict a person of murder of someone else at the party shot someone would you?

What the fuck is going on?

Are men not allowed to act like men these days?

And I'm not talking about rape, predation or abuse of power before anyone gets on their high horse.

I'm talking about the honest banter and high-jinks that happens between sexes when the drink flows freely. It happens on both sides. If we're now saying that it's become a taboo subject, then God help the human race. If the between sexes social banter that goes on in pubs, clubs and cafes across the world is now taboo, then people will never find partners.

I feel sorry for the new puritans that think this is a bad thing. I feel sorry for them that they are so socially crippled that they fear such intercourse. I feel sorry that they will never experience flirtation, or if they do that they find it dangerous or are fearful of it.

They are in a minority and should stop trying to impose their social ineptitude on the rest of society.

I am a man, I am proud of it. I don't have one iota of shame from being born male. Nor do I feel superior because of it, I believe in equality. I'm a bit socially awkward, but I don't crow about it and demand the rest of the world changes to suit me.

In my younger days I've been flirted with quite seriously but missed the cues (just part of growing up), I've had my bum felt by ladies (probably because I missed all the other cues) and I didn't immediately demand they resign or issue a public apology. I took it as a compliment that I had a decent bum at the time. It's now sadly older and less desirable and married (as is the rest of me). My wife seems to fixate in my nipples every time she goes near me but I don't demand a divorce or a public apology because of it (although it is bloody annoying).

I think we need to get this back to an even keel and stop with the hysteria. Yes, rape, abuse of power, predation, under-age-sex and all those things are bad. Flirtation, high-jinks and between the sexes banter are not and should not be criminal offences and people should not be hauled over the coals for what after all is just human nature.

And can feminists start acting like adult women please and not like spoiled children?

Tuesday 23 January 2018

What Now For UKIP?

If it's true that UKIP doesn't have enough money to run another leadership election, it doesn make you wonder why the party's NEC voted no confidence in their leader, triggering another membership vote rather than thrash the problem out and come up with a less costly compromise.

Not being a UKIP member, I don't know whet's going on in the party, but it seems to me the NEC cannot seem to support any leader the membership vote for.

From my observations it seems the UKIP NEC is quite evenly split between the various factions and if any one side sees a weakness then they pull away their support for the leader in an attempt to get their preferred candidate in place. It seems that the UKIP hierarchy have lost the art of politics: the sort of deal-making and loyalty that keeps a fractured party together.

Instead it seems the top of UKIP are a boiling mess of macchialvelian machinations: plotting, back-stabbing, disloyal and with no sense of direction or leadership. I get the task of restructuring the party is like herding cats or platting fog: virtually impossible.

If I was a member of UKIP I would be deselecting members of the NEC for the amount of treachery and chaos they have wreaked on teh party.

There is a distinct lack of backbone and sense of purpose. No wonder, since winning the Brexit referendum UKIP have lost most of their sense of direction. It's a bit difficult with a one-policy party to steering it in a dirction once that policy has been achieved.

However, if I may, here's some ideas:

1. UKIP needs to start being an honest broker in UK politics, pointing out where party politics is adversly affecting the performance of government.

First off, on the NHS, UKIP needs to point out that both Labour and Conservative are correct. The Conservatives are correct in that record amounts of money are going into the NHS budget, but that Labour are also correct in that less of that money is going into NHS care.

The reason being that most of the NHS budget is going into paying lawsuits rather than front-line care.

UKIP should point out to the other parties that omitting the whole truth to serve a narrative is devisive and morally wrong.

UKIP policy should be that to solve the problem of the NHS you first need to be truthful in order to understand what is causing the problem and fix it rather than throwing money at it. i.e. Reducing lawsuits increases the money available for care.

Including (but not exclusively as Nigel farrage used to try and make it) the increase in the population. No need to look like a racist eh? But seriously, in the last decade the population must have increased by a third. Tax take hasn't risen and spending hasn't risen in step with those figures. So what's going on? Quite obviously a lot of those new immigrants aren't paying tax and the government therefore doesn't have the money to pay properly for the NHS.

Also the payouts of those lawsuits is calculated on the victim being cared for by private care for the rest of their lives. However in most cases that ongoing care is then provided free by the NHS. A double-whammy to the NHS. In these cases, NHS lawyers should add a clause to the payout that if the patient seeks ongoing care from the NHS after a payout for the condition the NHS caused, then it's only fair the NHS should charge private rates and recoup those costs.


2. UKIP needs to start defending UK forces and defence spending. As with the NHS the two main parties are telling part of the truth. Labour want to ditch the Trident nuclear deterrent as it is horrrendously expensive. It sucks money from other defence projects. However it is a necessary evil: we do need a nuclear option in order to defend the UK.

UKIP policy should be to defend Trident.

However, the rest of the defence budget needs to be spent more wisely. If anyone has followed the debacle of the Snatch LandRovers, they would also have followed the plethora of vehicles that have followed as replacements. Umpteen different vehicles have been procured with different capabilities and now relatively new vehicles are being sold off after being bought at huge cost. Such a waste.

UKIP needs to highlight this wastage and suggest a more intelligent and open procurement policy.

Now on the big issue of the moment, Brexit.

There is a whole raft of nonsense running around about Brexit. UKIP need to cut through the bullshit and start providing clarity on where policy should be and the cost effecitveness of any concessions we make to the EU.

For instance the budget that we have so far agreed (without any agreement on trade, which to me seems like extortion) UKIP should be there in the fray telling it like it is.

It should also be highlighting the differences between a hard Brexit and being in complete control of trade, immigration and borders and the cost of shackling ourselves to the EU single market and customs union.

Instead, UKIP are consumed with infighting and plots. Without leadership and stability in the party, there is a very grave danger of Brexit not happening or at least being weakened substantially at great cost to the UK taxpayer.

3. UKIP needs to be shown to be inclusive. It seems that women and minorities in the party are pretty poorly represented. They need to have more prominent candidates for more posts. Showing the party as a team of people rather than the Nigel Farrage party. Having "normal" people in post would help.

But for God's sake vet them first and make sure their girlfriends stay quiet!