Mother to two beautiful girls.
Certified Natural Family Planning Trainer - supporting women to use their fertility cycles to avoid or achieve pregnancy!
Activist: "Your cows are putting carbon into the atmosphere."
Farmer: "Where did they get it?"
Activist: "What?"
Farmer: "The carbon. Where did the cow get it before it put it anywhere."
Activist: "From... eating?"
Farmer: "From eating grass. And where did the grass get it."
Activist: "The soil?"
Farmer: "The air. The grass pulled it out of the air last spring. The cow ate the grass. The cow breathed some of it back out. It went back into the air it came from."
Activist: "But it's still going into the atmosphere."
Farmer: "It's going back. There's a difference between a thing going somewhere and a thing going back. You've described a circle and you're frightened of it."
Activist: "Then just don't have the cow."
Farmer: "The grass still dies in autumn. It rots where it falls. The carbon goes back into the air either way, just without anyone getting fed in the middle."
Activist: "It's not that simple."
Farmer: "It's grass, cow, breath, grass. Or it's grass, rot, air, grass. Same circle, fewer dinners. If that's complicated for you I'd stay away from the water cycle. That one's got clouds in it."
Activist: "Your cows are putting carbon into the atmosphere."
Farmer: "Where did they get it?"
Activist: "What?"
Farmer: "The carbon. Where did the cow get it before it put it anywhere."
Activist: "From... eating?"
Farmer: "From eating grass. And where did the grass get it."
Activist: "The soil?"
Farmer: "The air. The grass pulled it out of the air last spring. The cow ate the grass. The cow breathed some of it back out. It went back into the air it came from."
Activist: "But it's still going into the atmosphere."
Farmer: "It's going back. There's a difference between a thing going somewhere and a thing going back. You've described a circle and you're frightened of it."
Activist: "Then just don't have the cow."
Farmer: "The grass still dies in autumn. It rots where it falls. The carbon goes back into the air either way, just without anyone getting fed in the middle."
Activist: "It's not that simple."
Farmer: "It's grass, cow, breath, grass. Or it's grass, rot, air, grass. Same circle, fewer dinners. If that's complicated for you I'd stay away from the water cycle. That one's got clouds in it."
A few weeks ago, the company I work for issued compulsory "training", including statements such as:
โRemember, if Cathi is trans, saying โshe used to be a manโ isn't accurate. Trans women are women, and they've never not been a womanโ.
I shit you not.
So I've waited till today, when the company hosts one of its quarterly meetings with all the top brass across several sites, in person and online, to read out a statement on exactly what I thought of this โtrainingโ.
I made reference to the precedent set when @MForstater won her appeal in June 2021, and levelled an accusation to the entire company that they are indirectly, and possibly directly, discriminating against all its employees under the protected characteristic of their freedom of belief.
You could have heard a pin drop. At first.
The result?
HR is now bricking it. The training is no longer compulsory. They're taking matters under review, and I've had so many hugs and messages off support from my female colleagues. My boss shook my hand.
It isn't easy speaking up. I've been very nervous till today. But as @ThePosieParker keeps telling me: if not me, then who? If not now, then when?
I think it was important that someone saw a gay man stand up and defend the women he works with, and send a message that this absurd nonsense has no place being forced upon us.
I've sure I've made plenty of enemies at work today and pissed numerous people off.
And I'm glad. I'd do it all again in a heartbeat because it's simply the right thing to do.
Grateful to Times columnist Giles Coren for putting to the sword a local council pipsqueak for trying to put out of business a restaurant in the middle of nowhere where owner Ruth Hanson does all the kitchen prep herself, the washing up, the bookings, the till, payroll and then cooks it.
The restaurant is called Hansom in Bedale, North Yorkshire. To give you an idea of its remoteness itโs 7 miles from Northallerton and 31 miles from York.
So, on occasions, her husband Mark, who had a job of his own, gives up his evenings to chauffeur some guests to and from their homes.
Coren points out when he reviewed the place last year ( he gave it a glowing recommendation) he had to hitchhike from Northallerton station.
No Bedale train, no metro, no Uber hanging around at the corner.
Enter Chris Doyle, licensing enforcement officer for N Yorkshire council, who has written to Ruth saying in his view Mark was operating a taxi service and that would require a raft of expensive and time consuming licences.
Ruth responded that Mark was her husband, he was unpaid and there was no separate charge for the journey.
Doyle said he didnโt care as there was deemed to be a commercial benefit and warned without a licence the council may take legal action.
Coren has a great last paragraph; โ Yeah, you sue her, you absolute local heroes.
โ You teach Ruth and Mark a lesson for being great at their jobs, for treasuring their customers, for trying to create a little joy and make ends meet in a collapsing world.โ
PS Thought youโd like to see what a Ruth menus looks like. This is called the Sunday Sharing Feast.
Starters.
Smoked Leek and Pickled Croque
Monsieur
Whitby Crab Crumpet Pickled cucumber, Garden herbs.
Heritage beetroot, whipped goatโs Curd, Wild Garlic emulsion.
Main Course
Wensleydale chicken, Apricot and sage Wellington.
Honey and mustard mash, buttered spring , cider sauce.
Dessert
Yorkshire rhubarb and ginger trifle.
Cost; ยฃ55.
With publicity thanks to Corenโs column and this tweet I suspect the queue will be out the door and Mark can have his evenings off again.
Yes, the people who call themselves 'trans' exist and they deserve exactly the same rights as everyone else, which, fortunately, they already have in the UK. It would rightly be considered discrimination if a person was refused employment, housing or the vote because they identified as trans.
'Trans women are women' is a thought-terminating clichรฉ. Men are not women. That doesn't mean they're not allowed to present themselves however they like, call themselves whatever they like and believe whatever they like about themselves. It means they haven't changed sex.
If we replace the objective, observable characteristic of sex with the unfalsifiable concept of gender identify, women and girls lose, among other things, their right to fair and safe sport and women-only spaces, including changing rooms, prison cells and rape crisis services.
Women and girls are provably more vulnerable to forms of abuse including sexual assault, harassment and voyeurism in mixed-sex spaces. There is no evidence that trans-identified men don't have exactly the same rates of criminal offending as all other men.
Trans people exist. I have no desire for them not to exist; indeed, I wish them safety, happiness and health. However, 'existence' does not, and should not, mean the violation of other people's right to privacy, dignity and freedom of speech, or the reconfiguration of society to indulge a fallacy.
I was written to recently by a horrified mum who took her 10yr old daughter & friend swimming at the Queen mother sport centre, both girls were in a womanโs open changing room getting dressed after their swim. Two men came in & stripped off right next to them. This is NOT ok.
We need your help to #SaveDenby!
We are sad to share that we may be forced to close and a British institution could be lost.
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