PMQ's - Will Boris listen to Keir Starmer and carry out a U-turn?

PMQ's was quite bland today I feel. The government spoke about the record low unemployment rates and ignored the rise in inflation. Keir Starmer took him to task on a windfall tax and essentially asked him to carry out his U-turn on this matter now, rather than a rushed one later. I do hope Boris will listen to him as he had done about COVID lockdowns coming up to Christmas in 2020.

 

The worst day of her life

My daughter said that yesterday was the worst day of her life.  She had three papers and due to this, for part of the day was in isolation, having exams on psychology, biology and the foreign language option that she took.

My wife would normally make her breakfast but I did today instead along with a cup of tea.  Her exam today is in English (Language I think).  Here is hoping that she does well.  I did have to leave her alone for a bit before she went in as my son needed a lift to get into school.  I have noted a habit of his that he does not need a lift on other days, but needs one on a Wednesday when I am working from home...

They were mean to me

They started to be mean to me last night. It began with a message on WhatsApp after full time yesterday. Then today one of my colleagues talked about drinking Newcastle Brown Ale while wearing a Spurs necklace honouring her dead parents. It was wrong of me to tell her to F off (I did apologise after).  Even the Chelski fan piled in! My only consolation is that our old manager has left, who also supported The Scum.  

If someone had told me that we would finish in fifth place after our beginning to the season, I would have taken it.  But we had the chance to finish in fourth and also above The Scum.  It may still happen, we have had last day escapes before.  But I doubt it.

And it starts

Today is the big day.  Three GCSE papers in one day.  I hope that my daughter does well, all my wife can do is cross our fingers and pray.  No matter what happens, we are proud of her.

Anticipation

My daughter has her first GCSE's of this year tomorrow. Three exams. My wife and I have tried to get her to eat sensibly, but she has too much nausea to do so.  My worry is that she will crash due to a lack of energy.  Fingers crossed that I am wrong as she does as well as she can.  No matter what happens, we will be proud of her,

Changing rooms, showers, schools and TransGirls

There was an interesting article in The Times on the weekend about TransGirls and using female changing rooms and showers. It suggested that they should be allowed to use them before or after girls have used them. I think that this is a great way of respecting the safety of TransGirls in secondary schools and reducing the risk posed to girls, not from TransGirls, but rather from teenage boys pretending to be Trans so that they can get to see naked girls. 

 

The issue of segregation in safe-spaces such as showers, toilets and changing rooms has been brought up by JK Rowling who has been termed TransPhobic for raising the dangers posed by men who are not Trans. 

 

When I have discussed this on Twitter, different people have said different things. One has called for unisex toilets for all, some have said that there should be no restrictions on men entering toilets for women if they decide to do so. Issues have been noted with unisex changing rooms regarding, sexual assault, harassment and voyeurism and many women are understandably concerned that this would be the case in other areas if there is no segregation. What is sad is how some consider these risks to be an acceptable price to pay, or just refuse to accept that the risk exists. Some people have said that there is no basis to stop men from using a female toilet. But this is not the case at my work where I am not allowed to do so. 

 

I define a woman as someone without a Y chromosome unless that individual identifies as something else. Likewise a man is someone with a Y chromosome, again unless they identify as something else. I do think that sex is real and while I do not consider a TransWoman to be a woman, or a TransMan to be a man, I do think that in many cases, they should be treated as such. I used to think that toilets should be based on genitalia (a view that I still feel should apply to prisons), but there are those with a penis who live as women, and so long as they are not known to be a threat, I do think that they should be allowed in many areas for women.

Sports however is a different matter. For many sports, being born male gives advantages. As seen with Isazc Henig, this is not always the case. But it does give an advantage in many other areas and women can end up being injured as a result. Not just in rugby, but with other sports as well.

In preparation

Our daughter started to crumble today.  On Tuesday she is to sit three GCSE exams and will be locked away from her peers to prevent her finding out what was in her paper that they will sit before her.  She has done one GCSE last year and did really well.  It is understandable that she is going to wobble.  I just hope that she listens to us about getting enough food in her tomorrow to get her glycogen stores up.  

We did take her for a drive this evening with the dog.  She got to pick the music, which meant Taylor Swift, which is fine, and the Mamma Mia versions of ABBA hits, some of which are acceptable.  But this weekend is about her really.

Saying that, my son and I had a nice dog walk together.  Leia loves walks, even more so when more than one of us are taking her for the walk.  He was quite hyper though later in the day, which was part of the reason we had to take my daughter out, so she could have some space away from him.

In addition to this, my wife and I had lunch with two friends, a great meal, it was great to see them and also get out of the house.