Medicine Giving Way To Groupthink Is Indeed A Tragedy, George…

...funny how I never heard a peep out of you when all the psychiatrists decided that if you felt like a memnber of the opposite sex. you were right, and this was a mistake to be corrected. Or when all those doctors who'd previously said masks were ineffective for covid suddenly about-faced and swore blind they were our only hope.

...the story spread so widely by the media – that ME/CFS patients were irrationally refusing treatment and abusing those who offered it – stuck, in the NHS and beyond. Medicine gave way to groupthink.

Here are some things that should not need stating. Scientists and those who champion them should never close ranks against empirical challenge and criticism. They should not deny requests for data, should not shore up disproven claims, should not circle the wagons against legitimate public challenge. Above all, those who suffer the most should be listened to the most.

I also seem to recall you're rather keen on climatologists closing ranks against empirical challenge and critiscism. 

Removing Personal Responsibility

...and replacing it with woke rhetoric:

Civil servants were told to rewrite a proposed social media campaign to combat drink-spiking after the original appeared to blame victims, a minister has told Labour conference delegates. Alex Davies-Jones, the minister for violence against women and girls, suggested that Whitehall encouraged a “culture of victim blaming” and should instead focus on stopping perpetrators.

What exactly did it say? 

At a fringe event on Sunday at Labour’s conference in Liverpool, Davies-Jones said she refused to accept the script her civil servants had drawn up ahead of an awareness campaign that was due to coincide with freshers’ week at universities. “The civil service brought me my script for talking about this on social media, on TikTok, trying to bring in the youth,” she said. “One of the things they wanted me to talk about was how we keep ourselves safe from spiking – ‘cover your drink, make sure you look out for your friends, don’t accept a drink from a stranger’.

All perfectly reasonable, no? Exactly the sort of 'be cautious!' warning you get everywhere these days. Pretty unremarkable:

So why exactly is the Minister so agin' this?

“I refused to do it. I said we need to start reframing this, stop this culture of victim-blaming. If you want to go out and enjoy yourself, you should just be able to go out and enjoy yourself and not have to worry about keeping yourself safe. ”

So, on that basis, are we getting rid of all the warning signs to beware of phone thieves? Those ones that tell you to keep your mobile out of sight? 

She said that instead she ordered civil servants to go back to the drawing board and draft a campaign script that warned perpetrators not to spike or face prosecution and get treatment for their behaviour.

Because the sort of people who do this won't do it if they see a poster warning them not to... Is she drunk? Or just another Labour idiot promoted well beyond her capabilities?

Her approach mirrors a new strategy to tackle rape, known as Operation Soteria, under which police officers focus on the rape suspects’ behaviour and previous sexual activity rather than investigating the credibility of the victim.

Well, that's not a policy that's going to backfire, I'm sure!  

Well, They Didn't Say The Connection Would Be A Long One....

A new play area at the National Arboretum designed to help children 'connect with nature' has been built beneath trees that drop poisonous berries. Two playgrounds, called Branch Out and Holford Hollow, feature climbing poles, ropes and a giant web-like structure. But they are tucked away among yew trees, which produce small orange or red berries that are attractive to children – but deadly if eaten.

Well, really, who'd eat berries they didn't know anything about?  

It comes months after a coroner expressed concern about the hidden danger yew berries pose after a boy collapsed and died from eating them during a walk in a park with his father.

Ah.  

The source, who asked not to be named, added the site for the play area had been chosen because it was a 'natural clearing' – but pointed out it was only clear because the extremely toxic yew trees had suppressed other plants.

I guess these days, we can't even expect the people who run the National Arboretum to know anything about trees... 

Last week, bosses put up some small signs reading: 'Caution. Most berries in the arboretum are not safe to eat. If you see them on the floor or in the trees please leave them where they are.' However, staff feared these signs were not obvious or specific enough.

Stick a skull and crossbones icon on them then.  

No Nominative Determinism Here...

Maya is decidely not...

The political “centre” usually reacts to the far right by denouncing its methods and distancing themselves from its coarse, racist rhetoric – but ultimately conceding to its underlying argument. In the days after the general election, Tony Blair advised Keir Starmer that to ward off the far right, he should celebrate what is good about immigration but be sure to “control” it. No matter how respectable and sensible such advice may seem to some within our political classes, the sentiment that “controlling” immigration is a way to appease socially conservative voters is one cause of the corrosiveness.Why? Because it implies that a fear of immigration is a legitimate concern, and that reducing immigration is the appropriate method to assuage that fear.

So isn't it?  

Are concerns about immigration “legitimate”? Demonstrably, no.

Don't bother looking, Reader, she believes 'demonstrably' is just a word, and doesn't go on to demonstrate anything.  

The “legitimate concerns” in this case are illegitimate. Admitting this doesn’t mean dismissing what people are saying. Equally, engaging people with these views need not lead to legitimisation. The choice is not ignore or accept. Politics is about persuading people of another way; to think this can’t be done is patronising as well as dangerous.

To think it can be done by simply telling everyone that they are wrong is pretty patronising too.  

The government could change the narrative by making the history of empire and migration a statutory party of the curriculum, and by actively countering racism in the press, among opposition parties and within its own ranks. But it could also use this moment to change people’s material circumstances by getting rid of “hostile environment” policies and providing safe routes of travel (one of the only viable solutions to stop people from having to cross the Channel). It could also make visas cheaper, provide better housing, simplify labyrinthine Home Office processes and end temporary, exploitative visas, giving people the ability to come here on decent terms and stay if they want to.

So, to challenge people's assumptions the 'answer' is to flood the country with yet more immigration. Well, that's bound to work! And the craziness doesn't stop there!  

This boldness should be extended beyond immigration. The government should tax the richest, invest in public services and do what’s needed for a just transition from fossil fuels.

Might as well shoot for the moon, eh, Maya? 

The reasons behind the recent violence are many and complex – it cannot be neatly chalked up to the immigration debate alone. But the anti-immigrant sloganeering needs to stop: whether it’s the appeasing of “legitimate concerns”, a commitment to “stop the boats” or the more-acceptable-in-polite-society promises to put “controls on immigration”.

Ignoring and belittling legitimate concerns has never ever worked in the history of mankind, Maya.  

You're Employed To Drop Bombs And Shoot Down The Enemy...

...so giving a bit of 'offence' should be like water off a duck's back:

The RAF has also launched a wider review of historical assets and terminology in a bid to prevent offence being taken, the MoS has learned.

Sources said 'further changes' could be ordered, pending its findings. The RAF said last night: 'As a modern and diverse Service, our focus must be on not giving prominence to any offensive term that goes against the values of the Royal Air Force. Therefore, 14 Squadron have ceased using their historic unofficial nickname.

'The traditions and informal nicknames used by the RAF in the earlier days have a place in our history. However, some are no longer appropriate in the 21st Century.'

*sighs* 

14 Squadron has connections to the region dating back to both world wars. The squadron's motto 'I spread my wings and keep my promise' is taken from the Koran and even appears in Arabic on its royal crest.

Awkward!  

Wrong Tense!

It never used to be, what changed, I wonder? 

Akter had come to the UK from Bangladesh, where Masum was also from. She had been living above a shop in Oldham but was staying in Bradford on the day she was killed.

Ah! 

Muhammad Shehzad said crime had worsened significantly since he came to the UK in 2003.

You don't say?  

He blamed Rishi Sunak for driving down living standards to the point where people felt the need to turn to crime.

“If you give a good chance to work, crime goes down,” said Shehzad. “There needs to be more investment in this country, my home.”

What difference do living standards make to the typical Muslim mysogynistic crime of passion? 

Naz Shah, the Labour MP for Bradford West, said the city had been traumatised by what was a rare attack on an ordinary day.

Yes, Reader, this Naz Shah.  

“People are very clear this is a very isolated incident and Bradford isn’t like this,” she said, adding that the fear was not that people would be killed in a random attack on the street but that women were being murdered by men.

Muslim men, Naz. Your voters,  

“I went to speak to literally hundreds of women in the Chaand Raat events, prior to Eid, where everybody gets their mehndi done. We had a conversation and all of them were saying: ‘When is this going to stop, men killing women?’ It wasn’t about Bradford, it was generally women really, really angry that, again, a woman has been murdered. They were saying: ‘Naz you need to talk more about it. This has got to stop.’

Women at segregated events urging another woman to do something about it? It's a nonsense, and it's what has turned Bradford into what it is today. 

Are We Charging The Brother? If Not, Why Not?

The BBC is taking out an onion for illegal immigrants again:

Obada and Ayser were among five people who drowned, a few metres from the shore, on the coast of northern France that night - the first to die while trying to cross to the UK in a small boat in 2024, a fortnight into the new year. To try to understand how a child could be put in this situation, the BBC reconstructed Obada's journey from Syria - using videos, messages and interviews with the brothers' relatives and others who accompanied them. Our aim was to explore the wrenching decisions involved at every stage.

Oh, that was your aim, was it? 

In his bedsit in west London, another of Obada's brothers, Nada, 25, kept glancing at his phone. It was 01:00 in London, 02:00 in France. A few hours earlier, Nada had called the whole group as they sat warming themselves around a fire at their makeshift camp under a canal bridge in Calais. They'd seemed confident about the journey ahead. Nada had made the same dangerous crossing two years earlier, ignoring his father, at home in Daraa, who had initially urged him to be patient, suggesting the war in Syria might soon end. Nada had chosen to travel to England because an uncle had already made the journey almost a decade earlier and been granted permission to remain. Both men had come illegally because, Nada said, there was no alternative.

And how did he repay this country? By encouraging more illegal immigration, of course. And now he has a foot in the door our own laws allow him to bring relatives legally. 

In October last year, Nada was granted refugee status and permission to remain in the UK for five years. He recently found a warehouse job near Wembley. He's now taking an English language course and hopes to bring his wife from Syria soon - something he is allowed to apply for as a refugee - and eventually to resume his law degree in England.

Which is the same aim his brother had:  

A neighbour from Daraa, who was with Obada the night he drowned, backed that up. "He would reach Britain and reunite with his brother and soon after would bring his mother and father. That was the whole point of them leaving, so his father could seek medical treatment abroad," said the man, who asked us not to reveal his name. In fact, the plan was flawed from the start. Given that he already had an adult brother in London, Obada would not have been in a position, as a minor, to arrange for his parents to follow him legally.

Well, thank goodness for that! As it happened  he never made it, but why has the brother's asylum not been revisited in light of his collusion? If he's broken no laws in encouraging the child and failing to alert the authorities, it's an utter travesty. 

The following evening, about 100 locals from Calais and a handful of migrants gathered in the town centre to hold a minute's silence for the five dead and to add Obada's and Ayser's names to a long scroll listing those who have died trying to cross the Channel in recent years.

"The biggest fault is the laws of Europe who make the life of the refugees impossible. Who give them not any rights. Who make their life here in Calais and all over the borders impossible. And we have to remember that. It is the fault of the European laws," a local French woman told the sombre crowd.

Sounds like France has its share of idiots too. Just like the UK. 

Where Were You Three Years Ago?

Alice Ferguson, of Playing Out, said: “Compared to previous generations, children’s lives have become incredibly restricted, indoors, isolated and inactive, largely due to changes in the outdoor environment. Government could reverse this trend and hugely improve children’s health and wellbeing by making streets safer and neighbourhoods more child-friendly, enabling them to get outside and play every day.”

Until the government forbids them from going outside in the next manufactured panic, you mean?

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said in a report last year that children’s health in the most disadvantaged communities presented “a terrifying picture”.

“Economic deprivation and racial inequality are both significant additional factors compounding children’s lack of access to outdoor play, physical activity and green space. There is also evidence to suggest girls spend less time outside playing than boys.”

Wow, suddenly, there is a difference between boys and girls after all! 

Maybe No-One Really Cares, Love..?

Billie Eilish said that she thought her queer identity was 'obvious' during Variety's Hitmakers event, which took place on Saturday.

The 20-year-old performer recently spoke about her attraction to women in an interview with the media outlet that was released this past November.

The songwriter, who opened up about working on an original song for Barbie expressed her incredulity about not having been asked about her sexuality in the past.

I'm frankly incredulous that you should belive that's the most important question to ask any artist. 

I don't care what someone I read/watch/listen to does in their spare time, and I very much doubt I'm alone in that... 

Can't Spell, Can't Count...

...that's the 'Mail' for you!

Staff at his restaurant were filmed preparing the fish in a video on social media. But a wildlife campaigner said Stein should be ashamed of himself for cashing in on 'these rare incredible fish'.

A campaigner? Then why the plural in the headline? 

Dominic Dyer, a wildlife campaigner, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: 'Why are fishermen being licensed to catch these incredible fish? Also, what is Rick Stein thinking, promoting the catch of this rare 150kg specimen to feed to tourists in his hugely expensive Padstow restaurant?

'There is no such thing as sustainable management of these rare incredible fish and Rick Stein should be ashamed of himself cashing in on killing them.'

*sighs* No such thing, eh? 

Fishermen were banned from catching bluefin tuna – the most expensive fish in the world – after overfishing of herring and mackerel depleted its food supply and it vanished off Cornwall in the 1950s. But it has now returned, due to rising sea temperatures, and the ban was relaxed in 2021.

Seems there is indeed such a thing! So global warming ain't all bad, is it?

A spokesman for Stein's restaurants said the fish was caught by 'one of ten boats with a licence to catch some of the small quota allowed by the Marine Management Organisation – a quota that's been carefully decided upon following detailed tracking and research of tuna in our waters'.

And the fishermen caught it because it's their job. Just as it's Stein's restaurant staff's job to feed tourists. 

What have you got against employment, Dyer? Was it your 13 years as a civil servant at MAFF that put you off?

To Be Fair, It's Only A Little Problem...

*sighs*

This winter has seen the release of two new major fantasy series, Willow (Disney+), set years after the original film, and The Witcher: Blood Origin (Netflix), a prequel to the hugely successful series The Witcher, based on the books of the same name by Andrzej Sapkowski. Both feature actors with dwarfism playing fantasy dwarves in central roles.

You might be thinking “hurrah for diversity!”...

No, as a long-suffering 'Guardian' reader, I can assure you I'm not! I know what's likely to be coming. 

...but the existence of fantasy dwarves on screen holds a complex and sensitive history for those of us who have dwarfism off screen.

*sighs even harder*

So, you want to ban real-life dwarves from acting? 

On the other hand, the decision Peter Jackson made not to cast actors with dwarfism in his The Hobbit film series and The Lord of the Rings felt frustrating at the time, given the aforementioned lack of jobs offered to actors with dwarfism.

Oh. So, you want to have your cake and eat it. Like so many professional whingers... 

Of course, all of this is only fantasy, and people might be reading this thinking “it’s obvious those characters aren’t real, so what’s your point?”. My point is that we need to see more accurate dwarfism representation on screen before people who know nothing about us can reject the wealth of misinformation they often subconsciously consume.

Funny, whenever I watch 'Tenable', I think of it as 'that quiz show Warwick Davies hosts'. I don't think of it as 'that quiz show hosted by the dwarf actor'. 

Isn't that what we're supposed to be aiming for?