Lisa Power

As someone who just lost a lot of weight and is buying her new wardrobe from charity shops, I have unilaterally decided that M&S sizes are my standard and the tiny likes of Zara can just get in the bin, they’re not worth even trying on. But yes, even vintage M&S sizes don’t match the recent stuff.

Investigation | Five-year overview of the online and offline anti-LGBTQ+ landscape After decades of progress, recent years have seen increasing challenges to LGBTQ+ rights across social, political and online spheres.

The institute of strategic dialogue has just published their “Investigation | Five-year overview of the online and offline anti-LGBTQ+ landscape”

www.isdglobal.org/digital_disp...

Its genuinely exhausting for everyone involved that the cycle is
1- BNP style policy gets announced
2- Labour comms say something like well yes but also no....
3-Labour MPs and others clearly have a freak out about it behind the scenes
4-Labour comes out with a clearer condemnation of said policy

Black and white photo of young people in a protest crowd in West Bromwich, 1979 Young black man in the centre with a short afro with bleach streaks is holding a large sign on a long stick which reads "NO TO NAZIS IN WEST BROMWICH 28 APRIL 4PM HARDWARE ST MASS PICKET OF NF" (National Front) Young white man with close cropped hair has his arm protectively around the sign holder and a defiant grimace on his face Anti-Nazi Demo, West Bromwich, 1979. Photo © Virginia Turbett, all rights reserved https://britishculturearchive.co.uk/virginia-turbett-uk-protests-1970s/

British Culture: Anti-Nazi Demo, West Bromwich, 1979.

Photo © Virginia Turbett

via @britcultarchive.bsky.social
britishculturearchive.co.uk/archive-gall...

A reminder.

Only 6.9% of people in Wales were born overseas.

Just 2.9% of people in Caerphilly were born overseas.

Whereas 38% of medical consultants in Wales were born overseas.

Immigrants are not holding our NHS back, they are propping it up.

First rule of sorcery. Never summon anything you cannot dismiss.

To be clear: deportations to increase cultural homogeneity is the text book definition of ethnic cleansing. Demands that come even close to this are so far outside any democratic norm and the rule of law. What has happened to a country when this is not condemned in the strongest possible terms?

FT graph showing massive UK public support for the opinion that it was wrong to vote to leave the EU.

Ah! Good morning, reality. And welcome. We’ve been expecting you…

Every central London bookshop is currently checking its shelves to see if some hapless underpaid assistant put the stock out too early.

Does look like they don’t trust their local people not to grift off them in turn; my granny’s oft repeated “takes one to know one” comes to mind.

I’ve been asked about the attached.

Of course, if the facilities are gender-neutral, or separated by gender not sex, or provided in areas that the Supreme Court ruling had no relevance to, like workplace facilities under the 1992 Regulations, no one is ‘flouting’ any law to be inclusive.

I can beat the medievalists! In 61 CE, revolting British natives attacked the Roman colony of Camulodunum (Colchester). In 2015, in a domestic space, archs found the remains of a whole box of coriander as well as fenugreek, poppy seeds, cumin, & other Indian spices. Homesick Roman women made curry.

Would *really* recommend listening to New York Times' Jane Bradley talking about Farage and US, and Russian influence, on Democracy for Sale this week

www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5p0...

I feel seen.

Allies’ power in safeguarding the rights of trans people in Australia – Monash Lens While anti-trans laws surge globally, new research shows Australians overwhelmingly reject hate and support trans equality. Strong legislation, allyship, and compassion are helping safeguard inclusivity and dignity for all. Read more at Monash Lens.

The power of allies in safeguarding the rights of trans people in Australia

lens.monash.edu/@pol...

#transgender #trans #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA

Why can't Reform answer this question? Plus predictions for the Caerphilly by-election

Try as I might, I can't get Reform to answer a simple question about their candidate in the Caerphilly by-election Llyr Powell.

When did he last have contact with Nathan Gill, the party's former leader in Wales who has admitted taking Russian bribes?
willhaywardwales.substack.com/p/why-cant-r...

Great film, highly recommend. Women left going “we need to start a book festival now!”

Tweet from @SexMattersOrg: "We have written to @CommonsWEC and @HumanRightsCtte about @MichaelCJT Dr Michael O'Flaherty's letter about the Supreme Court judgment and the Equality Act." There is an image of Maya Forstater & a quote attributed to her: "Working through tensions between the human rights of different groups depends on correctly defining the groups. The only coherent & workable interpretation of the Equality Act, to protect everyone's rights, is to read the terms related to sex as having their ordinary meaning."

The (very clear) intention of the drafters of equality legislation in Britain, in Ireland, in Europe & around the world was to ERADICATE sex discrimination, NOT to create separate "men's rights" & "women's rights" to be assigned at birth based on genitals or chromosomes. #GOTF

Anyone else remember the 80s and “lesbian gym mats” headlines? It was bollocks then, it’s bollocks now.

This is true of all troll accounts, big or small. Which is why the smart advice has always been: do not feed them.

I still have no idea what Number 10 was thinking intervening over policing. If they ‘win’ the standoff, Keir Starmer personally owns any incident that happens around the match. And he’s broken the precedent of interfering in operational matters, and so will be asked to do so relentlessly.

I truly love this post

We’re being asked by half the media & politicians to swallow the idea that known racist football hooligans should be allowed to rampage through our cities for NO OTHER REASON than that they happen to be Israeli.

Fuck. That.

Remember folks. The original bluesky ethos by us bluesky elders (apparently I count?) is block and move on.

Don't quote dunk, don't pick fights.
Block, and move on.

This is what made this site unpalatable to the right early on, and we can continue to make it unpalatable to them.

Cis women are done being dragged into the 'gender critical' movements hate campaign

Now they're fighting back

56k+ have signed the @nionwomen.bsky.social open letter and are rejecting the lie that Trans women are a threat

They see through it and they refuse to be weaponised against other women 👇🏼

Frightened and desperate: EHRC anti-trans campaign loses its momentum A week of absolute scenes leaves the organisation in limbo.

iandunt.substack.com/p/frightened...
Very interesting analysis of this week's EHRC farago from @iandunt.bsky.social
The galloping incompetence of Kishwer Falkner, Akua Reindorf et al could yet be the very thing that saves trans people from the worst desires of these bigoted EHRC bosses.

Work with us | More Than Flags and Rainbows See our latest job roles and how you can join our team to make all schools and communities more inclusive

Good guy runs the outfit, part time post working with adoptive and queer families in South Wales forthe right person. www.morethanflagsandrainbows.com/work-with-us

The thing is, if you genuinely believed that preteen girls are old enough to be mothers while males in their thirties are too young to comprehend fascism, then you logically wouldn't trust men to be responsible for anything more consequential than a balloon animal, let alone a government

A story in the parts

A story in three parts

Reaction when I stood up for trans women made me realise I had to do more Manchester City and Netherlands player explains why she has become an LGBT Foundation patron and the importance of keeping football free of hate

"I felt very strongly about the supreme court ruling, politically and emotionally. It really hurt me, even though I’m a cisgender woman, and it still hurts me because it targets people within my community." www.theguardian.com/football/202...