http://www.shouldivoteukip.co.uk/
Informative and in-depth analysis of the upcoming elections in the UK.
I filled in my postal ballots today for the EU, local and local mayoral elections. Voting always makes me feel like I have a voice. Don’t miss your chance to have your say, and please follow the advice above!
Recently, this little link popped up on my FB newsfeed. It is a very short piece about a woman who not only recognises something about her body (shock! Her thighs touch!) but also accepts it for what it is: part of her. When I was growing up, my two thighs became an obsession. In my early teens, I was a thin girl: straight up, straight down. This meant no big bum, or wide hips, but also nothing on top. When you’re the only girl left in your class who doesn’t wear a bra, you attract some unwanted attention, believe me. But whilst I may have been wishing for growth in a certain place, my legs did not even feature on the radar; there was no need for them to. Then as the hormones began to have a visible effect and I was changing, my attention was drawn downwards.
Thigh gap, that is.
I’m pretty certain that at one stage in my life, if my magic genie had appeared, proffering those three wishes, all of them would’ve been used altering my figure – plastic surgery without the expense. And one wish would’ve been wasted on my thighs. Why my legs? I suppose it’s because they were the part which showed the natural changes going on the most, and while my stomach was a huge cause for concern, at least when walking I could breathe in. Unfortunately, there was nothing like that for my legs.
I should have recognised them for what they were: two perfectly acceptable parts of a fit, functioning body. All throughout school I revelled in sport. I was studious and quiet in the classroom, only really speaking out with closer friends I felt more comfortable with, and therefore dealt the usual remarks about being smart, etc. But when it came to sports, I was useful. Small and speedy, I was a hockey, netball, rounders and tennis player. I competed in running events at sports days, even beating some boys in the year above on one occasion. None of which would’ve been possible without my legs – hated parts and all. But I didn’t recognise that, all I saw in the mirror was something which wasn’t good enough. Their ability didn’t matter, it was their appearance which I thought about, constantly.
She does not have the thighs of a child! Stone her!
The Baz Luhrmann’s song, Everyone’s Free (to Wear Sunscreen), advises you to remember the compliments and forget the insults. Something which is true and yet incredibly hard to do; if anyone has managed it, please let me know how! I would sincerely like to erase an incident from my mind: I was 16 and talking to two boys (I know, I know, I apologise for being so cliché). I should provide context here: one of them liked me (he knew his feelings weren’t reciprocated) and the other one I liked (I never dreamt of telling him. Would’ve been mortifying). The conversation shifted to me. And how I looked. “She’s thin, but she’s got quite big thighs, hasn’t she?” “Yeah, but that’s what you get when you play hockey. “I felt like I had been hit with a brick. Weren’t people who fancied you supposed to see you as perfect? And even if they didn’t, weren’t people supposed to say this kind of thing behind your back? I should’ve recognised it for what I now know it was: two boys who both liked me, weren’t going out with me and trying to make themselves feel better about it (probably). But that’s pretty hard to do when you’re a bulimic teenager with very little self-confidence. I’m not sure how I backed out of that situation. I’d like to pretend I imparted some acidic wit which showed just how little I cared and how fantastic I was, despite my ‘large legs’, but I don’t think I did.
While school may be far behind me, my thighs still play a part in my personality, sadly. I am not at peace with how I look. My concerns with my legs have lessened now, but they still dictate my outfits, how I feel about myself, how I hold myself in front of others, how I sit. (Which by the way, is crossed-legged whenever possible. Even when I am alone, I find it hard to sit with legs flat on a chair.)
There is hope on the horizon though: last summer I wore a bikini in public for the first time in seven years. And I took off the T-shirt and shorts covering it. I’ll admit, I wasn’t completely comfortable, but being with people who didn’t make me feel ashamed of what I looked like definitely helped. I am planning to repeat my amazing feat again this year, hopefully feeling more confident still. I know I have a way to walk before my thighs become my best friend, or before I can even judge them fairly, but I do believe I can get there.
Just when you begin to hope that the extremely prejudiced and clearly moronic people of the world are a dying breed another one comes centre stage and slaps you in the face with reality. Enter: David Silvester.
A relatively unknown councillor in Britain, he defected from the party currently in power (The Conservatives) to Ukip (the UK Independence Party) over he disagreement with the PM’s decision to legalise marriage for gay people in Britain – so already the clues he’s a total prat were there – but now he’s come out to claim that David Cameron’s decision was the cause of the Christmas and new year’s floods in Britain.
I really wish I were making it up. Or that he said the entire thing as a joke to highlight how ridiculous such backward views are. Alas no, and I quote:
“The scriptures make it abundantly clear that a Christian nation that abandons its faith and acts contrary to the Gospel (and in naked breach of a coronation oath) will be beset by natural disasters such as storms, disease, pestilence and war”
Adding further stupidity to the already teetering pile of right-wing, religious nut-bag horse shit, the homophobic ass hat has also claimed that gay people are suffering from a “spiritual disease” and can be “healed”.
If he believes so strongly in the word of the Bible then I hope his entire wardrobe is free of blended fibres, his jewellery collection is devoid of any gold and his diet entirely shellfish free. After all, if you try to impose one rule on people, you must be following them all, right?
Please note – I am not against the principal of faith, I think it can be a wonderful thing, but I also think that religion is the cause of an abundance of hatred, oppression and war and forcing your beliefs on other people is never a good thing.
I am rather angry today. I will explain why.
First, google the question “Where does the UK rank on list of richest countries?”. According to GDP, the United Kingdom ranks as 21st in the world.
Next, google “How many children live in poverty in the UK?” Depending on your source, you will encounter figures from 3 – 4 million.
Lastly, explain to me how the hell this is possible. HOW can we have so much money and have so many people living in poverty? Why is this still socially accepted? Why are we blind to such massive social injustices?!
A large part of the problem still lies in how the government and parts of the media portray those in poverty and how they stigmatised. But I have noticed a slight problem with the pictures that are painted.
We are told that there are millions upon millions of lazy, self-entitled, tax-dodging, swindling benefit scroungers who like nothing more than cheating the system, spending their piling fortunes on flat-screen televisions, fast foods and X Boxes. All the while, raising herds of children to gain more child benefits, who then learn from their parents that you do not need to participate in the country’s economy – plead hard enough (not very hard at all) and you will be handed all you need on a silver platter.
Well these people don’t sound like they’re living in poverty – how could anyone who has a TV and satellite channels be poor? So who are these millions (literally millions) of people who are struggling to pay their bills, keep a roof over themselves and their children and not bury themselves in even more debt? Perhaps they are a figment of the socialist, lefty do-gooders who want decent, hard-working Britons to hand over their honestly earned money?
A few weeks ago I listened to a discussion on a BBC radio station about the people who were choosing whether to buy food or heat their
homes. All of the stories made me feel incredibly sad, but one was particularly affecting. A phone call came from a woman who was severely struggling to keep her head above water. She said that turning her heating on wasn’t even a consideration and she was often feeding the dog before taking care of herself because, as she said, “The dog didn’t ask to be in this situation.” I’m pretty certain she didn’t either, but the fact she could have this level of concern for an animal before herself whilst being in such dire circumstances almost moved me to tears.
I know there will be those who cry “Get rid of the dog then! Don’t have a pet if you can’t take care of it!” And to this there are an important couple of points to be made:
All the while this nation-wide situation of hardship and pain is continuing, and increasing numbers of people are turning to food banks to survive day-to-day (some people are having to return food that requires heating because they can’t afford to turn on the oven), the Tory government is cutting local funding to services that more families are relying on, making it more difficult for anyone to obtain benefits.
Oh yes, and major energy companies in Britain have announced price increases of an average of 9%.
Over the last three years these companies have made £3.3 BILLION in profit. BILLION.
David C3PO Cameron
What does David Cameron (our enigmatic, millionaire, Eton-educated, Conservative leader whose aides swear he’s human) continue to talk about?
We need to make Britain work for hard-working Britons. We need to reward hard-working Britons. WORKING.
Dave’s local comp. (Just kidding, it’s ETON.)
Get it? He’s being stuble, I know, but essentially he’s not interested in those who need help because these people are just not trying enough. He knows, right? He’s been there, he worked himself up from nothing? Wait…..what? He was born into a life of privilege and followed the now well-worn track of Eton to Oxford to PM? I’m guessing that deciding whether to put food into his families’ stomachs or to heat their bedrooms has never even crossed his mind.
No wonder he doesn’t know how to solve these problems! Give the guy a break. (A tax break perhaps? I’ve had rich people are found of those.)
To read something from someone who until recently has been one of the millions of people living in poverty in modern-day Britain, try this article by Jack Monroe. You can also head over to her blog and read some of the other stark, wake up call pieces she’s written.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Mr Fry, allow me to begin with a little context:
Stephen John Fry is an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television and radio presenter, film director, activist, and board member of Norwich City Football Club. As you may be able to infer from that list of achievements, he’s intelligent and articulate. And he’s gay (this is important, trust me).
On his website today he has published an open letter to David Cameron and the International Olympic Committee asking them to support a ban of the 2014 Winter Olympics to be held in Sochi. His argument is founded on the tyrannical anti-gay laws recently passed in Moscow, but there are additional objections too.
I won’t reproduce the entire letter, just a few excerpts, the full text can be found here.
Putin is eerily repeating this insane crime [Hitler’s persecution of Jews], only this time against LGBT Russians. Beatings, murders and humiliations are ignored by the police. Any defence or sane discussion of homosexuality is against the law. Any statement, for example, that Tchaikovsky was gay and that his art and life reflects this sexuality and are an inspiration to other gay artists would be punishable by imprisonment. It is simply not enough to say that gay Olympians may or may not be safe in their village. The IOC absolutely must take a firm stance on behalf of the shared humanity it is supposed to represent against the barbaric, fascist law that Putin has pushed through the Duma.
He is making scapegoats of gay people, just as Hitler did Jews. He cannot be allowed to get away with it. I know whereof I speak. I have visited Russia, stood up to the political deputy who introduced the first of these laws, in his city of St Petersburg. I looked into the face of the man and, on camera, tried to reason with him, counter him, make him understand what he was doing. All I saw reflected back at me was what Hannah Arendt called, so memorably, “the banality of evil.” A stupid man, but like so many tyrants, one with an instinct of how to exploit a disaffected people by finding scapegoats.
I am gay. I am a Jew. My mother lost over a dozen of her family to Hitler’s anti-Semitism. Every time in Russia (and it is constantly) a gay teenager is forced into suicide, a lesbian “correctively” raped, gay men and women beaten to death by neo-Nazi thugs while the Russian police stand idly by, the world is diminished and I for one, weep anew at seeing history repeat itself.
If you have been unaware of the shocking brutality currently being dealt out in Russia then a quick internet search will tell you everything you need to know. Whilst I wholeheartedly agree with Stephen, I fear that nothing will stop it from happening. Big sports, global sports, bring big bucks. And where there is money and power to be played for, there is generally corruption. FIFA stands as the biggest example of an organisation whose upper echelons have been accused of numerous wrong doings, yet nothing really seems to be different. (Perhaps it is and I simply have not heard about it.)
Russian riot policemen detain a gay and LGBT rights activist during an unauthorized gay rights activists rally in central Moscow on May 25, 2013. AFP PHOTO/ANDREY SMIRNOV/Getty Images
The Huffington Post reports that ‘last week Vitaly Milonov, one of the politicians behind the bill, has said gay athletes and supporters at Russia’s 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games could face arrest.’ Yet the IOC insists it will do everything in its power to ensure that those involved in the games are treated without discrimination. Good intentions, yet this creates a divide – between those gay athletes and spectators who are part of the event and Russia’s gay citizens who are not.
In his letter Stephen Fry states: It [sport] does not exist in a bubble outside society or politics… The idea that sport and politics don’t connect is worse than disingenuous, worse than stupid. It is wickedly, wilfully wrong.
What seems most ironical to me is that we expect the athletes who participate in these sporting events to be fair, to play by the rules. To compete honestly and perform with integrity. To be role models. Yet the government of countries in which these events are held do not uphold the idea of fairness themselves.
Russian police push gay rights activists away from the march in Saint Petersburg to prevent clashes with anti-gay protesters. Photograph: Anatoly Maltsev/EPA
I don’t believe there is any hope of Russia not being allowed to host this event, that certainly, is too late. I think the best we can hope for is a boycott, by sponsors, countries, individual athletes, spectators, whoever. Your sexual orientation doesn’t affect how far you can throw a ball, how skilled you are at skiing or how fast you can run. But in modern-day Russia it will determine how free from persecution you are.
(Note: At the time of writing this post, Stephen Fry’s website has crashed, so maybe try again later if you can’t see the letter.)
First on the board is Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.
He has perfected his image of blonde-mopped, harmless, foppish, bumbling, Tory boy and as a consequence appears politically impotent to many (most, probably) in the UK. And I’m not buying it.
This week he has come under fire for a sexist “joke” where he claimed
the high number of female university entrants was because they “have got to find men to marry”.
I really wish my mother had told me this before I went to university. I thought it was about education, both in the academic and personal sense; figuring out your future; beginning a career; gaining independence and seeing how long you could last on a diet of honey, toast and vodka. Clearly I was doing it all wrong. And I’m still unwed! When will the pain end?!
The fact that a high-profile politician in a position of power (alliteration, ahoy!) felt it was okay to make such a statement at the World Islamic Economic Forum where they were discussing the role of Islamic women in society shows where his stance on women lies. Most people would never have been aware that such a meeting happened, and instead of taking the chance to do something useful, he reminds us all of his sexist views. Boris must’ve known a soundbite like this from him would always have spread like wild-fire. (You can listen to the full exchange and get other details here.)
No doubt there will be a large section of society who claim feminists are blowing it all out of proportion. “It was only a joke for Christ’s sake! What’s the matter with you love, that time of the month?” Actually, it is. But I would’ve found his comments moronic, regardless of the date in the calendar. I hope he never decides to bumble* his way further up the political ladder.
*purposefully scheme and plot
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