4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 26, 2020 12:25:54 GMT
I stand by that and have since said that I don’t believe Maxine or Rebecca acted with any sort of malice and it was simply a case of using an incorrect fact - a fact confirmed as incorrect by the journalist in very next sentence at the point of publication. Has @kevinuk got me on ignore? :-( I explained that this was not the case just before he posted this. There's handy before/after screenshots in this tweet You can see how the original version of the article gives credence to the conspiracy theory despite including a denial 'Though a spokesperson...denied this, ....Amnesty International said that....'. Conspiracy theorism relies on official denials being dismissed and a belief that the organisation at the centre of a conspiracy is lying to cover up the truth. The second version is the one that actually states that her statement is incorrect, and removed any suggestion that the spokesperson is not telling the truth.
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 26, 2020 10:58:34 GMT
Really? Given how much invective has been (justifiably) aimed at the Labour party over the last few years for the previous leader's unmitigated failure to deal with the issue of anti-Semitism, "she was just re-tweeting an article featuring her constituent condemning the government" doesn't cut it. Ms. Long-Bailey should have read the article first, should have noticed the VERY obvious dog-whistle (which does Ms. Peake absolutely no credit either, by the way), and should have realised that re-tweeting (and therefore endorsing) an interview with a prominent Labour supporter which contains a thuddingly obvious piece of anti-Semitism would inevitably reopen a very ugly conversation. That she DIDN'T, I'm afraid, tells us a great deal about her intelligence, and that's putting it very kindly. There's no excuse. And THEN, instead of acknowledging the mistake, deleting the tweet, firmly distancing herself from the offensive content in the article, and offering an unreserved apology, Ms. Long-Bailey doubled down and tried to justify herself. At that point, she had to go - and since this is an issue that has already done the party enormous damage, she had to go immediately. Starmer didn't have any choice. PR stunt? Not in the way you suggest. I would not be at all surprised if Starmer gave her the job anticipating that before too long he'd have to fire her - but as I said somewhere else, in order to be seen to be trying to build bridges, he had to offer her a prominent role. This was an easily-avoidable screwup, and she didn't avoid it. It's entirely her own fault. You assume she is consciously promoting falsehoods but the truth still remains the article she shared clearly states that Maxine’s claims were false and that they were incorrect. This isn’t hidden away at the bottom of the article, but directly next to Maxine’s quote. I’m by no means a fan of RLB and have zero idea how she came second in the labour leadership, and as I said in my first post, she should have known better. But in context, Maxine’s one comment was directly counteracted by the journalist in the article and Maxine makes a lot of other comments worth reading. It isn’t an article going off on a tirade against Israel, but she is hyper critical of the UK government and as a member of the opposition, I can believe Rebecca wanting to get that criticism out there. Just to note, the article itself was updated after publication - when RLB shared it, it didn't include the clarification that the claims were incorrect. It actually included a quote from the Amnesty USA blogpost to support the comment. At the time it was initially published, it was uncritically supporting the conspiracy theory, and was only changed after RLB amplified it because of the criticism. Alas, this sort of sneaky post-publication correction is all too common in the news media - there'll be a timestamp noting that the article was updated somewhere on the page, but not telling you exactly what was changed is all too common.
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 25, 2020 21:33:07 GMT
RLB got 27.6% of the vote in the Labour Leadership Election so it made sense for Sir Kier to retain her in his shadow cabinet. But retweeting this was a huge mistake and Kier was right to act decisively to remove her. No doubt the far left would moan but they would still think they were right if they were the side which had provoked a war. If Mossad have been doing training techniques to other security services or police services then there is nothing wrong with that as they are considered one of the elite secret service organisations in the world. Sir Kier is certainly the best leader Labour have had since Tony Blair. He is still in his honeymoon period but he is clearly a very sharp guy. You don't get to be head of the CPS if you are a slouch and he has certainly given Labour someone who can be seen as electable both nationally and internationally. It’s startling to see so many people on social media saying ‘it’s true, the Israeli security services do train American police’, as if that means that the specific allegation that they trained the police force involved in George Floyd’s death in the technique that killed him is true. As if American police had never killed a black man before the Israeli police showed them how.... I am sure Starmer’s background in law is very useful in cutting through that sort of sleight-of-rhetoric. It’s so reassuring to watch him slice through Boris’s bumbling performances with precise follow-up questions - competence, at last! I’ve been saying for the past few years that I’d be willing to put up with ideological differences to get some competence in government. I hope I’m not the only one thoroughly fed up with omnishambles.
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 25, 2020 18:04:00 GMT
I don’t know, sacking her sends a nice loud signal about what will and will not be tolerated that will have travelled farther than not appointing her in the first place.
Puts everyone else on notice, gets some decisive leadership PR for Starmer, reassures the Jewish community. Also stops the old guard from being able to complain that they were frozen out with no good reason - she was given the chance, and she dropped the ball. And it really was an unforced error - she didn’t have to tweet that about article.
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 25, 2020 11:50:21 GMT
My tickets have been moved to 20th April. Now need to see if I can move my flights to match.
Not perfect for us - we're planning to go on to Canada afterwards, and it'll be a whole different holiday in April than it would have been in September - but there doesn't appear to be seats available later in the run to exchange to so I guess we're stuck with this date.
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 25, 2020 9:34:24 GMT
You can wear a mask and put yourself at risk if you like. I'll carry on doing my best to stay away from other people whenever I can. I haven't been wearing a mask out and about because I feel I can distance from people easily enough. I am lucky to be somewhere with nice wide pavements, a pedestrianised high street, don't have to get public transport and to be able to shop when it is quiet. And people are mostly considerate. I haven't needed to be in a crowded indoor space for a long period of time and can leave outdoor spaces when they start to feel uncomfortably crowded. But if I was in the US and going out and about I would - there's a higher prevalence rate, and too many people who seem to think following public health guidelines is a sign of weakness. I would worry a lot more about meeting people who are infected and potentially being infected myself without knowing it. Everyone's risk assessment will be slightly different.
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 25, 2020 9:21:17 GMT
oxfordsimon I think they deliberately picked the challenges to suit one of the contestants each, and then judged them on how well they did in their less strong categories. So you kind of have to ignore Clare's kilt, Nicole's carnival outfit, and Matt's made to measure. If one of them had either had an out-and-out disaster or performed unexpectedly well in their weaker challenge it would have been a more exciting final - but they all played to form. I bet the judges could have guessed who'd made what in all three of the challenges! But to be honest, I'm not watching sewing bee for excitement. And I don't think anyone really goes on it expecting to turn into a TV star.
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 24, 2020 20:58:12 GMT
Quite pleased with that result. Matt’s dress was stunning but he let himself down in the pattern and the transformation.
I wonder what musical Matt was working on?
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 24, 2020 15:33:35 GMT
Dawnstar That’s ok if you can get them off and back on again without touching the outside of the glove at all. If you touch the glove’s outside with your hand then you potentially contaminate your hand. (This won’t actually have mattered all that much to you in the past, as the surfaces you touched were unlikely to actually be contaminated with anything very harmful. And to be honest the research points to low risk of Coronavirus infection from surfaces too.) There’s a reason why healthcare professionals have to be trained in using PPE - it’s very easy to defeat the object by using the wrong.
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 24, 2020 13:45:43 GMT
People don't know how to use gloves - you're meant to remove and discard them between each contact with someone who might be infectious. That would mean a shop assistant having a fresh pair of gloves for each customer. Keeping gloves on all day is pointless. It's not even protecting the person wearing them - you're just as (if not more) likely to touch a contaminated glove and then touch your face/rub your eyes as you are an ungloved hand, if you keep them on for any length of time.
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 24, 2020 9:36:56 GMT
Even on this board people say things like "first theatre that opens up, I'll be sitting in the front row, getting spat upon by actors". Does this make anyone else think of that production of Yerma with Billy Piper? It was almost completely set in a perspex box - no spit-risk there! We could see a new trend of 'glass-wall' productions where the fourth wall is literal.
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 24, 2020 8:11:18 GMT
vickyg The toilet info is GOLD! Me and a friend have been toilet spotting since the start of May...! This is the biggest thing to get sorted. I am sure that one of the reasons my local sea front has been so busy is that word got around that the public toilets are all open (they were never closed, in fact), so it's one of the few places you can comfortably spend more than an hour or two outside. Even some of the local parks that have been open the whole time haven't had their toilets open.
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 22, 2020 19:41:17 GMT
Let’s hope that it’s because the prevalence of asymptotic people carrying the virus in the population is much lower than it was back in March. Can’t pass on what you don’t have.
But let’s wait a couple of weeks before we start celebrating.
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 22, 2020 12:45:37 GMT
That I would describe as unhinged from reality rather than potentially selfish idiocy. I mean, fair enough snapping back at that.
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 22, 2020 12:40:17 GMT
Here it is
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 22, 2020 12:10:10 GMT
Yes, very important to stress that even if you think someone is being a selfish idiot, you really don’t know that to be the case, and so should let them be.
I’m sure we all have times in our lives when we have to do things a little unusually for non-obvious but valid reasons, and are conscious that people might judge us for it. Please let’s extend the same benefit of doubt to others that we would have them extend to us.
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 21, 2020 17:59:45 GMT
Let’s be honest there are probably three dates that are important when it comes to opening the theatres again, there is the date that the government allows the theatres to open (probably with some form of social distancing or other protective measures in place), there is the date by when most of the social distancing measures have been removed and the venues can run at full capacity and finally there is the date when a large enough proportion of the potential audience feel that it is safe enough to sit in a theatre and the show becomes less of a financial risk. Each of these dates are potentially not close to each other with probably several months in between. The work that ALW is trying to do, is an attempt to shorten the time between the first two dates and consequently shorten the time to the final date. To my mind the dates been talked about by Cameron and the RSC (amongst others) are the final date. Exactly. Anecdotally, just based on conversations with people over the last couple of weeks, the date theatres are allowed to reopen isn't necessarily going to be the same - for me, too - as the point people start to feel comfortable enough to sit among an audience again. I had a survey from the RSC on just that subject. It was asking when I’d feel comfortable going booking shows, going back to the theatre, and what measures would make me more or less likely to book. Anyone else get it?
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 21, 2020 17:56:07 GMT
That is very good news!
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 21, 2020 14:23:57 GMT
I think we both have different people in mind. I was referring to Marsha P Johnson, who was definitely a drag queen and I have seen retrospectively claimed as ‘trans’, who in some accounts was described as being among the first rioters (though he claimed not to have arrived until after the riot started on the first night).
The problem with all such claims are that it was a riot - chaotic by nature, with lots of conflicting accounts.
This only seems important to me because I see claims that trans women actually started the gay rights movement and that LGB people owe trans women for gay rights when some LGB people express concern about trans rights and gay rights being conflated as LGBT rights. And that’s when ‘it was a trans woman who threw the first brick at Stonewall’ usually comes up.
That’s when I get pedantic about this stuff. I know that history is always a project of a present, and the past is constantly being re-written to confirm contemporary ideology, but it’s startling to see it happen to an event when there are contemporary witnesses still alive, and many who have passed have had their accounts preserved.
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 21, 2020 12:47:27 GMT
For Stonewall certainly at that point drag, transvestisism and transexuality were less defined but certainly someone like Miss Major Griffin-Gracy would recognise Trans as what she was even if she hadn't transitioned at that point though she may have already I'm not sure. They weren’t less defined, though, they were simply defined as distinct things. Transvestites went to great lengths to tell people that they didn’t think they were women, and didn’t want to change sex, they simply wanted to wear whatever clothes and make-up they wanted, when they wanted. Eddie Izzard had this down to a fine art - full comedy routines about it. Drag was performance, an art form, as not an attempt to portray real women but an exaggerated parody of womanhood. A subversion of gender norms, coming from the comic tradition of the topsy turvy world where breaking the usual rules creates a space where the absurdity of the status quo is made obvious. All of the above mentioned ‘drag queen names’ were friendly piss-taking, in-group bonding rituals. That’s why they were bestowed on people rather than chosen by the individual themselves. Transsexuals really felt like the were the opposite sex, ‘born in the wrong body’, wanted to pass as the opposite sex - they didn’t want to stand out as breaking gender norms or parodying them, they wanted to conform to them so that people would think they were the opposite sex. These 3 very distinct groups have all been subsumed into the grouping ‘trans’ as if they are interchangeable. Along with a whole host of new terms like non-binary, agender, Demi-gender, gender variant, bi-gender, gender fluid, aporagender, etc.
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 20, 2020 19:40:52 GMT
I’ve seen people confuse ‘drag queen names’ with gay men actually being trans. That’s why the ‘first brick thrown at Stonewall was by’ narrative changed from being ‘a drag queen’ to ‘a trans woman’.
Even though people who were there at the time say they weren’t trans.
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 19, 2020 19:17:12 GMT
So this week the contestant with the best couture item got the boot? WTF? Though to be fair that invisible zip on the pattern challenge was a shocker.
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 19, 2020 13:17:42 GMT
Not just that it's safe to travel but that we're allowed to make non-essential journeys by public transport. I suppose people must be doing it now that eg Oxford Street is back open, but I'm still under the impression that we should only be using the tube/busses to get to work if we have no other way of doing so, and not for any other reason. Article in WhatsOnStage about ALW doing something at the Palladium in July and whilst I would definitely want to go and can walk there from work, I wouldn't feel I had a way to get there at the weekend. You are allowed to use public transport not just for essential journeys - people are using trains to get to London all the time now to go shopping or to walk around or to go to the parks etc. Personally public transport wouldn’t bother me as I don’t think you can live your life In fear forever The guidance on public transport is here: www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-safer-travel-guidance-for-passengersIt has no been communicated very well.
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 19, 2020 11:50:35 GMT
AlW was on the Today Programme this morning. He's going to start the trial at the Palladium next month and hoping to demonstrate to the government that theatres can operate safely without social distancing. Mentions things like temperature testing, disinfection, special door handles ect. He seems rather more proactive than CM who's simply decided to just close everything till next year and seemingly given up. I’d put money on this being a coordinated effort between the two of them. CM scares everyone with the consequences of the status quo, and then ALW comes along to offer a solution that avoids those consequences. Stick and carrot. Public transport is still going to be a major barrier though. Someone needs to come up with good evidence to show that it’s safe to travel. It’s the number one concern for getting people back into London.
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 19, 2020 11:17:42 GMT
Hmm, yes. Everything is now viewed through the lens of gender identity. Witness the Bohemian Rhapsody film having Freddie Mercury trying on clothes from the ladies’ section and wearing his mum’s dress to perform as if he was somehow playing around with his gender identity on stage, rather than Queen deliberately chasing the glam rock trend because it was hugely popular when they first started out, and then dropping it with great relief as soon as it went out of fashion. (His friends report him saying ‘yes, I know I looked ridiculous in those leotards, darling, but we wanted the attention and it worked, didn’t it!’)
But having said that, Elton John was always more popular in the USA than the U.K., and he is plenty flamboyant.
Even the likes of Sam Smith doesn’t seem to know his gay and pop history - remember when he thought he was the first gay man to win an Oscar?! And he actually personally knows previous gay Oscar winners...
Maybe it’s just the tendency of the young to think that they are inventing everything rather then realising that they’re not the first to do it!
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 19, 2020 8:31:16 GMT
Maybe the lack of a West End Aida is why people over here barely remember that Elton John is a musical theatre composer (based on the many ‘But why is Rocketman a musical?!’ conversations I had last year) though The Lion King has been running continuously for 20 years! And Billy Elliot did 10 years in the West End.
If the pandemic had not upended everything and Aida had gone to the West End next year, that would have been 3 musicals composed by Elton John running in London, with the new Tammy Faye one, and 2 on Broadway, with the new Devil Wears Prada. For a little while at least, even if they didn’t all manage to stay open for long.
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 19, 2020 8:05:28 GMT
Like it or not the airlines are essential travel and delivery infrastructure and so expensive a market to enter for new companies that if you allow all the existing operators to go bust it’ll cause severe disruption far beyond people not being able to fly for their summer holidays. It takes weeks to do the same journeys by boat/road/train.
The theatre industry going under would be utterly horrible, but it wouldn’t stop food or medicine arriving in the country.
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 17, 2020 16:02:43 GMT
Well said - the kneejerk reaction from people towards 'millionaires' and 'billionaires' shows literally no undertaking at all of how businesses work and the difference between personal wealth and that related to business. These people aren't there to pointlessly throw good money after bad. It's pure envy. It makes about as much sense as complaining that someone who has been furloughed is treating it as a 'free holiday', because you've continued to work. What else are they meant to do?!
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 17, 2020 14:35:09 GMT
It’s why you’re always ‘worth’ more dead than alive.
The likes of a Michael Jackson was in crippling debt towards the end of his life, but as soon as he died and the value of his assets could be realised the debts were paid off, and his estate started generating income without the cost of supporting his lifestyle - it’s now incredibly valuable.
Net worth is only really useful for someone who is working out whether to lend you money and what interest rate to charge you. The more you are worth the more sure they are that they’ll get their money back if something disastrous happens. There’s a reason why Cam Mac doesn’t want to load his business down with debt - lots of businesses end up going under because their creditors get worried, and force a sale of assets to get their money back. If all the creditors do that at once and you can’t pay them all back then you’re bankrupt.
I hope this is part of a political push on the government.
|
|
4,038 posts
|
Post by kathryn on Jun 17, 2020 14:03:47 GMT
Yeah. People have this knee-jerk reaction that owners of a business should personally bail it out, but it’s financially illiterate. In most cases they can’t - hardly anyone has enough personal wealth to keep a loss-making business afloat for any length of time. And even if they could, why would they? They will end up with no money and a valueless business that will fail anyway. May as well pull the plug now and save your money to invest in a business that is viable.
|
|