J&J - The no more Tiers formula...

[WaxOnFeckOff]

Another new Fred...

@StarryEyeSurprise

Going back to pensions...

This is why you need occupational pensions as well.

@littlbrowndog

This from wings

yes, i saw that earlier, and the main thing i noted is that in spite of the absolute twitter storm after the article, no-one said it was wrong or that what happened didn't happen.

I’ve been out the scotsnet chat loop a while; I’ve missed you like minded folk!

I'm sure I didn't get the novavax vaccine when I went for my trial appointments. I am on the subgroup monitoring reactions to the vaccine. They give the participants a (30cm) ruler to measure any noticeable reaction to the site of the injection and required us to answer questions on an app. I really had to hunt for the dot where the needle had gone in and had zero side effects.

There are 15,000 participants in the British trial. 62 participants tested positive for covid. Of those 56 had not had the vaccine and 6 had.

I feel better for knowing I'm not the only person celebrating the start of February. It's definitely a psychological boost.

The slowness of the vaccine rollout here is very frustrating tho. I don't really see that the islands should slow things down significantly. I would have thought they could charter the usual ferries to extra sailings if need be and do the whole adult population of the smallest islands in one go. There are inter island flights too. However, in Orkney the appointment procedure was to ask eligible residents to phone for an appointment! Or, as a pp suggested leave the islands till last as they have mostly had hardly any cases at all.

I am horrified that JC has been sacked from the front bench. NS is always trying to paint herself as couthy, full of commonsense, willing to stand up to the big boys etc (unlike Doris and co) except when it comes to standing up for women. Disappointing.

@Peppafrig

Will see what she has to say tomorrow about more travel restrictions. It seems silly to open up areas like Edinburgh when numbers are low then allow thousands of people from high areas to travel there to work daily. My husband and me both travel to Edinburgh daily from Glasgow as do thousands of others and vice versa I don’t know what the answer is .

Yes, I agree that the tiers weren't successful, due to the interconnectiveness of so much of Scotland (and the rest of the uk), and I assume they've realised that they aren't going to work (not that they've stated that yet, as far as I know). It is frustrating, though... There is something that is different between the higher areas and the lower areas - likely relating to job types, poverty, cultural norms and so on as we have discussed previously. But I don't know how we can do anything about the spread with such intrinsic and uncontrollable factors! And in the meantime we're stuck not being able to do anything, even though the things we'd like to do wouldn't actually have much impact on the spread anyway...

@LizzieMacQueen I've lost the thread of what's happening between work/overtime/homeschool, can you help me understand?

Is the gist that the SNP have made these changes essentially as a way to let the trans lobbyists win, but give themselves cover? So basically, anyone can identify as anything, and that covers up the one group of people we know this was designed to ameliorate?

I can't believe I have read articles by both Wings AND Craig Murray this week and not wanted to gouge my eyes out afterwards. I ended up going down an Alex Salmond rabbit hole over the weekend, and it does seem to look very murky. Obviously no side has been crowned in glory, but there definitely seems to be more to the conspiracy that NS had something to do with the AS accusations than I had assumed.

The SNP list story looks bad for them too, especially given how the SNP often don't get many seats via the list route anyway (as they have so many constituency MSPs). So a self identified BAME or disabled candidate may get the only list seat in a region, regardless of how good their peers think they would be as a MSP. I actually think there is a case for increasing diversity in parliament, but I really don't think this route (likely illegal anyway) is the way forward, and it seems designed to encourage mis-identifying as a strategy for ambitious candidates, which is very, very low. This is the wings summary of the whole debacle.

@IncludeWomenInTheSequel

They're absolutely falling apart. Damnit, I honestly thought independence was coming closer, but they're going to fuck it all up. Independence isn't about them, it's about the country's future.

It’s an absolute shambles. A total embarrassment. Where are the adults?

Indeed. Check the state of this article

www.thenational.scot/news/19053239.many-quit-snp-still-see-nicola-sturgeon-trans-ally-enough/

my view is that if all NS/cronies did was encourage folk who had genuinely been assaulted by AS to come forward and report it, why all the shite about not releasing staff and the lies around when they knew about allegations.

I'm no AS fan (I despise them all tbh) but he has been found not guilty and at the time I was astounded but I think it's very much a case of his detractors capitalising on the general sleaziness surrounding him and magnifying it. NS and the party wanted him not only down, but down so far that there was no possibility of his coming back or having any credible influence on policy or other supporters. He'd be discredited and a pariah with no access to the media.

So, i'm now more inclined to believe that there was a stitch up and they are trying to cover it up.

And all the other shit going on, as a woman without a penis, I'm very much being disenfranchised in my own country.

The SNP is a single issue lobby group really, they are not a group of like minded individuals by any stretch but have been kept in line with the promise of independence for doing so. Looks very much like the wheels coming off now and I can't say I'm upset about it.

I've been reading about a Scottish author who had fibromyalgia who mistook her symptoms for a fibro flare. 😢 that's me irrationally worrying as I have fibromyalgia.

Talk at work is they think nursery, P1/2 will be back after the holidays while P3 and above continue at home/keyworker school. And exam years too.

I really hope ASN students can go back soon, ds (and the rest of us!) are struggling. They always seem to be the forgotten ones.

Hi @IncludeWomenInTheSequel Did you mean to tag me?

I would have thought they would want p7 in first so they can have their transition to high school all organised .

No! Sorry

It was meant for @littlbrowndog

as someone who is genuinely disabled (visible and invisible) this whole self identification thing makes me uncomfortable but as many disabilities are invisible, what can really be done? you can't prove someone is making it up just to get elected. There has been so much genuine good work to get disabled people into politics that this just kind of ruins it all.

Kirsty Thingy saying they need to get rid of snp transphobes and their hate speech. What hate speech? Who are all these transphobes saying hateful things about transgender people? There are plenty of transgender activists and drag queens who say hateful things about women and use misogynistic language but I don't know what JC could be quoted as saying that would count as hateful towards transgender people. So, their logic as far as I can see is that stating biological facts is transphobic. This is surely, crazy. Unless JC makes a point of seeking out trangender women and shouting at them that they aren't really women, ner ner ner ner ner. Which seems unlikely.

I think that's a very good point about the raison d'etre of SNP taking up the party's bandwidth and resulting in confused ideas about other things.

I’m feeling slightly hopefully by the fact that my child’s nursery has just emailed to say that they are being filmed tomorrow for bbc news ahead of the FM announcement

The plot thickens, as apparently the woman they’ve put in to replace Joanna Cherry, Anne McLaughlin, is the partner of one of the NEC who voted himself disabled. It’s so nepotistic and sleazy.

They’re using things like depression and diabetes to declare themselves disabled.

Much as I'm enjoying watching the SNP tear themselves to pieces, this purge of people who believe in biological sex is a very worrying development when coupled with other SNP tendencies towards shutting down debate and criminalising 'wrong think'. It seems likely that the SNP will still be in some position of power after May as so many will vote for them literally no matter what they do, and the thought of being stuck under an ultra-woke SNP who seem determined to erase women and pass laws to prevent people even expressing an opinion on the matter is pretty terrifying.

For all Joanna Cherry's flaws she at least stuck up for women and understood that there was a conflict between self ID and women's rights. Sturgeon shows no indication that she gives a crap about sex-based rights at all. What kind of Scotland is that for our daughters?

@Y0uCann0tBeSer10us that’s exactly what I’m worried about.

I do not think that any of the ordinary SNP voters have a clue about any of this. I don’t think they’re particularly interested in the minutiae of politics, just the mantra of independence.

I’m basing this on people I know as well as engagements online. DP had no idea

You're so right @Y0uCann0tBeSer10us

I mean, I want an independent Scotland, and that's got sod all to do with the SNP. I would vote them out once independence was gained. But to get there, I need to vote for them.

But how do I vote for them when they think me a bigot and a transphobe, and would have no trouble shouting that in my face, when I would have no urge to do the same to them? Literally, my position is that I have concerns about self-ID. That's all. But I am not welcome with the SNP any more, clearly.

I'm completely politically homeless, and it's sad because I've been really invested in politics all my life, and it's all come to nothing really.

@IncludeWomenInTheSequel Green party? Although not sure on their line.

I won't vote for any party which puts an independence referendum above the economic and health recovery of a pandemic. To me it's definitely not the right time with such horrific state of affairs and without furlough would be in a far worse position!

@Iwillneverbesatisfied

as someone who is genuinely disabled (visible and invisible) this whole self identification thing makes me uncomfortable but as many disabilities are invisible, what can really be done? you can't prove someone is making it up just to get elected. There has been so much genuine good work to get disabled people into politics that this just kind of ruins it all.

Yes, fair point, I agree with you that we can't say anyone doesn't have a "real" self identified disability. But if you were standing (with a disability) in Lothian or Glasgow, or the other "BAME" areas, where the top spot went to someone self identifying as BAME, that would be quite galling (whether or not the successful candidate was visibly BAME). I'm sure there is a bit of strategy in determining where to stand, but this policy does seem to encourage/ discourage people from standing in particular regions as they are the "wrong minority".

Surely the aim is to increase the pool of excellent candidates that may otherwise be excluded (or not stand in the first place) because their "minority status" creates barriers. Not to box tick by shoehorning any candidate in that meets the requirements.

@Scottishskifun the Greens are just as bad. Patrick Harvie is awful and worke as they come.

@IncludeWomenInTheSequel what about the ISP?

I won’t vote for them, as I don’t want independence, but they’ve been saying some good stuff on the GC front.