Guilt Free Railing 10

[WouldBeGood]

Is the end nigh?

@IncludeWomenInThePrequel that’s a challenge!

@Callisto1 that’s just really sad.

@ElephantOfRisk I’m currently reading Brave New World. It’s uncanny.

My rail today is on wasted money and how far the SG is on producing a app to show vaccination status with a QR code putting Scotland again at a disadvantage for travel even for work!
Over half a million spent only reason I can see is because of their own stubbornness when the rest of the UK uses a already developed system which is accepted with a QR code!

Friends are having a nightmare trying to see family they haven't in nearly 2 years as well as others having work issues because apparently we just produce a piece of paper!

We don't fly on holiday to the end of Sept hopefully they have got their act together!

Maybe the one that's already been developed can't be used here as it doesn't have a saltire on it?

Waiting to be told that we can't use uk passports anymore and we'll need a scottish one or a EU one.

Hollow laugh at Scotland's excellent transport links. Good if you want to get into the centre of any of the cities. Bad, for basically any other requirement. Liking the exam questions, though - though don't give the SQA (may they rest in peace) any ideas, please....

Also hollow laugh at reading another thread about how normal everything is now... Libraries are a good one. I had a battle just returning some (v v overdue) books without an appointment. They finally agreed I could drop them off in their cardboard box, once I'd sanitised my hands and given the books a wipe over with an antiviral wipe . Couldn't stomach the idea of even trying to look for any new books.

I'm also having an internal rail at the Fringe. Decided we'd go to see something as a family (3 of us). Tickets available - great. But only in "bubbles" of 1, 2 or 4. OK - I tried to book a bubble of 1 and a bubble of 2 online. Not possible - there are no bubbles of 1 left. Gave up online booking and spoke to the box office. "Oh, you can book a bubble of 4 - but you'll have to pay for 4 tickets". No way of splitting bubble of 4 into 3 and 1. No way of selling on extra ticket "because you'd end up sitting next to someone you don't know" (not sure they've ever actually been to a fringe show, ever)... I wasn't keen on paying £12 for a seat we didn't want and weren't going to use, so went in a huff and ended up buying just 2 tickets, and DH said if he couldn't get a single ticket at the door he'd just drink beer in the courtyard. 15 mins before the show, the staff said "oh yes, we do have tickets, but only in bubbles of 2, so you'd have to pay for 2...the single ones go really quickly". DH kind of lost his cool at that and suggested that if they sold so quickly, maybe they could split the seating in a slightly more equitable and flexible manner, that means that people wanting to watch the show and willing to pay for a seat can do so, rather than it going unsold. So it was just DS and I who went, and there were loads of spare seats in groups of 2 and 4. And I'd have thought that the arts would have been dying to get as many bums on seats as they could... Ah well.

Hope your back is feeling better today groovee!

I was coming on to rail about the idiocy of the 4 year olds can self identify nonsense but I see I've been beaten to it :).

Feel free to rail further @riverrunning, that should have more mileage in it yet.

well clearly self ID for 4 year olds is more important than them being well socialised, able to speak clearly (SLT issues through the roof), have timely SN diagnoses, MH support, or an focus on the now huge attainment gap.

The SNP absolutely suck for children. Let's ensure we create a generation of really confused children who've been told that they can be any sex at an age when they believe in fairies, Father Christmas and in the case of my DD, that she could actually fly.

and like you say elephant let's talk about self ID for 4 year olds and not the terrible outcomes from recent exams for children from poorer backgrounds.

and our local library is exactly the same, 15 mins slot, covid bouncer outside to make sure you are fully complying. Utterly miserable experience, er no thanks.

The good thing about the 4 year olds though is that it’s drawn public attention to what the SG is doing, and how mental it is.

"The SNP absolutely suck for children. Let's ensure we create a generation of really confused children who've been told that they can be any sex at an age when they believe in fairies, Father Christmas and in the case of my DD, that she could actually fly."

This articulates really well the reason for the unease I feel around all of this. We have had a lot of issues with correct pronouns (DS even called everyone 'it' for a while..) and I constantly have to correct them that x is a girl so we use 'she' etc. The confusion it will/would cause if youngest one is now to be told that 'yes, y looks and is a boy but wants to be a girl so use 'she/her' is something that I really don't look forward to. Beyond that, small children have no real concept of gender identity beyond stereotypes, and I am already batting off comments along the lines of 'girls like x/y/z' and 'she can't like blue, that's a boy colour'. If we don't rigorously challenge stereotypes, and instead let little x believe that she is really a boy because she likes the digger or whatever without challenging this in any way, this could potentially be very damaging as they grow up.

The libraries thing is weird, ours (Fife) is operating basically as normal but in Dundee they're still not open!

What a joke and an utter faff the fringe events are @ResilienceWanker I believe this is not the case at the many festivals and events taking place elsewhere in the U.K.
Says it all, doesn’t it🤷‍♀️

exactly, it feels hugely regressive. That whole 'I'm a girl or I'm a boy because x' is so much based on stereotypes that we've been making some progress on challenging. I hate it when I read those news articles about how people knew they were really x sex because of (inserted gender preference for wearing dresses etc.).

Primary aged children have got no hope of navigating these nuances without constant confusion.

@Y0uCann0tBeSer10us

"The SNP absolutely suck for children. Let's ensure we create a generation of really confused children who've been told that they can be any sex at an age when they believe in fairies, Father Christmas and in the case of my DD, that she could actually fly."

This articulates really well the reason for the unease I feel around all of this. We have had a lot of issues with correct pronouns (DS even called everyone 'it' for a while..) and I constantly have to correct them that x is a girl so we use 'she' etc. The confusion it will/would cause if youngest one is now to be told that 'yes, y looks and is a boy but wants to be a girl so use 'she/her' is something that I really don't look forward to. Beyond that, small children have no real concept of gender identity beyond stereotypes, and I am already batting off comments along the lines of 'girls like x/y/z' and 'she can't like blue, that's a boy colour'. If we don't rigorously challenge stereotypes, and instead let little x believe that she is really a boy because she likes the digger or whatever without challenging this in any way, this could potentially be very damaging as they grow up.

Absolutely - I had to go and read another thread about this as I hadn't picked up the reference but it is ridiculous. DS had difficulty with pronouns too - he's and she's confused all over the shop - so if we weren't allowed to correct, it'd be a disaster!

He has seemed to rebel against stereotypes in clothes/ colour choices and so on anyway, and often gets mistaken for a girl (his hair is halfway down his back, and he chose rainbow wellies recently, given the choice between black, blue, pink or rainbow... I mean, they were obviously the best choice, but still...) but he doesn't see that as an insult. He just says "I'm a boy but I've got lockdown hair..." which seems as good a retort as any. I'm sure he'll get some peer pressure at some point to conform a bit more (other boys in his class also had longer than average hair... I think they were having a competition), but I'd hate to think colour and style preferences were seen as anything other than that - preferences! Though if self ID is going to be a thing, he'd definitely identify as a cat and stare aimlessly out of the window the whole day...

It’s absolutely on point for the Twitterati though. ‘The Scottish Government are so progressive’ they declare.

I detest the way they play the media at the expense of women, children and parents.

Why is it that 'progressive' policies are so often the most regressive imaginable? What's progressive about undoing decades of work to fight gender stereotypes by doubling down on them, or by claiming that people who don't conform can change their sex. I mean it's actually, literally nonsense, but if you don't subscribe to it you're a bigot who should be 're-educated' or even prosecuted. Scary times indeed.

I think DC can pick up the nuances pretty well without all this shite. Mine both had long hair at times (well DS2 most of the time), the girls liked to put clips in it and tell him he was pretty! he was pretty to be fair. Neither are trans or gay, they just liked long hair. I had a nephew (in his 40s now) who liked to collect soaps and carried a little doll around in matchbox, he's married with two kids. You can't pigeonhole kids based on what they like to wear or look like or play with.

Exactly, instead of carrying on breaking down the boxes that people were put in, we've created a never ending supply of new ones.

Change from, it's okay to have long hair and not like football to "if you have long hair and don't like football then you can now just be a girl" It's utter madness.

and to start that idea off with children at an age when they have no idea what this path might involve for them is so horrible.

@OnceUponAWhine

What a joke and an utter faff the fringe events are *@ResilienceWanker* I believe this is not the case at the many festivals and events taking place elsewhere in the U.K. Says it all, doesn’t it🤷‍♀️

On the plus side, although the venue was fully "you shall wear masks at all times when not actually chewing something", as soon as everyone got to the show area and was seated, they took them off. Safety in numbers and all... And it was fun and there was Slightly Embarrassed Communal, Unmasked Singing, which was great. Though it was basically a tent with no sides, so effectively outdoors, and absolutely freezing - though to be fair I'd gone dressed for a sweaty, slightly humid indoor room, heated with stage lighting, with three times as many people who can safely fit in there under normal circumstances - which, in hindsight was a bit optimistic.

Some friends said they had to produce a negative LFT for the venue they had planned to go to - so they decided not to go after all!

Loving the exam Qs.

My offering:
Which is the only social group that is permitted to urinate in public, break covid rules, breach the peace, sing offensive songs, vandalise public property, intimidate passers by and drink to excess in public?

Too easy?

@ElephantOfRisk

Exactly, instead of carrying on breaking down the boxes that people were put in, we've created a never ending supply of new ones.

Change from, it's okay to have long hair and not like football to "if you have long hair and don't like football then you can now just be a girl" It's utter madness.

Exactly. It's not as if childhood and puberty isn't confusing enough! Why add in this whole extra thing so early, which is only going to really be relevant to a tiny minority of people, and they're likely to realise that its an issue for them by themselves! Yes, teach children to be accepting of people who look different, or like different things, or behave in a different way, or whatever - and that it's fine and normal for boys to like dancing and girls to like rockets, or the other way round - but there is really no need for them to understand their own gender identity as a matter of course. I don't think I understand my own, to be honest, and I'm a fucktonne older than 4.