Scottish conservatives outraged at vaccine passport plan
Opposition parties have said the Scottish government’s proposals for vaccine passports are an infringement of civil liberties as sports and industry leaders described them as unworkable and a threat to livelihoods.
On Wednesday, Nicola Sturgeon set out plans to require vaccine certificates for entry to nightclubs and large-scale indoor and outdoor events in an attempt to curb rising Covid infections before the autumn.
John Swinney, deputy first minister, had previously described passports as “the wrong way to go”, while the Scottish Greens – who last week entered a power-sharing agreement with the Scottish government – described them as “discriminatory”.
Douglas Ross, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, told the Holyrood chamber at first minister’s questions on Thursday that the proposal represented “shambolic, last-minute, kneejerk decision-making” and suggested that tensions were already emerging between the SNP and the Scottish Greens.
Sturgeon replied that she believed businesses were showing “understanding and pragmatism … in recognition of the severity of the situation we face”.
But Neil Doncaster, chief executive of the Scottish Professional Football League, earlier issued a warning that the plans would have “significant unintended consequences” for clubs, with the proposals for events of more than 10,000 people affecting Scotland games and some Scottish Premiership matches.
He told BBC Sport Scotland: “It’s not clear what IT infrastructure will be in place, what timescales clubs will be asked to work to, or what can be done for those without smartphones.
“And it’s not clear if it’s going to cut across terms and conditions of seasons tickets already bought by people across the land.”
Although Sturgeon said on Wednesday that she hoped not to extend the measure to other venues, the managing director of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association (SLTA), Colin Wilkinson, described it as a “threat hanging over the whole of the hospitality industry”.
Wilkinson also pointed out that, with a wide variety of hybrid premises such as pubs, bars and hotels that are larger than nightclubs and offer various entertainments, further clarity was needed on what constitutes a nightclub. “Consultation with the industry before this announcement was made would have been helpful,” he said.
Mike Grieve, chair of the Night Time Industries Association Scotland and owner of the Subclub in Glasgow, told Good Morning Scotland on BBC Radio Scotland that the plans were “completely incoherent” and lacking consistency, for example between live music venues and nightclubs.
Concerns have also been raised about the fairness of requiring certification for the forthcoming TRNSMT festival in Glasgow, which is likely to be attended by 16- and 17-year-olds who have yet to have had the opportunity to be fully vaccinated.
The Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, Alex Cole-Hamilton, said his party was “fundamentally opposed” to the introduction of vaccine passports, raising concerns that this was “the first time that Scots will have to provide medical data to strangers to access freedoms in our society”.
Sturgeon said that she respected his party’s “principled position” and that the issue should be debated, but she believed that the proposal was proportionate and, it was hoped, a time-limited step.
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Why Gen Z’s War on Thrift Shops Is Misguided
Gen Z-ers on TikTok declared a war on thrift shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic, claiming that middle- and upper-class people shopping at thrift stores contribute to gentrification and limit opportunities for lower-income individuals to buy affordable clothes.
This argument is completely misguided. I know from personal experience.
I have thrift shopped for as long as I can remember. Growing up in a lower-income family, thrift shopping helped me save money and taught me budgeting skills.
As a former undergraduate student and now as a graduate student, I have continued the habit, with about 95% of my wardrobe coming from thrift shops.
It’s not because I want to deny anyone else the opportunity to buy affordable clothing. I don’t judge anyone who shops at the thrift shop or at yard sales—whether out of need, frugality, or taste in fashion. I shop at thrift stores to save money.
Let’s analyze Gen Z’s thrifting controversy to see whether its claims are true. Gen Z asserted on TikTok that thrift shopping takes needed goods away from low-income and minority groups.
Environmental Protection Agency statistics and my own personal thrift shopping experiences say otherwise. An ample supply of bargain-priced goods is available for everyone.
Despite the huge secondhand sales market, many previously owned clothes are tossed into the trash.
Americans purchased approximately 17 million tons of textiles—home goods and clothing—in 2018, not including thrifted items, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
At the same time, Americans added 11.3 million tons of textiles to landfills and combusted another 3.2 million tons. By comparison, Americans recycled only 2.5 million tons of textiles.
The options for these used, unwanted textiles are minimal: combust them, send them overseas to a developing nation, recycle them and use them for new products, send them to a landfill, or send them to a thrift store.
If not done properly, combusting the materials can release harmful chemicals. Facilities conducting combustions must capture those chemicals and dispose of them without polluting. If done by individuals, it’s likely that combustion will release those chemicals directly into the air.
Sending items as charity to developing nations floods their textile markets. That can have negative consequences on jobs, causing further poverty.
Recycling textiles into new products sounds great in theory. However, few textile recycling programs exist. The textile recycling industry could be expanded to fill the gap.
Some items may be in such poor condition that nothing can be done with them aside from sending them to a landfill.
That creates another problem. Items of natural composition go through processes of dying and chemical treatment making the items potentially hazardous to health as they decompose. Many textiles are made of petroleum derivatives, which are plastics made from crude oil that decompose slowly.
In some circumstances, the decomposition of petroleum or altered clothing can take up to 500 years, meaning the clothes sit in landfills without decomposing for centuries.
Thus, we are left with sending items to thrift stores.
When entering a thrift store, you are greeted by carts of newly sorted items waiting to join the already full racks and shelves. Glance into a thrift store donation center and/or warehouse and one will see 4-foot cardboard cubes often stacked floor-to-ceiling.
There is no shortage of merchandise even though only a small portion of used textiles are donated. This will certainly continue as Americans buy the latest fads.
Companies make the goods to keep up with those demands. Those products are often hastily made of low-quality materials, creating cheap goods that wear out quickly that are not conducive to reuse.
For so long as these trends continue, plenty of secondhand clothing options will serve all types of buyers—those of lower income, the frugal, and the fashion conscious. Your savings account—and the environment—may benefit.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/08/12/why-gen-zs-war-on-thrift-shops-is-misguided/
******************************************UK: Guy's Hospital is accused of 'cultural vandalism' as it announces it WILL move statue of 'slave-trading' founder Thomas Guy to a 'less prominent place'
Guy's Hospital has confirmed it will move a statue of its founder Thomas Guy to a less prominent position because of his links to Britain's slave trade after facing pressure from Black Lives Matter protests.
The decision has been agreed by the hospital's charitable foundation despite its consultation revealing that 75 per cent of those who responded felt the statue should remain in place.
In a statement issued with their report, the foundation said the gesture was proposed in a bid to 'address the legacies' of slavery and to make the hospital 'more welcoming to everyone'.
A separate statue of hospital benefactor Sir Robert Clayton, who also has links to Britain's colonial past, will remain in place as it was decided the position was less prominent.
But the foundation confirmed both statues will be displayed with accompanying plaques detailing their ties to the slave trade.
It comes as Goldsmiths University of London launched public consultation on plans to remove four statues including Lord Nelson and Francis Drake.
The statues first came under fire in June 2020 when they were both boarded up after BLM protestors launched the Topple the Racists campaign.
As a result, both statues were boarded up by the hospital foundation over fears they would be targeted by anti-racism protestors until bosses could decide what should be done with them on a permanent basis.
Bookseller Guy made his fortune as a major shareholder in British slave-trafficking firm South Sea Company. He sold his shares for £250,00 - the equivalent of £400million in modern-day prices - and founded Guy's Hospital near London Bridge in 1721.
A second statue depicting Robert Clayton will be taken down from St Thomas's hospital - where Boris Johnson was admitted with coronavirus in April - near Westminster Bridge. Clayton was part of the Royal African Company who shipped African slaves to the Americas.
The hospitals are both part of the same trust.
Who was Thomas Guy?
Thomas Guy (1644 - 1724) was a British bookseller, stock speculator, governor of St Thomas' Hospital and founder of Guys' Hospital, London - which he built with profits from the slave trade.
He made his fortune through ownership of £42,000-worth of shares in the South Sea Company, whose main purpose was to sell slaves to the Spanish colonies.
The South Sea Company was responsible for the transportation of around 64,000 enslaved Africans between 1715 and 1731 to Spanish plantations in Central and Southern America.
After selling his shares in South Sea Company for £250,000, the equivalent of £400million in modern-day prices, Guy used his massive fortune to establish Guy's Hospital for 'the poorest and sickest of the poor' in London, at a cost of £19,000.
Before opening Guy's, in Southwark, central London, he created almshouses and became a governor of the nearby St Thomas's Hospital after paying for the cost of three new wards.
He died in 1724 and his will was so complex and so high in value that an Act of Parliament was needed to enact it, and he left nearly £220,000 to the hospital.
The bulk of his estate was left in trust to complete work on the hospital, while a further sum was set aside for the release of prisoners in the capital who owed debts.
At the time, the trust said it recognised the 'public hurt and anger that is generated by the symbolism of public statues of historical figures associated with the slave trade' and that it had a duty to address 'the legacy of colonialism, racism and slavery in our work'.
At the same time, protestors called for dozens of statues of historic figures to be torn down, an action that was sparked by the toppling of the Edward Colston statue in Bristol.
Colston's statue was toppled by a crowd amid growing tensions about Britain's colonial past, sparked by global outcry following the death of George Floyd in the US.
Floyd was killed when white police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee into his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds despite his desperate pleas that he 'can't breathe'. He passed out and later died in Minneapolis on May 25.
His death is seen as a symbol of systemic police brutality against African-Americans sparking outrage and largely-peaceful protests first across the US before quickly spreading worldwide.
Since the movement grew in intensity, organisations have been looking at ways to address the country's colonial history and the reminders left behind in the form of statues, school and university names and many other aspects of public life.
The trust has said the changes to St Guy's and St Thomas' statues is subject to planning permission.
Critics accused the Guy's and St Thomas' Foundation of 'cultural vandalism' and claimed they had ignored public opinion about whether the statues should stay or go.
Robert Poll, who runs the Save Our Statues campaign, said that the body had 'ignored the public' by deciding to move the Thomas Guy statue.
His comments came after 75 per cent of respondents to an online questionnaire that was part of the consultation said that the statue should stay.
Robert Poll, who runs the Save Our Statues campaign, said: 'asked the public. 3,200 people responded. 75 per cent said to keep the statue where it is. Once again the public is ignored.'
The report showed that 75 per cent of respondents to the consultation said that the statue should stay but the independent authors said the campaign group's supporters dominated the responses and skewed the results.
Kieron Boyle, the foundation's Chief Executive, says: 'Like many organisations in Britain, slavery is part of our history, and we believe we have a duty to address its legacies.
'The consultation has recommended that we retain both statues in the public realm, provide information explaining how both men made their wealth, and move one of the statues to a less prominent position.
'It has also suggested that we commission new artistic works to tell the rich story of those involved in the hospitals' history.
'We recognise that these can be polarising debates and are grateful for the wide range of views that shaped these independent recommendations. We are committed to seeing all the changes through.'
Other examples of changes made as a result of the movement include the removal of several monuments to slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol, the alteration of the name of the David Hume tower in Edinburgh and the renaming of Gladstone Hall at Liverpool University.
Meanwhile, Goldsmiths University in London has, today, launched a consultation over the future of four of its statues including one of Lord Nelson and another of Francis Drake at Deptford Town Hall.
The Nelson statue at Deptford Town Hall was streaked in red paint either side of it last June, with protesters targeting the naval hero over claims that he was a white supremacist and was against the abolition of slavery.
The four statues in niches on the front of Deptford Town Hall are Sir Francis Drake, Robert Blake, Lord Horatio Nelson, and a representative naval figure from the early 20 century. The figures depict the naval history of Britain with Deptford's 'nautical associations' providing the inspiration for the statues, according to Historic England.
The university says it does not have a 'policy position' on the statues and is opening the consultation to the public to determine their future.
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Australian kids as young as THREE should be asked which pronoun they want to be called, says NSW government guide
Children as young as three should be asked which pronoun they prefer, a government guide has suggested.
The guide, produced by the NSW Office of the Children's Guardian, was first introduced in a bid to help schools and junior sporting clubs keep kids 'safe' in new environments away from the home.
Gender pronouns refer to people as he/him/his or she/her/hers, while those who see themselves outside of binary gender may prefer to be referred to with 'they/them'.
But critics have warned asking a preschool-aged child about their gender identity could be confusing and detrimental to personal development.
They also believe it could be distressing for young children because it will leave them confused as they haven't yet grasped the concept of gender.
The controversial government publication, titled Empowerment and Participation, was released this year. It states adults and parents looking after children aged between three and eight must never assume gender identities. 'Ask for their preferred pronouns and (then) respectfully use them,' the guide reads.
Dr Bella d'Abrera, from the Institute of Public Affairs Foundations of Western Civilisation Program, believes questioning a child's preferred gender pronoun is wildly inappropriate.
'Asking children this question is ridiculous. Three-year-olds have no idea what a pronoun is, let alone which one they would prefer adults to use,' she told the Daily Telegraph.
'As a society, we need to let children be children. They should not be forced to participate in something which is scientifically false, which is that there are more than two genders.'
She added that 'woke bureaucrats' should never look to introduce radical gender theories on young children.
A spokesman from the NSW Office of the Children's Guardian argued the potential use of pronouns could be beneficial. 'The advice is about being polite and not making assumptions. Knowing how a child prefers to be addressed avoids confusion and establishes trust,' he said.
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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Kristina Pimenova, once said to be the most beautiful girl in the world. Note blue eyes and blonde hair
Bliss: What every woman wants: to feel safe and secure in the arms of her man. Robert Irwin and Rorie Buckey. See 
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