Pack your suitcases and prepare for Round Two of the European Cup.
Cardiff v Harlequins
Home advantage and Ellis Jenkins won’t do enough for Cardiff against in-form Quins. Quins by 10.
Castres v Munster
No-one will ever know the result of this match as anyone who attempts to watch it will die the most horrible of deaths from boredom, judging by the reverse fixture.
Wasps v Toulouse
Ooh. Toulouse by at least 35.
Ospreys v Racing 92
Surprisingly, Racing 92 are languishing even further down the Top 14 table than Ospreys are in the URC. I still think they’ll win, though – by about 12.
Connacht v Leicester
This could be the surprise of the weekend, possibly depending on the weather. Connacht by 3.
La Rochelle v Bath
Bath to take a Bath. La Rochelle by 20.
Exeter v Glasgow Warriors
Glasgow have been looking the business in their last couple of matches, and Exeter are not what they were last year. Weegies by 6.
Bristol v Stade Français
Neither side setting the world on fire this season, so home players by 4.
Leinster v Montpellier
Despite being toppled off the top of the URC, Leinster remain a team to be very scared of, and are at home. Blue Meanies by 17.
Bordeaux v Scarlets
Ooh là là, les Médocs par approximately neufty.
Northampton v Ulster
Will the return of Baloucoune and Hume mean an Ulster away win? Probably not, but I’m going for Ulster by 7 anyway. (This is why I never win the leagues.)
Clermont v Sale
Oh dear, Yellow Army by 30.
Onna telly this week
Friday 14th January
| Castres v Munster | 20:00 | BT Sport 3 |
| Cardiff v Harlequins | 20:00 | S4C / BT Sport 2 |
Saturday 15th January
| Wasps v Toulouse | 13:00 | Channel 4 / BT Sport 2 |
| Treviso v Dragons | 15:15 | S4C |
| Ospreys v Racing 92 | 15:15 | BT Sport 3 |
| Connacht v Leicester | 15:15 | BT Sport 2 |
| La Rochelle v Bath | 17:30 | BT Sport 3 |
| Exeter v Glasgow | 17:30 | BT Sport 2 |
| Bristol v Stade Français | 20:00 | BT Sport 2 |
Sunday 16th January
| Leinster v Montpellier | 13:00 | BT Sport 2 | ||
| Bordeaux v Scarlets | 15:15 | BT Sport 3 | ||
| Northampton v Ulster | 15:15 | BT Sport 2 | ||
| Clermont v Sale | 17:30 | BT Sport 2 |
Ovally Balls 
@Craigs – there have already been two consultations, both of which the EHRC contributed to and agreed with. But now there needs to be more.
The fact that almost every LGBT organisation in the UK has disassociated themselves, might tell you something
LikeLike
Ticht – I think you can put that down to self aggrandising by the Terfs who named themselves. I just find it funny that they now get all upset when people call them that.
LikeLike
Refit – ok. Maybe they have a good reason for that?
LikeLike
The Tories have packed the board with bigots? It’s the same with the Charity Commission, who gave the LBG Alliance registered status, despite them actively campaigning against trans people and being pat funded by the right-wing Heritage Foundation.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I doubt that’s possible, Refit.
For instance, the EHRC’ll be on to the Tories about reports of Islamophobia soon and then your accusation will look foolish.
LikeLike
“I think you can put that down to self aggrandising by the Terfs who named themselves. I just find it funny that they now get all upset when people call them that.”
Do you mean that Radical Feminists called themselves Trans-Exclusionary?
I read a book by Mary Daly almost 40 years ago, there was a thing in it that I remember because it just seemed so callous, she described trans people as being “like John Travolta and Farah Fawcett Scotch-taped together” ( I may not be verbatim on this, but it’s close).
Daly identified as a radical feminist, very much so, she said the Radical meant “from the root” and called for the overthrow of the entire patriarchy
I don’t know why I added that last paragraph, I was just remembering it I suppose
LikeLike
But they aren’t actually stopping or banning anything, just recommending more information is collected.
Fwiw – I’m not against any changes being made to the grc or to make life easier for teams people in the UK but any time someone raises concerns like JKR did they get piled on. For example, using the term TERF means you can dehumanise anyone who you disagree with. This whole debate is far too charged for any real progress to be made. But on the other, I agree that many people on the rad fem side are bigoted. And I hate the shaming of people that goes on.
I’m genuinely trying to see the middle ground but what’s happened to JKR is not the answer.
LikeLike
* trans people
LikeLike
The EHRC isn’t just about gender recognition. It also allows ‘conversion therapy’ (also known as torture) to continue legally.
LikeLike
It does rather look like as it went on Rowling may well have started talking about details that she probably didn’t know enough about to avoid being wrong and offensive to a degree.
LikeLike
Refit – what do you mean by conversion therapy?
LikeLike
Cmw – I think she’s intelligent enough.
LikeLike
What the EHRC is doing, is trying to push any change in legislation into the future, so that trans people don’t get the legal rights and protections they need.
And by all means, let’s ‘both sides’ the human rights of a minority group. Shall we choose the side that says, all trans women are potential rapists, trans women are destroying women’s sports, are forcing lesbians to have sex with them and erasing just erasing women in general. Or we could side with the people who just want to get the medical treatment they need, get legal recognition for their preferred gender and not be discriminated against.
LikeLiked by 2 people
“It does rather look like as it went on Rowling may well have started talking about details that she probably didn’t know enough about to avoid being wrong and offensive to a degree.”
That was my take on it too, but I think she could have looked into it or have been better advised rather than doubling down
LikeLike
Why is it all about sides?
LikeLiked by 1 person
@Craigs – religious and other groups using ‘therapy’ to stop people being gay and/or trans.
LikeLike
Because civil and human right tend to come down to sides. Those who want their rights and those who want to prevent them getting them.
LikeLike
Listened to most of that “Transphobia in the UK” piece that Refit has posted. Thought the way it kept flipping between ‘definition of gender’ and ‘who gets to go in which toilet’ was not particularly helpful. Also some inconsistency in terms of criticism of binary thinking on the part of (real or perceived) transphobes while exhibiting some binary thinking himself. You can for example think a trans person is neither a woman nor a man, not see a problem with them being a trans woman/trans man and not give a shit which toilet they use, but hey ho.
Definitely some valid criticism of the media in there though especially the unspecified ‘concerns’ stuff.
LikeLike
Trans/non binary seems to be perfectly normal in cultures other than our dominant western version.
LikeLike
@Craigs – I think she’s intelligent enough too, but agree with Ticht that it looks like she needed to do more research.
LikeLike
Or just back off.
LikeLike
Cmw – she does come from a different perspective being female which may mean that she can perceive things we can’t.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Because civil and human right tend to come down to sides. Those who want their rights and those who want to prevent them getting them.”
and the “wanting their rights” only really comes down to having the same rights as everyone else, no more no less
LikeLike
Or she could roll over.
LikeLike
“trans women are destroying women’s sports”
This is another matter altogether. In certain disciplines there must surely be a case for their exclusion?
LikeLike
JKR tried to ‘cancel’ Stephen King, because he said “trans women are women”.
LikeLike
@Craigs – I mean the stuff to do with being offered the medical side of it as a ‘first resort’ etc – just doesn’t seem to be the case.
LikeLike
Cmw – that’s largely a US thing. The UK, Netherlands and Sweden have backed off that model.
Health care in the US is a joke.
LikeLike
While gender blockers can be offered pretty quickly to children – that is the whole point of them, after all, the current waiting time for hormone therapy is something like 3 years. Any talk of people being pushed/rushed into transitioning is pure scare tactics.
LikeLike
“trans women are destroying women’s sports”
This is another matter altogether. In certain disciplines there must surely be a case for their exclusion?
The Martina Navratilova programme on this is interesting, she starts out as being very much against someone who has gained muscle mass and lung capacity etc as a male competing against those without that background.
She is far less sure by the end of the programme.
I don’t claim to have an answer to this question, but maybe non-binary categories alongside the existing ones could be looked at?
LikeLike
@Craigs – I maybe misunderstand. Are you saying she’s talking about the US and that there it’s very easy to start the process of becoming a trans person without all the safeguards/hurdles/insert your own description that her critics said were in place here?
LikeLike
Refit – in the US it’s a different matter and largely unregulated. I agree that the wait time is too long but also worry that we just don’t know what these drugs will do to kids term. It is always a risk.
LikeLike
“I don’t claim to have an answer to this question, but maybe non-binary categories alongside the existing ones could be looked at?”
Pretty sure this would not go down well with the trans lobby, but it would probably be how I (no expert) would see it.
LikeLike
Cmw – when she started talking about it the model was the same in the UK and Sweden as the US. The model has since changed. Have a look at what had happened at Tavistock and the Karolinska institute in a few short years.
In the US there are clinics you can walk into and get blockers no questions asked. And there is no real regulation.
LikeLike
Re sport. If it is physical (I.e. not darts or snooker) there should definitely be a protected class for females. There is no male category btw. Just my opinion. But I think my view is perhaps coloured by the sports I do (bjj) or have done (prop).
I regularly spar with the girls in my bjj club and it’s not a ‘fair’ competition. It’s good for them because I’m probably the build of someone who would attack them (and therefore they know that the techniques work), but it isn’t equal. And I think that’s the same in other sports.
As an example, Michael Phelps was 0.5% quicker than his rivals in his pomp. He was 12% quicker than the quickest female. The gap is too great and isn’t fully mitigated by hrt.
LikeLike
@Craigs – we already know what puberty blockers do to kids. They’ve been in use for decades already
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puberty_blocker
LikeLike
I have a friend (she’s 80, I knew her as a mature student when I was at Uni and she later put me up in her house a few times when I was between having places to live – I paid by de-mothing Afghan rugs and proofreading her daughter’s translation of a Danish book on landscape architecture) who is the grandmother of a trans man. She’s quite possibly the most honest and forthright person I know. I hadn’t seen her for quite a few years before running into her in the street before Christmas and the issue of her granddaughter transitioning had only recently arisen when I’d last seen her. She more or less immediately told me: “I wrote a very long letter to my daughter when it became clear what my granddaughter was going to do and told her what I think about it. Which is basically that I think it’s all a load of hooey. But we don’t have to talk about it again as a result and we all get along and he’s doing really well now which is what matters.”
I’m sure she would definitely be defined as a transphobe (and so would I), but there we are.
LikeLike
I do think the whole argument about trans that goes on between people who are essentially more or less all on the same side is wonderful fuel on the fire for the right with their anti-woke culture wars etc and deeply wish it would go away for a while. I entirely disagree with Refit about the Labour Party on this front – I think it essential that they avoid talking about it wherever possible and come up with some sort of bland way of batting it back when baited with it. If they decided to have some massive internal fight about it we might as well give up hope of ever getting rid of the enemy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
CMW – your friend might not be actively supporting her granddaughter, or think that she’s doing the right thing, but the important thing is she isn’t actively acting against her. In this instance, that is probably the most important thing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
@Refit – She actively supports him (now) in his life in general and that is the most important thing.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Shout out for Heather Knight who has just scored 168 not out in a total of 297 all out for England in the test against Australia. Until a bowler batting at number ten got 34 nobody else had more than 15. If a man did it it would be described as one of the greatest test innings of all time.
LikeLike
Stepping to one side and looking across at the notablog
It’s good to have a bit of chat going here again
LikeLiked by 3 people
@CMW – that’s awesome news. I’m happy for your friend and their grandson.
LikeLike
I had made a pact with myself not to talk about this at all on here especially late at night and in drink, but I’m feeling fairly sensible and I guess have a reason of sorts as I feel it would be nice to talk about a topic I would expect us all to agree about so never mind.
My brother in law’s funeral went as well as could have been hoped for, Mrs CMW took on the main speaking role and spoke very well which is quite the thing to do. He was a very quiet man who I knew for a long time but can’t pretend to have got to know all that well though I certainly liked him. Before getting ill about twelve years ago he was largely pretty directionless (something I can appreciate), but was perhaps just getting out of this as he decided to try to get physically fit from not being in great shape which was somewhat bizarrely (“this could only happen to me”) how he discovered he had an ultimately terminal illness. He could easily have stopped working completely especially after a bone marrow transplant that was unsuccessful, but he ended up doing some volunteering with a charity that housed asylum seekers in Glasgow. This turned into a proper job, but unfortunately (for both him and the asylum seekers) the government decided to take the work away from the charity and award it to Serco (not much to like about that). He was transferred to the contractors they then used, but couldn’t put up with the way they operated and ended up walking out. A short time after that he ran into someone he knew from before who was now working for a new charity that was trying to deal with the issues thrown up by the way the new system was treating people (refusing basic maintenance of the properties, forced evictions etc). He volunteered and then worked for them for the last six years of his life and seems to have been highly respected there and to have done a good job for them – there was a pretty remarkable turnout from his work both at his bedside and at the funeral. As was his way he never spoke a great deal about what he did, but having now met his colleagues and looked into it all a bit more I can see it was rather more than we realised. He mainly worked directly with clients and organising the volunteers, but he was also briefly the fundraiser for this lot – it wasn’t a role he was suited to or wanted, but the previous incumbent left and there was nobody else immediately available. He told Mrs CMW that he didn’t want to do it, but there wasn’t that much pressure as if he raised £5 it would be more than the last person managed.
I genuinely do not expect anyone to contribute, but seeing as I think pretty much everyone on here would more or less stand for what he was doing and against what led him there I’m going to put up the page for donations that we have going and if anyone wants to chuck some money their way then please feel free. There was a load of cash chucked in a bowl at the funeral so the collection is going rather better than the website suggests. Not the sort of thing I would ordinarily do (if it was a collection just for a charity we’d picked rather than what he did I certainly wouldn’t) and I would appreciate it if Thaum could take this post down some time tomorrow evening for obvious reasons (or straight away if it breaks any rules). Hope nobody is offended by my doing this.
[Link removed by request.]
LikeLiked by 4 people
CMW – just give me the nod when you want it taken down (or I can just remove the link?).
LikeLike
Re transitioning in the US. I worked with ‘Bob’, who was married with children but having an affair with another man. The other man transitioned, and so Bob decided he would too (under pressure, I think). He had to spend a year living and dressing as a woman before they would do the surgery, and he was supposed to be getting counselling, but if he did it was severely inadequate as afterwards she wondered aloud when she would start menstruating. (Apart from anything else, she was in her fifties!)
I think she ended up regretting her decision, which is a horrible, horrible thing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thaum – that’s awful but detrans stories tend to be heartbreaking and under reported. I hope she managed to work through any regret she felt.
LikeLike
A few weeks ago I wanted to listen to All the Young Dudes so put it into youtube. In the first comment underneath there was something about Sirius and magic. I had no idea what the reference was to so had a look and discovered the world of MsKingBean89.
It’s really something: https://slate.com/culture/2021/11/all-the-young-dudes-harry-potter-fanfic-wolfstar-tiktok.html
LikeLike
I’m proud of this.
Wordle 224 2/6
⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
LikeLiked by 2 people
@thauma
I got it in 4 after getting zero correct letters on the first line.
LikeLike