And now, the end is near….
That sounds good. I should put it in a song.
That can wait, though. The real reason you’re reading this gibberish is to find out what the results are going to be on Saturday.
First up, Wales against Italy. Wales have scored 5 tries to Italy’s 4. That makes you think it might be close! Until you realise that Wales have conceded 7 to Italy’s 24. Which is a bit of a problem for Italy. (Nae shit, Sherlock). Italy played better against Scotland than they had in the other games, so is this the time they can back it up with another good performance? Probably not.
Wales have struggled a bit this year. Thumped by Ireland, scraped past Scotland, somehow losing to England despite scoring all the tries and never really looking like they would beat France. So, can Italy pull off a huge shock and get past Wales in Wales?
Let’s ask Predict-A-Bear!
Answer: Nah. Might be closer than expected, but probably Wales by 15.
Next up is Ireland against Scotland. (Sob). This was going to be The Year! The year to end (Way too many to count) Years Of Hurt! A brilliant start! And then everything turned Scottish. A disappointing – to say the least – defeat in Wales, thumped by France, then showing what we can do against Italy, before deciding that things were far too easy and that we should turn Scottish again.
Never mind, it’s only Ireland. The team that has been reinvigorated under Farrell The Elder. The team that beat the All Blacks. The team that thumped Wales, gave France their closest game so far and who managed to be disappointed in only scoring 57 points against 15, 14, 13, 12 man Italy. They have scored 20 tries to our 10, conceded 3 to our 11, Sexton’s on his Neverending Farewell Tour and have the might of Ulster (cheering them on from the sidelines).
So. Any hope for Scotland? Well … Ireland’s scrum looked strangely out of sorts against England. They also seemed a bit too rushed at times. And Finn bloody owes us one! So of course, Toonie sticks him on the bench. But probably none.
But let’s find out from Predict-A-Bear!
Answer: Nah. Much as I would love to be wrong, Ireland will win this fairly comfortably, by about 15 (at least). Can’t see us even getting any sort of bonus point. (Sobs again.)
Finally, the main event! France against England! France at home and going for a Grand Slam against a (fairly) average England team. (I mean, come on, WE beat them!) Eddie’s playing mind games again, although the only people he seems to confuse with these are his players. They have looked fairly toothless in attack (7 tries scored – and they’ve played Italy!), wonder boy Smith hasn’t quite lived up to the hype (but he will), the midfield has a Manu-sized hole (but then it frequently does) and Jack Nowell will probably end up hooking in the front row. And please (don’t) let Joe Marler take more throw ins. On the good side, Maro’s been a right annoying bastard on the pitch.
But France! They have everything: they can play tight; they can be expansive as (cliché alert) only France can. They have the best player in the world, and a few others who would probably be in a world XV, strength in depth and Shaun Edwards as defence coach. They haven’t perhaps scored quite as many tries as their play would suggest and had to tough it out against Wales.
So who will win?
Predict-A-Bear to the rescue!
Answer: A France win and Grand Slam!
Predict-A-Bear whispered sweet nothings into BorderBoy‘s ear.
Onna telly this week
Friday 18th March
| Bulls v Scarlets | 17:10 | BBC2 Wales / Premier Sports 2 |
| Glasgow v Edinburgh | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Newcastle v Leicester | 19:45 | BT Sport 2 |
Saturday 19th March
| Lions v Munster | 12:00 | RTÉ2 / Premier Sports 2 |
| Wales v Italy | 14:15 | BBC1 / iPlayer |
| Sharks v Zebre | 16:30 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Ireland v Scotland | 16:45 | ITV |
| France v England | 20:00 | ITV |
Sunday 20th March
| Stormers v Cardiff | 12:00 | S4C / Premier Sports 1 | ||
| Wales v Italy (U20s) | 14:00 | BBC1 Wales / iPlayer / Website | ||
| Ireland v Scotland (U20s) | 17:00 | BBC1 iPlayer / Website | ||
| France v England (U20s) | 20:00 | BBC1 iPlayer / Website |
Ovally Balls 
Happy birthday Ticht. From what I know I think more or less the same as you about the JKR thing.
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@CMW – on the goblins
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Aren’t the bad guys in the Harry Potter series the ones striving for racial purity and superiority , the ones who rail against Half-bloods and the inferior Muggles and the like?
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Not being a Harry Potter reader I have no idea if this is intentional though on the face of it it looks like it must be. A quick scan of the internet suggests there’s some sort of allegory to the Nazis about the Harry Potter world’s baddies (also news to me) so does it relate to that? If so is it well done or hopelessly clumsy and/or offensive?
I’m unlikely to ever have an opinion of my own as the chances of me reading HP are ever receding. Essentially unless The Little One demands it and I have time when she does it’s not going to happen. The Middle One has moved on and I still have a Lemony Snicket book to read to catch up with her on that front and then another five till we’re done. They’re short and funny so that’ll happen. HP is definitely not short and what little I’ve read wasn’t funny though it was OK without really appealing.
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Think Ticht’s asking the same question only more succinctly.
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Hope you had a good birthday, Ticht!
I don’t know a lot about JKR’s views on trans people (men, mostly, it seems), but she seems to think that any man might choose to identify as a woman in order to invade women’s safe spaces. Now I haven’t suffered abuse in the way she has, and she undoubtedly has a goodly share of stalker types after her, but the trans women I’ve met have been the last people who’d want to hurt women.
And to you and CMW, what Shaun points out is that JKR doesn’t want to fundamentally change the world for the better, but just to replace a few rotten apples. That there is no such thing as a sick society, only bad individuals. That it’s fine to have slaves as long as you’re nice to them. Full Blairite.
I confess the anti-Semitic thing with the goblins – who run the bank – hadn’t occurred to me, but now it’s been pointed out, I’ll never unsee it.
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@ticht – while that is the overarching story, it’s the details about the world that are… interesting.
The minority characters are, a black man named Kingsley Shacklebolt (mixing MLK and slavery), an Asian character called Chong Chang (names taken from 2 different languages and just 1 letter away from something very racist) and an Irish wizard, who likes to blow things up
There are indentured slaves (not servants), the house elves. The one character who thinks this is wrong, and campaigns to free them, is ridiculed for this.
There are other things as well.
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@Thaum – the only thing about the goblins. In the films, there is a star of David on the floor of the bank. This is just an INCREDIBLY unfortunate coincident. It was filmed in Australia House, in London, and that’s just a design on the floor.
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Whilst I would agree with the proposition that trans gender people are not more likely to cause harm or exploit legal loopholes than anyone who is cis gender, I think conversation and listening to others is important
https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/
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@ticht – JKR starts that piece with a lie. The judge in the Maya Forstater case ruled that you *can* hold bigoted beliefs. What you can’t do is impose them on other people in a work environment.
I’m not 100% sure it’s worth reading the rest of it, after that.
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And regarding Magdalen Burns, the “brave young feminist”, these are her actual views
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I’m spared much of the worst of twitter because I follow Edinburgh rugby and lots of traditional musicians and very few others. I do follow Jack Monroe and a young Scottish poet called Len Pennie and they get some horrendous stuff thrown at them, so I’m aware of how bad it can get.
Those tweets were bad.
Rowling’s story seems to be that because of long term abuse and an incident, presumably not a singular incident, that she knew she was only left alive at the whim of the man attacking her, that no matter the safety of the relationship she is in now, the fear is still inside her.
The views expressed in the tweets by Magdalen Burns are very similar to those of some of the radical feminists I mentioned earlier, those who were prominent in the 90s.
Rowling is unbelievably wealthy and she has a platform, I don’t think this excuses the death threats she says she has had in relation to this issue, nor does it make it okay for someone to publish photographs of her home in such a way as to make it easily identifiable.
I also follow oor Blaze from Skye, a sheep dog
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@ticht – JKRs house is on Wikipedia, sightseeing websites and tours and is listed in several news articles. The problem with the trans activists taking a photo outside it was the trans part, not the photo part.
She may have had trauma in her past, but that doesn’t excuse the horrible bigot she has become, who uses her insane wealth to help oppress a minority.
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refit, a quick google tells me that she has an estate north of Perth and that is well known to HP fans. The house in Edinburgh was the one she was concerned about the location being made public.
I just had a look at her twitter account and she is still getting death threats.
I probably should have made it clear that I don’t agree with her point of view, I absolutely think trans women are women and trans men are men and that there are shades of ambiguity and that there is a whole spectrum of androgyny into which we all fall.
However, I’ve not been beaten to within an inch of my life.
What I have a real problem with is that it’s seemingly not okay to be wrong and engaged with in debate, you are a bigot, a misogynist, misandrist, racist, chauvinist, transphobe, homophobe, subjected to an avalanche of abuse if you have a different point of view.
Some people who came out in support of Rowling have retracted and reversed their position, not because their views have changed, but out of fear of being subjected to the same abuse and perhaps have their career impacted.
Eddie Izzard has said that she doesn’t think Rowling is transphobic but there are things she has written that should be looked at, in fact I’ll use the quote
“I don’t think J.K. Rowling is transphobic, I think we need to look at the things she has written about in her blog. Women have been through such hell over history. Trans people have been invisible, too. I hate the idea we are fighting between ourselves, but it’s not going to be sorted with the wave of a wand. I don’t have all the answers. If people disagree with me, fine, but why are we going through hell on this?”
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@ticht – “you’re a misogynist” is what the GCs say, not the trans activists.
If you want to know what the end game for the ‘gender critical’ crowd is, look at American right now. They are funded by rightwing and Christian groups and this is what they want:
Or look at what happened in the UK recently – psychological torture (‘conversion therapy’) has been deemed harmful for LGB people, but fine & dandy for trans people. And don’t for one second think that it won’t become fine for LGB somewhere down the line
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refit, my point is that these “-ist” labels shut down genuine progressive debate and lead only to noise and heat, not light and warmth.
We have the greatest communication tool in the history of the planet (the internet, not twitter) and people use it for this
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The person who made that tweet about Rowling fitting into a hearse has seemingly received their own avalanche of abuse as a result.
This is exactly what I’m getting at.
The so-called culture wars and all parts of it benefit the Right only.
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32 years ago today
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So, instead of reporting that person for abuse/threats, JKR decided to point her 14M followers at them? No wonder they got abuse.
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The very good writer Juliet Jacques makes the point about debate here:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/24/liberals-stand-up-trans-rights-transgender
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Belated Birthday Wishes, ticht.
My niece’s 9 today. There was a notable death on her day of birth. My brother was very worried about the transmigration of soul from Margaret Thatcher to his daughter. Then he remembered that Thatcher didn’t have one.
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It’s Joe Royle’s birthday today. He used to live in a converted sanitorium up behind our house
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This was linked to in the Juliet Jaques article
Are you now or have you ever been a TERF?
The term TERF – “trans exclusionary radical feminist” has become internet shorthand for “transphobic bigot”. The odd thing is that most people hold beliefs which could see them labelled a “TERF”.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/02/are-you-now-or-have-you-ever-been-terf
I certainly don’t agree with everything in the article, but the writer adopted a pseudonym for it and that bothers me.
Cardiff Uni had a problem with academics being intimidated,
https://freespeechunion.org/letter-to-jeremy-miles-ms-minister-for-education-and-welsh-language-concerning-a-campaign-of-violent-threats-and-harassment-against-several-of-our-members-who-are-all-academics-at-cardiff-universit/
read it, don’t read it, but I don’t know enough to say that I’d be on their side of any issue bar the one that they should not feel the threat of physical assault for recommending that the university look at their membership of the Stonewall Diversity Champions scheme
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my post might be in the bin, Thaum, it had two links in it
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Rescued, Ticht.
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Thanks Thaum
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@Thaum
you’ve been reading Marina again – top comment!
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Marina rocks. :-)
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Sorry, but my rule of thumb is, if Toby Young is backing you (he’s the head of the ‘Free Speech Union*’), you might not be in the right.
*Very much, not a union. Or that much for free speech.
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Counter point to the FSU letter above, regarding Cardiff Uni
https://thetab.com/uk/cardiff/2021/07/01/several-academics-have-urged-cardiff-university-to-quit-relations-with-the-lgbtq-charity-stonewall-58552
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Toby Young is undoubtedly a tosser and has the stopped clock record on being in the right, if that, but that isn’t the point.
The point is the threat of violence against lecturers who signed the letter.
Channel 4, BBC and UCL are among the organisations who have already pulled out of the Stonewall scheme
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2021/dec/ucl-and-stonewall-diversity-champions-programme-and-workplace-equality-index
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Marina dies indeed rick, btw
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FFS
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That the birthday drams kicking in, Ticht?
Happy birthday anyway!
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There has been a concerted campaign against Stonewall in the last couple of years, over their support of trans people (shock, horror an organisation named for the Stonewall Riots, that was spearheaded by trans people, supports trans people). Groups like the LGB Alliance (funded in part by anti-abortion, antihgay US Christian organisations) have pushed the narrative that trans people are a threat to ‘normal’ gays and Stonewall being on their side means they are a threat too.
There are also people who say that bit being able to hold bigoted views is a threat to their freedoms. Would you say the same for the NF? The BNP? The KKK? Because it’s essentially the same thing.
The current narrative, being pushed by the right, is that trans people are indoctrinating children. Does this remind you of anything? Section 28 was only abolished in 2003, and they’re already trying to bring it back.
So excuse me if I don’t feel any sympathy for bigoted millionaires, columnists or ‘academics’ being told to fuck off.
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Happy birthday for yesterday Ticht 🎂🎂
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Do you think academics should be under the threat of violence or have their cars smashed up?
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Also, happy Maggie Thatcher day everyone. Ding dong and all that 😁
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If they’re advocating the erasure of a minority group, I don’t think it’s out of the question.
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This is the letter that brought the threats of violence and actual vandalism against its signatories
Dear Vice-Chancellor,
We are writing to suggest that Cardiff University’s membership of the Stonewall Diversity Champions scheme should be reviewed. We support the rights of transgender staff and students, yet being associated with Stonewall lies in tension with two of the university’s core values: 1) academic freedom and 2) respect for the rights of all staff and students, including women.
Nancy Kelley, CEO of Stonewall, has likened ‘gender critical’ beliefs to anti-Semitism. The core tenets of these ‘beliefs’ are that sex is real and matters. The motivation for this comparison is to justify Stonewall’s longstanding policy demanding ‘no debate’ on transgender issues. Stonewall’s demands have wide-ranging implications across academic disciplines and the conflict with academic freedom is fundamental.
You may be aware of the Reindorf Review into two instances of no-platforming at the University of Essex. We draw attention to recommendation 28. ‘The University should give careful and thorough consideration to the relative benefits and disbenefits of its relationship with Stonewall, bearing in mind the issues raised in this report. In particular, it should consider that this relationship appears to have given University members the impression that gender critical academics can legitimately be excluded from the institution; the potential effect of this on the University’s obligations to uphold freedom of expression; the effect on University members’ understanding of the values of the institution; and the effect on those members of the University who hold gender critical views (see §§249– 251 above). If the University considers it appropriate to continue its relationship with Stonewall, it should devise a strategy for countering the drawbacks and potential illegalities described above.’
We would also highlight Reindorf’s view that discrimination against dissenting academics may amount to indirect sex discrimination, since women are more likely to be targeted for their expression of such beliefs. Gay men and lesbians are increasingly expressing concern about Stonewall. The recent judgement in the Maya Forstater case, stipulating that gender critical views are a protected characteristic under the Equality Act, also raises questions about the position of Stonewall.
High profile organisations are starting to dissociate themselves from Stonewall. Recently, it emerged that UCL and the University of Winchester have left the Stonewall scheme. Liz Truss, the Equalities Minister, has urged all government departments to leave the scheme.
Stonewall is a lobby group which aims to achieve policy change and it is entitled to campaign towards this end. But it is inappropriate that such a group should be embedded within the university, influencing policies which affect freedom of expression and expose dissenters to harassment.
Best wishes,
I can’t see advocating erasure of anyone in that.
It specifically states that if the uni finds it wants to continue its relationship with Stonewall then, “it should devise a strategy for countering the drawbacks and potential illegalities described above.”
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It’s all just ‘concerns’ about women’s rights…or something? But if you ever ask them what the concerns are, it usually boils down to ‘all trans women are potential rapists’, or it continues to be unspecified. What it actually is, is the hatred of trans women (note that trans men are almost never mentioned).
Did these academics have the same objections to Stonewall campaigning for gay rights? Because it’s the same thing.
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Apologies to everyone for derailing the blog somewhat today. I follow a lot of trans people on social media, so I end up seeing a lot of the bigotry they’re exposed to and it makes me rather angry.
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I have skin in the game too, Refit, one of my children is non-binary and uses they/them.
I say children, they are 23 years old.
I think engaged debate is always the best way forward, violence and death threats have no place in the discussion imo
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Refit – no problem at all here.
yet being associated with Stonewall lies in tension with two of the university’s core values: 1) academic freedom and 2) respect for the rights of all staff and students, including women.
How on earth is supporting trans rights in conflict with 2)???
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I have a dream that one day all minority groups will respect each other and will equally respect/be respected by majorities who, in turn, should protect and provide for minorities so that all may flourish within equal opportunities.
Liars and nut-jobs are banned and fired into the sun.
p.s. I, too, have skin in this game.
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Testing
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And now for something completely different
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By Jesus I’ve cracked it.
Thaum, in case you some up against this issue regarding anyone else, I’ve had to sign in with every post on this MacBook, it doesn’t allow me to like comments because I have to be signed in to do it.
I just saw a little “follow” suggestion pop up down in the right hand corner and I signed in to WP through that, now I’m signed in full time.
Happy days
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Safari’s autocorrect is another matter, though
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Sometimes I can’t rec posts, but if I reload the page it usually works.
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