It's been noticed for a while now that men in general and young men in particular are more right wing and likely to vote Reform, what's been missed is that the total opposite has been going on with women. Women seem to be voting Green in quite high numbers, and seem to be more aware of the climate crisis and more socially aware.
Another interesting polarity in an already polarised world.
I find it interesting that this shift is being under reported
I could write an essay on why it was Billy and I think you mistunderstood part of my post, the rich white men I was refering too were the beneficieries of the so called enlightenment.
I was completely with you until you went after the white male thing again. The industrial revolution did not just benefit rich, white men. It is the reason that we live in a society with basic amenities and living standards for everyone, with central heating, plumbing, buses, trains, cars, electricity, clothes, shoes, hospitals and everything we take for granted. The benefits are for everyone not just "rich, white men"
Schools are all about square bashing,not just kids but parents too, the removal of choice about such things is one of my big bug bears. I wonder what they'd do if there was a massive power outage like there was in Spain and Portugal last week?
I agree there's plenty of time for screens later on and even then under parental supervision. This progress arguement really annoys me, but then I guess many of those who argue for it are the same people who saw slavery, the clearances, mass industrialisation and greater constraints on women and colonialism as progress. These are ideas from the so called enlightenment that was ony really enlightened if you were white rich and male.
You know I disagree with about 90% of their polocy but if they turned around and gureenteed free speach. I mean really not just speach they like, I'd probably vote for reform just because of how much I care about that issue. When the two main parties move towards the center they tend to end up agreeing on more and more issues leaving people for who the oposite position is prority 1 politically homeless. A 3rd party can pick up a lot of votes just by adopting those positions. People will vote for them over a single issue even if they hate 90% of the parties other polocies. Because floating voters don't vote for parties they vote for issues often just 2 or 3. It's why referendums tend to get much more political engagement than elections. Because most people have a clear position on anything important enough to get a referendum.
I've argued that people are allowed many other choices. e.g. to be vegan or meat eater, or to choose a religion, so why can I choose for my daughter not to be on the internet? I'm told she will need to learn as she will need it for her future job, and I do agree, everything is online now.
Well said!
I'm sure some of it does, you can find horror stories about anything positive, but I still think it's worth doing.
Umm, I do agree about people getting together and saying no, but it seems I'm mainly alone with the phone/internet argument - I've had it many times through life but I'm told it's progress and to just get on with it. I have refused to buy a tablet for my daughter though so if they want her to work online they will need to provide one. I've argued that people are allowed many other choices. e.g. to be vegan or meat eater, or to choose a religion, so why can I choose for my daughter not to be on the internet? I'm told she will need to learn as she will need it for her future job, and I do agree, everything is online now. But not at primary school, let kids be kids I say, she has the rest of her life to be brainwashed by the internet, particularly social media.
I agree with the productive thing, I'm a lot more productive when I feel comfortable. If I'm treated well and feel relaxed at work (whether that be in the office or at home) I'm so much better. I've never worked from home as I haven't worked since the pandemic, but before, when I was in the office, some people were awful I would've done anything to get away from them, but I also made a friend for life at work, too, who I never would've met otherwise.
Haven't there been studies that suggest that people who have a lovely harmonious working environment are actually happier and therefore more productive - rather than those encouraged to be more robotic.
I say the same about job interviews. I feel if you can be yourself and be honest about your strengths (and weaknesses) a bit like asking for accommodations, you can work to your strengths and achieve so much rather than have to pretend to be someone you're not and end up burnt out. But I get laughed at when I suggest this, told I'm not in the real world and to continue to fake my way through job interviews, giving the same old practiced robotic answers.
Cloud, what would happen if you said no to the school about smart phone use, just said that you're not going to get one and that they're marginalsing people by expecting them have something they can niether afford or know how to use? I know that teachers can be pretty intimidating, we all have memories of being on the wrong side of a teacher and they use those memories to enforce thier will on parents. But if you could stay in your adult self and say no to another adult and not get dragged into superiority games, I wonder what would happen? I think more people should get together and say no to things like this, if the school has a parents whatssapp group or something post about it on there and see what others parents think and feel? If the school object then what are they going to do? Put you in detention?
Homebird, Not being able to get rid of unwanted clothes is getting to be a real problem round here, partly due to the closure of so many charity shops, but also because the ones that are left are getting so fussy about what they will and won't take and as I found rude about it too. You have to have an appointment in one charity shop, where they will go through your offerings and give half of it back to you, I was treated like a nuisance, and the woman had a go at me for wanting to drop stuff off with no appointment, I didn't know I had to have one, how was I supposed to know? I'm more inclined to take stuff to the tip now, Anglesey has an 80%+ recycling rate per month and I have more confidence that old clothes will be properly disposed of there. I use things like old vests , sheets, towels and nightshirts etc as cleaning rags.
When I worked in the office years ago, there was a lot more general chat and in corridors etc. Some people used to go to a smoking room. There is not the time for this today, so I believe people are a lot more productive. No opportunity for office 'get togethers' like got on the news a year or two ago.
I put off working from home for many years due to wanting to switch off at home. Then the pandemic made it necessary. I have had to work out a way to separate things and pack away laptop at the end of the day.
I think you are right about councils who have had to make cuts for years to meet the budgets.
Farage has also told council workers in councils Refom won to start looking fo new jobs. I think councils have been cut to the bone and I'm not sure what cuts could be made? So why is he bothered about working from home or not? I would of thought that a remote workforce would be a cheaper option as they'd be using thier own heating, lighting etc.
I remember the last time a politician started going on about getting rid of civil servants, which is what council workers are, and we ended up with unelected quangos. I also remember the drive to get rid of quangos. I'd rather have civil servants, either employed by the councils or the civil service than unelected quangos who do the gods know what in the shadows with no accountability.
I do worry about the blurring of work and home and when people get proper off time, but if people prefer it and their productivity is unaffected then why should they be made to go into an office? Some people prefer to be office based and some people can't take work home with them because of the confidential nature of their work. But I think this thing from Farage and the likes of Jacob Rees Mogg about people needing to go into the office, is because they want people under thier control and don't trust that people are responsible enough to work properly at home. I wonder if the two mentioned above have home offices or "studies", or if they go to another building for all thier work? This feels very Us and them to me.
I wonder if Farage has statistics to prove that working from home has reduced production. I find working from home less distracting, being quieter. I believe businesses or Councils can have more productive staff working from home and it can save money on office space. It also saves wasted time due to transport or weather difficulties. There might be some people who take advantage of working from home, but others I know who also do it are conscientious, possibly because of misconceptions. By a blanket rule good staff could be lost ending up spending more money on agency staff.
I'd happily see SUV's banned in cities and towns, we have a few round here, but then we're rural and people do really need them, you can usually tell who's local by the age and amount of mud on the vehicle, most people round here don't have new cars and people who need suv's because they live in places that would wreck a normal car.
Having been one of those people who've lived up a rough track that killed cars, I've driven a few suv's and most of them are rubbish, they look the part, but are terrible to drive, don't cope well on rough ground and drink fuel.
I do do some short journey's though, there's a walk Fearn and I love, it's quite a long walk, I'm finding now that I have to drive the road bit and leave the car and walk the rest. It's only about quarter of a mile to drive, but its the difference between me feeling pleasantly exercised and totally wiped out for the rest of the day
People drive their kids to school five minutes down the road, in SUVs (coz, you know, you must buy an SUV as soon as you have one child!) and leave them running. Drives me crazy, we don't even live in the same village and we still walk.
I also heard something about Farage saying he didn't want people working from home. Not sure if that is all posts or just some
Farage was specifically talking about council workers, not anyone else. There's a lot of waste in local councils and he was speaking about tackling that
There have been floods and fire in different places
Most wildfires are caused by misguided policies such as rewilding and changing how we deal with scrubland, that's why there's been so many more in recent years. It would be easily solved, hopefully it will be
As far as walking goes, I totally agree with you. I see people driving down the road to the corner shop. Walking is so physically and mentally good for you, provided you are able to. I think driving everywhere and forgetting about walking, rambling and hiking is one of the reasons we have become so unhealthy as a society. Going for a walk in nature keeps me sane
I think they do have quite a good culture of it in America, like everywhere else it probably depends where you are. Minnesota has a real outdoor culture as do most of the Southern States
Farage says a lot of things, whenever I hear him talking about things like stopping people working from home because it makes people lazy or some such nonsense, I think that to him, justice means indulgence for him and punishment for everybody else.
I have heard a few things recently on news items. like there is a difficulty now with disposing responsibly worn out clothes and sheets if they contain synthetic materials, due to the polymers?
I also heard something about Farage saying he didn't want people working from home. Not sure if that is all posts or just some.
There have been floods and fire in different places. There seems to have been several in America, yet if I am correct, there are large cars and the culture of walking does not seem to exist there like it does in the UK. I know it is variable here, as although I see lots of people walking, there are some who will drive to shops 5 minutes walk away. The drivers are often younger and several who walk are older and used walking sticks. I also feel it is unnecessary to run a vehicle for several minutes, sometimes unattended as this pollutes the atmosphere. I guess what I am getting at is that small things would help.
In respect of finances, there are lots of businesses which offer cash payments avoiding paying tax which would generate more public money and the NHS uses private services which in my experience waste money.
I'm glad we agree about farmland. I do think those housebuilding ideas would put up the cost of houses quite significantly too. One of the worst effects of the Net Zero movement is to make ordinary people far poorer through massively increased energy bills, inefficient heat pumps and other inititives.
I agree that house building in this country is inefficient. On the subject of energy, the reason we don;t have energy security is because we refuse to use our own natural reserves of oil and gas in the north sea because of Net Zero targets and instead choose to rely on Russia and other despotic or unstable regimes
I don't live in fear, I'm not in favour of massive solar farms carpeting farmland either or corporations buying farms to grow trees so as they can offset their carbon. I do think that changes to the planing system could be made; new houses being built on a north south axis, maybe with solar panels on the south facing side and a green roof on the north, homes could be much more energy efficient too. People say that things like this would put up the cost of housing, but really you'd be at most increasing a mortgage for lowering running costs. We do need things like reforestation but in the right places and in the right way, one of the things we need is food security as well as energy security. On the subject of housing, why do we build new homes in such an ineeficient manner? For every 5 houses we build in a traditional style so beloved by big housebuilders we throw one away in wasted materials, these houses are often poorly constructed too, why can't we build houses like the Germans do, much more efficient in time and construction.
