- Location
- Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
I was mightily tickled this week, when former Olympic swimmer, the ever lovely Sharron Davies was featured on the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2. The topic was the unfortunate case of a South African athlete, who is apparently female, but has far higher levels of testosterone than a normal girl might have. Sporting authorities have lately decreed that she can only perform if she takes medication to suppress what is an unfair advantage. Our Sharron was put head to head with some quasi academic, who is adamant that this isn’t fair. We listened agape as this professor type quickly started laying down the law that because genders are so much more ‘fluid’ nowadays, all athletes should compete against each other. And that women can perform just as well as men, it’s only their conditioning that holds them back. As he –and I’m only presuming it was a he- was speaking, I was thinking ‘Sharron is going to cut this muppet to pieces any minute now’. And sure enough, whilst retaining due dignity and a polite deference to the poor South African girl who finds herself in the centre of this row, Sharron pointed out that back in the day she had to swim against Eastern German swimmers who were being given testosterone to build muscle. And there was no way in the world that a ‘normal’ female athlete could beat them. And as for the idea that females could perform equally against males, it was – if I might paraphrase her- so much garbage.
Well I salute Ms Davies for being so reasonable with the twerp, and it’s good to hear someone in the public eye put down such…forgive me…eyewash. I too am really sorry for those who find themselves born ‘different’ to biological gender norms – it surely isn’t their fault, and it can’t be easy for them. But they are different, and pretending we can bend the world around them to make everything and everyone equal is a fallacy. Trying to do so will only cause resentment, or worse, ridicule.
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Onwards then. I see Michael Gove has continued on his path of questionable appointments to senior positions in DEFRA. First came the dubious appointment of farmer hating billionaire tory donor Ben Goldsmith –and if you feel that’s a bit strong, google him and look what he’d been saying, and exactly to whom he’s made cash bungs. Now we have the enthronement of long time campaigner Tony Juniper as chairman of Natural England. Whether that’s his real surname I’ve no idea, although I note several greenie campaigners seem to have very woody sounding names. Anyway, he comes from a background of professional tree hugging, having lately been a big wig in both the ‘Friends of the Earth’ and ‘WWF’.
Ostensibly, I ought to be delighted. Since I spend a fair bit of my time tending scampering hill sheep, and ambling cudding suckler cows, who convert unimproved upland pasture into rocket fuel human food, often with hardly a whiff of polluting fossil fuels or wicked agri-chemicals, I’ll surely be a hero to this chap. The pasty faced carping vegans will be told to ‘man up’, and stop insisting on protein intensively grown in far flung places – notably the tropical rainforests Mr Juniper has long defended. Likewise my growing timber and wool, as alternatives to fossil fuels and fish choking plastic, will surely make me a star.
So I thought I’d take a gander at what his former employers actually say. And here’s the thing….rather than feeling they’re right behind me, I came away fairly sure they hate my guts. Some of the things I get up to are apparently destroying the planet. My cows burp methane, and my tractor burns some diesel. If I’m not certified ‘organic’ and wearing sandals, I’m little short of sprouting horns and a tail with a spike on the end. They embrace well-meaning warm and fuzzy cause celebres, but tip toe around things they should target.
I presume Tony is going to find himself massively conflicted now, as presumably in his new role he can really get his teeth into –to pick some examples- stopping the ever expanding urban footprint, and hammer air travel for the selfish luxury it really is. He could lay into huge pointless infrastructure projects and relentless population rise. But that might well put him in conflict with people with more money and clout than the likes of me….so don’t hold your breath.
Hey ho. Still, seeing as he replaces another tory donor- I see a pattern here- and former property developer Andrew Sells, under whose guidance NE seem to have spiralled into a spectacular shambolic disarray, he might be a step in the right direction. We’ll see.
Well I salute Ms Davies for being so reasonable with the twerp, and it’s good to hear someone in the public eye put down such…forgive me…eyewash. I too am really sorry for those who find themselves born ‘different’ to biological gender norms – it surely isn’t their fault, and it can’t be easy for them. But they are different, and pretending we can bend the world around them to make everything and everyone equal is a fallacy. Trying to do so will only cause resentment, or worse, ridicule.
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Onwards then. I see Michael Gove has continued on his path of questionable appointments to senior positions in DEFRA. First came the dubious appointment of farmer hating billionaire tory donor Ben Goldsmith –and if you feel that’s a bit strong, google him and look what he’d been saying, and exactly to whom he’s made cash bungs. Now we have the enthronement of long time campaigner Tony Juniper as chairman of Natural England. Whether that’s his real surname I’ve no idea, although I note several greenie campaigners seem to have very woody sounding names. Anyway, he comes from a background of professional tree hugging, having lately been a big wig in both the ‘Friends of the Earth’ and ‘WWF’.
Ostensibly, I ought to be delighted. Since I spend a fair bit of my time tending scampering hill sheep, and ambling cudding suckler cows, who convert unimproved upland pasture into rocket fuel human food, often with hardly a whiff of polluting fossil fuels or wicked agri-chemicals, I’ll surely be a hero to this chap. The pasty faced carping vegans will be told to ‘man up’, and stop insisting on protein intensively grown in far flung places – notably the tropical rainforests Mr Juniper has long defended. Likewise my growing timber and wool, as alternatives to fossil fuels and fish choking plastic, will surely make me a star.
So I thought I’d take a gander at what his former employers actually say. And here’s the thing….rather than feeling they’re right behind me, I came away fairly sure they hate my guts. Some of the things I get up to are apparently destroying the planet. My cows burp methane, and my tractor burns some diesel. If I’m not certified ‘organic’ and wearing sandals, I’m little short of sprouting horns and a tail with a spike on the end. They embrace well-meaning warm and fuzzy cause celebres, but tip toe around things they should target.
I presume Tony is going to find himself massively conflicted now, as presumably in his new role he can really get his teeth into –to pick some examples- stopping the ever expanding urban footprint, and hammer air travel for the selfish luxury it really is. He could lay into huge pointless infrastructure projects and relentless population rise. But that might well put him in conflict with people with more money and clout than the likes of me….so don’t hold your breath.
Hey ho. Still, seeing as he replaces another tory donor- I see a pattern here- and former property developer Andrew Sells, under whose guidance NE seem to have spiralled into a spectacular shambolic disarray, he might be a step in the right direction. We’ll see.
