Current Affairs Update - Donald Trump, The Labour Party in government and the Supreme Court judgement on the Gender Recognition Bill

I have completed the first draft about the next island on my bucket list. I hope to post that soon (as I write this on 20^th April 2025) but I decided there were a couple of updates on current affairs that needed to be posted first. These are on: Donald Trump, Starmer’s Labour Party and government and the UK’s Supreme Court judgement on Scotland’s blocked Gender Recognition Bill.

 

Donald Trump - Further to my last post about Trump, it would appear that I underestimated what a danger he was/is to the USA and the World. 

It's clear he is trying to create a Russian or Chinese style dictatorship (or tyranny) in the US by subverting it’s constitution. The question is, will the republican senators and Congress members allow him to carry this through to completion or will they find some way, along with their Democrat colleagues, to stop him? On has to wonder if the Supreme Court now regrets giving him carte blanche to do whatever he wants in his official capacity as the President. He can now simply ignore any judgements issued by any court, including the Supreme Court, and he can't be touched. Only the Senate and the House of Representatives might be able to stop him - but how many Republicans will be brave enough to try?

In addition to that, look what he is doing to all economies around the world. He is threatening to force all countries into recession and making everyone less well of - just in the belief that that will make him and his rich pals even richer (although one has to wonder how they will maintain such wealth over an extended period if the vast majority have little money to spend?).

Added to all that we have the threats to attack Panama, Canada and Greenland while leaving the Ukraine exposed to Russian empire building - while he builds his empire in North America. To some extent I do understand what has upset him about recent policies; the lack of manufacturing in the US (and other Western countries) and the price the US has been paying to keep Europe, via NATO, safe - but all of those required changes needed to be brought about slowly and carefully if the current crisises were to be avoided.

I did say it was a sad day for the world when Trump won the 2024 presidential election - but it's turned out even sadder than I imagined it would be.

 

 

Starmer’s Labour Party and government - It is approaching a year now since the Labour Party won the last UK general election and got back into power at Westminster, after fourteen years of Tory rule. It has become crystal clear, over that period of time, that the Labour Party is no longer a left of centre party but, instead, very definitely a right of centre party.

This is why I tell left wing friends that voting Labour is a waste of time and will never bring about a left of centre government for Scotland. To be elected in England the Labour Party has to move to the right - if it does not then it will not win a general election (or it at least fears it won't). So it swings to the right. If, after being elected, it pursues more left wing policies then it will be out of office again at the next election. If it stays to the right of centre then the desires of the people of Scotland will, once again, be denied. If the people of Scotland want a left of centre government, under either the SNP or Scottish Labour, then they first need to get away from Westminster rule (not to mention the likes of Thatcher, Johnson, Truss and Badenoch should the Tories be elected into office again - which they will be). A major part of this problem is that the people of England have a more right wing view of the world than the people of Scotland do. That’s fine! They are entitled to see things how they want to see them - but with England’s population being so large compared to Scotland’s then Scotland never gets what it votes for or wants. At the last general election the people of Scotland wanted the Labour Party and it wanted a left of centre government at Westminster. They got the former but they most certainly did not get a left of centre government!

Having said that, let's give credit where credit is due. The UK Labour government have greatly increased the money provided to the Scottish government (then reduced it by not fully compensating it for the NI increase). Still, any increase after fourteen years of Tory austerity is a help - although one decent year will not make up for all the damage caused by those fourteen Tory years. Also, the Labour Party, under Les Streeting, have decided to take the axe to the NHS in England and Wales. This is to be applauded as it is clear that there were more chiefs than Indians in that organisation - and it seemed that most of them were simply incompetent and drawing a salary for doing nothing. At the same time all those axed workers will result in reduced income tax for the government along with increased unemployment benefit payments - unless those given the chop can find alternative employment (which I doubt). The plan to vastly increase house building is to be welcomed as well. I don't know if those numbers talked about can be achieved but even the attempt should be applauded.

But why do I say that it's now clear that the UK Labour Party is right of centre? While accepting they were left a black hole in the country's finances, by the Tories, they have, in trying to fill this, hit the poorest in our society and left the wealthy untouched (as only a right wing party would do). Why hit the pensioners with the removal of the winter fuel payment when they could have raised income tax for those who are rich or very well paid? Why refuse to get rid of the two child cap when doing so could help lift thousands of children out of poverty when they could have taxed the rich? Why refuse to compensate the WASPI women when they said they were going to compensate them? All decisions that prove the current UK Labour Party has zero concern for the poorest in our society but lots of concern for their rich friends (and themselves). As I said above, if Scots want a left of centre government then they need to vote for one - and that means NOT voting Labour.

 

The UK’s Supreme Court judgement re Scotland’s blocked Gender Recognition Bill - The UK Supreme Court has decided that, for the sake of the equality legislation, the term a 'woman' refers to the person's biological birth gender and not an assumed gender. I think this is the correct judgement - although I do understand the extreme disappointment that will be felt amongst all transsexuals and particularly trans women. It was simply impossible that both sides would be happy with what the court decided as both sides are so far apart from each other.

From my point of view it is a sad and unacceptable fact that many women have been traumatised by male violence and abuse of one sort or another - and that having ‘women only’ spaces gave those women a degree of confidence that they could leave their homes or find a refuge where a male would find it very difficult to reach them. It does not matter, for me, if any of the fears of those women were real, exaggerated or imagined - the important point is that those fears are real for far too many women. While a biological male could access women only spaces then there was an increased possibility that those women could be exposed to the violence they needed an escape from. I would argue that this was/is made worse due to self certification (or whatever it was called). Men, in general, are both bigger and physically stronger than woman and even a man who feels he is a woman is likely to be both bigger and stronger than most women. In addition to that, if a person still has a fully functioning penis then rape is always a possibility, too - and, for me, it is totally understandable that many women, especially those traumatised by male violence, do not want trans women sharing women only spaces with them - just in case. Even if an individual has opted for surgery to have their penis removed there is still the problem of them being both bigger and stronger - which might be scary for some women given what might have happened to them in the past.

However, I also recognise that many trans people, especially women, are also traumatised by their feelings of living in the wrong body (and maybe for trans men being mocked and bullied in, for example, male public toilets). Society, I feel, must do everything it can to assist trans people - but only to a certain extent. Life takes no prisoners and can be difficult for many of us and sometimes we just have to accept the reality of a situation and get on with it. Even if everything was equal, which I don't think it is, I suspect that there are, sadly, many more traumatised, biological women than there are traumatised trans women. In that case it would come down, I would argue, to selecting the route of least harm. I think ‘the least harm’ matches with the Supreme Court’s judgement.