sjdean on the blog

There was an interesting sermon at Church on Sunday where we talked about coveting possessions - and not just other peoples, it was asking us to check where our priorities lie. I do wonder at this time, where this happens in today's politics between Conservatives and Labour - Conservatism and Socialism. Labour seem to echo the redistribution of wealth mantra, taking from the rich to give to the poor. Isn't this covetous? You've made your choices. Now you want to take what someone else has to give to someone else. Jesus didn't really have a bad word to say about wealth. The problem isn't wealth, the problem is our attitude towards wealth, our covetous nature. That doesn't mean all rich people are covetous. The problem I always have with the left in it's attitude towards taxing people to the hilt, is that it strips away personal freedom, personal choice, personal giving and personal charity. We prevent the power of people to be good through tax. We try to ch...

I saw this coming a mile off. The public will be asked to decide on a shit deal vs remain and we will have to choose remain and that will be called following the will of the people and we will have been goaded into making a choice with the worst options possible. Do you want to eat shit or would you rather not eat shit? Let's get some perspective. No one knows what will happen post Brexit. It hasn't happened. And we don't know what the type of Brexit we will get. A No Deal Brexit, is merely leaving on WTO. However Brexit is not the end of the world. While most likely there will be a "bump" in the road as the country adjusts to its new position, it will be exceedingly likely that we will recover as we organise our own trade deals on our own terms instead of being hamstrung by the EU. We don't know the scale of the bump, or how long it will take, but the future is up to us as a country to work together and make it the best that we can. It is out collective f...

In 2016, the British people had a referendum on whether to leave Europe. I voted remain. The Leave vote won. What has followed has been three years of leave voters being told that they were racist, xenophobic, small minded, nationalist scum. I know people from all sorts of walks of life who voted Brexit including ethnic minorities, who voted because they didn't like the EU Bureaucracy. It had nothing to do with not loving Europe, but it had everything to do with self determination rather than handing power and further power to an EU Superstate through the backdoor.  We have spent years in the EU being the underdog, being the subject of ridicule by the EU. I think the position that people like me have held, is, why do we need to be in the EU in order to co-operate with our European neighbours? There's a line between "European Co-operation" and the EU. We're a bit wary of losing our individual identity, because we don't like homogeneous cultures w...

For someone so racist, it sure amazed me when he talked about having an amnesty for illegal immigrants and wanting to do away capping numbers and focus instead on a points based immigration system. What a terrible racist. That makes me think, is he really as right wing as we think he is? And would he truly risk a no deal Brexit? I don't think he would be so stupid. Parliament has had three years to negotiate a deal. Granted, Teresa May brought back a terrible deal, still as I said before, Corbyn turned down May's deal because it tied us to the EU through a Customs Union to avoid a hard border with Ireland. Corbyn's solution, was to have a Customs Union with the EU. Under Boris, the EU has gone from "We are not negotiating" to "If you have sensible suggestion, we can review it". That's more progress in a few short weeks than three years under Teresa May. I still have yet to hear of any coherent agreement put forward by Parliament - there...

I've just seen an article in the paper about a 9 year old girl suing a 5 century old german boys choir for gender discrimination. This reminds me of the ridiculous charade we have with girls becoming scouts and cubs, but then boys not being allowed to become a girl guide . Girls have to be part of what boys do, otherwise it is gender discrimination. If boys keep to themselves and engage in boy things, it is possible "toxic masculinity". Boys need to accept girls. But then the articles about girl guides, is that girls need a place to be themselves where they don't have to worry about boys. Don't you think this i true for boys as well? Don't you think boys need a place to be boys where they don't have to worry about girls? This steps over into adult life where women demand to be part of male dominated areas, yet if a man demanded to be part of a woman's group, he would most likely be told no, women need a space that they can be themsel...

At times, Motor Insurance seems like one of the biggest scams possible. They exist not to fight your corner or to get you back to square one, but to do as little and pay as little as possible. I myself had a car accident recently where my car was written off. It is one of the classic ones where I'm in the right hand lane of a dual carriageway overtaking a truck, driving under the speed limit and keeping my distance of 2 seconds to the vehicle in front, who then at the last seconds swerves into the left hand lane in front of a truck and reveals a stationary car that had broken down in my lane. The van driver (www.islandfireprotection.co.uk)  had a clear view of the broken down vehicle and either didn't notice it (driving without due care and attention) or deliberately decided to drive as fast as possible to try a dangerous move and swerve around the van risking death to the person in the broken down car. The van obscured the view I had of the broken down car, so I did no...

When I talk about people like me not seeing race, we're told how wrong we are. Even though some scientists, to get us to be one, say there's no such things as race, it's just a social construct, then everyone else agrees with them, but then tells you you're wrong for not seeing race. Sick of the arguments on that to be honest. But I guess if race doesn't exist, then there can be no racism. I just love how everyone runs around in circles circumventing their own arguments. Race exists. But it doesn't matter. Maybe it doesn't matter because for people like me, I grew up listening to black musicians, watching black actors, hearing black news readers tell the news. We had black friends. We liked our black friends black parents. We simply didn't care about skin colour, we just liked them for what they did.

I read an article on how Emmerdale will run a Toxic Masculinity storyline. I tire of this toxic masculinity stuff.  Why do we never talk about toxic women? Does Toxic Feminity even exist? The answer is, it depends on who you talk to. In the interests of fairness, people will rightly point out that yes, women, just the same as men, have the capability to be toxic. However others say, if you think toxic feminity exists, then you are part of the problem. They will say if women have become toxic, it is only because the patriarchy made them that way. As other respondents point out, if that is the case, then men became toxic because of the patriarchy. You see, you can't just negate the blame for your own actions and behaviour by levelling them at someone else. That, for want of a better word, is toxic. There are men who have been raped, abused, beaten and emotionally destroyed by women. That's not to say that toxic masculinity exists, of course it exists, it just acknowledges t...

It's a nice ideal isn't it, to have freedom of movement, being able to go wherever you want without restriction. Indeed, I quite fancy it myself, just being able to upsticks and go somewhere that feels more ideologically suited. However those wanting to tear down borders, are quite deluded. If you want to tear down borders, why don't you tear down your front door? Like doors, fences and walls, borders exist as a form of security for the people who live within those borders. Within the border is a society that votes for a government to protect and to a certain extent provide for its citizens, passing a set of laws that are mostly designed to provide harmonious interoperability between its inhabitants, where people play by the same rules. Tear down borders, and you have people playing by different rules. You risk bringing in previously eradicated diseases like polio, criminal and terror threats. Ideally this shouldn't be a problem because it should be dealt with b...

Earlier in the year, David Lammy criticised Comic Relief and the notion of white saviours when Stacey Dooley went out to somewhere in Africa and was photographed with a young child. Lammy then on the This Morning program, made a comment about the young black boy not having free agency and had his fingers in his mouth while being held by the beautiful white saviour, Stacey Dooley. This is all really rather pathetic isn't it? I quick look at the photograph myself, and, I don't know how people gather so much meaning from a photograph, I just saw a natural looking photograph of what looked like a beautiful healthy boy. I've been to Malawi with a group of people and I had a fantastic experience. The people were warm and friendly and the welcome and hospitality was amazing. You saw people struggling and people desperate for money, trying to convince you to buy various things. We saw children at airports wanting anything we could give them. But we also saw people who wer...

I quite like Jordan Peterson and I like when he argues with a feminist who wants equality of outcome and therefore believes workplaces and governmental institutions to better reflect the society we live in and have 50 percent representation of women. I actually get that argument. I really do. It does make sense. However Peterson argues merely from the point of view that we shouldn't care about equality of outcome and care about equality of opportunity. Another sound argument. However there's a couple of more arguments which I think shoots down both the above. First I do understand the logic that says we should have 50% women in our decision making organisations if there are 50% of women in society. Women understand better about women's issues. Women can advocate for other women. However lets stop there. This is identity politics pure and simple. The problem with this sort of representation, is that not everyone can be represented. We have distinctions on gender, s...

What a load of tosh is the concept of a peoples vote. Let's put it to the people about what we want to get from Brexit. That's fine. But who will then go and negotiate with the brick wall that is Brussels, who then say that the detail presented to Teresa May is the only deal? Why do we somehow think we can find another deal? Will the people have a better chance of negotiating with the EU? We can scream all we like about what we want. But the EU aren't going to give it to us.

What's wrong with Jeremy Corbyn? We have a situation in the UK where not only is he rejecting Teresa May's deal, which, according to the EU is the only deal, he is also rejecting No Deal. This therefore must mean, he wants to remain. The EU, is like a brick wall to me, yet he thinks, at this late hour, that he has more chance of negotiating a better deal with them, than Teresa May does. Except he has failed at the first hurdle. If you say No Deal is not an option, then you automatically line yourself up to the prospect of a much much words deal than Teresa May could have come up with. What you're saying, is that you have to have a deal at any cost. If on the other hand he is seeking to remain, then he has rejected British Democracy and holds it to contempt. What is the point of voting in a referendum or in elections, when you can just reject the vote, much like the left did two years ago with Donald "not my president" Trump? If however he does not wish t...