Notices by HebrideanHecate (hebrideanhecate@spinster.xyz)

@Gnomeshatecheese @Flick Himself got this for Christmas, I haven't had a look at it yet.

@sensei @KeepTakingTheSoma A lesson badly needed here.

@KeepTakingTheSoma It's shitty mindset.

@KeepTakingTheSoma Himself blew up at a kid the other week because dirty little sod had emptied a tin of sardines into the classroom bin, when bollocked for it his attitude was it was only a joke and what else are the cleaners for, which earned him a second bollocking re attitude to the cleaners as well as mess, wasting food etc etc.

They are such arrogant entitled shits.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15441575/Teachers-strike-primary-schools-pupils-kick-bite-staff-bring-knives-classroom.html

Teachers from two primary schools have begun strike action after pupils kicked and bit staff and brought knives into the classroom. Staff at Lily Lane Primary School and Ravensfield Primary School in Manchester say they have been physically attacked and some pupils are too scared to attend class.

Teachers also says there have been instances of pupils being hit, kicked and even spat at. Both schools are part of the Changing Lives in Collaboration Trust (CLiC) and following the announcement of strike action, the trust said the safety and wellbeing of pupils and staff was its 'highest priority'.

The trust said teachers were 'suffering high levels of stress and anxiety which are affecting their entire lives.'

@Childfree Same, it's really horrible.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/many-schools-don-t-think-students-can-read-full-novels-anymore-that-s-a-tragedy/ar-AA1TFnRL?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=695d47dcd0ca413981e3dbb1646c423f&ei=7

Reading fiction has been such a joy for me that my heart broke a little to learn recently that many schools no longer assign full books to high school students. Rather, teens are given excerpts of books, and they often read them not in print but on school-issued laptops, according to a survey of 2,000 teachers, students and parents by the New York Times. The reasons are many – including the belief that students have shorter attention spans, and schools’ efforts to teach students to perform well on standardized tests.

One factor is the Common Core, a set of standards adopted by many states in the US more than a decade ago. Given those standards, many schools use curriculum products like StudySync, which uses an anthology approach to introducing students to literature. Books lead to a richer life. They also lead to a more successful life, as a two-decade-long study showed. Kids who lived with books in their home – as few as 20 – benefitted significantly over those who didn’t, in areas like academic success, vocabulary development and job attainment.

There’s something about having the actual physical book in one’s hands that I’m convinced makes a difference. That’s one reason that those measly book excerpts, read on a school-issued laptop, seem so terribly sad to me.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/music/taxpayers-fund-festival-that-won-t-let-white-people-run-it/ar-AA1Twbhg?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=695d6722cd20428298144b1c1ebbb02b&ei=19

Leaders are instead drawn from members who can boast one or two parents descended from the “original inhabitants” of continents outside Europe, or from Roma and Traveller groups. Arts Council cash has supported the London festival, whose “militant” leadership has pledged to “put the threat back into punk” – while also banning any rhetoric that could stray into “fatphobia”.

The festival has in the past hosted acts including Bob Vylan, whose lead singer led chants of “death to the IDF” during a Glastonbury set, a show that was supported by Decolonise Fest with the social media message: “Free Palestine and up the Vylan.” Funding distributed by the Arts Council included £7,793 in Covid emergency funding to keep the Decolonise Fest going through the pandemic, and a grant of £18,808 in National Lottery funding this year.

The festival’s team claims to be “rewriting the rules” and “truly putting the threat back into punk again” and says it will “not tolerate racism, ageism, sexism, transphobia, Islamophobia, classism, ableism, homophobia” or any “anti-immigrant rhetoric”.

@KeepTakingTheSoma Really enraging.

@KeepTakingTheSoma I'm bloody sick if it all.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2026/01/06/the-maccabi-tel-aviv-ban-was-a-sop-to-islamic-sectarians/

For me, one clip says it all. There sat a clammy-looking Craig Guildford, beleaguered chief constable of West Midlands Police, addressing the camera with all the joie de vivre of a hostage appearing in a proof-of-life video. ‘Salam alaikum’, he said, addressing Birmingham’s Muslim community in August 2024, his nerves – or else his general dimwittery – showing in his mangled pronunciation. ‘Thank you to the leaders and elders [who] have afforded me this opportunity to speak to you personally.’ Wait, what? Who’s in charge here? It shouldn’t be for the chief constable to grovel before ‘leaders and elders’ for allowing him to address the citizens who pay his wages. We are a liberal democracy, not a tribal society. Or at least we used to be. Welcome to the results of Britain’s decades-long experiment with the benighted doctrine of multiculturalism, which has led to the Balkanisation of great swathes of the country along sectarian lines. In the old days, every citizen was equal in the eyes of the law, to be policed even-handedly, without fear or favour. Today, however, especially in parts of the land dominated by Muslim populations, officers must engage with self-appointed ‘leaders and elders’, who tend to show all the hallmarks of insularity and fundamentalism. In fact, they often act remarkably like members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

It is hard to escape the conclusion that in Birmingham, Yorkshire and elsewhere, the mullahs now call the shots. Consider, for instance, the municipal Christmas tree that was erected in the centre of Bradford last year. Well, I say Christmas tree: the authorities saw fit to rename it a ‘multicultural tree’, which was supposedly a ‘symbol of the amazing way in which the city of Bradford and district positively embrace diversity’. I think I just did a little sick. The thing felt like one long grovel, seemingly designed to beg the local Muslim population to indulge the presence of a non-Islamic tradition – shorn of all its Christian significance – on their territory. (Ironically, Bradford is 33.4 per cent Christian, according to the last Census, and only 30.5 per cent Muslim, yet the smaller of those groups seems to wear the trousers.) Could you imagine the boys in blue striking such a subservient position towards any other minority in Britain? Sikhs, maybe? Jews? Buddhists? Me neither. Which brings us back to the West Midlands, the dysfunctional societal soup in which bobs the obsequious and flaccid dumpling of Craig Guildford, who surely cannot possibly hang on to his position much longer.

@astarsscreams @Flick The one they called The Beast from the East about 5 or 6 years ago had everyone rolling their eyes and shrugging, because of the media hysterics over weather, but that time it actually did happen too. This country has become very bad at dealing with anything though, utterly bloody useless in fact, sodding local Councils and Govt, they waste money on shit, never put it on infrastructure and sensible stuff these days, doesn't help matters any either. Gritting, for instance, taken a huge hit, in comparison to how much would have been done years ago, keeping culverts clear and things like that, just not done.

@Flick Friend made it up from Glasgow to ferry today, says it was a bit hairy along the way.

https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/scottish-news/snow-scotland-plea-made-military-36503369

Mr Bowie said: "The situation has now become critical. Many people are increasingly cut off, with access to essential food supplies and medical provisions becoming extremely difficult and, in some instances, impossible. There is a real and growing risk that individuals may be left without basic necessities unless urgent action is taken.

@Flick I, out of habit and being a non driver, keep an extra stock of basics in, also, aware we can afford to do that, so during covid thing had lav paper and plenty tins and cereals etc in cupboard, soup making and things like pasta sauce if had to make something out of little kind of thing. Say power down...surprised some places not lost it at moment, although maybe have and not heard...that was last time we had a long term one, a big snow some years back, can do a basic on top of the wood burner. Even a camp type thing on the open fire in other room if really pushed.

These days though it surprises me re the amount of people who have lost ability to home cook much or know how to, too reliant on modern methods or whatever. Not folk say with disabilities or elderly and what is easier for them, but just don't know how to actually make a meal out of little or alternative fuel stuff etc. Bit more difficult if only got the electric of course, but the general don't know how to does seem to be a thing, that's concerning.

@KeepTakingTheSoma Usual euphemism.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15437967/Gang-men-hunted-police-woman-sexually-assaulted-restaurant.html

Police have launched a manhunt for seven men believed to be Asian after a woman was sexually assaulted outside a restaurant.

A 25-year-old woman was leaving Bazaar Restaurant in Captain Cook Square, Middlesbrough, when five to seven men made comments to her.

The group of men then surrounded her before she was sexually assaulted by one of them on December 13, 2025.

All of them, aged between 17 and 23 and wearing dark clothing, then left heading in an unknown direction while the woman went back inside the restaurant.

Police have since launched an investigation into the incident, which occurred between 7.30pm and 8.00pm that evening.

Cleveland Police has shared a CCTV image of a man they wish to speak with, who may have information that would help with their probe.

https://8am.media/eng/amina-mohammed-millions-of-women-and-girls-in-afghanistan-deprived-of-basic-rights/

Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, has said that millions of women and girls in Afghanistan are facing severe restrictions on access to their basic rights, including education, employment, security, and freedom of movement.

Mohammed wrote on Sunday, January 4, on X that the world must not remain indifferent to these violations of the rights of women and girls, and that effective measures must be taken to support them.

She stressed that women’s rights are an inseparable part of human rights and must be respected and protected everywhere.

This comes as women and girls in Afghanistan have been deprived of their most fundamental rights since the Taliban returned to power.

https://www.instagram.com/reels/DTAtnzVjKKm/

https://www.barrons.com/news/17-arrested-in-iraq-over-nye-video-of-men-harrassing-woman-bcaeb556?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=AWEtsqc31f0LTr_PVJzTNy4WZ7LOV4vFsTnQ6X1ZPoZN3QHeQYwVZ5AVkgBm&gaa_ts=695c0268&gaa_sig=ZYLw3UjmscXu6Yr56TfgUtzzTdpfaj8MvVzHPNLaHcafnJtA6iye1loRqWZOnssWDuSUUAR7ILCgKLwxecb09w%3D%3D

Authorities in Iraq have arrested 17 people after a video of men pushing a screaming woman into a car during New Year's Eve celebrations sparked widespread condemnation in the conservative country. Violence against women, including through so-called "honour killings", has long plagued Iraq's deeply patriarchal society, though there are no official statistics available.

The New Year's Eve video, which has gone viral on social media, shows dozens of men jostling a screaming woman before lifting her up as people gathered outside. Authorities said the footage was shot in the southern city of Basra. Separate footage from another angle shows some of the men trying to force the woman into the vehicle by pressing their hands on her head

https://www.instagram.com/reels/DTAtnzVjKKm/

https://www.transgendertrend.com/pathways-puberty-blocker-trial-cass-review/

Patient safety and evidence-based care must be the priority for the NHS regarding medical interventions for children. The PATHWAYS puberty blocker trial is not a prioritisation of patient safety as it lacks an evidence base.

Developing the evidence base should be the priority before a trial on a new cohort of children is even considered.

The Cass Review should not be used as justification to run a trial of puberty blockers. This was only one Recommendation of 32 Recommendations in total. To go forward with this one Recommendation while ignoring others that are crucial to put in place first, is using the Cass Review to implement an agenda, not following it to ensure patient safety and evidence-based treatment.

Data obtained by the Telegraph showed that 3,490 women were referred for ‘masculinising chest surgery’ on the NHS between 2021 and 2023, and that the number has risen slightly each year, from 1,089 in 2021 to 1,164 in 2022 and 1,237 in 2023.

Over three years, more than 780 women were referred for ‘masculinising genital gender reassignment surgery’, an experimental surgery with poor results and commonly-experienced complications.

The Telegraph report tells us ‘As many as 80 per cent of people using those services are females between the ages of 17 and 25’, which aligns with the figure reported by the Cass Review that referrals were ‘70-80 per cent birth-registered females under the age of 25’.

@KeepTakingTheSoma As usual. There was a family like that here, but are now going to school. Kids are already a bit weird though, there is trouble on the horizon re the girl too, alas. Good looking, already looks about 14, not because of anything done or worn, just the height and the way she looks, but is apparently only in about P 7, or maybe heading S1 this year, not sure. The sperm donator is, I think, now off the scene but the mother is also a complete arse.