The youngest MP:

A 22-year-old elected as an MP with a razor-thin majority has said he does not want his age to be the focus as he heads to Westminster.

Labour’s Sam Carling is likely to be the “baby of the House”…

I.e. the youngest, the Beeb helpfully explains.

However, he doesn’t want his age to be a focus. “I want us to get away from this strange mindset towards younger people’s age. As far as I’m concerned we’re just the same as anyone else. I just want to get on with the job.”

Ah well there you are then, demonstrating one of the reasons there is and must be an age threshold for people in government. The younger … Read the rest

In a colder place, Sherpas are picking up garbage left on Mount Everest by climbers. There’s a lot of it.

The highest camp on the world’s tallest mountain is littered with garbage that is going to take years to clean up, according to a Sherpa who led a team that worked to clear trash and dig up dead bodies frozen for years near Mount Everest’s peak.

The Nepal government-funded team of soldiers and Sherpas removed 11 tons (24,000 pounds) of garbage, four dead bodies and a skeleton from Everest during this year’s climbing season.

But there are maybe 40 to 50 tons left.

Since the peak was first conquered in 1953, thousands of climbers have scaled it

It’s warm over here on the west coast.

Extreme heat continues to inflict wide swaths of the U.S. This weekend, the brunt of the hot temperatures is falling on the West Coast and parts of the East Coast.

Afflict, not inflict.

In total, over 132 million people were under some form of a heat warning as of Saturday evening, according to Heat.gov. “These conditions will be extremely dangerous and potentially deadly if not taken seriously,” the National Weather Service said on Saturday.

Human-caused climate change is fueling longer and more intense heat waves, and making dangerously high temperatures more common.

And even now, after all this time to get familiar with hot weather, Seattle people don’t understand air conditioning. Grocery … Read the rest

The UK's new foreign secretary, culture secretary, transport secretary and education secretary pic.twitter.com/npocfxoneu

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) July 5, 2024

Top left David Lammy:

It’s probably the case that trans women don’t have ovaries but a cervix, I understand, is something you can have following various procedures and hormone treatments.

Top right Lisa Nandy:

Q: Should child rapist Christopher Worton be housed in a women’s jail now he identifies as a woman?

A: I think trans women are women and they should be accommodated in a prison of their choosing.

Bottom left Louise Haigh:

I fully support introducing self-declaration [when a man legally becomes a woman because he has said he is a woman.]

Bottom right Bridget Phillipson:

Q: Say I’m

But what do they mean?

After yesterday’s election, there are more women MPs in our Parliament than ever before. It’s an historic moment, but the work has only just begun.

There is a huge opportunity for this new critical mass to work together, across party lines, to improve the lives of women across the country. 

Drawing on inspiration from the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Senedd and the Scottish Parliament, the Fawcett Society will shortly convene all women MPs to facilitate the launching of a powerful women’s caucus.

Cool, but do they mean women, or women plus men who call themselves women?

It does make a difference.

Jemima Olchawski, CEO of the Fawcett Society, said:

“Thanks to the hard work of

Good news.

Now record 264 women MPs!
Chance to work cross party on women’s priorities.@fawcettsociety will convene meeting for all women MPs enabling them to embark on process of setting up powerful Women’s Caucus. *Childcare, *violence against women, *equal pay. Now is the time for change!

— Harriet Harman (@HarrietHarman) July 5, 2024

Oh but wait.

Does she actually mean women?

So many people are asking.

“Working on women’s priorities” is meaningless if one believes men can be women.

I will never, ever understand how people can stand this level of hypocrisy. It’s like the evolutionary biologist supporting hard-line creationism.

— Christina Dalcher (@CV_Dalcher) July 5, 2024

… Read the rest

Neil Gaiman accused:

Bestselling writer Neil Gaiman has strongly denied allegations of “non-consensual sex” and “sexual assault” reported in a Tortoise investigation led by Rachel Johnson.

Neither of Neil Gaiman’s UK publishers ha[s] responded to requests for comment following the reports. The allegations are explored in a four-part podcast, “Master: The Allegations against Neil Gaiman”. 

Roz Kaveney, friend of Neil Gaiman since the 1980s, and so, so proud of it, and Laurie Penny, who did a sycophantic interview with Gaiman in 2013, are both surprisingly silent on the recent (horrific) allegations of rape and sadistic violence by him against young, vulnerable…

— Julie Bindel (@bindelj) July 6, 2024

Roz Kaveney, friend of Neil Gaiman since the 1980s, and so,

The Daily Beast on the Total Immunity threat:

When the Supreme Court declared presidents immune from prosecution for their official acts Monday, one man immediately feared what it meant: Donald Trump’s fixer-turned-nemesis, Michael Cohen.

We all immediately feared what it meant. The horror of it is all too obvious.

But quibbling aside, he does have a specific point.

Cohen is the only person summarily jailed by Trump, an experience he says awaits many more people if the Republican candidate wins in November.

Cohen admitted in December 2018 that he lied to Congress and paid illegal hush money to Stormy Daniels, and began a three-year sentence in May 2019. A year later he was granted early release from prison under

People are waiting impatiently for Starmer to name his Minister for Women and Equalities.

Many are saying by rights it should be Rosie Duffield.

More likely it will be India Willoughby.… Read the rest

Ugh. Speaking of that whole issue of competence versus politics…defiance and “grit” and determination aren’t always or necessarily virtues.

US President Joe Biden vowed to stay the course in his re-election bid and defeat Donald Trump in a defiant speech on Friday, as questions continue to swirl over whether he will drop out of the race.

At a rally in Madison, Wisconsin, the 81-year-old acknowledged his disastrous performance in last week’s CNN debate. “Ever since then, there’s been a lot of speculation. What’s Joe going to do?” he told the crowd. “Here’s my answer. I am running and going to win again,” Mr Biden said, as supporters in the crucial battleground state cheered his name. It marked his

Such a fine young man.

The person who wrote this tweet has just been convicted of rape. I despair at the staggering naivety of so many people in decision-making roles who seem to believe that some topics let them off thinking about and dealing with the full dark complexity of humanity. pic.twitter.com/Md0aqbh0R6

— Lucy HunterBlackburn (@LucyHunterB) July 5, 2024

So it turns out that that Lexi Bowen was just convicted of rape? Why yes, as the BBC reported (badly, evasively) just a couple of days ago. I objected to its distortions at the time. I’m glad I’m not the only one.… Read the rest

Humanists UK on the long history of godless Prime Ministers:

In the run-up to the general election, several newspapers published stories saying that Keir Starmer would be the UK’s ‘first atheist Prime Minister’ – but as Humanists UK pointed out at the time, that simply was not true! As a non-religious person with a belief in ‘irreducible human dignity’ (as he put it to a recent biographer), Sir Keir is only the latest in a long line of non-religious and humanist heads of government in the UK.

I’m envious. It’s decidedly not the case over here in The Colonies.

Prior to becoming the first ever Labour Prime Minister in 1929, Ramsay MacDonald was the Chair (sometimes ‘President’) of Humanists

Originally a comment by Sackbut on Look how energizzzzzzzz.

Kevin Drum raised an interesting point on his blog. He began by expressing some sympathy for the Republicans who don’t like Trump, but nonetheless feel compelled to vote for him. Drum then muses about what it would take for him to vote for the Republican candidate for president (not specifically Trump, just in general).

At least one commenter noted that we aren’t just electing a president, we are electing an administration. The people appointed and hired by the president and those around him matter as much as the president. And they almost always come from one political party, that of the president. Given this, and even absent the aberration that … Read the rest

Remember “Sophie Molly”? From The Scotsman a few weeks ago:

parliamentary candidate for the Scottish Greens has defended calling JK Rowling a “torn-faced cow” on social media.

Sophie Molly, a trans woman who is standing in Gordon and Buchan at the general election, said she stood by the comment. Ms Rowling highlighted the insult after becoming embroiled in a row with Ms Molly on X over the weekend.

The Greens hopeful criticised a book the author has contributed to called The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht, which includes essays from a range of women who have been critical of the impact of trans issues on women’s sex-based rights. It was co-edited by Susan Dalgety, a columnist for The

Sigh.

President Biden and his top aides have said his appearances in the coming days are part of a series of campaign efforts designed to prove that his performance in last week's debate against Donald Trump was nothing more than "a bad night." https://t.co/KpJTxMEaAG

— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 5, 2024

Nothing more than a bad night, eh? So we can be very sure it will never happen again? Even though it’s clearly been happening a lot, and getting worse? Even though we all know the arrow of time does not reverse course?

And then there’s the headline saying he stumbled over his words.

We’re doomed.… Read the rest

There’s nothing to worry about, it’s just that he gets exhausted and needs a lot of sleep.

Questions about Biden’s fitness for office and ability to seek a second term have swirled since his stunningly halting debate performance at last week’s CNN presidential debate.

CNN reported Thursday that Biden privately acknowledged to an ally earlier this week that the next stretch of days are critical as to whether he can save his reelection bid. The White House and campaign have insisted the president is not considering ending his campaign.

Asked about concerns about Biden’s age, top advisers have repeatedly and emphatically cited his aggressive schedules during international travel as examples of his vitality and capacity to do the job at

All RIGHT.

Dr Hilary Cass will sit as a cross-bench Member of the House of Lords. This is it. Never has a peerage been more well deserved. In floods of tears here that she has the recognition for the task she took on with such aplomb, curiosity, insight and fairness. https://t.co/TYNnpdthsZ

— Rachel Cashman (@CashmanRachel) July 4, 2024

Very very good news. … Read the rest

Ah. Yes, that’s the way to convince everyone that you’re the right choice for the grueling job – tell us you need more sleep and won’t be available after 8 pm. That’s very good, because there are never emergencies when presidents have to stay up late and deal with shit.

President Joe Biden told Democratic governors during a meeting at the White House on Wednesday that part of his plan going forward is to stop scheduling events after 8 p.m. so that he can get more sleep, according to three sources briefed on his comments.

Yeah, see, Joe, that was part of the issue all along. That’s always why it’s been tacitly understood that presidents over the age of … Read the rest

Oh that was a body positivity campaign was it? I didn’t realize.

Their fans are well accustomed to seeing Team GB’s women’s Olympic rugby players assert their prowess on the pitch. They are less accustomed, however, to seeing them in lingerie. 

Faced with a stiff training session ahead of the impending Olympic Games, the last thing sports aficionados would expect to encounter is these accomplished athletes practicing their moves in a series of racy lace bras, knickers, teddies and suspenders. Where were their sports bras? In fact, where were their clothes?

For this particular training session at Richmond Rugby Club in south west London, the women’s usual kit was very much surplus to requirements. Team GB members Ellie Boatman, Celia

MSN reports:

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has issued a rare rebuke against President Joe Biden after his administration recently stated its belief that gender-affirming surgeries should only be for adults. While transgender children rarely undergo such procedures, HRC said such decisions should be left between families and medical professionals rather than politicians.

While the nature and reality or lack thereof of “gender affirmation” of course should be left up to the “Human Rights” Campaign.

The Biden administration has repeatedly expressed support for the right of trans youth to access gender-affirming care. However, the White House said, “The Administration does not support surgery for minors,” after Fox News and The New York Times both reported on efforts by