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revolutionarysuicide · 4 months

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man it is seriously depressing remembering how excited i was when i first got my bottom surgery referral multiple years ago now like things were finally looking up i was so excited to finally get surgery after waiting my entire life i was constantly browsing bottom surgery forums to read other ppls account of their recovery etc. i really couldnt wait to feel comfortable in my own skin and be able to have sex the way i wanted and be able to shower with the lights on and all that. and then that was all taken away from me. and all that imagining post-op life that made me so excited is so painful now bc i know it is so far off and possibly i'll never be able to have it bc the nhs can just arbitrarily take it away from me again on the whim of one doctor.

cant stop thinking about emigrating cause i know i would literally get bottom surgery faster if i moved to another country and went through their processes despite the fact that my initial gic referral was in 2017 lol. even if i got my bottom surgery referral today (realistically i won't be re-referred for like another decade p much, and no they won't let me keep my old place in the bottom surgery waiting list, i checked many times with gdnrss lol) it still might be faster to emigrate. i know that a friend of mine who was recommended for bottom surgery in 2019 recently had surgery (she's a trans woman, im aware the waiting times are an order of magnitude longer for masculinising bottom surgery bc of the nhs fucking up the st peters contract too) and like i definitely know foreign surgeons with wayy faster turnaround than that, although im not sure how quickly i could become a citizen to become eligible for those countries' healthcare systems. maybe i could take advantage of my british passport privileges idk how much easier that would make it. but anyway i've been on and off thinking about moving to cuba since i was 16 anyway for anti-imperialist reasons, and ofc they have free bottom surgery there. ive have stayed put bc i think there needs to be communists in the imperial core too to sabotage imperialist efforts to crush revolutions abroad if nothing else bc the british people are so impotent lol, but like damn if britain doesnt keep giving me reason after reason to leave this shitty place

#if ur going to give me advice within the bounds of the british system or british charities/ngos: don't; i have literally already done that #whatever you're about to say i have literally done that in 2022 #yes all the organisations. yes all the charities. yes all the nhs emails. yes that phone number too.#yes that law firm. yes that advocacy service. yes that trans healthcare fund.#yes the emails and numbers of every single gic and surgeon. like don't waste your time i know how the system works and i know what orgs #exist here trust me i've already done that lol.#if u want to advise me on how another countrys immigration system works go ahead ig you might convince me to emigrate for real lol

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angryschnauzer · 6 months

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I realised two months have gone by since i last updated you all, i'm not even sure if anyone is interested anymore. I know i haven't been on much, perhaps sporadically coming on and mindlessly reblogging Henry stuff just for a little escape, but its intermittent at best. I had hoped to be back to writing by now, but life is still a huge pile of shit.

I'm run ragged trying to pay the bills. My wedding decorations business is halfway between slow and dead; the cost of living crisis means weddings aren't really happening, and if they are most of the items i do people are making themselves. My side gig in ebay flipping is quiet too but at least its trickling by. I don't mention this much as people get a lot of abuse over 'thrift store flippers' (Charity Shop resellers here in the UK), but right now its what's keeping my family fed. I buy clothing for £1 from the stinky dregs bin in a charity shop, wash it, mend it, resell it for £4. I'm not making millions or even thousands. I'm lucky if i'm bringing in £150 a week which barely covers our weekly food shop. Its draining that when i do eventually mention this to my friends they immediately start moaning at me that i'm the one 'ruining' charity shops and why its pushing the prices up. But when i calmly tell them its that or i don't eat they go quiet. I'm not the one pushing a 2nd hand coat for £25 which was only £20 brand new which most high street charity shops are doing. Do i like doing this? No. Do i have to? Yes. Because i sure as ain't cute enough for onlyfans.

But the majority of my time over the last couple of months has been spent caring for our son. He's 8 and has type 1 diabetes, and since school started back in September one little shit in his class has spent every waking moment bullying him. This little shit has been stabbing my son with pencils, poking him in the kidneys with whatever he has to hand, laughing and sneering at him at every opportunity even when he's just walking past. Having the adrenaline and cortisol in my son's bloodstream affects how his insulin works, and he builds up an insulin resistance because of all the other hormones in his bloodstream. I've had so many meetings with the school, and have had to get the board of governors involved because when your 8 year old kid says quietly to you "It would be better if i wasn't alive as then *Little Shit* wouldn't be able to bully me" your heart breaks into pieces.

He needs my support more than anything, so every single other thing has been put by the wayside. And its tough. He acts out at home, messes around with his dinner because he feels he needs to be able to control something, but that in turn messes up insulin dosing so i'm spending half the night dealing with highs and lows for his blood sugars. I get at most 5 hours sleep a night.

I have no more energy left. I'm not eating, because i just can't stomach it. I'm 43 and hitting menopause, but my doctor doesn't want to know because "You just need to loose some weight" (don't get be started on fat bias from the NHS).

So i'm filling my time with volunteering at school so i can be 'around' for my Little Dude. He knows that if he's having an awful day, he will find me in the office sorting through paperwork for our next fundraiser. Its not what i want to be doing, but its what i need to be doing.

One day i hope to get back to my writing. I miss being creative and i hate that i have so many stories part written/published. As the months tick by i actually end up seeing stories written by others that have the same characters/plotlines. This is no-ones fault that two stories exist on the same synopsis, it would just seem that they and I have taken the same inspiration from media at some point. But it makes me scared that if i now publish a story i started 2 years ago, i'll be accused of stealing an idea. I don't know what to do. So i just leave my WIP folder abandoned.

For everyone that has stayed with me thank you. For those that have moved onto pastures new, i wish you well and hold no malice.

I do love you all

Mama Schnauz

x

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world-of-wales · 4 months

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─ • ✧ WILLIAM'S YEAR IN REVIEW : JULY ✧ • ─

1 JULY - William and George attended the Fourth Day of the 2nd Ashes Test Match at the Lord's Cricket Ground in London. 3 JULY - William gave a boost to Dame Deborah James' charity single - 'Tell Me it's Not True'. Later, in the evening he gave an Earthshot Prize Dinner at Windsor Castle. 4 JULY - He received The Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Bahrain at Windsor Castle. 5 JULY - William and featured in a series of photographs and short film as they attended a Tea Party at St. Thomas Hospital to celebrate the NHS's 75th anniversary. The Duke and Duchess of Rothesay attended Service of Thanksgiving and Dedication to celebrate the Coronation at St. Giles' Cathedral. Afterwards, they witnessed an RAF Fly-past from the Palace of Holyroodhouse. 6 JULY - William was accompanied by Catherine as he participated in the Royal Charity Polo Match at the Guards Polo Club. 10 JULY - William reopened the newly renovated Duchy of Cornwall Nursery in Lostwithiel where he was received by Mr. James Williams (Vice Lord-Lieutenant of Cornwall). 11 JULY - He visited Wistman’s Wood in Dartmoor. 13 JULY - He was represented by Commander Robert Dixon RN at the Service of Thanksgiving for the Life of Admiral of the Fleet the Lord Boyce KG. 14 JULY - William and Catherine along with George, Charlotte and Louis were received by Air Marshal Sir David Walker (Deputy Lieutenant of Gloucestershire) at the Royal International Air Tattoo at Royal Air Force Fairford. 16 JULY - William along with Catherine, George and Charlotte to the Gentlemen's Final of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. 25 JULY - He became the Patron of The Fleming Centre Appeal. 30 JULY - William appeared in a video with Sorted Food as they made 'Earthshot' burgers. He also joined them in a Food Truck distributing burgers to the members of public. 31 JULY - He held a Meeting at Windsor Castle.

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nomorerww · 7 months

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HMMM maybe there’s consequences in radicalizing a bunch of young, impressionable people, or treating “Transphobia” as some unimaginable, omnipotent force that causes people to become “ticking time bombs”. Or maybe seeing transphobia in EVERYTHING, including opportunistic trolls who see crit from GC feminists as an easy jab. You must think you’re psychic to confidently declare to a million online followers that a troll MUST be an “anti-trans activist”! Because any dick out there’s obvs anti-trans and as we all know, ya gotta make sure to emphasize that anyone critical of the TRA movement = automatically bad because discouraging people from ever looking into GC discourse is the best way to keep them on your side. One rando that replied to Jones told him that the women he decided to single out were straight (gender criticals don’t list their sexuality in their bio) and he just ran with it. Facts are important unless you’re talking about an endlessly vilified group of feminists, then they just get in the way, tbh.

“Today, almost the whole media is anti-trans, but while transphobia is rampant, anti-trans sentiment is not as widespread as anti-gay sentiment back then.” says Jones

Meanwhile, mass media is reporting women in dehumanizing terms such as “uterus-havers” and “menstruators” while men don’t get the same treatment (not to mention how male crimes are reported as being done by women now) so fucking men don’t feel left out of a the word “woman”. Big transphobic media published one article from someone I didn’t like, this is unacceptable! Fucking nazis.

rest of post under cut b/c it's long

And while feminists are among the only groups to scrutinize problematic charities like mermaids, Jones makes sure to only focus on some minute point being made (which is still important) and not the whole picture which is far more damning.

Mermaids espouses the true knowledge to best practices even if it is a political lobby group which has no professional scope or focus.

They’re so controversial that they were removed from the BBC advice page.

BBC Newsnight recently reported that staff concerns over too-hasty referral of gender-questioning children to medical intervention were being ‘shut down’ by the national Gender Identity Development Service. And the NHS has ordered an independent review of the use of puberty blockers to treat gender dysphoria in children.

[…]

Mermaids Backpedals on ‘Wrong Body’ Narrative After UK Government Issues Schools Guidance Continue reading Mermaids Backpedals on ‘Wrong Body’ Narrative

The organisation, which reported an income of over £750,000 in 2019-20, runs support groups and helplines for families and gender-questioning children aged under 19, and lobbies for access to medical interventions, such as puberty-blockers, for young people as a suicide prevention method. It has been widely criticised for perpetuating the line, ‘better a trans son than a dead daughter.’[…]

In numerous media interviews Mermaids CEO and founder Susie Green, who evaded UK age restrictions when she took her child, Jackie Green, to Thailand for a full sex-change operation when he was 16, has told how the first signs of gender questioning were her son’s preference for playing with dolls.

Mermaids removed checklist aimed at helping parents understand if their child is trans, experts chime in to say that the “[…]Mermaids checklist are all those that one might see in an undiagnosed /diagnosed teen autistic girl”

Charity ‘advised mum to force her son, 7, to live as a girl’

Here is the court report

But ofc, no pro-transing charity could as bad as “anti trans” activists and parents deemed transphobic according to Jones. What’s not concerning according to TRAs is traumatizing a kid by triggering an intervention by social services in cases where it’s not necessary because being wary of puberty blockers & hrt doesn’t automatically make you an abusive parent.

more:

#owen jones #trans activists #mermaids uk #transing children

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ukrfeminism · 2 years

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Two women are facing prison for having an abortion — including one who obtained the pills from an authorised provider — as doctors warn of the “chilling” effect a rise in police investigations will have on the reproductive freedoms of women in the UK.

On Friday, a 25-year-old woman pleaded not guilty at Oxford Crown Court to a single charge of administering poison with intent to procure a miscarriage. She is accused of having “unlawfully administered to herself a poison or other noxious thing, namely Misoprostol”.

She is alleged to have taken the drug, which is one of two pills that are together routinely prescribed by abortion doctors, in January last year. The crime, which falls under a piece of Victorian legislation, the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. The woman, a mother to a toddler, was told via an interpreter that she will stand trial in February next year.

This week, another woman is due to appear before magistrates in Staffordshire charged with child destruction under the Infant Life (Preservation) Act, which dates back to 1929. The woman had obtained pills from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (Bpas) in lockdown, under legislation which was introduced during the pandemic, and allowed women up to ten weeks’ pregnant to receive abortion pills in the post to take at home following a remote consultation.

In March the at-home provisions, which previously had a two-year time limit, became permanent after MPs voted to support an amendment to the Health and Care Bill.

After taking the pills, the woman went on to deliver a 28-week foetus and was reported to the police. Following the initial hearing, the case is set to be sent to Stoke Crown Court. If convicted, the woman also faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Senior doctors have written to the country’s chief prosecutor calling for him to stop taking women to court for ending their pregnancies as police investigations into abortions are increasing.

Dr Edward Morris, the president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, is among medics, lawyers and charity workers who have signed a letter to Max Hill QC, the director of public prosecutions, which states “it is never in the public interest to charge women who end their own pregnancy.”

“These prosecutions may well deter women experiencing miscarriages and incomplete abortions from seeking treatment when needed,” said Clare Murphy, the chief executive of Bpas. “For some migrant women who are ineligible for NHS-funded abortion care, they may feel that accessing abortion pills illegally is their only option. If these women attend hospital needing help, should the police be called, or should these women receive medical care and support without fear of prosecution?”

She said data suggests recent criminal cases are “only the beginning of an increase in the criminalisation of women in the most complex and difficult of circumstances”, adding that “it is abhorrent that 160 years later vulnerable women should suffer from legislation drawn up in a world which is unrecognisable to us now.”

The Crown Prosecution Service has received a letter from the charity and will consider the issues raised as a matter of urgency.

According to a Sunday Times analysis of Home Office data, eleven women were reported to police last year in England and Wales accused of illegally procuring an abortion. This was up from seven in 2020, eight the year before, and just two in 2018.

In total, 52 women have been reported to police since 2015. The figures do not include the past six months, as Home Office data is not yet available for 2022.

The letter to Hill, which has also been signed by Jemima Olchawski, the chief executive of The Fawcett Society, Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the TUC, and Justine Roberts, the founder of Mumsnet, among others, calls on him to “cease all current proceedings and to not [bring] any future charges against women or girls who end a pregnancy or experience pregnancy loss.”

Doctors have voiced concerns that an increase in police investigations will have a “chilling” effect on women’s reproductive freedoms in the UK at a time when they are being curtailed in the United States with the overturning of Roe v Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that gave women a right to seek a termination.

Jonathan Lord, the medical director of MSI Reproductive Choices UK, which provides contraception and abortion support, and a consultant gynaecologist at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust said, in some cases, women have found themselves under suspicion after suffering a natural miscarriage or stillbirth because they had considered a termination at an earlier date.

One of his patients, he said, had been discharged from hospital into police custody where she was held for 36 hours, rather than be allowed to grieve and recover from the emergency surgery the previous night.

In another, he said, a 15-year-old girl had her phone confiscated after a natural stillbirth, isolating her from her friends and family. She spent more than six months waiting to know whether she would face criminal charges.

“That’s institutional child abuse, really,” he said. “At the time of most need, her whole social support was withdrawn.

“I simply can’t believe in Britain in 2022, that you can be suspected and investigated, and have your phone and laptop impounded and spend the best part of a year, longer, in some cases, not knowing whether you’re going to be charged with a crime that carries life imprisonment.”

The fear of being prosecuted if they later suffer a pregnancy loss may leave women too afraid to even discuss terminating an unwanted pregnancy, Lord said, while confiscating phones for what he described as “digital strip searches” left medics unable to communicate with their patients to offer aftercare.

“Just because they came to an abortion clinic doesn’t mean that’s what they’re going to end up with,” he added. “So to use evidence of a Google search against someone I think, is deeply sinister.”

Charlotte Proudman, one of the barristers who has signed the letter to Hill, said she is considering bringing a case against the government under human rights laws, arguing “the current legislation is in breach of women’s human rights.”

MPs have called on the government to change the law, so that abortion is regulated as a health procedure, and removed from the criminal statute books — as is already the case in Northern Ireland.

“Abortion is first and foremost a healthcare matter that should be treated as such,” Labour MP Stella Creasy said, adding that “having a criminal foundation to access to a healthcare service leads to horrific outcomes, where we further traumatise vulnerable women.”

She said that she is “determined to write into law, a human right [to access abortion].”

Fellow Labour MP Diana Johnson, said she has also “long argued for the decriminalisation of abortion, removing what is essentially a healthcare issue between a woman and her doctor from the criminal law.”

“Of course, decriminalisation does not mean the deregulation of abortion,” she added. “I think the British public do not want to see women and doctors criminalised under a Victorian law when medicine and public opinion have moved on so much.”

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liverpool-enjoyer · 1 year

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tagged by the lovely lovely @cherishlalune

shuffling my songs and putting the first 10 that come up:

king- florence & the machine

idk you yet- alexander 23

downtown (uptempo)- anya taylor-joy

youll never walk alone (nhs charity single)- jamie webster

shouldve been me- mitski

madness- muse

five nights at freddys- the living tombstone

love from the other side- fall out boy

Mary did you know- pentatonix

stacys mom- fountains of wayne

tagging some homies @frostbiteyinny @rubybecker-rb2 @liverpoolfanfiction @calm-smol @thesupermegahell @letters-from-transylvania

#im not even gonna make any jokes. gonna let the list speak for itself #i have SEVERAL renditions of ynwa as any self respecting poolie does #ty for the tag <3 #florence & the machine #alexander 23 #anya taylor joy #jamie webster #liverpool #liverpool fc #lfc #mitski #muse #fnaf #the living tombstone #fall out boy #pentatonix #fountains of wayne

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thenihilistofthevoid · 3 months

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OOC

Just wanted to put my opinion here about the situation with King Charles and his cancer diagnosis. As some of you know, King Charles the Third has been diagnosed with cancer, what type/stage is unknown. I myself feel bad about it, because he's going to spend even more of the taxpayer's money on himself. I personally consider King Charles to be a parasite. He spent £125 million pounds on his coronation, essentially a big party with all his friends to celebrate him becoming top bitch. He's then spent £8 million pounds getting photos of himself put in schools and police stations and other public institutions. That's money desperately needed elsewhere. I think it's disgusting he's wasting £133 million on pointless schemes to gratify his ego while many of the poorest in my country are having to choose between heating their homes, paying rent or eating. When people have to rely on the council or charities for warm places to go because they cannot afford to heat their own home. While many disabled people like myself live in fear of our own benefits system trying to get rid of us and kill us in an obvious act of social eugenics just so rich people can get richer. The NHS could use that money to pay for more doctors and nurses, instead of making me and my 91 year old grandmother wait longer and longer for treatment we need. I didn't ask to be born with a faulty glandular system, or to require a hip replacement at 19, but here we are. He's 75 years old. His health will only deteriorate with time. How many years does he have left if his cancer treatment is successful and the cancer or treatment doesn't finish him off? Ten, twenty? How many more people will have to go hungry, or cold, or sit alone in the dark because the electric got turned off due to being unable to pay, just so he can live a little longer in complete luxury?

And I want to explain that I don't think anyone deserves cancer. Nobody deserves it. Disease doesn't care who you are, it comes for us all equally. I am allowed to be happy that such a horrible individual has it, it's damn past time someone reminded the parasite in chief with his idiot hat that he isn't God, despite what his massively overfed narcissistic ego tells him. I'm just pissed off he'll get round the clock care and someone to shove a fuckton of morphine into him when this hopefully becomes terminal without paying a single penny for it from his vast fortune, while the rest of us serfs often die in agony, alone and frightened because we can't afford care. If I were to get cancer, you can bet your bottom dollar I wouldn't get half or a third of the treatment he does. I'd be expected to put up with the pain, the sickness and side effects of chemotherapy or radiotherapy while he'll be given everything under the sun so he doesn't feel much. The inequality of his treatment versus mine or anyone else who wasn't born into his parasitic little family is what pisses me off. The monarchy does not need to exist in modern society. Kings, Queens and Princes belong in only one place: History books and fairy tales. The only Prince I love and respect is the musician. Unlike the parasites, he contributed to the world and gave rather than took.

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redhillconfetti · 1 year

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Blog Post 06-01-23

Confetti

Well, another week has come and gone, and as the working hours of Friday float away, my mind goes to think of Confetti fluttering on the wind.

The act of throwing confetti comes from Northern Italy in the middle ages, however it was far from pleasant, with anything from old leaves to rotten eggs launched at noble folk as they made their way through town. Over time this changed to the nobles tossing small sweets from their carriages at the common folk, many of which were Sugared Almonds or Coriander Seeds. The almonds are known as ‘Confetti’, and this is how the name came to be. In the late 1800s the first recorded instance of throwing paper confetti came into place in Paris on New Years Eve, and from there the tradition of throwing paper confetti during a celebration stuck.

Confetti is what started it all for Redhill Confetti. Ten years ago when I was planning my own wedding, I knew I wanted a vintage style theme for decor and such, and having seen some mass produced paper confetti online for a considerable price I knew I could not only make it myself, but do it much more economically. So armed with an old romance novel and a heart shaped hole punch, I spent many an evening in the run up to our big day simply punching paper hearts out of the torn sheets of the novel.

With the wedding over and the honeymoon a long and distant memory, we were still left with a large box of confetti, and rather than throw it away I bagged it up and put it on Ebay. Within a couple of days it had all sold, with people messaging me to ask if I had any more. An idea formed in the back of our minds and at that point the starting blocks of Redhill Confetti were set into place.

Our very first made-to-order product was actually Fifty Shades of Grey confetti, with the book series at the height of its popularity, people loved the idea of delicate small paper hearts fluttering down around them, only for Great Aunt Maud to spot a rather salacious word or two as they settle. With all our copies sourced second hand from charity shops or just given to us where people had heard of us through word of mouth, for a good 18 months we were inundated with those books, before expanding into other titles with everything from fairy tales to golf manuals. Sheet music was another very popular design, with this being very easy to get hold of and always looked beautiful with its aged paper.

When the time came to start a family, the business had been quietly ticking by in the background and in the summer of 2014 I quit my full time job as a logistics coordinator and made a go of the business full time. At the same time I discovered I was pregnant, and in a huge leap of faith I stuck to my plans and finished at the shipping company to work full time in the wedding business. This was by far the scariest but also the best decision I have ever made. With the time and clarity that came with that resignation, I was able to source a UK manufacturer for our Seed Paper, and found the oldest mechanised papermill in the world right here in the South of England.

The seed paper confetti was a huge hit. Handmade from recycled paper pulp, with wildflower seeds actually in the fibres of the paper, we soon found this product so popular we were sourcing at wholesale levels, all whilst hand punching every single piece individually. It certainly gives our arms a workout, though we haven’t yet considered any arm wrestling tournaments.

In 2018 we were offered the chance to stock Forget-me-not seed paper in addition to the wildflower, which has become very well known in the Funeral trade, with the idea of planting new life whilst remembering those that have passed being a timely reminder of how much we miss our loved ones. We now supply numerous charities and NHS Trusts with these seed paper shapes so they can include these small tokens in memorial boxes.

Throughout the pandemic with the restrictions in place for gatherings, many people came to us for seed paper memorial pieces, and I can now imagine there is a new crop of flowering blooms that appear in the memory of those no longer with us.

Now with the pandemic a long way behind us (hopefully), I look to the future to where we can develop confetti supply and what we can offer. At the tail end of 2022 I was lucky enough to be contacted by a local family whose music teacher Aunt had passed away after over 70 years of teaching piano to local families, and with that had amassed a huge collection of sheet music. They were going to simply send the whole lot to the recycling centre before someone put them in touch with me, and three full car loads later my workshop is now full floor to ceiling with music books dating back to the 1930s. With this we are looking to ramp up production of sheet music confetti, with new cutting tools arriving this week.

Well that’s it for another week, the new year settles into place with lots of exciting new things in the works for 2023.

Enjoy your weekends!

Simone

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klapollo · 1 year

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youtube

A face on a lover with a fire in his heart A man under cover but you tore him apart Oh, oh now I've found a real love You'll never fool me again

George Michael (1963-2016) of Wham! passed away six years ago on this day at the age of 53. During the 1986 Christmas season, the duo's seasonal staple "Last Christmas" was blocked from hitting number one on the UK charts by another holiday song Michael contributed to, Band-Aid's charity single "Do They Know it's Christmas?" While the latter was explicitly made to raise funds for the Ethiopian famine, Wham! also donated all royalties from "Last Christmas" to the cause in additional support.

This is not surprising. In the wake of Michael's passing, a massive array of charitable contributions over his life came to light. This included a free Christmas concert for NHS nurses, a secret donation of 15,000 pounds for a Deal or No Deal contestant seeking IVF treatment, and a five thousand pound tip for a barmaid in debt.

Michael was a proud gay man who lost his partner Anselmo Feleppa (1956-1993) to AIDS-related causes, and as such devoted many of these financial gifts to supporting people in the community who were often left behind by institutions that sought to let them suffer and die.

As of 2021, Michael's estate continues to donate royalties from the song (one of the most profitable holiday tracks) to causes he cared for.

Merry Christmas, George.

#Christmas #Youtube

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luxe-pauvre · 2 years

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May I ask a follow-up question (different anon though) regarding the situation in the UK. There has been a lot going on politically, with the queen, inflation, brexit. Has that impacted you in any way (you do not need to go into specifics or personal of course, don't want to make you feel uncomfortable). But more in the general sense of you as a student, a young individual, someone who will enter the job market soon, is looking for a house. How is the overall feeling for the younger generation, have they been impacted by this all?

I myself am from Belgium, so you know, we have been impacted by inflation, gas prices, a terrible housing market etc.

I'll try and keep this brief and factual, but it may turn into a long and emotional rant.

I'm currently sat in my Mother and her husband's home as I’m visiting. They are a slightly above national average double income household. I'm wearing two blankets because turning the heating on is out of the question. Thanks to the latest government actions that rocketed mortgage rates in the past week, as it stands they will lose their home in the next six months and will have to move to a mobile home park.

In my single person full time PhD student with a part time job household, my monthly food bill has gone up by 50% and my monthly electricity bill has gone up by 133%. My PhD stipend will not increase as I'm funded by a charity and they've told their students an increase is not possible. Luckily, at the beginning of the year I changed part time jobs and had a fairly substantial pay rise. This pay rise has been totally swallowed by all of the cost increases which is disappointing, the possibility of saving part of it is probably gone, but if it doesn't get any worse I can suck it up without much change to my lifestyle.

Looking ahead, I'm seriously considering totally changing career track at the end of my PhD and cashing in my three Russell Group degrees for a consultancy/analyst type job that will make me deeply unhappy, but at least I'll be financially well.

I laughed out loud when I read 'looking for a house' as the chance of me ever owning a home is very close to zero unless, 1. I completely change career track, and 2. my Father, who owns a property he won't lose in this mess, first of all doesn't change his will to leave it to his soon-to-be wife (who will definitely outlive me) and then dies a sudden and unexpected early death (he will also likely outlive me otherwise). If both of those things happened, potentially the combination of a larger income from a different career and the sale of an inherited property might make it an option. I had a rather depressing conversation at work a few weeks ago in which we all agreed our only remote hope of property ownership is the untimely death of our parents which is incredibly morbid, and that only applies to those whose parents do own property.

Bizarrely in all this, the Queen dying was a two week reprieve. Apart from all the transport chaos in the city, which was a bit of a nightmare for those of us who live there, at least the government were "in mourning" and so they couldn't make anything worse.

As to how all this feels for the younger generations, I think the overarching feeling is that we're trapped. The illusion that if you ‘do the right thing’ or if you just ‘work hard’ things will get better is utterly smashed. Brexit now makes leaving the country entirely much more difficult, and if you're like me and you have chronic health conditions you're also somewhat tied to the NHS (which itself is only just about functioning), and so even if you could meet a particular countries immigration terms ensuring proper access to healthcare becomes a big factor/issue. The tide does finally seem to be turning politically, and maybe we'll get a more socially responsible government at the next election, but even if we do they will have to spend their entire term tidying up this mess before they get a chance at any kind of progress.

Disclaimer: this was not meant to be a pity party answer, I'll be fine, there are people in much worse situations than me in the UK and especially world over. But that being said, it doesn't make any of what's happening here, one of the seven richest countries in the world, right or less emotionally salient to those experiencing it.

#And good luck to you in Belgium.#Good luck to us *all* I guess.

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scotianostra · 2 years

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Happy Birthday to ex Pop Singer turned TV personality Michelle McManus who hits 42 today.

Born in the Queen Mother’s Maternity Hospital in Glasgow, on May 8th 1980, Michelle was brought up in Baillieston with her four wee sisters, she auditioned for Pop Idol in 2003 and brought criticism from judge Pete Waterman due to her image and he “fuller figure”, fellow judge Simon Cowell to a shine to Michelle and championed her cause, she beat Mark Rhodes in the final with 58 percent of the vote.

After signing to Sony BMG, her debut single, All This Time, spent three weeks at number one, while her first album, The meaning of love reached number three. However, after her second single, the title track “The Meaning of Love,” stalled at number 16, she was dropped by her label, and a year later she parted company with management company 19 Entertainment.

In 2007, she set up her own record label, McManii Records, and released the track Just for You. Michelle has since released a book entitled You Are What You Eat, performed in a production of The Vagina Monologues, and co-hosted the Scottish TV show The Hour. Michelle has also appeared on The Edinburgh Festival Fringe as well as working on numerous Scottish TV shows and guesting as a DJ.

McManus paid tribute and sang two songs at Martyn Hett’s funeral on 30 June 2017. Martyn was one of the 22 victims of the Manchester Bombing on 22 May 2017.

Michelle recorded a cover version of Paul MccArtney’s, We all Stand Together in aid of a collection of a dozen charity choirs. McManus married Jeff Nimmo on 23rd September 2017.

The couple tied the knot at St Mary and St Finnan Church at Glenfinnan on the edge of Loch Shiel.

In January 2020 the couple shared pictures of their first baby, a boy they named Harry. Michelle thanked NHS staff for their “care and attention” following a “challenging pregnancy.

In February this year Michelle announced on twitter the birth of her second son saying; "....completing our family and our world." he is called Nicholas Peter. She waved goodbye to January, adding: "I don't know how any other month this year could possibly top you as you're the month we welcomed the newest addition to our family."

The Pop Idol star recently returned to the music industry as a singer in the band The Flaming Blackhearts. Michelle has also been on BBC Radio 4 with Clive Anderson on the podcast Loose Ends.

#Scotland #scottish #pop singer #tv personality #radio presenter #happy birhtday

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batstevenstephens · 5 months

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Cheyne to meet increasing demand for key worker accommodation

Alternative asset manager Cheyne Capital has detailed how the firm plans to meet increasing demand for affordable key worker accommodation through its impact build-to rent schemes.

Cheyne launched its first Social Property Impact Fund in November 2014 and second Impact Real Estate Trust in April 2020 to help tackle the chronic shortage of affordable housing.

This summer, Cheyne launched its ten-storey impact build-to-rent scheme Poplin, which is based in the New Cross neighbourhood of Manchester and features 3,500 sq ft of amenity space.

Named in honour of the fabric used to manufacture coats on the same site in the Second World War, the brick-clad Poplin scheme includes a mix of design-led one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.

Thirty-five per cent of the homes are reserved for local key workers at meaningfully discounted rents, and all homes have capped rental increases to offer longer-term certainty for residents.

Jack Greenhalf, development manager at Cheyne Capital, told Insider how the company's schemes stand out in a competitive market.

"We focus on considered design, wellbeing offerings for residents, the continued provision of discounted rents for local key workers and capped rental increases for all tenants, which is critical in today’s cost of living crisis," said Greenhalf.

"At Cheyne we consider ourselves long-term custodians and it is our responsibility to ensure developments such as Poplin last the test of time in terms of quality of build and environmental credentials. The Poplin building is an outstanding architectural addition to the city of Manchester and stands proudly on its own merit."

Greenhalf believes demand for these schemes will continue to grow.

"It is well known that there is a shortage of good quality accommodation across the UK and even more so for well-located affordable accommodation. The Poplin lease-up process is surpassing expectations and we are very pleased with the building’s performance and demand so far. We see this Impact strategy slotting into a wider industry challenge to act upon the severe undersupply of housing across the UK."

He added: "From engaging with the representatives of local key workers, such as the Manchester University NHS Trust, and Manchester City councillors, it is clear there is significant demand for affordable key worker accommodation in Manchester. We will look to build on this success and deliver a number of Impact BTR and single-family rental schemes across the UK.

"Looking forward, we plan to work with key worker representatives and local authorities to identify strategies bespoke to the needs of each area which we believe will deliver real change."

Poplin, which was designed by Tim Groom Architects and YOUTH Studios, and built by GMI North West, will be operated by Native Residential which already operate the Kampus scheme in Manchester. Through Native’s pioneering Neighbourhood Hero programme, Poplin will collaborate with local, independent businesses and charities in Manchester.

Jack Greenhalf said residents valued a consistent level of quality "whether it be the external design, interiors or the furnishing included in their rent".

"With working-from-home now the norm, a good internet connection has become an essential, and Poplin has gone one step further with a best-in-class service speed and platinum Wired Score accreditation," said Greenhalf.

"The uninterrupted views of Manchester from our terrace with dedicated spaces for activities such as yoga has been well received, along with areas to work and the kitchen/dining space bookable for residents’ personal events. Well-proportioned apartments with Juliet balconies allow plenty of room for residents to make the space their own. Residents have already responded well to community events where they can develop friendships with their neighbours, get to know the operating staff a little better and generally have a good time."

He added: "The average renter in Manchester now expects a level of service and care that provides solace for the highly worked and often stressed generation of renters. We wish to provide space that will be complementary to residents and emphasise all that Manchester has to offer.

"In time we do expect the BTR market to mature and we have already seen renters starting to make decisions not just on rent and amenities but also their living experience/positioning, design and approach to operation. We already have confirmation from residents’ testimonials and feedback that they value the thoughtful approach we have taken and that they take pride in living at Poplin and the values it represents."

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lindaboggers · 5 months

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Cheyne to meet increasing demand for key worker accommodation