Which countries are "Safe" for (trans) women?

[Tills]

The widening conflict in the Middle East brings another dimension to the equation. The thread topic could currently be re-phrased as 'Which countries are safe for anyone?'

You'd think that the remote Western Highlands of Scotland would be a safe haven but the UK Gov't has a number of military and strategic installations up there. Faslane naval base in Gare Loch is chief amongst these as it's the base for the UK's nuclear trident submarines.

Then there are massive armament stores at Glen Douglas, Beith in Ayrshire, and Longtown on the border.

The US used to have a naval base at Holy Loch but this closed in 1992 when the Cold War came to an end.

My new place looks out over Holy Loch and I can see Gare Loch in the distance. So remote and wild it may be but it's not free from the perils of this age.

On the subject of fish, we have of course massively depleted stocks through over fishing. The area I'm moving to used to have zillions of herring but the boats fished and fished and fished ... and suddenly and entirely unsurprisingly there were no herring left. The sheer greed, selfishness, and wanton destruction of nature by the human race never ceases to amaze me.

Waitrose is about to stop selling mackerel because the same thing is happening to mackerel populations, as indeed happened with cod.

On herring: https://www.thewestonmercury.co.uk/news/national/23321450.herring-numbers-recover-stocks-fell-1970s-scientists-hope/ 🔗

On mackerel: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgl5gee07xzo 🔗

Sir David Attenborough is approaching his 100th birthday. We need to listen to him.

xx

[Tills]

p.s. I'm not naturally a royalist but I bumped into King Charles the other day when he was on a private visit to a garden that I happened to be visiting at the same time. I have to say that he was really lovely. He chatted to us all, cracking jokes but also taking a genuine interest in people.

It led me to watching his programme on harmony with Nature. It's worth a view if you have the time (Amazon Prime)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Finding-Harmony-Vision-Nicolas-Brown/dp/B0FX1LTG6N 🔗

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62wepw43k3o 🔗

[Tills]

If all of this seems slightly tangential to the original topic, the main reason I'm moving to the Western Highlands of Scotland is not for a trans-friendly refuge. It's because I love Nature. I hike every single day, often with a pair of binoculars. I find harmony with Nature to be my inner and outer connecting point. It's what brings me wholeness and healing.

My ancestors by DNA came across the seas from the north of Scandinavia to the Western Highlands. I share the same haplogroup as the Sami peoples of the Arctic Circle and Viking invaders to Scottish shores. Going to the remote Scottish Highlands is a pull I have felt for a long, long, time. I'm coming home.

xx

[Tills]

Wildlife camera operator and presenter Hamza Yassin also lives in the wild Western Highlands of Scotland, in his case on the Ardnamurchan peninsula.

He it was who described the area to which I'm moving as, 'One of Britain's last great wildernesses.'

So I'm hoping I will soon forget about naval bases, and munitions dumps, and the wars which men make. J R R Tolkien places these beautiful words in the thoughts of Sam:

"Far above the Ephel Dúath in the West the night-sky was still dim and pale. There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach."

xx

[Tills]

Coincidentally there's a very interesting interview with a marine biologist this morning on Sky:

https://news.sky.com/story/money-live-tips-personal-finance-consumer-sky-news-latest-13040934 🔗

xx

[Stottie Girl]

The widening conflict in the Middle East brings another dimension to the equation. The thread topic could currently be re-phrased as 'Which countries are safe for anyone?'

You'd think that the remote Western Highlands of Scotland would be a safe haven but the UK Gov't has a number of military and strategic installations up there. Faslane naval base in Gare Loch is chief amongst these as it's the base for the UK's nuclear trident submarines.

Then there are massive armament stores at Glen Douglas, Beith in Ayrshire, and Longtown on the border.

The US used to have a naval base at Holy Loch but this closed in 1992 when the Cold War came to an end.

My new place looks out over Holy Loch and I can see Gare Loch in the distance. So remote and wild it may be but it's not free from the perils of this age.

On the subject of fish, we have of course massively depleted stocks through over fishing. The area I'm moving to used to have zillions of herring but the boats fished and fished and fished ... and suddenly and entirely unsurprisingly there were no herring left. The sheer greed, selfishness, and wanton destruction of nature by the human race never ceases to amaze me.

Waitrose is about to stop selling mackerel because the same thing is happening to mackerel populations, as indeed happened with cod.

On herring: https://www.thewestonmercury.co.uk/news/national/23321450.herring-numbers-recover-stocks-fell-1970s-scientists-hope/ 🔗

On mackerel: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgl5gee07xzo 🔗

Sir David Attenborough is approaching his 100th birthday. We need to listen to him.

xx

To be fair it wasn't really our fishermens fault. The EU are the ones sending there factory ships they should not be allowed to fish oour waters at all, we don't fish in therirs. If we had our own fleet it would be easier to control it. Less boats equals more fish in the sea it's not a hard equation. I thought that would have been one of the first things to come out of Brexit given the hype beforehand. Stupid country we live in!

Lamlash Bay in Arran (yes, Arran again!) put in a fisheries exclusion zone 10 or 20 years ago as spanish trawlers were scraping the bottom of the bay and turned it to an underwater desert. The sea bed has fully recovered now and it's teaming with sea life again. I think there needs to be more of these around the coast at least.

I saw the then Prince Charles once when he visited a local town near my mums. He and Camilla spent a long while talking to many residents. He seems like a decent bloke to be honest. And I'm no royalist either. To my shame I remember standing alone at a bus stop in my twentys and a royal procession drove past, it was carrying the late queen mother and she waved at me, I felt silly waving so I just blanked her even though I quite liked her and actually thought she was a character. Personal image over civility, shameful ha ha!

The UK is out of range for Iran Tills, don't worry! If there was a nuclear war it might get hit but to honest the UK is that small there probably wouldn't be anything left! Would you want to survive that anyway?
I used to like watching the nuclear subs and other naval ships coming in and out of the Clyde.

That quote from Sam could be about anywhere in Scotland! or the North East to be fair.

[Tills]

I like all of your post except the first paragraph @Stottie Girl

I think we'd best not veer into politics or nationalism with this thread but I have to register that Britain's record on overfishing is as bad as any other nation and our general industrialisation and colonialist rape of the earth, and her peoples, is an abysmal blot on the earth. There I've said it. I could justify every word of that comment from history that's seldom taught in schools but will bite my tongue.

But here's an interesting piece on the Clyde written from a British fishing perspective:

https://britishseafishing.co.uk/the-decline-of-the-firth-of-clyde/ 🔗

Peace. We can agree to disagree

xx

[Tills]

Actually there was a really lovely episode of Countryfile a week ago on the West Coast of Scotland, which included pieces about the Marine Protected Area. I highly recommend it to folk. Those outside the UK will need to use a VPN.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002rx34/countryfile-hamzas-highlands-flapper-skate 🔗

I'm sort-of-losing the point of this thread but for me personally Nature matters more than the skin I'm in.

xx

[Devlyn ✅]

To be fair it wasn't really our fishermens fault. The EU are the ones sending there factory ships they should not be allowed to fish oour waters at all, we don't fish in therirs. ...

Wow. Two words for you: Cod Wars.

[big kim]

I'm from Fleetwood. Cod wars destroyed the fishing industry.

[Charlotte Kitty ✅]

I've got the joys of flying to Turkey on Friday whilst all this conflict erupts. Thankfully it's still deemed safe to fly there so the trip is still on.

In all honesty I don't really take my safety that seriously, which makes getting around in this life so much easier. When you fear yourself above everything nothing else registers!

Charlotte 😻

[Stottie Girl]

I like all of your post except the first paragraph @Stottie Girl

I think we'd best not veer into politics or nationalism with this thread but I have to register that Britain's record on overfishing is as bad as any other nation and our general industrialisation and colonialist rape of the earth, and her peoples, is an abysmal blot on the earth. There I've said it. I could justify every word of that comment from history that's seldom taught in schools but will bite my tongue.

But here's an interesting piece on the Clyde written from a British fishing perspective:

https://britishseafishing.co.uk/the-decline-of-the-firth-of-clyde/ 🔗

Peace. We can agree to disagree

xx

Yeah no arguments about it historically, and yes , we were trying to nick fish from Icelandic waters but the UK has had a decimated fishing fleet for decades and the overfishing is continuing. The EU boats (maybe Norwegian and Iclandic boats too) are overfishing our waters right now. I'm saying we should be having UK fleets only then we can control numbers of boats fishing. Either way the current system clearly isn't working very well. I agree we are to blame as well.

[ChrissyRyan]

I like them UK style fish and chips.
Have not got to try the mushy peas.


Chrissy

[Tills]

I like them UK style fish and chips.
Have not got to try the mushy peas.


Chrissy

Ah it must be time for the famous Peter Mandelson story then.

Back in the early days of New Labour, Mandelson walks into a northern chippy. Remember, he served as MP for Hartlepool in the north-east. Seeing a container of green mushy peas he says,

'Oh and could I have some of that nice guacamole, which I'm very partial to.'

(He denies the truth of this story!)

[KathyLauren]

Have not got to try the mushy peas.

Ha-ha! 

There are lots of seafood restaurants in Nova Scotia.  Since we are vegan, the only thing on the menu that we can eat at one of them is French fries and vegetables.  And the vegetable is always English-style, boiled, canned, nearly colourless peas.

[Devlyn ✅]

Is any country that serves marrowfat mushy peas TRULY safe? 😂

[Stottie Girl]

Ha-ha! 

There are lots of seafood restaurants in Nova Scotia.  Since we are vegan, the only thing on the menu that we can eat at one of them is French fries and vegetables.  And the vegetable is always English-style, boiled, canned, nearly colourless peas.

Colourless peas? Mushy peas are often nuclear green!

[ChrissyRyan]

I like eating sweet peas.  High in fiber.

But those differ from mushy peas, right?   Not just sweet peas that have been smashed.