Jim Stewart's Blog

I saw a report on TV today. A number of women in a town have had nude photographs of themselves uploaded to some web sites. Those interviewed had said they had originally uploaded them to a private web page.

The words of Judge Judy came to me – never upload something to the web that you don’t want everybody to see. I have to admit I have never taken a nude photograph of myself, let alone uploaded one to the internet.

The reporter commented on the relevant law – one of the conditions for having being on an offence is that there needs to be an evil intention on behalf of the person uploading. I remember commenting on the law at the time – all the person uploading the image needs to show is that it might have been a joke and they cannot be prosecuted effectively.

BBC had some interesting comments on the possibility of laws to outlaw conversion therapy. Strapping people to a chair and shocking them to change their views, locking them in a room until they give in – all of these things are wrong. But they are not wrong because of the intended outcome, it is because of the activity. No matter what the intended outcome these activities are wrong.

The risk of being making bad law exists here. For a start the term conversion therapy can extend to counselling and discussion. Where does the boundary sit? Do we need to argue in court the intention of the person carrying out the activity.

Proving the intention of people is something that can be difficult, particularly at the edges of what is considered acceptable. Can anybody really say they can prove what another persons intention is? And is it then acceptable to use shock therapy for other reasons, maybe politics or religion?

In some parts of the world it is illegal to encourage people to change religion (not sure if that applies to encouraging people to change to the state religion). In some places it is illegal to speak out against the national politics (think of the new laws in Hong Kong).

But, some people will say, gender issues are not a choice. My response is that if you truly believe that then you need to accept that some people are living lives that are out of step with who they are (think people “in the closet”). To ban discussion of sexual preference means you ban discussion with them.

One of my colleagues was at the point of suicide because of gender issues. Some people are suffering because of where they are in life and we need to make sure we don’t lock them in misery. We need to focus on the activities that are wrong, irrespective of the intent.

I’m under instructions to exercise more. So today, in addition to my 5 mile night walk. I managed a 20 minute breakfast walk and a 2 mile lunch walk.

The problem with the lunch walk is that it took me past my favourite coffee shop. It is hard enough walking past the chip shop at night – but how can you walk past Mecycle? I had to go for my doppio. But my contactless card wouldn’t work – and then I realised you need to use a pin the first time you use it. I hadn’t used my contactless card since I got it.

As we move back to normal it will be interesting. The first people to get back to the entertainment areas are going to be the most confident. The less confident will take longer – but as a result the venues are likely to be much busier making it harder for them to build up the courage to get back to normal.

Maybe part of getting back to normal together is to take it easy. But I doubt that will happen, personal pleasure is likely to be too important to some.

Today, for some reason, the press seemed to think that the Royal family had something to do with COVID. At least you would think so with all the questions at the briefing. The press were coming out all guns blazing to defend Megan against the Royals.

Meanwhile Michael Moore reports that the British press are so against Megan they are using terms like “monkey” to talk about her. Nothing like using vulgar racist text to up your readership.

The interview told me one thing – there is an unhappy couple. Sadly the facts seemed strained and the timelines looked wrong. Harry was probably right to say he was worried that things were repeating themselves. But there certainly were some very odd claims like the suggestion that Archie would not be a Prince because of his colour. No – he would not be a prince for the same reason that Princess Margaret’s son was not a prince.

It took me back to the death of Diana. She died because the car was being driven really fast and crashed. The car was driven really fast to try to evade paparazzi. The paparazzi were chasing her because people had a hunger for inside knowledge of her life. To me the purchasers of the gossip rags were responsible for her death.

So I see Megan starting to suffer and all of a sudden Oprah has an exclusive that sells all over the world. Time to close the book on this. We don’t need an exclusive. We don’t need to know about their life now. Just let them get on with living. We don’t need an Oprah exclusive – it is no better than the paparazzi on the motorbikes chasing the car.

One of the things that people say of the original Star Trek is that it predicted modern technology. Things like the communicators, the computer tablets. Of course we don’t yet have warp drive, phasers or teleport (outside Area 51 that is).

Of course the communicators have missed one important feature – none of them come with built in cameras. You don’t see Spock taking a selfie. In fact one Star Trek offshoot has them checking if one of their scanning devices has the ability to capture images.

One of the things I like to look at in old science fiction is the things they didn’t see changing. I just saw a futuristic prediction where they still used Betamax video tapes. This comes from people that are straining to imagine the future.

And who would have imagined where we would be today (unless you watched the film Contagion – which predicted it all pretty accurately down to the anti-vaxers trying to make money out of it).

So where will the future go for us – what things do we find it hard imagining being made obsolete. Maybe the travel to business meetings will become a thing of the past – and I am not talking about Zoom meetings – think VR meetings. Some of the current technology is well on the way to making it real.

One thing I can see possibly hanging dramatically is the world wide web. The www is not the internet. Think of the internet as the road network, the www is just one type of vehicle on it. I can see direct connection through apps becoming more important, I can see consolidators becoming more important. One thing I know is that change will happen.

I see the USA struggling to prevent the change of global leadership to China. Sorry guys, the British Empire has been there – it is going to happen.

It can be nice sitting back in comfortable clothes, with comfortable slippers in a comfortable chair doing things we find comfortable. It can be annoying when those slippers wear out and we need to break in a new pair. But we need to break in those slippers or put up with miserable cold feet.

Of course this isn’t a new concept.

Come gather ’round people

Wherever you roam

And admit that the waters

Around you have grown

And accept it that soon

You’ll be drenched to the bone

If your time to you is worth savin’

Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone

For the times they are a-changin’

Come writers and critics

Who prophesize with your pen

And keep your eyes wide

The chance won’t come again

And don’t speak too soon

For the wheel’s still in spin

And there’s no tellin’ who that it’s namin’

For the loser now will be later to win

For the times they are a-changin’

Come senators, congressmen

Please heed the call

Don’t stand in the doorway

Don’t block up the hall

For he that gets hurt

Will be he who has stalled

There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’

It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls

For the times they are a-changin’

Come mothers and fathers

Throughout the land

And don’t criticize

What you can’t understand

Your sons and your daughters

Are beyond your command

Your old road is rapidly agin’

Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand

For the times they are a-changin’

The line it is drawn

The curse it is cast

The slow one now

Will later be fast

As the present now

Will later be past

The order is rapidly fadin’

And the first one now will later be last

For the times they are a-changin’

Religion has a lot to answer for. Not least some of our common problems.

I was brought up in a non-denominational church. But it operated in a different way to a lot of churches. Different people from different denominations talked each week. So one week somebody would tell us the front door to heaven is blue, next week a different person would say it was red. So we didn’t get taught the only way, but got taught how to listen and challenge.

So many churches deliver the exclusive truth, asking the congregations to take that on trust. Many see questioning as evil.

We see the right wing church in the USA being led down a road with blind adherence to a rich right wing leadership. Here in the UK I see churches struggling to adapt rules and procedures to the effects of the pandemic.

I always see a main teaching of Christianity as freedom. So why are so many followers constrained?

I had some symptoms some months ago. There were two main options – one serious – one painful. I found myself hoping for pain. Turns out option three was minor glitch so I missed both serious and pain.

It has been interesting seeing how many people haver resorted to self dentistry over the last year. According to Bob Mortimer you need Fuji IX. It only costs about £5 for the filling material. I wonder how many people that disliked dentists before will be queuing at the dentist door when they reopen?

I started thinking about this when the COVID briefing comment came about the smile on peoples faces when they got their vaccination. Yes, it is true – people are happy to have needles stuck into them.

Makes you think, the things we used to consider bad were maybe not that bad, in fact some of them are now recognised as positively good.

I think I have started to enjoy life more. I am feeling that simple things are really much more pleasurable. Just sitting in a chair in my back garden watching the birds gives me satisfaction. I even enjoyed cleaning my roof today (even if I got wet and filthy).

Almost the end of the week and it feels like it has just started. Then I suddenly realised – this is March. Where did January and February go? And then I started to wonder whether I had the year right.

It can be amazing how quick time can pass when there is limited references. We rely on events to measure time against. My weekly event is double milk on Saturday.

I have found the same happens with me in terms of behaviour. I tend to reference my behaviour against the behaviours around me. I remember one job that I had where the atmosphere was very aggressive and macho. I found myself adjusting to be more aggressive. I didn’t stay long.

I think the old sayings have something to them. If you lie with dogs you get fleas.

It can be hard to define “acceptable” when the situation we live in can be so different. Would I steal food if I was starving? Would it be wrong? Maybe this is why we are judged by our peers and not the landed gentry whose land we live on.

I need to try to avoid judging others – at least until I have walked a mile in their shoes.

While waiting for the PM question the BBC news team and some others engaged in some banter about Rishi Sunak. They went round the table talking about how they had all been trying to get people to dish the dirt on him. And how they had all failed, not because people wouldn’t talk, but because nobody had any dirt – they all spoke highly of him.

Meanwhile in Edinburgh there has been nothing but mud slinging for days, weeks, months, years, but the ferocity is getting to a peak.

People are disillusioned with politics. My personal view for some time has been that the problem with our political systems is the political parties. In different parties there are people that stand out, not because of their political views, but because of their commitment to the people they represent and the way they conduct themselves.

A lot of people push for proportional representation in elections as an imagined “fix” for our politics. But really PR puts greater power in the hands of political parties.

So how can we change to a political system that is anti-party?

There has been so much news today it can be hard to work out what the main story is.

• The former French president has been sentenced to Jail
• Rouge virus roaming the streets of the UK
• Amazing vaccine results
• Scottish government promise to release more papers before tomorrow

But I think the story that made most news was that of Prince Philip being taken to Barts hospital. What? Why is that news? I hear the republicans ask.

The reason it is news to me is it brings up the issue of incomplete private heath care. Up to now he has been in an amazing private hospital, but there is a complication – and so the NHS takes over. One way of looking at this is that the private health care has taken some of the load off the NHS. But is that right.

Look at it from business terms, are the private hospitals just doing the high profit jobs and relying on the NHS to do all the back breaking hard work that doesn’t make big bucks? Is that a bad thing? Well, in times when we are short of medical staff is it right to have them tied up in private health care?

In the pandemic should we have sequestered the private health care staff to support the NHS pandemic response? And yes I do know there are cases where this has happened, but really, how much private medicine should be going on during a pandemic?