‘Period Poverty’ – Some Thoughts

By MARCUS STEAD

THE MEANING of any word or phrase can be cheapened by inappropriate use. If you had to work through your lunch hour, and at 5pm tell your colleagues that you’re ‘starving’, they’ll probably take the remark in the spirit it’s intended, but there is no comparison to be made between your slight hunger and the plight of millions in Africa.

Similarly, George Orwell observed in his essay ‘Politics and the English Language’ (essential reading for anyone with an interest in journalism or writing of any sort) that the word ‘fascism’ now has no meaning except in so far as it signifies ‘something not desirable’. He wrote that in 1946, just one year after the defeat of ‘fascism’ in World War II.

The word ‘poverty’ is in danger of being devalued in a similar way. Very few people indeed are living in poverty in Britain. We almost all enjoy a considerably better standard of living to the one experienced by the working classes of 70 years ago.

The traditional family unit, the sense of community and standards of personal morality have all deteriorated since the 1950s, but in terms of health, diet, sanitation and household appliances, life in modern Britain is far better than it was even a generation ago.

For those in genuine difficulty, the safety net of welfare payments are available, that are generous by both historic and international standards.

Very few people living in Britain today are entitled to describe their situation as one of ‘poverty’. I support a small charity that does a great deal of good work in Africa. They send me regular newsletters to tell me of progress being made in the communities they serve. I know of nobody in Britain who has to survive on as little as the people of that community.

The left loves a ‘victim’ and portraying ever-increasing sections of society as ‘victims’, regardless of the facts. Just five years ago, the phrase ‘period poverty’ was unheard of. Throughout my time at school, it was accepted as fact that girls had to prepare properly for the onset of their periods, and that their parents were responsible for ensuring they had sanitary products. Yes, the school kept a supply in the medical room for emergencies and to avoid embarrassing situations, but as a rule, the emphasis was on the pupil and her family to ensure she was prepared.

The menstrual cycle has been around since, erm, women have been around. So why did ‘period poverty’ mysteriously come into being five years ago?

In April this year, the Welsh Government announced plans for all primary and secondary schoolchildren to be given ‘free’ sanitary products. By ‘free’, they mean ‘taxpayer-subsidised’. Everything has to be paid for somewhere along the line. What the Welsh Government has actually done is pass the financial burden of sanitary products from the family unit to the taxpayer.

It appears that increasing numbers of girls are going to school unequipped with sanitary products, which says more about the increasing problem of social breakdown than it does about a mythical ‘period poverty’.

Similarly, the Welsh Government has introduced various ‘free school breakfast’ initiatives over the years. When I was at school from the late 1980s until the early 2000s, it was assumed that it was the responsibility of the parent, not the taxpayer, to ensure their child had a decent breakfast.

With all this in mind, it can be pointed out that a pack of 14 sanitary towels can be bought from Morrisons for just 65p, and have plenty of five star reviews on the website from satisfied women, while a 1kg bag of porridge can be bought for 75p. It can be given flavour with a handful of sultanas, a large 500g bag of which can be bought for 95p. If your child would rather have a piece of toast for breakfast, an 800g ‘toastie’ loaf can be bought for 55p, working out at less than 3p per slice.

In other words, there is no excuse for sending your child to school hungry, or without sanitary products if needed. If parents really are struggling to find the few pence for the combined cost each day, it suggests they have serious issues managing money and prioritising.

On 13 April, I tweeted, ‘Can we please stop all this nonsense about people not being able to ‘afford’ to give their children breakfast or sanitary products? A bag of porridge to feed a family for a week costs £1. 3 packs of sanitary towels cost £1 in Home Bargains.’

After a gap of a few hours, I was subjected to a massive Twitter ‘pile on’ from whiny (mainly young) leftists, along with a handful of minor celebrities and middle class comedians wanting to virtue signal and show off their ‘woke’ credentials. There was no rational argument from them – mainly foul-mouthed abuse and childish ‘school playground’ insults.

Quite a few of the messages decided I needed to hear their horror stories about heavy periods and a load responded to points I did not actually make. At no time did I say that children who came to school hungry should be made to starve, nor did I say that girls who experienced heavy or unexpected periods during the school day should not receive help.

The events of the last week around Jeremy Corbyn’s car-crash interview with Andrew Neil have proven beyond doubt that Twitter ‘pile-ons’ and ‘hashtag flooding’ is highly co-ordinated. There are huge groups on WhatsApp and Messenger of various cult movements, from the Corbynistas to the Welsh nationalists who engage in this sort of thing. I’ve suspected it was co-ordinated for some time – lots of accounts using pseudonyms but with very few followers is a giveaway, but the events of the last week prove it beyond doubt.

Back in April, several newspapers picked up on the ‘pile-on’ to my tweet, including the shell of what was once The Independent, though the comments section on The Sun’s website suggests rather a lot of people agreed with me!

I should also point out that my tweet got more than 2,700 likes, plus some supportive comments (many of them messaged me privately to avoid being subjected to abuse themselves), so I am clearly not alone in my thinking.

‘Poverty’ does not come into it. This is really all about parents neglecting their traditional responsibilities and handing them over to the taxpayer.

We have lost something important in this country during the last 70 years. I recall listening to a podcast with former Bridgend Council leader Jeff Jones, where he told a story about growing up in a close-knit working class community in South Wales.

His family didn’t have much by the way of material goods, but even as a teenager, if he told his mother he was catching a bus or train to meet his friends in Cardiff, she would always respond by saying ‘make sure you wear a tie’.

In other words, they didn’t have much, but they did have their standards. The children were immaculately turned out for school and for Sunday chapel. Their diet may not have been very exciting, but they were fed, often with vegetables grown in gardens or allotments, plus meat given in return for the children helping out at the local farm during the school holidays. Divorce and fatherless homes were rare.

I am not calling for a return to the strict rigidity of the 1950s (I only wear ties when I have to), but it’s clear that something has gone badly wrong in terms of standards and personal responsibility. In material terms, today’s parents, even the worst off, have far more. Few feel the need to grow vegetables in allotments or send their children to the local farm to work during the holidays in return for meat. In real terms, the cost of food in supermarkets is considerably cheaper than it was 40 years ago.

A very large number of people who claim to be in difficulty could alleviate their problems by making simple lifestyle changes: Give up smoking and alcohol, do the weekly shop in Aldi or Lidl, take a packed lunch and a Thermos flask to work rather than going to a coffee shop, search for the best deals for gas and electricity, cut down on the takeaways etc.

In other words, learn the difference between ‘essentials’ and ‘luxuries’. There are too many people whose first instinct when their benefit payments arrive are to buy the latest smartphone or designer handbag, rather than to ensure that their rent is paid and their children have life’s essentials.

Some of my Twitter critics argued that, as a man, I should not comment on such issues at all. I comment not as a man, but as a taxpayer, and one who objects to seeing his taxes spent in this way, at a time when essential public services are being stretched.

But for a female perspective, journalist and talkRADIO breakfast show presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer clearly shares my views. In September 2018, seven months before I became involved in the debate, Jeremy Corbyn tweeted that, on average, women spend £5,000 on sanitary products in their lives. Ms Hartley-Brewer replied: “Ok, let’s take a look at those numbers, Jezza. £5k spent over, say, 42 years is £119 a year. That’s £10 for each period. 32 Superdrug tampons cost £1.89. So these women are using 160+ tampons a period. So that’s 40 TAMPONS A DAY. Okaaaay. Yep, seems legit. #PeriodPoverty #Maths”

This week’s events during the election campaign have shown that maths is not Mr Corbyn’s strong point (what is his strong point?), but it’s evident that he has grossly exaggerated the figures so he can portray yet another section of society as ‘victims’.

More than a year earlier, Ms Hartley-Brewer ran rings around Labour MSP Monica Lennon during a radio interview about ‘period poverty’.

But there is a certain irony about my critics. As far as I can tell, most, if not all of my critics, are firm supporters of the European Union. EU law stipulates that VAT on sanitary products must be charged at a minimum of 5%. Campaigners in Britain have demanded the removal of the tax for many years (not unreasonably in my view), but the EU has stated that it will not do so until January 2022 at the earliest.

The same people who attack me and Ms Hartley-Brewer are reluctant to concede that the abolition of VAT on sanitary products would be a clear, morally-correct and unequivocal advantage of Brexit.

BDO Darts Descends Into Farce

By MARCUS STEAD

The British Darts Organisation is in a state of chaos with less than two months to go before its version of the World Championships is due to be staged.

The tournament had been hosted at the Lakeside Country Club in Frimley Green, Surrey since 1986 but in August the BDO announced it was abandoning the venue and taking the competition to the Indigo, a theatre-like complex in the O2 Arena that seats 2,350 people.

At the time of publication, just 9% of tickets have been sold for the nine-day long tournament, beginning on Saturday 4 January, and only 36 tickets have been snapped up for the Tuesday afternoon session. Only one person has thus far bought a week-long package.

The cheapest afternoon tickets cost £26 plus the booking fee, and the cheapest evening session tickets start at £36.

By comparison, tickets the breakaway rival Professional Darts Corporation version (which features most of the world’s best players), staged at Alexandra Palace over the Christmas period, are priced at £23, with cheapest evening session tickets £33 for tiered seating.

The BDO’s own website, and the promotional poster for the event, offers few clues as to how tickets for its version of the World Championships can be purchased.

Thousands of were sold in advance of last year’s BDO World Championships at the Lakeside, and a number were supplied free of charge to members of the organisation’s county pyramid system.

Fans have expressed irritation at the BDO’s choice of venue, which unlike the Lakeside and Alexandra Palace, does not offer free parking, while the flagship men’s tournament will not feature Glen Durrant, the champion for the last three years, who has defected to the PDC.

In August, BDO chairman Des Jacklin revealed the men’s prize fund will remain at £300,000 while the ladies will almost double to £54,000 with the winner’s share rising from £12,000 to £20,000, but with such a sharp decline in ticket sales and no title sponsor, the prize fund could yet be affected.

It hasn’t been the best of years for Jacklin or the BDO. Days before the announcement that the tournament was leaving the Lakeside, ‘Little’ Richard Ashdown, the master of ceremonies at BDO televised tournaments, and a familiar face to the millions who watch darts on TV, announced his resignation, and within 24 hours, he was followed by four senior BDO referees: Anthony Dundas, Marco Meijer, Nick Rolls and Charlie Corstorphine.

In October, its oldest and second most prestigious tournament, the BDO World Masters at the Circus Tavern, Purfleet, was beset with organisational problems.

A new three-year TV contract was agreed with subscription channel Eurosport, but the BDO scheduled the tournament at the same time free-to-air station ITV4 was broadcasting a PDC event featuring the game’s best players.

The iconic Circus Tavern was the home of the PDC World Championship from its inception in 1994 until its success meant it outgrew the venue in 2007, but the 1,100 capacity venue was far from full throughout the BDO World Masters, which resulted in a flat and dreary atmosphere.

The early stages were held at the Grays Civic Hall, where to begin with there were only minor quibbles – 32 boards for more than 200 players seemed too small.

But events quickly turned to farce when Jacklin took to the stage and announced that the advertised format was wrong, and that players had arrived from around the world unaware of a BDO rule change implemented several months earlier that required them to register and pay their fees online in advance of arrival.

It appeared the BDO failed to inform national governing bodies from other countries of the change, and accepting some responsibility for this error, Jacklin announced that they would be allowed to play.

Some players who had qualified failed to show up, including seeds Nick Kenny and Wayne Warren. Jacklin stated that where possible, places for players who had not shown up would be swapped with those who had arrived unaware of the changes to registration rules.

However, this became a problem as non-registered players outnumbered non-arrivals, at which point it became apparent that the BDO had put the names of fake players into the draw, with a view to replacing them with real players if too many turned up. Quite what would have happened if too few had turned up, meaning some players would have to take on somebody who did not even exist, is unclear.

This never came to pass, because just 25 minutes before the men’s tournament began, the BDO’s top 16 players were called into a meeting where they were informed that the draw had to be re-done, which caused great anger in the room.

The re-draw made a nonsense of the BDO’s own rule that the draw for every tournament should be published 48 hours in advance.

Many of the BDO’s top 16 planned to boycott the event before the draw fiasco, but this was averted at the last minute, though there was widespread irritation that players from outside the top 16 were not invited to the pre-tournament meeting, and information about prize money was withheld.

Veteran player Andy Hamilton published an open letter on social media where he vented his anger at many aspects of the BDO’s organisational skills, including the re-draw, which meant that his planned start time of 2pm was pushed to 4:50pm.

Jacklin announced to the angry room that he planned to step down after January’s BDO World Championships, though he has since rescinded that pledge.

Talk Podcasts Pubcast Episode 2

By MARCUS STEAD

 

Marcus Stead and James Easton return with the final pubcast of 2019, recorded at the Mount Stuart in Cardiff Bay.

There was a ‘no politics’ rule in place, which was only loosely enforced. Topics covered in this edition include:

 

 

• Tattoos – tasteful or tacky? Are they OK provided they’re well-hidden? And are heavily-tattooed people doing it for attention?
• Cymru Premier football – differences and similarities with the English semi-professional ranks.
• Defunct beers and lagers. By the way, Hofmeister is back!
• Brian Clough’s legacy.
• Wrestling – British and American, past and present.
• The rise of Black Friday and Halloween, and the decline of Guy Fawkes Night.
• Proper Saturday morning telly – Ghost Train, Gimme 5, Going Live!, Live & Kicking.
• Fred Dinenage and the Krays.

The podcast is also available on the Talk Podcasts website, iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts and the TuneIn app.

Twenty Minute Topic Episode 23: What’s in the manifestos?

By MARCUS STEAD

 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn

In the week the Conservative and Labour parties launched their manifestos, Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins take a look at what’s inside them.

Are Boris Johnson’s plans for a huge wave of investment in infrastructure, apprenticeships and nursing realistic?

As for Labour, there are big elements of it that have not been widely reported in the mainstream media. There are lots of things in there that will appeal to the politically correct, virtue signalling ‘woke’ agenda, including ‘putting LGBT+ equality at the heart of government, ensuring our public services are LGBT+ inclusive and delivering on the national LGBT Action Plan’ along with a pledge to ‘conduct an audit of the impact of Britain’s colonial legacy to understand our contribution to the dynamics of violence and insecurity across regions previously under British colonial rule.’

Marcus and Greg ask: Is this REALLY a vote winner in Labour’s heartlands?

The podcast is also available on the Talk Podcasts website, iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts and the TuneIn app.

Twenty Minute Topic Episode 22: Election 2019 – One Month To Go

By MARCUS STEAD

 

Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn

Events have taken over the election campaign in the last week, with Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn responding in very different ways to the terrible floods in Yorkshire.

With less than a month to go until polling day, Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins ask: How could Boris Johnson have handled the terrible situation with the floods in Yorkshire without attracting criticism?

Something profound is happening in Labour’s heartlands. Support for the party has halved in 2019 alone, but polls show that no single party is benefiting from the collapse. The percentage points that Labour has lost are fragmented among several parties. That makes predicting the outcome of the election extremely difficult. Could it be that under the ‘first past the post’ electoral system, Conservative candidates may ‘come through the middle’ in some of the Labour heartlands.

And it’s nearly the time of year when an old man with a white beard hands out free gifts – no, we’re not talking about Father Christmas, but Jeremy Corbyn, whose manifesto pledges sound incredibly far-fetched. We ask how is it all going to be paid for, or more specifically, who is going to pay for it?

The podcast is also available on the Talk Podcasts website, on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify and the TuneIn app.

Transport for Wales Chaos

By MARCUS STEAD

TRANSPORT for Wales, a not-for-profit company owned by the Welsh Government, hasn’t had the best of starts in the twelve months since its branding started appearing in public.

The rollout of its new-style cards, which replace the old green bus passes, has been beset with problems since its launch in mid-2019.

There has been an active push for people to apply online, and the TFW website doesn’t make it clear whether it’s possible to apply via another means, even though elderly and disabled people (ie those entitled to the cards) are the least likely demographics to be comfortable using the internet.

The TFW website cheerfully proclaims: “The new-style cards offer the same free travel rights and benefits as the current bus passes. The new cards are designed so that they can work as part of an integrated travel network in the future.”

Seemingly unconcerned with online security and the possibility that vulnerable people may be socially isolated, TFW continues: “Residents are encouraged to apply online or ask a friend, family member or someone they trust to apply online on their behalf.”

Without a hint of irony or self-awareness, they provide a link to which users can download a paper form.

The website and app was beset with problems in the weeks after it launched, leading to lengthy delays in cards being issued.

But now Transport for Wales has created two online videos to talk people through the application process, one in English, the other in Welsh.

Both versions were uploaded on 16 October, and at the time of publication, 12,807 had watched the English language video, while just 247 had watched the Welsh language equivalent.

In other words, just 1.89% of viewers chose to watch the Welsh language version.

This comes just after the first anniversary of Transport for Wales livery appearing on trains and railway stations across Wales after Keolis/Amey succeeded Arriva as the holder of the Wales & Borders franchise.

TFW emphasised its ‘commitment to bilingualism’ by putting all railway station signage first in thick black lettering in Welsh, with the English translation in faint grey underneath, despite the last Census showing that only a small minority of the country’s population can speak Welsh, especially in its highest-populated cities.

The 2011 Census showed that 89% of the population of Cardiff and Swansea classed themselves as unable to speak Welsh, while in Newport the figure was 90%.

In addition, recorded announcements at stations, including the busiest in Cardiff Central and Cardiff Queen Street, are now in Welsh first and English second, meaning confused passengers are forced to listen to long, rambling announcements in a language they do not understand when they need to move quickly between platforms, a source of extreme irritation to many local people and visitors alike.

 

Twenty Minute Topic Episode 21: Poll Position

By MARCUS STEAD

 

Something extraordinary is happening with the opinion polls. They are consistently showing that in the Labour heartlands, support for the party has halved in 2019 alone.

Across the country, support for the Conservatives has fallen a little, but not to anything like the extent as Labour.

 

There is no single beneficiary of the collapse in support for Labour. Some of those percentage points have gone to the Brexit Party, others to the Liberal Democrats, and the smaller parties have benefited to an extent as well.

Under the ‘first past the post’ system, this makes the outcome very difficult to predict in many seats.

 

In this week’s podcast, Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins try to make sense of the polls.

The podcast is available on the Talk Podcasts website, also available on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify and the TuneIn app.

 

A2 Milk exits UK market

By MARCUS STEAD

 

A BRAND of milk popular with people experiencing digestive problems is being withdrawn from the UK after seven years due to market conditions.

A2 milk began appearing on supermarket shelves in the UK and Ireland in 2012, initially as a joint venture between The a2 Milk Company and major British milk supplier Müller Wiseman Dairies, but in January 2014 the company acquired MWD’s stake for a ‘nominal’ amount.

The a2 Milk Company became hugely successful in New Zealand after difficult beginnings in the early-mid 2000s.

In its first year in Britain and Ireland, the company recorded £1 million in sales through 1,000 stores, and in 2014 it reported that it had 20 dedicated farms supplying milk for processing in the UK.

A2 milk is available as both whole and semi-skimmed, and is sold at a premium price of around £1.40 per litre carton, around 37% dearer than conventional milk.

Until last month, A2 milk was widely available in Asda and Morrisons supermarkets. It remains on the shelves in some Sainsburys and Waitrose stores, and can also be bought via online supermarket Ocado, who will continue to stock it until the company withdraws from the UK market at the end of November.

The company, which is now also active in Australia, the USA and China, selects cows that produce only the A2 protein by carrying out a simple DNA test on new-born calves using hair follicles.

The cows are then separated from the rest of the herd to ensure no cross-contamination, and tests are carried out on the milk before it is packaged.

In the USA, The a2 Milk Company frequently advertises on TV, but in the UK, awareness of the product spread mainly through word of mouth,  via glowing online reviews, and in 2018 its taste was approved by the Good Housekeeping Institute.

The company says that originally cows’ milk only contained the A2 beta casein protein type, but following the domestication of cows, the A1 protein type emerged and spread through modern farming methods. Today, conventional cows’ milk contains a mix of A1 and A2 protein types.

Research carried out by the company concluded that the presence of the A1 protein is what makes milk difficult to digest for some people, including many who think they have lactose intolerance.

The study claims that when A1 proteins are broken down in the gut, they form a protein fragment called BCM-7, triggering inflammation and symptoms like bloating and abdominal pain.

However, the claims are controversial, and in 2018, Greg Miller, the chief science officer of the USA’s National Dairy Council said: “It’s just a theory at this point in time. There is no science that says that there’s any value in this A2 protein relative to conventional milk.

“The two studies that were done were with small number of subjects and looked at variables that don’t give us the answer we need to be able to tell whether or not this is really true.”

Because A2 milk is still 100% milk, it still contains lactose (milk sugar) and milk proteins, so those with a true lactose intolerance may not tolerate it any better than regular milk.

37 of 53 reviews on Ocado’s website gave A2 milk five stars. ‘joeavant’ backed up the company’s own research that suggests the product can help some who think they have a lactose intolerance: “Spent 7 years thinking I was lactose intolerant. Came across this on a program [sic] and thought I would give it a try…and never looked back since. So im [sic] not lactose intolerant at all, just dont [sic] get on with A1 protein milk.”

On the Morrisons website, ‘CBL’ gave A2 milk five stars, saying: “I was skeptical [sic] about this milk, but gave it a go. Myself and my kids have intolerances. We noticed the difference almost immediately, the little ones didn’t even realise I changed the milk as it tastes just like normal milk if not better. Highly recommended for anyone who has dairy sensitivities.”
The product began to disappear from supermarket shelves around early September. A company spokesperson said: “The a2 Milk Company made the difficult decision to discontinue A2 milk in the UK following a strategic review. The category conditions meant that developing a scalable premium priced fresh milk proposition was increasingly challenging.”

The company stressed its commitment to honouring its relationships with UK farmers, and their cows will continue to produce milk that will be combined with other cows’ milk when collected and processed, meaning it can no longer be considered pure A2 milk.

No other companies in the UK currently produce a milk that only contains the A2 beta casein protein type.

The a2 Milk Company spokesperson said: “The US is one of the largest consumer economies in the world with the largest liquid milk market globally.

“We have opted to prioritise our investment and focus on the markets with the greatest growth potential, and that is the US and our other key market, Greater China.”

Twenty Minute Topic Episode 20: Nigel Farage – Asset or Liability?

By MARCUS STEAD

 

Nigel Farage

Nigel Farage launched the Brexit Party’s election campaign on Friday of last week. He stated that if Boris Johnson didn’t ditch the deal he negotiated with the EU, the Brexit Party could stand in every seat in the country.

Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins both had dealings with Nigel Farage during his days as a senior figure in UKIP. Marcus and Greg explain why Mr Farage’s actions last week risk splitting the pro-Brexit vote, thereby allowing anti-Brexit candidates to win seats, and they also explain how this is by no means the first time Mr Farage has put his own ego before the national interest.

The podcast is available on the Talk Podcasts website, iTunes, Spotify, the TuneIn app and Google Podcasts.