On the topic of still being British...

It has drawn to a close. The IndyRef battle has been won and whether or not you agree with the result, the people of Scotland have shown that we are the best nation on Earth. I will be honest, I celebrated today but that does not mean I am anti-independence. In the end I was moved from the "No" camp to the "Maybe" camp by "Yes" voters and my current stance on the matter is "Yes, Scotland could be independent... just not yet.".

If Salmond had waited, thought out a rough plan that wasn't theoretical and not been Alex Salmond, why not, independence would be great but that is just me. Then again, my opinion doesn't matter - I was born in Scotland and my family are Scottish but we had to move just before I started school and despite my passion and my willingness to have my voice heard, it never was and so it is irrelevant. I am only here to offer condolence to those who are disappointed.

My town is a Tory town in rural Leicestershire, the residents have voted Conservative for a century. Our Working Men's Club is now a private school and we are so depleted in terms of left-wing seats that my Dad has considered taking on the role himself for the sake of a fair vote. Talk about not getting who you vote for, it amazes me that my parents even bother. It amazes me that I bother. Yet here I am and I can safely say that even Tories are sick of the Tory government. I had my friend, who is as Conservative as they come, willing to join me on a march against NHS privatisation. I have friends who have had the Daily Mail on their kitchen table their whole lives who are likely to vote Labour or even Green in the next election. Confidence in David Cameron's government is dying out here (in a Tory safe haven) just like Scotland. England is sick and ENGLAND WANTS CHANGE.

A reoccurring theme on today's social media has been "Scotland has lost its bravery". THIS IS NOT THE CASE. If anything, Scotland has just chosen the difficult road. It would be cowardice to simply turn our back on so many who are suffering across the rest of the U.K under the Conservative's iron rule, wipe our hands of our debts and walk away. We have chosen to stay together and Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland CAN bring Westminster to its knees. If Scotland could almost do it on their own, imagine what can be done as a union! Millions upon millions of people all standing up together to fight against Thatcher's legacy. It is Scotland that has started this off, it is Scotland that has given Britain its voice and it is Scotland that will make a change. If that isn't bravery, I do not know what is.

Scotland had its highest voting turn-out in history yesterday. Use that to your strength. Come next May, go to your ballot station and vote for the left. Do everything in your power to make your voices heard because they can no longer be ignored. Farage is terrified, he wants English consolation and why? Because Scotland has stood up to be counted more so than ever and each new voice is a voice against him. It isn't England who are the opponents, it is the right and we already have them on their knees.

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Can 200,000 signatures be ignored?

Well - crack out the champaign and raise a glass to No More Page Three. As of today, the campaign that I have been a supporter of for over a year, has reached 200,000 signatures. This is a huge achievement for NMP3 and for British feminism. Despite being nowhere near the Sun's estimated audience, this is a huge amount of people standing up against the paper's most well-known segment.

When I promoted the campaign earlier this week, a Twitter user who is campaigning against the illegalisation of pornography sent me a link to an article about how NMP3, although gaining support, is expanding very slowly and it isn't worth our time. I don't think this is true, after all, every little helps.

In an age where videos of cats get millions of views overnight, it is of course (in theory) very easy to get such a campaign up and moving quickly. But we forget that this is a feminist campaign against the biggest tabloid newspaper in the country. News Corp have been able to get away with brushing away allegations made against them for years. Look at the amount of time it took for the News Of The World scandal to unfold and look how it panned out. At this very moment, Rebekah Brooks is a free woman regardless of her dubious "innocence". Justice does not concern Murdoch or his media empire, they continue to be the biggest in Britain regardless of the Leveson Enquiry and they continue to carry on giving the public news via unethical and corrupt methods. Feminism isn't an easy issue to bring forward to such a corporation either. The media is dominated by male figures and we still live in an age where dominant female figures' efforts are still undermined by how they look. The unruly woman is a huge part of our media and culture. Look at female journalists and broadcasters. Mary Beard, although an accomplished historian and presenter receives huge amounts of hate because of the way she looks. Laurie Penny is demonised  for reclaiming words such as "queer" and "slut" as well as for supporting sex workers rights and standing up against patriarchy through left-wing methods. Charlotte Smith was axed from Countryfile for being "too old" despite being 45 at the time. No matter how loud feminists shout, these issues remain unaddressed and we are just told to deal with it.

Bearing this in mind, NMP3 has been a huge success. A large number of universities around the country that have now boycotted the Sun from their campus after they staged votes on the matter. Although, in some people's opinion, the NMP3 campaign lacks backing, former page 3 models as well as leading feminist figures have shown their support for it and it is now a large voice in the feminist movement. I think the campaign can't be ignored because it has been acknowledged by the Sun newspaper. There is no doubt that the Sun's "Check 'em Tuesday" segment has been influenced by the fall in support for page 3. 200,000 supporters is a huge amount and will continue to grow and become more and more influential. If you haven't yet signed the campaign, I urge you to as it is free and a very good cause.

Sign the petition here: http://chn.ge/1sQ5PjU
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"Shit, I am a feminist!"

At the age of roughly 14 I became aware of Marxism. It was my Dad who taught me about it and it is a huge part of my personal beliefs about what the world should be like. I have spent my time since then within the left field of political thinking with my ideals of the world maturing and changing as I am exposed to more and more stories about the planet on which we live. Over the next three years, no doubt, those opinions and beliefs will be refined more and will continue to be so for the rest of my life. My Dad had always told me about equality within class and how the worker is oppressed by capitalism, I then took that viewpoint further when I started to form opinions based on issues regarding race and how white supremacy was still an active and dangerous part of our culture.

The biggest shift for me happened roughly a year ago when I came across two twitter accounts, the first being: @NoMorePage3 which as you'd expect, is a campaign to stop the objectification of women in tabloid newspapers and magazines such as the Sun. Although I knew about misrepresentation of women in the media and I was outraged by it, I didn't really think that it was something I could change. To find something that today is actually having a huge influence on the media industry and be part of a community of just under 200,000 people  who have signed the petition (as of 16/07/14) is an amazing thing. The second account was that of Laurie Penny who is a journalist, author and the contributing editor of the New Statesman. When I read Penny's work, I completely agreed with what she was saying about women and how they are treated by the world we live in. I watched her lectures and was amazed at how much she was speaking to me. Eventually, I finished a YouTube video of Laurie Penny talking at Oxford and thought "Shit, I am a feminist!".

As a girl who wants to enter the media industry, I feel it is important to understand it. I just went on a tour of MediaCityUK yesterday and also went to the tour around the BBC in London with school earlier this year. I travelled to Goldsmith College from Leicestershire after school one day last month to she both Laurie Penny and the No More Page Three Campaign talk about sexism in the media. I buy myself papers, watch the news, read books, anything I can to understand what the world I live in does and why it does it. At this point in my life, I want to consume as much knowledge about the world around me as I possibly can so that I can grow up to be a cultured individual that is breaking the mould of modern living. The reason I think Media Studies is such an important subject is because it lets me do that and as my Media teacher said to me recently, you can't do Media Studies and not be a feminist. 

When I first realised that I was a feminist I was confused because feminists were loud mouthed, militant women who didn't shave their armpits and hated men. Now I have friends who call me militant and at times I can shout about my point of view for hours but I didn't and still don't associate myself with that stereotype of "the feminist". I certainly don't hate men, a lot of my friends are men, I have a loving boyfriend, I am in a class where, apart from me, every member of it is a man. Currently I am reading Unspeakable Things by Laurie Penny and even one chapter in, the book is one of the most influential and important texts I have ever read. In the book she talks about how you don't need to be that stereotype, you don't need to not shave, not wear make up, not wear deodorant because with feminism comes individualism and we all have the right to be who want to be and believe what we want to believe.

I was inspired to write this after reading something a friend on Facebook said about the feminist movement. She was saying how we don't need feminism in this country and instead of British and American feminists focusing on equal pay and getting stuff handed to us on a plate, we should focus on "a country like India... when you get stoned to death because you didn't marry who your family wanted to.". Yes, the feminist movement does focus of Asian countries "like India" - only days ago the whole feminist movement celebrated  the first ever Malala Day (July 12th) which honours Malala Yousafzai who was shot in the head last year after she stood up against the Taliban for her right for an education in Pakistan. Having made a full recovery, Malala (now 17) is a key feminist figure with a worldwide best selling book about her experiences. Yes, women in middle-eastern culture do face worse problems than those in western culture but that's not to say that the issues aren't universal.

Forced marriage and female genital mutilation are huge issues abroad but they are hugely prominent in the U.K too. Equally, workers rights and gender stereotypes are huge issues abroad. The reason we don't see it abroad (ie: on the news and in newspapers) is because we don't see it here. Patriarchal media forbids coverage of such nature being the greedy, capitalist industry it is. Universally, all of these problems exist and the feminist movement is fighting all of them. If you come across a feminist who believes feminist issues are more important in the U.K than abroad, that is not a feminist, that is an elitist and a racist. The feminist movement is essentially a socialist one - as Laurie Penny says: "Socialism without feminism, after all, is no socialism worth having.".

The feminist movement is a collection of ALL WOMEN standing up to be counted. Just because you are a white girl of privilege doesn't mean you can't be outraged by the world we live in. Feminism isn't a hate movement that is necessarily militant. It isn't about men, it is about culture. Feminism is standing up for what is right.

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Tories, they just can't get it right.

God it has been a week. First we found out that the is a possible cover up of child abuse claims by the Conservative party as over 100 files go missing from the home secretary. Then we find that Thatcher possibly knew of the cover up and actually helped to keep the claims out of the public eye. Last week was not a good week for the Tories. Less than a year before the next general election, the curtain is being pulled on the corrupt actions of the party during the 80s and 90s. This was starting to die down as we entered a new week of current affairs but has heated up again after Cameron has announced a huge cabinet shuffle this evening which has seen William Hague moved out of his job as foreign secretary. The government claim that the shuffle is to give the election campaign an extra boost in order to give the Tories the best shot at making us sit through another four year of facepalming. Many believe that Cameron knows the party will be faced with some tough questions in the next few months and wants to rid himself of any old Tories as possible to give once again the lean look which contributed to his win in 2010.

To do this, Cameron is rumoured to be adding a lot more women to the cabinet. Not because he wants to but because he "needs" to in order to attract voters. Young female Tories have always excited to British public. Although not necessarily young, Thatcher both thrilled and scared voters when she first rose to power and arguably did so throughout her reign. In Scotland, where to vote Conservative (to some) is like an act of treason, Ruth Davidson (leader of the Scottish Conservatives) is becoming more and more popular down to her "dynamic" political style in promoting the advantages of a union (so the New Statesman says). You could say, the public crave a strong female political figure. In Tory logic it also shuts the feminists up. This then, from a Conservative's point of view is a good thing - put women in power, stop the feminists from moaning and get votes from the public. NOPE.

I actually find it offensive that women are being shoved in the cabinet in favour of men just because they are women. We shouldn't live in a world where you get jobs on what sex you are, we should get jobs depending on whether we are the right candidate and that decision should be made in an unbiased and just way. Personally, if David Cameron was offering me a job in his cabinet at this time because I have boobs I would tell him to shove it. Female MPs shouldn't be used as pawns in order to win an election and then be discarded.

When I heard of the cabinet shift, I prayed that Gove had been sacked yet, alas, no joy. Despite making education a misery both for students and teacher and failing to improve grades significantly in the process, Mikey is still in a job and I must go on with my suffering as he sucks individuality and self-expression out of education (thank goodness I am coming out of the other end of it!). Everyday Gove stays in his job, the more the Tories prove they are out of tough with the public. It isn't teacher's fault strikes happen, it is his. My Mother cared deeply for her students and was sad to leave them but he drove her out of the profession and will do the same for thousands more.

On the bright side, women can now be bishops. Hooray for women!

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Thank you NHS!

Just a quick note - I have just got off the phone to my Gran who had to go in for bloody tests today at Ayr Hospital. She's been under the weather and they have been taking precautions in case something is the matter. When I spoke to her today she was so happy, it was like a weight had been lifted off of her and that once again she was the happy and chatty Gran I know and love. She said this was down to the wonderful service she received at the hospital and how they went out of their way to make her comfortable and stop her from being so worried. She was told it was likely nothing serious and came away feeling a lot happier. Just talking to her raised my mood so much and now I can't wait to see her in a few weeks when we go up to Scotland on holiday. Afterwards I spoke to Grandpa who again was astounded by the service they had received. Eventually, I said to him: "God bless the NHS!" and he couldn't agree more.

In my own experiences, I am currently receiving counselling for anxiety which I have developed through various events in my life. I was referred to counselling by my GP and am receiving it through the NHS. After my first session, I went on Twitter and saw the NHA Party's tweets. This got me thinking - what if this wasn't here? Although I can (to an extent) control how anxious I feel, there are times it gets too much and I go into huge panics which have caused me to take days off school and become very very tired. I am going through a bad spell at the minute which is why I haven't been posting all that regularly. Without the help I am currently getting (for free), I would be a wreck and it makes me sad that in places around the world (like America) where people either have to go without or pay horrible prices to receive it.

What is awful is that the NHS is facing privatisation and the Tories are wanting to start charging us "small sums" to use the service in order to relieve waiting lists. To me, the NHS is the only thing the people have left in this country and we should do everything in our power to keep it that way. This is why I am participating in the People's March for the NHS as it comes through my town on September 1st. I urge all those who want the NHS to stay in our hands to do the same.

#march4nhs

Click here to go to 999 Call for the NHS's website and sign up for the march.

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Bannockburn is not relevant?

1314 is a date that has rung through the Scottish media with great volume over the past few years. Being the year of Bannockburn, the date has a huge amount of significance to Scotland as we beat the English against the odds sending them homeward to think again. 700 years on, Scotland faces a new battle with England, the battle for independence.

Many see what Salmond is doing. It is clear that he deliberately chose 2014 as the year of the referendum because of Bannockburn in order to obtain as many "yes" votes as possible. He hopes to rouse up the Scots with ancient jingoism and delusional patriotism. The idea of 'fighting for freedom' will appeal to many Scottish citizens who have a chip on their shoulder about how the "English" have oppressed and exploited them throughout history although the idea that the English hate the Scottish is yet another misconception. In fact, living in England and being being Scottish by birth and by ancestry, I see a lot more hatred being subjected from Scotland's court than England's.

"Nationalist" Scots confuse the English for the Tories, which is of course is a ridiculous and xenophobic statement to make. Yes, Thatcher fucked Scotland right over and the reason Scotland faces so many of the problems it does is down to her and her elitist government but she also fucked over Wales and everywhere north of Leicester. A lot of Scotland's hatred is based on the assumption that all English people voted for Thatcher and compliment her policies. This is not true in the slightest. It is probably an accurate statement that without Scotland in the Union, Labour will face real difficulty gaining power in U.K Government but that's not to say that austerity hating, worker loving people don't exist in England. It's very far from the truth. The SNP are not turning on their enemy, rather the opposite, they are turning on a true ally.

Back to Bannockburn. People were outraged that Armed Forces Day was on the same day as the Bannockburn celebrations and claimed the clash had an underlying agenda. Not the case. There has been no mention of Bannockburn in England (in fact if ashamed to say that it would have gone straight over my head if I hadn't been told by my Gran), as far as I know it isn't on David Cameron's radar at all. This is a sting but extinguished the idea of agenda on the Conservatives' part. This is because a battle 700 years ago is irrelevant to today's society.

Yes, it is Scotland's heritage but honestly, how many of us actually can safely say that 700 years ago their ancestor actually fought against Edward? I know that I can't. Just over 100 years ago, the majority of my family were living in Ireland. I also have descendants from Northern Europe. I know that really, my ancestors probably didn't fight at Bannockburn and would say that most Scots are the same. Also this is ancient Scotland we are talking about. The Scotland fought over in 1314 is in no way the Scotland we see now. We cannot take political and cultural inspiration from something that happened close to a millennium ago. Take the American constitution, although Republicans frequently tell us that 'the constitution states I have a right to _____ because of the _____ amendment' (written in 1787), it is a document that is becoming increasingly irrelevant to many of its citizens as the America of the founding fathers is no longer the America we have today. This is a document that until 1918 didn't allow women to vote in America - it is obviously obsolete and out of touch with the modern world.This is a way of thinking that is almost 500 years younger than Bannockburn yet we are told to believe that it is our destiny to take it further. 

The Scots that fought at Bannockburn are not the Scots that will vote this September in terms of politics and culture. This was in the days of feudal society and clans. Today, Scotland is a place of materialism and class. Your surname is of no more importance in terms of status than the kind of toilet roll you buy. We are not Ancient Scotland, we are Modern Scotland. The Scotland that Robert the Bruce fought for no longer exists so why take influence from it when September comes? 

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We Know Too Much: Is Information Overload a Challenge to Society? - My enrichment week essay.

Right from the word “go” we receive information, whether through our phones, computers, T.Vs, radio or word of mouth. Information and news dictates modern life. Without a phone or computer, you are almost non-existent. If there is a catastrophic event on one side of the world, the other will know about it within minutes and, no doubt, its T.V viewing for the night (maybe even a few nights) will be dominated by that event until it is quickly neglected in favour of a new one. This information is becoming more and more dense too - we want it quickly and concisely. Over the past few years we have seen the popularity of the “i” newspaper (a concentrated version of the Independent) grow and grow as we become more and more reliant on short bursts of information. Despite this, the newspaper industry is shrinking because it doesn’t meet the audiences’ preferences. A study made by the Newspaper Association of America on American’s habits when it came to receiving news found that 137 million Americans currently read newspapers in a typical week which is just over 40% of the population. This is pretty small considering that the same study saw that 145 million also read their news online and last year 43 million accessed online content through their phone or tablet. In 2012 alone, the mobile audience in America grew by 27%. 53% of newspaper readers in America are said to have Twitter accounts and 77% of those will follow links to news stories from there.

Online access has been a revolution in the way we receive news and information about the world around us. Where “trends” are constantly changing and where our attention is constantly drawn to something newer and brighter. This is partly blamed on the younger generation and its change in taste. Take the IPhone. My brother (14) inherited my IPhone 3GS (3rd IPhone) when I renewed my contract. It was good but not great. All of his friends had at least a 4S (because of their middle class affluence and spoilt nature) and he felt outdated. He recently was able to twist my parents’ arm into getting a 5C on a 20-something pound a month contract which amazed me considering I had a Samsung Monte at his age. This is also interesting considering the age gap between my brother and I is only 3 years.  I remember when the IPhone was first released (2008) - it was “the dream phone” that I, a little younger than my brother is, could only dream of having. I remember the madness that was ‘Angry Birds’ and ‘Doodle Jump’. Six years later, I see kids around the same age as I was in 2008 (and younger) wandering around clutching an IPhone in their hand. In those six years there have been eight reincarnations of the phone and the first IPhone is seen as a primitive piece of machinery not worth anyone’s time.

Social media websites are constantly having to change too. I missed the MySpace phenomenon as most people my age did but I did witness sites like Bebo, which was at its height of popularity when I had just turned 11 and started secondary school. By my 12th birthday, Bebo was more or less obsolete, Facebook had taken over completely. By this point MySpace was almost completely dead as more and more people turned to Facebook to network with their friends. It is now just over five years since I got a Facebook account and I can safely say that I can count the number of “statuses” I have written this year on one hand. Twitter on the other hand - n roughly a month, I have “tweeted” at least 100 times on my account and many will have probably tweeted more. Half a decade on from when Facebook dominated the life of every school kid in the Western World, it has been replaced by a more concise and attractive successor (Twitter). As Kate Rose puts it, “Facebook is: ‘no longer “cool” for the younger generation - and probably hasn’t been for a couple of years at least.”. We love change, although Twitter is not yet as “popular” as Facebook,  it is set to be. What people described as “the death of MySpace” five years ago is what people are describing Facebook as today. A year ago, Facebook had roughly 1.5 million more users than it does currently whereas Twitter has grown from 10 million users in 2012 to 15 million this year. Personally, I would not be surprised if my nine year old cousin looked at Facebook in a couple of years like I look at MySpace and Bebo. Maybe by that time Twitter will be dying. Who knows?

In the world we live in, if there is a shinier, newer version of something, that something is shunted to the side. This isn’t a new thing either. Recently there was a FineBros video released on YouTube where they got America children to get a Walkman cassette player to work and almost all of them failed. This is something that most adults would find to be second nature. I watched the video confused, how can people only a few years younger than me find something so difficult that I find so simple. Although Walkmans were no longer something of everyday practice in my childhood, I remember the days of listening to my brand new Busted CD on my super cool portable CD player - in the days before IPods were the obvious choice of music player.

What I am trying to say is that we are constantly being forced to adapt. Facebook was a revolution - we could constantly keep in touch with everyone we knew wherever we were. Twitter came along and, all of a sudden, you could follow celebrities and T.V shows and news channels (as well as your friends) and contact them all.   By using Twitter, you were no longer limited to your friends’ information, you had access to the worlds’. We have such an obsession with “following” people that we follow on average 2000 people on the social network. Realistically, the average Twitter user cannot take in everything those 2000 people are telling them about  but still we follow more and more people as we tweet more and more things and receive more and more followers in return. When you think about it, the whole process is actually pretty sinister. It seems that rather than us controlling this information (choosing when receive it and what to do with it), the information is controlling us. Most of us have to log on to the internet daily (if not more frequently) and then bombarded with notifications and trends which we HAVE respond to before carrying on with our lives. It is an information overload.

So what damage does it do? On the face of it, nothing at all. The ideals  of the internet was that we now had the ultimate resource that would link the world together and obviously social media websites prove that that (to an extent) is the case. This year the World Wide Web reached its 25th year yet only 34% of the global population have access to it. So that ideal of connecting the world hasn’t really succeeded. We have succeeded in linking the Western World which is ridiculously wealthy and fortunate but have also succeeded in ostracising “developing countries” with our rapid with our rapid technological advances. Arguably, rather than bringing the world together, the internet has pushed the world apart. The “developed” world and the “developing” world are probably further away from each other than they ever have been.

As a resource, the internet has been incredible tool that has helped commercialise and capitalise the Western World as well as educate us and enrich us. Not only do we have sites link Wikipedia and Google which act as a means of obtaining information, we also have sites that offer us games and cat videos which by themselves are a nice form of entertainment but together they have had a considerable effect on society. As we turn to technology, traditional forms of entertainment are again pushed to one side. As we saw with the newspaper earlier in this essay, the book is also a dying art. A study in 2012 saw that 17% of children in Britain would be embarrassed if their friends saw them with a book. A more accurate comment to the statistic above is that children would be embarrassed to be seen with a paperback. These children less than ten years younger than the generation of kids that queued to buy the Harry Potter novels on the day of release and read it with their sponge and custard at lunchtime. I will hold my hands up and say that I am probably contributing to the death of the paperback as I am the proud owner of a Kindle and in some cases I prefer the e-book to its predecessor. The truth is, many people find the size of a tradition paperback, in the world of streamline laptops, phones and tablets, a nuisance. Children find a tablet more desirable because, yes you can read on it if you want to but you can also play games and socialise and an IPad is probably  a lot better looking than a copy of ‘Order of the Phoenix’. Despite this, what child is going to choose a book over Clash of Clans or Candy Crush? Less and less people are turning away from the monochrome world of words on a page and going towards the world of animation, colour and graphics. Does this mean that the great works i.e: Shakespeare, Dickens and Austen will soon be forgotten?

It doesn’t help that the internet is so vulnerable. Just last month we were faced with a huge moral panic about how a huge virus was going to hit 1 million machines worldwide and potentially clear their bank accounts. This has been a threat that we have faced since the internet began. Probably the biggest panic was caused by the turn of the new millenium which was blown completely out of proportion by the media around the world. Most of this was caused by either malicious hackers or by faults in the engineering of the system but last year we were faced the reality of government monitoring. After Edward Snowden leaked evidence of American institutes such as the NSA spying on millions of us via websites such as Facebook and Google, there was a huge outcry about the world’s privacy and what that actually means. Some consider Snowden a hero and others consider him a traitor although he considers himself to be “neither traitor or hero. I’m an American.”. He is currently seeking asylum in Russia as many members of American government believe he should be tried for treason if he returns to America. Many people were outraged by the NSA’s Orwellian methods including Tim Berners-Lee (the inventor of the World Wide Web) who said that their actions were an “intrusion of basic human rights that threatens the very foundations of democratic society.”. Many said that the NSA’s surveillance goes beyond George Orwell’s imagination when he wrote ‘1984’. It is incredibly unnerving that the American government may be reading this essay right now (I am writing on Google Drive so I wouldn’t be surprised). A lot of Snowden’s revelations have led to the discussion of internet censorship. Many see this as (again) another step towards the dystopia that Orwell described in ‘1984’. Earlier this year, David Cameron announced a “porn filter” which he plans to start inforcing through British broadband. Although porn is a problem on the internet with much of it being degrading to the participants and illegal, the idea of not watching it being an “unavoidable choice” is startling. How long before the same technology is used for other means? How long is it before a fairly innocent porn filter from a centre-right government turns into a mirror image of North Korea. Yes, that is a very extreme exaggeration but it is a serious issue.

So again, I ask the question is this damaging? Yes, although it is informing and enhancing our lives in many ways, that information is potentially being monitored and censored. Although we can apparently find anyone on the internet, ⅔ of the global population are yet to log on. I do not believe that Tim Berners-Lee imagined anything close to the tool that we take for granted everyday when he developed the World Wide Web and he has shown that he finds censorship and surveillance to be wrong and an intrusion of privacy. In the two and a half decades we have had internet access we have paid so little attention to how it is run and the effect it is having on society that now we face huge challenges. On the face of it, the internet and all things associated with it is an incredible resource but when you scratch beneath the surface you uncover some dark truths.

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Scotland, listen to Hillary.

I don't like America. They're greedy, warmongering capitalists who will do anything to dominate the world whatever the cost. At least that is what it used to be like. Since Obama came into power, becoming the first black President of the United States, and we saw a change come to America. Obama has been a huge contrast to the Republican government that preceded him. Led by George W Bush, America invaded a middle eastern nation for no real reason and have yet to apologise for their actions. He took us to war in Afghanistan and is one of the leading figures in the huge rise in Islamophobia in the past ten years (of course Blair doesn't get off unscaved). Under Obama, America is set to leave Afghanistan next year, has legalised gay marriage in various states and is set to roll out free health care across the country. This, to Republican's despair, has caused America's reputation as the GLOBAL SUPERPOWER to fall by the wayside a little and America now has a softer look on the world.

This week parts of Iraq were invaded by Islamists who have taken control of the countries second largest city, Mosul. Since then, eyes have been on America (who invaded Iraq and started a war to "liberate" the Iraqi people from an Islamist dictatorship) to see whether or not they would take military action against the terrorist group. Obama made a statement yesterday telling the world that American troops will not be entering Iraq as he felt that this was a conflict that had to be sorted amongst themselves. I sighed a sigh of relief when I watched him make his statement and thought about how different it could have been if Romney had been elected in his place in the last election.

On Thursday's Newsnight, Hillary Clinton took part in a 20 minute interview with Jeremy Paxman where she discussed the situation in Iraq and whether or not she will run for President in the next election. At a point in the interview, Paxman brought up the issue of Scottish Independence, to this she said she was against the idea of it. Naturally, she took J K Rowling's

place as the SNP's most hated woman of the week but surely her statement is sending alarm bells ringing throughout the whole of the SNP's agenda.



Clinton is arguably the most powerful woman in the world, she was in charge of foreign policy in America for four years - she knows her stuff! To me, the only politicians in the world who think independence is a good idea is the SNP. It seems to be becoming more and more apparent that the SNP's manifesto is a clumsy one based on grudges rather than politics. More and more great powers are saying this is a bad idea, why not listen?

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"The Sun is an unashamedly positive celebration of Englishness"

Ed Miliband has apologised for any offence caused by a picture released of him with a free copy of the Sun Newspaper. The picture was viewed as controversial because the Sun is #1 a right-leaning newspaper and #2 because many Labour supporters condemn the paper for its involvement in the Hillsborough disaster coverage. As a Labour member, I was slightly disgruntled to see Mr Miliband appearing with my most hated paper (yes, more than the Daily Mail) but I was more annoyed with the statement made by the Sun in response to the event.

The issue in question is the free copy of the Sun released to celebrate England's participation in Brazil's World Cup. The issue was described by the Sun as being:

"An unashamedly positive celebration of Englishness" 

which made me rock my head in a disapproving manner. As a Scottish/British who has lived in England for most of my life, I have a very balanced view (I like to think) on the England vs Scotland rivalry. This is the main reason I support 'Better Together' and condemn the SNP and why I really hate Thatcher and the England football team. To me, the patriotic England issue (which all three of the main parties' leaders were photographed with) was in bad taste considering we are less than 100 days away from the Scottish Referendum. 

Here is why:

When I said I hated the England football team, I didn't mean the likes of the 11 players who kick the ball around and disappoint everyone every four years by being utterly CRAP. These are the men my brother has looked up to since he was 6 years old and, for a time, I did too. What I mean is THE FANS. English "yob" football culture is one of the most exhausting things I have ever witnessed. The drunken bias and bitterness that seeps from football fans every 2 years (counting the Euro) is just not necessary. I was at Soccer Aid on Sunday and the hatred towards Edgar Davids after he fouled Johnny Wilkes was disgusting - it actually ruined the game for me. He was booed every time he touched the ball and, to be honest, that is not what a charity event for Unicef should be about. If it had happened the other way round, most certainly the England fans would have been silent. It isn't just me who is irritated by this, and no doubt many more find it more irritating than I do.

Considering the SNP are such an influence on the Scottish people and it is very plausible that Scotland will say "yes" to independence (which, as far as I know, is something the Government and EU does not want to happen), you would expect for English bias to be turned down a notch until September in the media. 

It is unfortunate that the World Cup and Scottish Referendum are months apart and I understand that the English do want to be patriotic - I know if Scotland were in the World Cup there would be ten times the party but Scotland leaving the U.K seems very likely to me and personally I think more needs to be done to turn people against it. If Scotland votes "no", which it is still probable that they will do, there will be a huge debate sparked about why Scotland is so unhappy within the United Kingdom and I believe that English bias in the media is one of the main problems.

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Leave JK Rowling alone.

98 days until the Scottish referendum, will it go ahead or won't it? Are we reaching our final days as the "Great Britain" we know and hold dear? Nobody knows. SNP stickers are popping up all over Twitter making it seem that the party had lots of support (although by that logic the rest of Twitter is against it) including celebrities and journalists (many of whom are not Scottish/ or live in Scotland). The "Better Together" campaign, less so on Twitter although they too have had a lot of support from onlooking celebrities.

One of the celebrities is writer J K Rowling who recently came out in support of the "No" campaign by giving them £1million. This has sparked outrage amongst SNP supporters who think she needs to shut up. Granted, Rowling is only 1/4 Scottish and so you could argue that her view is biased and invalid but she is a highly intelligent woman who has made millions through the Harry Potter franchise, a franchise that has brought happiness to millions all over the world. Despite her wealth, Rowling is a long running Labour Party supporter and regularly donates to charities and good causes. This is why SNP supporter's reactions sadden me deeply.

Throughout the day, many Scots have called J K Rowling a Tory which is unfair and completely wrong. As a Scottish person, I get deeply offended by generalisations made and satire found in the Scottish people -"Monopoly money" is a term I particularly hate. I do agree with the view that the English (overall) underestimate and undermine the Scottish (and Welsh) people subconsciously. The misconception that "English" and "British" are synonyms, the change in the media of Andy Murray being "British" or "Scottish" depending on whether or not he won the final of a competition or not. The undermining of Scottish sport in general. I get it and I hate it. Despite this, I am not a suspect of using double standards. Just because Scots are met with prejudice by some of the English doesn't mean we should subject the English to the same kind of prejudices. Just because Rowling is English does not mean she is a Conservative. Just because she dares have an opinion does not mean she is a bitch or any less of a successful human being.

People are rich and sometimes they give to needy causes. Yes, she could have given to food banks or to the poor but she didn't, she gave to the "No" campaign and in my opinion that money will go to good use. She is just as entitled to have a voice and an opinion as you or I - so let her. Just because Thatcher was a bitch doesn't mean that every successful woman in England is too!

Here is her statement.
Here is a selection of Scotland's finest political opinions.


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Mornings

Overall, last night I had maybe 2 hours sleep maximum. Eventually, my brain just decided the manic waking was to stop and just stayed awake at around 3:30am and it has remained like that to now. Being very scared of the dark and in need of a wee quite badly, I was confined to roughly an hour of discomfort before I convinced myself to get up and do stuff eg: reading, writing, go to the toilet etc and I decided to go and post a letter at around 6:30am which involved walking in the beauty that is this morning.

The point of this is: I stopped off at the park on the way back and realised, I have never been up that early and gone outside as far as I can remember and it was truly beautiful. It was a new perspective of the world and it was sort of what I needed. I was able to clear my head, calm down and think. As a lie-in lover, it was something that I wouldn't usually expose myself to and possibly won't do again in a long time.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is try something new, it helps.

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Shouldn't Louise Bours apologise too?

I am no fan of Joey Barton, he is a complete fool and he plays for QPR (which I'm still fuming about considering I was at Wembley last weekend supporting the Rams). Last night he featured on Question Time for the first time as a panellist along with Piers Morgan, Margaret Curran (Scottish Labour), David Willets (Conservatives) and Louise Bours (UKIP) to debate the new Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport.

Barton has been made to apologise for comments he made to newly elected MEP, Louise Bours on UKIP's success in the recent election. He said: 'If I'm somewhere and there was four really ugly girls, I'm thinking... well, she's not the worst - that's all you [UKIP] are.' which of course is not the best metaphor to be making to a female politician about her beloved party. Of course as the comment comes across as extremely sexist and was clearly offensive to Ms Bours, Barton should apologise for what he said but is Louise Bours getting away with her retaliation free of charge? To Barton's comment, Bours replied 'The ignorance here -it basically fulfils the mission that footballers' brains are in their feet.'. To me that is by far a more ignorant comment to be making as it plays on a horrible stereotype (UKIP's favourite thing) in order to demoralise and humiliate their rivals. 

My younger brother is 14, he started playing football at 6, was signed to a development academy at 7 and then was signed by his first professional academy at 10. I have grown up surrounded by the football industry and by the people in it and I can tell you now, footballers are not stupid. My brother has just finished his year 9 SATs and got top grades in all of them. He is way more academic than I was at my age and is set to do very well in his GCSEs, which he starts in September. He does all of this despite having to train 3 times a week and play a match on Sundays (one of his training sessions causes him to have to leave school at lunch and doesn't finish until 7pm). His grades are assessed by the academy and poor school performance does affect whether or not he is kept on in the academy the following year, fact. The academy run sessions where 'day-release' players (meaning they are out of school to train) have to do homework and my brother is expected to catch-up on the work he misses at school in his own time. Next year, he will be expected to miss a whole day of school and remain on top of his studies which he will do. Does that sound like someone who is stupid? The coaches, many of them being former academy players themselves, are mainly university educated or the equivalent and have a massive influence on the boy's attitude towards school. If my brother does not get a scholarship at 16 he will take A-Levels and will go to university. Footballers are not stupid. 

How come Barton is accused of ignorance yet Bours gross use of stereotypes is ignored?

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Gove's attack on American Literature.

He has done it again and this time he is attacking literature. This man cannot help but annoy the hell out of me. Gove has announced that 'To Kill A Mockingbird' and 'Of Mice and Men' will be taken off of the GCSE syllabus in favour of "fiction or drama written in the British Isles".

The new syllabus is set to feature:

• A Shakespeare play.
• A 19th Century novel.
• And a 20th Century novel.

All to be written by British writers.

Does American literature not matter? My GCSE English class were given 'Of Mice and Men' as an easy end to our course after we were told to compare Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' with Shakespeare's 'Othello' (near impossible) but we all absolutely loved it. From my knowledge of my school's way of teaching GCSE English is that the 'lower' ability groups will usually study 'Of Mice and Men', 'To Kill A Mocking Bird' or 'The Crucible' (also being booted off) because of it's apparent themes and easy to follow narrative. The stories in Steinbeck and Lee's books are very warming and are able to teach children about race and class and dreaming even though it is unlikely the dream will succeed. 'Of Mice and Men' introduced us to the cruelty of capitalism and in particular America. As a class we almost fell in love with Lennie, who is mentally disabled, and were heart broken when we read over his demise and the cruelty and injustice of it.

Although I have not read Harper Lee's classic, it is on my bookshelf and I'm set to read it soon now that my exams are out of the way. I know it centres round Atticus (a lawyer) and his two children, Scout and Jem and the troubles they get into when Atticus decides to represent a black man in a rape trial. Also the novel is written by a woman which is something that is already rare in the GCSE (and A-Level) syllabus that it is almost saddening. 

Each book/ play teaches us something as well as being able to capture the imaginations of those who read it. To me it seems more than suspicious that the Tory government want to get rid of books that teach us about prejudice and injustice in favour of British, 'stiff upper lip' literature. Children will be bored, teachers will be exhausted (because teachers cannot just pull resources for every text ever written out of their backside), less will take English onto A-Level. Big mistake.

What is your opinion on Mr Gove? Leave me a comment!

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So, the EU elections... let's talk UKIP!

Well after a few days of reflection, I can say that I am pretty happy with the result. (Ignoring UKIP for now) Labour gained 338 seats and the Greens 16 where as the coalition lost a total of 538 seats between them. Labour managed to take over what is usually easy Tory stomping ground and managed to claim 6 more councils than they did in the previous election. To me, that is a huge step forward for the left and something lefties should be proud of all over the country.

So onto "the UKIPs". UKIP did very very well for a protest party, obtaining 161 more EU seats. But let us not forget that before UKIP had 2 little seats and so although they did make HUGE gains in the election (second highest overall) they still only have 2/5 of the power the Lib Dems have and still came 4th overall. I can't help but wonder if the Green Party would get this kind of publicity if they did the same.

Since then, there has been all sorts of talking about what this means for next year's general election. We have been told that the result of Thursday's voting means that UKIP are now a strong contender next year and will probably do well; we have been told that the Lib Dems should 'prepare for the 2020 elections' and we have been told that the Tories are quaking in their boots. I read somewhere that many want Cameron out and Theresa May in (please no) and that Yvette Cooper could take Miliband's role if he fails to bring victory to the Labour Party. A lot have said Labour should have done a lot better and that they got cocky meaning UKIP were able to nab more than they should have and that Labour needs to up its game. The Daily Mail called Labour's victory a "savaging" for Labour (despite them having over 100 more seats than the Tories) because UKIP managed to get some bored Tories to vote for them.

UKIP are only successful because of the media. They have been given their platform and they have used it to their advantage. I was talking to a friend over Easter and he brought to my attention that actually, UKIP have no right to be where they are. If you look at the Green Party, they had 2 seats in EU parliament before Thursday compared to UKIP's 13 yet UKIP has been on our screens weekly whether it is the news, Question Time or The Sunday Politics yet the Greens haven't. Although there were 11 more seats in UKIP's favour they had nowhere near the same amount as 'the big three'. The public need to realise we are fuelling UKIP's success by retaliating to them. They are only as powerful as they are because the media make them so and because they know it will boost sales and ratings by having them there.

UKIP's success was not that much of an achievement. They have taken the place of the Green Party (who, from experience, UKIP see as a bit of a joke) in 4th place. That is good but U.K politics is mainly a two horse race with the occasional pawn shoved in to help gain power (cough, cough... Lib Dems) and those two horses will always be Labour and the Tories.

What did you think of the elections? Leave a comment!

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What percentage of MPs like a bit of tit?

The No More Page 3 campaign released information last night about the number of MPs in certain parties supported their campaign. The results are interesting.

Green Party

Labour Party

Lib Dems

Tories

Hmmmm... most of them were lower than I thought. Isn't it funny how UKIP aren't there? Here is the NMP3 campaign's website: http://nomorepage3.org/

What do you think? Leave a comment!

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Gender Inequality in Film

Thought that this website was really interesting!

http://www.nyfa.edu/film-school-blog/gender-inequality-in-film/

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#backfire...

My day has been lightened (although there is currently a storm brewing outside). Yesterday UKIP Harrowgate started up the #whyimvotingukip campaign again as a final push in morale before today's European elections. Over the course of Wednesday, UKIP supporters came out in their thousands raving about their lovely, immigrant-free, 100% British utopia which obviously got the hashtag trending and into the public eye. I don't think anyone really expected the retaliation.

When my friend on Facebook added a link to the hashtag's feed on his wall, I was sceptical as I thought it would be exactly what I've described above but no. There has been one of the biggest backfire I think I've ever seen on Twitter. There isn't even a piece of praise there any more... the whole hashtag has become a complete joke. Here are a few of my favourites:

#WhyImVotingUkip I don't want immigrants wearing turbans when they could be hiding Voldemort on the other side pic.twitter.com/CBZq4exV5a
— Saf (@SafChowdhury_) May 21, 2014

#WhyImVotingUkip because I am sick and tired of Meerkats coming over here comparing OUR indigenous British market. Send em all back!!
— Geek Cadet (@GeekCadet) May 22, 2014

#WhyImVotingUkip Because a group of hot Romanian men moved in next door and I haven't seen my boyfriend since.
— JBR (@JoshRochford) May 22, 2014

#WhyImVotingUkip because now its just me, my cat and my hamster at home and neither of them speak english, MARGINALISED IN MY OWN HOME
— Joe Gardener (@joegardenz) May 22, 2014

#WhyImVotingUkip because in year 5 my nan taped over my VCR recording of Pokemon with Brookside. #sendherback
— Lemarl Freckleton (@LemFreck) May 22, 2014

I sent this to my UKIP supporting friend and he responded trying to back it with "It was planned" "It gives them headlines" etc... but no, it wasn't. The campaign was restarted again by UKIP Harrogate's twitter feed which since then has mysteriously gone private. The whole thing is a massive backfire for UKIP. Although they are supposed to do really well in today's election, the British public do not want UKIP in power and on top of that the majority of us see UKIP as nothing more than a massive joke. As I say to people when I'm talking about the party and their many blunders: yes, UKIP want to be treated as seriously as the rest of the parties but with that they need to behave like the other parties. All politicians have things in their heads that would upset the public but most have the restraint to keep it there. Over the past year so many UKIP representatives have been suspended because the public (not the party) have been outraged by their comments - including Mr Farage earlier this week with his comment of Romanians which he put down to being him being tired. We don't get that from other parties because they know what is right and wrong to say in public.

Do everyone a favour. Take control of your country, vote for anyone but UKIP.

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Who have/are you voting for? Leave me a comment.

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The Grand Eagle Ball - best gig ever?

Those familiar with Laura Marling probably know that she did a gig in "The Grand Eagle Hotel" last year. This is a video that is on her website which shows the kind of things she was up to and I wish, wish, wish I had been there!

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Five women I am in awe of.

As a teenager who has been brought up on the internet, I've been surrounded by millions of voices trying to be heard and some of them have rubbed off on me. I'm at that radical phase in my life where I have something to say about anything and want to know everything and I don't think that will change. As two years ago I was introduced to the idea of Marxism, I have been plunged into the world of Feminism this year (in particular campaigns such as No More Page 3). With my growing love of women's rights, I have found myself becoming more and more influenced by the actions of women and their stories. Although I have a very long list of women who I find absolutely amazing this is my top 5:

Lauren Mayberry

Lauren Mayberry - The Chvrches singer is like me, a Glaswegian. Not only is she an amazing musician and "Mother We Share" never fails to send shivers down my spine but she is an amazing example of women fighting misogyny within social media. In September 2013 Mayberry wrote a feature for the Guardian on how she is treated on social networking sights. Along with the article she released a photo on the bands Facebook page of an example of what she is sent on a regular basis. She is showing the world that just because a woman is "cute" looking doesn't mean that anyone has the write to request "superior love".

Piper Kerman

Piper Kerman - Have you seen 'Orange Is The New Black'? No? Silly. The Netflix original is set in a  women's minimum security prison in New York state and follows the life of Piper Chapman, a middle class blonde after she is convicted of drug trafficking she did for her then girlfriend, Alex, after she is grassed up by said girlfriend who is also in the prison at the same time. The series is based on the true story of Piper Kerman who wrote about her experiences in her memoir of the same name. The story has been incredibly successful and has been highly praised for its inclusion of various women's issues such as: sex, transgender women, religion as well as others. Along with Jenji Kohan (the producer and creator of the show, also a woman), Kerman has been able to create a genuine feeling portrayal of what women go through when they are in prison with the message that we could all end up in prison some of us just choose the quicker route. The second season is due out on June 6th and they have recently got the go ahead for season 3.

Karen Gillan

Karen Gillan - Again, she is a fellow Scot, but oh my God... she is awesome. Never has there been a Doctor's companion as feisty and scary as Amelia Pond. I loved Amy, when she died - I cried like she was my best friend and maybe that makes me a sad little Whovian but I did and that is it. Last year she shaved her head for a role and kept it, only now is she beginning to let it grow back. She has been able to join the long list of Doctor Who companions and not become sexualised and keep her identity outside of it. Although I think there is a lot of Karen in Amy, Karen Gillan has been able to walk away from Doctor Who, like many before her, but then go on to much bigger things.

Laura Marling

Laura Marling - At the tender age of 24, Laura Marling already has four albums to her name (all of which have been nominated for the Mercury Prize) as well as a fifth on the way. As someone who loves sombre lyrics and beautiful guitar playing, Marling is like a Goddess to me. She writes what should be in poetry books and plays like it is the last time she'll ever do so. When I listen to Laura Marling, I get lost for hours at a time. As sombre in tone as her music is, it never fails to make me smile as it is so easy to relate to. She was heartbroken by Marcus Mumford and carried on making more and more beauty every time she plays. One of my favourite things to do of a warm evening is to just stare into the distance and reflect on "the life that I have led" and who I am and really clear my head. She is one of the finest treasures of modern music. 

Laurie Penny

Laurie Penny - If you're aware of female politics you probably know her very well and either love her or hate her. Penny is a journalist and editor of the New Statesman as well as being an avid socialist and feminist. In my exploration into feminism Penny is the person who stands out to me the most because she stands for so much of what I believe in. She is constantly hounded by trolls who terrorise her for her appearance and views yet she comes across as unphased. Having being hospitalised with anorexia in her teenage years as well as being a victim of rape and sexual abuse through out her career as a journalist, I find it truely amazing that she is still the powerful figure she is. Here is a video of her discussing feminism at Oxford University (also take note of the misogyny in the comments "because she is a woman"):

Of course, there are so many more amazing women who I could have written about and maybe this time next week it will be different. Over the past year I have realised that women are amazing and that we live in a society where misogyny is accepted - which needs to change. These women have liberated me in such ways that I am looking forward to womanhood and fighting for the rights of women across the world because it is what we deserve.

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If childhood gender roles were carried on into adulthood.

We all know it, children's advertising is a haven for misrepresentation of both sexes. As a child Barbie was shoved down my throat as the "toy I am supposed to like" although I always wanted an Action Man; pink was "my favourite colour" because I was a girl although I very much preferred green (because it was the colour of my favourite football team. Most recently, my friends (all female) and I were talking about the Kinder Easter eggs and how one was marketed at girls (with a Polly Pocket inside) and the other at boys (with a Batman figure) and all six of us said we'd take the Batman if we had the choice. This is a video highlighting the ridiculous nature of children's advertising by projecting them onto situations adults face in their everyday lives:

 

What do you think of gender-roles? Are they accurate? Leave a comment!

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