Terf wars

Who was the original Terf (trans-exclusionary radical feminist)?

– The practice of some women’s groups in excluding trans women began almost with the advent of trans women themselves. In 1978, the Lesbian Organisation of Toronto refused membership to a trans woman who identified as a lesbian – saying it would only accept ‘womyn born womyn’.

– The term ‘Terf’, however, dates only from 2008, when it was used in a blog post by feminist writer Viv Smythe in response to a ban on trans women attending the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival (a ban which had been in place since 1991).

– The festival, which had been going since 1976, was boycotted by some and was last held in 2015.

Tricks of the trades

Is trade unionism becoming the preserve of older workers? Percentage of workers who belong to a union by age:

16-24                                                         4%

25-34                                                     21%

35-49                                                     36%

50+                                                         40%

Source: Department for Business

Bread winners

It was reported that Rishi Sunak is seeking to do a deal with supermarkets whereby they would agree to limit the price of certain basic foodstuffs. Are supermarkets really profiteering at our expense? Profits for most recent complete year vs profit margin:

                               Profits               Margin

Tesco                £1.53bn             2.3%

Sainsbury’s         £562m             1.8%

Asda (UK)          £886m             4.3%

Lidl (UK)          £41.1m             0.5%

Aldi (UK)          £35.7m             0.3%

Oil and water

Sir Keir Starmer said Labour would stop issuing licences for new oil and gas extraction in the North Sea. How much oil and gas is there left?

– ‘Proven and probable’ resources: 4.4bn barrels of oil equivalent (boe).

– Contingent reserves in producing fields: 1.8bn boe.

– Contingent reserves in planned new developments: 1.8bn boe.

– In 2020, 570m boe were produced, and a further 270m boe of new reserves were discovered.

– To date, the North Sea has produced 45.9bn boe.

Source: Oil and Gas Authority (now North Sea Transition Authority)