Interesting, if only for the confirmation that companies responded to pressure to increase gender diversity on their boards not through appointing women to directorships formerly held by men, but by creating “pretend directorships” for poorly-qualified women – almost all of the women were (and are, still) appointed as non-executive directors, tellingly – which for major companies would cost the equivalent of a rounding error in the annual accounts. An extract:

“While the data from the first quarter of this year represents a meaningful dip in representation, nothing about how women have been gaining board seats over the last decade suggests it can’t go even lower. [J4MB emphasis. At last, some good news.]

“The pace of change has already been incredibly slow,” Cooper says. “There was a bright spot. And now we may see real backsliding. It’s one step forward and two steps back, but this time it could be many steps back.” [J4MB: One can but hope we’ll see “many steps back” but I doubt we shall. It would be welcome if only for the sake of financial performance, given the long-established causal link between increasing gender diversity on boards and financial decline as reported on our associated website, established in 2012, Campaign for Merit in Business.]

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Our thanks to Gerry for this.

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A piece just published by Tony Blair, owner and executive chairman of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, a private non-profit organisation with over 1,000 staff. Its Wiki page is here.

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I am pleased to announce a major new initiative, Men Stop Drinking.

A former problem drinker, I am now a non-drinker. I have been abstinent since September 2025 and I wish to do what I can to help men with drinking problems achieve permanent abstinence. They may be able to do so quickly and effectively – as I did – with a drug licensed by the FDA in 1951 (75 years ago). I have created a new website (link above), and I’m hosting Zoom video meetings daily (Monday – Saturday) for men who have problems with alcohol. The meetings start at 7:00pm (19:00) GMT/UTC and last at least an hour. Details of the philosophy behind the meetings, and guidelines for them, can be found here. You can join the meetings by clicking here.

The meeting time has been chosen to give convenient access to people living in the UK and other European countries, and as far west as the west coast of the United States.

We’re posting videos every day from the Comedy Channel of our award-winning website Laughing at Feminists. Today’s video is here (4:08).

Remember, it’s more than important to laugh at feminists, it’s a civic duty. 

Today’s video is here (13:51).

Over a period of more than two years we’re posting links to one video daily from the J4MB YouTube channel. The channel includes our media appearances since 2012, 300+ videos of talks and other materials from the International Conferences on Men’s Issues (2014 – ) and other men’s issues conferences we’ve been involved with, and so much more. The individual conference playlists are here.

Our website Campaign for Merit in Business was created in the light of the considerable evidence of a causal link between increasing gender diversity on boards and corporate financial decline. Mike Buchanan, Steve Moxon and Dr Catherine Hakim (the originator of Preference Theory) presented evidence to House of Commons and House of Lords inquiries in 2012, the video of their House of Commons evidence session is here (56:50).

Finally, we run the award-winning website Laughing at Feminists. The related comedy channel (170+ videos) is here. Remember, it’s more than important to laugh at feminists, it’s a civic duty.  

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Enjoy (1:27).

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Enjoy (Telegraph, £). An extract:

“… how did Nicola miss the £124,550 Niesmann+Bischoff motorhome parked on her mother-in-law’s drive? Or the astonishing number of posh coffee machines (four) – among them a Miele CM6300 for £1,299 and a Jura Giga 5 Cromo costing £3,232 – almost one for every room in the Sturgeon-Murrells’ neat house in Uddingston, Glasgow.

The small back garden was tended by a Husqvarna robotic lawnmower – £3,070 including installation – when five minutes with a Flymo Hover Vac (£54.99) would do the job. Did the Sturgeon-Murrells harbour fantasies of living amid the rolling acres of Blenheim Palace?

A silver wine coaster for £3,500, a £2,495 jewellery box (for Nicola, surely?), an oak library ladder (£943) without a library and three Wüsthof manicure sets at £193.70 (were they planning to open a nail bar in case the politics thing came unstuck?). Most mysteriously, eight umbrellas for £1,990.50. Any thoughts?

“So, hen, what possessed you to buy the Beatles special edition 14-carat gold fountain pen and rollerball for £1,475? Didn’t you just spend £4,225 on a StarWalker World Time fountain pen and two Montblanc Bohème Noir fountain pens costing £1,407?” “

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Interesting. An extract:

“On five separate occasions, she hurled rotting mole carcasses over the fence into the Rotherhams’ garden and would bang her wheelie bin outside their bedroom window to wake them in the early hours.

Frequent verbal attacks included phrases such as “you’re a witch” and “crawl under a stone and die” over the boundary fence.

In one instance, the pensioner switched on her lawnmower and kept it going while the Rotherhams hosted friends for drinks and tapas in their garden, and threw a jug of water over Mrs Rotherham, prompting a call to police.”

Women, eh? Can’t live with them, can live without them hurling rotting mole carcasses over your fence.

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Peter Murrell was chief executive of the Scottish National Party (SNP) while his wife Nicola Sturgeon was party leader and at time First Minister of Scotland. A piece in The Guardian. Extracts:

“Murrell bought a luxury SUV – a Jaguar iPace – for £81,000, subsided with £57,500 stolen from the SNP money, which he later sold for £47,378, pocketing the proceeds. There was also a £124,550 Niesmann+Bischoff motorhome, which he parked on his mother’s driveway, and for which he created fake invoices.

He used a further £16,489 of SNP money to part-fund the purchase of a £32,989 Volkswagen Golf.

Murrell also spent on high-end pens and watches: £9,350 on two Bremont watches, [J4MB: One for himself, one for his mother, no doubt] £4,225 on a Starwalker World Time fountain pen, £1,407 on two Montblanc Boheme Noir fountain pens and £700 on a boldly striped Great Characters The Beatles Special Edition Fountain Pen in 14-karat gold.

In November 2020, the indictment notes that he spent £650.75 at Fortnum & Mason, buying two of its Feasting Advent calendars for £400 and a Musical Santa’s Sleigh Advent calendar at £165. Earlier in 2020, £2,618.16 went on two Lalique Feuilles pepper & salt grinders. There was a silver wine coaster, too, for £3,500 – and a £2,495 jewellery box.”

Sturgeon has claimed total ignorance of her husband’s embezzlement of party funds, and the police long ago decided not to investigate her further. If the odious woman is telling the truth, I’m a Norwegian Blue parrot.

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