Discussion today has focused on alcohol recovery units, plans to build a power hub on an artificial island, and talking openly about sex.
To join in you can click on the links in the comments below to expand and add your thoughts. We’ll continue to highlight more comments worth reading as the day goes on.
Britain’s need for ‘drunk tanks’ shows how broken our society is
Readers have been joining the discussion under Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins’s article on what alcohol recovery units say about our society.
‘I could only agree to this new idea if I know for certain that everyone would be thoroughly checked out’
Many years ago I saw a young woman on Newcastle Central Station behaving strangely. All around were treating her as a drunk and having a go at her. I found a policemen and told him I thought she looked ill. He came with me, looked at her and called an ambulance.
As they treated her I spoke to them and thanked them for coming and said I had just had a feeling she was really ill. They said I was right and that she had no alcohol in her and that she was very ill indeed and that they were settling her before taking her to hospital. She survived.
I could only agree to this new idea if I know for certain that everyone would be thoroughly checked out. I hope this will be adhered to.
Amadeus37
Is this the future? Dutch plan vast windfarm island in North Sea
There are many comments under Adam Vaughan’s article on plans for an island to be built in an attempt to make offshore wind cheaper.
‘The UK is at present obsessed with the past’
Thank goodness some countries are looking to the future, it’s just a shame that the UK is at present obsessed with the past. Dogger clearly needs to be built together with two way HVDC (high-voltage direct current) links if possible so that electricity can not only flow from the island hub but through the hub from one county to another. That would make it possible, for example, for Norwegian hydro power to be distributed to other countries whenever the wind falls.
TBombadil
All aboard the Love Train: young, single New Zealanders on a romantic quest
Readers have been sharing their experiences in response to the story of hundreds of young people journeying to a small rural town in the hope of meeting the love of their lives.
‘Met my partner on a jazz train. Thirty years later here we are’
Met my partner on a jazz train - Canberra to Michelago. Gourmet dinner wines and nicely lubricated going home. Love at ‘first sight’ for both of us. Two days later we met again and 30 years later here we are. I was lonely, loved good food and wine, he just enjoyed all the women falling all over him. A single man’s dream - a ratio of four women to one man. I didn’t join the scrum but poked fun at him.
rosallas
Julia Michaels: ‘If men can openly talk about sex, why can’t women?’
Discussion under this article has mainly been about sex and how talking openly about it is not limited to genders or sexualities.
‘We need to stop trying to be sexually ‘open’ for the simple reason that it’s not really possible’
Men don’t talk openly about sex. No one really talks openly about sex – no one – even when they think they’re talking openly about sex. In pop, sexuality and desire are performed as tropes, conventions, motifs - not authentically expressed.
And we certainly don’t talk openly about sex in everyday life, no matter how liberated we think we are. To give an obvious example, if just after being introduced to you I asked: ‘So what sexual position do you prefer?’ you would either think I was mentally unwell or a sex pest. I would have contravened a rule. No doubt there are even conventions and codes of conduct at your average swingers party. Even there, there will be things you’re not allowed to say or do.
We need to stop trying to be sexually ‘open’ for the simple reason that it’s not really possible, or even desirable. And it gets boring.
Pinkie123
Comments have been edited for length. This article will be updated throughout the day with some of the most interesting ways readers have been participating across the site.
