And Let's All Hope It's Not The Last...

Marcus is a German citizen with pre-settled status in the UK, where he lives with his family: his partner, Holly Cullen-Davies, and his two stepchildren. Any non-citizen who has been sentenced to at least 12 months in prison is, unless they successfully appeal, automatically deported to their country of origin. According to the immigration charity Settled, this appears to be “the first time in the UK that the power of deportation has been used after a criminal conviction flowing from a protest.”

Good. Living in the country isn't a right, it's a privilege. Abuse it, and get sent back where you came from.

Holly, a concert pianist and choir leader, cannot move to Germany: her children need to be close to their dad, and she’s committed to looking after her parents. I met them for the first time last week, and I’ve seldom come across such a devoted couple. But unless Marcus can successfully appeal, their right to family life will be cruelly snatched away.

Actions have consequences, George, boo hoo!  

Holly told me: “It’s impossibly sad to face the possibility that we’ll be separated for life. It feels like an intolerable punishment for the whole family.”

This is just one example of the vindictiveness of a flailing political class seeking to snuff out democratic challenge.

He didn't decide to 'offer a democratic challenge' though, did he? He didn't stand for office, or organise a petition - he climbed an important piece of infrastructure and inconvenienced thousands, to try to force his own viewpoint on others. That's the very opposite of democratic, 

Climate campaigners have recently been deprived of their right to explain their motives to a jury, so now they are tried as if they were mindless vandals. Those who have sought to explain nonetheless have been imprisoned for contempt of court. The 69-year-old Trudi Warner is being prosecuted at the government’s behest for holding a placard stating an accepted fact of British law: that juries have a right to act according to their conscience.

And it hasn't stopped her, because she was at the side entrance to Snaresbrook Crown Court when I arrived for jury service on Wednesday morning the week before last.  

The home secretary could cancel Marcus’s deportation with one stroke. So far, 157,000 people have signed a petition urging him to do so. As injustice is piled upon injustice, a great cruelty is being done. We need our Robin Hoods.

Robin Hood (allegedly) robbed from the rich to give to the poor - he didn't stop the poor earning an honest living.  

It Should Have Been A Cull, Not A Ban...

“I think people assume that there are really few of these dogs around. I think people think this is generally confined to poorer neighbourhoods but it can happen anywhere.

“I felt sorry for the man. These may be loving pets but he was completely powerless. These dogs are so strong. “It was awful. The smaller dog looked like a rag on the floor not a dog. “Even if these dogs have to wear muzzles in public, they can still escape from their homes. We will see more of these attacks.”

I don'r feel sorry for the man, I reserve that for the small dog owner who - through no fault of her own - has lost her own pet and suffered injury vainly trying to save it.  

The two XL bullies were seized by Sussex Police. The force said they are holding them in a secure kennel while an order for their destruction is sought “to ensure the safety of the public”.

The only good thing the ban has done is ensured the police cannot (as they would have done before) fob off victims with 'it's just dog on dog' and they will now put down the doughnuts and turn out. But then they will take the mutts alive and let them soak up taxpayer cash in kennels, instead of shooting them on the spot. 

I Don't Think That's What's Meant By 'Traditional'...

The owner of an Indian restaurant which has been given a zero-star rating by council inspectors said the venue "deserves at least a four."

Sounds more like it deserves a closure order! What's the point of a rating like this if you can still carry on serving up platefuls of  Delhi belly..? 

Spice City in Liverpool city centre has been popular with generations of diners, with the Stanley Street restaurant promising on its website to "tantalise your taste buds in both our classic dishes and our exclusive Spice City Specials."

Council inspectors, though, were less than impressed when they visited last month. They slapped the venue with the lowest possible rating, with the results published on the Food Standards Authority website reflecting the need for "major" and "urgent" improvements in a number of areas.In the most recent inspection, on March 6, inspectors raised concerns over hygienic food handling, the cleanliness and condition of the facilities and building and management of food safety.

Yikes!  

When contacted by the ECHO for a response, boss Niz Islam said he did not accept the rating was fair. He said: "I've been here for 18 years. I feel like I'm being unfairly marked. Last time they made me pay 900 quid just to replace a broken fridge."

Why did you have a broken fridge? You should have had a working one. 

Speaking to the ECHO in 2019, Mr Islam said: "We find the older generation still love a good, proper curry. We have a lot of loyal regulars who say no matter what, they will always favour a traditional Indian curry."

With traditional Indian food poisoning?  

I'm So Glad I Never Clapped For Them...

A retired nurse died after hospital staff mixed her up with a patient on a 'Do Not Resuscitate' notice. Pat Dawson, 73, was fit and healthy and had had no medical treatment in 30 years before suffering a suspected bowel obstruction, her family told an inquest. The widow and grandmother was taken to Royal Blackburn Hospital by ambulance but died after she collapsed and staff stopped attempts to resuscitate her following a look at 'her' notes.

 And 'her' is in inverted comments there because the person to whom the DNR was relevant was a man.

By the time medics realised that a mix-up had left them reading a DNR report relating to a 90-year-old man, it was too late to save her. The inquest heard that staff failed to check the NHS number on Mrs Dawson's wristband or even the gender and age on the notes.

The NHS - the place where you can ignore all safeguards and get away with it by pleading 'overwork'.  

Emergency consultant Ahmad Alabood called the tragedy an 'honest mistake because [staff] were rushing' when the unit was 'over-stretched and over-crowded'.

Oh, they were rushing? Well, forget the fact someone's dead, eh? 

The inquest also heard details from an internal report by the hospital trust, which warned: 'Given the relentless pressure on A&E departments, the investigation is concerned that a similar event could occur in the future.'

Utterly shameless. And why shouldn't they be? In any other industry, say, building or engineering, someone would be going to prison or facing a huge fine at the very least. In the NHS, however... 

Mrs Dawson's son, John, told the inquest in Accrington: 'I know that our mum would have been horrified by how the system she gave her life to failed her.

'It is beyond belief the catastrophic way in which she was failed, not only by one individual but by doctors who have sworn the Hippocratic oath to do no harm, and our mum paid the ultimate price.'

Unfortunately, it's not 'beyond belief' at all, and it'll continue not to be until NHS staff face proper  consequences. 

Maybe Kier Starmer Isn't As Bad As I Thought...

Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of not listening to the Labour party’s adviser on race relations.

Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon, who is the mother of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence, is reported to have told a private meeting of Labour’s ethnic minority MPs and peers on Tuesday: “I wish Keir listened to me.”

It's to his credit that he doesn't, Frankly, we've all heard rather too much from you. And we've certainly spent far too much taxpayer money on you, yet I see we are about to waste even more. 

It is alleged Baroness Lawrence complained of “gatekeepers” around the Labour leader who had prevented her work,The Times reported, and said she no longer knew how to respond to complaints about the party from black and minority ethnic voters.

The way she always responds, I assume - excuse them anything if they are black. 

Her remarks — at a behind-closed-doors meeting of the black, Asian and minority ethnic section of the parliamentary Labour Party — come amidmounting disquiet about the treatment of Black and Asian Labour MPs and voters including long-standing investigation into Diane Abbott, Britain’s first black female MP.

She's not being investigated for the colour of her skin, but for the content of her character. A wise man once had something pithy to say about that. 

Why Are We Importing Trouble?

A Muslim teaching assistant who claimed that being given the Christmas Grinch prize at a staff award ceremony amounted to religious discrimination has lost his employment tribunal case. Salah Toughfar said he was 'upset and distressed' to have been compared to the Dr Seuss character - despite not know (sic) anything about the mean-tempered creature until a colleague showed him a Wikipedia description.

You have to wonder how someone in a school environment could possibly claim that... 

Mr Toughfar, a practising Muslim from Morocco, began working at The Grove School in north London in April 2020, an employment tribunal was told.

Ah. Why on earth did they need to import stroppy muslims from another country? It's not like we are short of them here, is it?  

The Search Education Trust-run school is a specialist free school for students aged five to 19 with a primary diagnosis of autism, and is 'diverse', with pupils and staff from all backgrounds, the Watford tribunal heard.

Wonderful.  

The learning support assistant, who still works at the school, told the tribunal he got involved in school Christmas activities such as putting up decorations in class as part of his role, but would not have a Christmas dinner.

He can't have been that upset if he still works there!  

Mr Toughfar, who was represented by his wife at the hearing, had previously received the Prankster Award, which he did not raise an issue about at the time, the tribunal was told.

Is his wife a lawyer, then?  

Judge Dilbaag Bansal said Mr Toughfar had 'not put forward any evidence whatsoever that his being awarded the Christmas Grinch award was either because of or related to his religion. 'The tribunal was satisfied that the reason why he received the Christmas Grinch award was because he had received the highest number of votes at the point the voting had closed.'

When even the other diversity hires won't support you, it's a lost cause.  

But It's Not A Person...

...so it's nothing of the sort. Any more than winding up a company is 'murder'. Good grief, it's like saying if my auntie had balls she'd be my uncle (if that's even a saying that's still valid these days).

It is a global company with more than two centuries of managing money but for Abrdn jokes in the media about the lack of vowels in its name is no laughing matter. After changing its name three years ago, an executive at the fund manager formerly known as Standard Life Aberdeen has accused the media of “corporate bullying” that would not be acceptable if the business was a person.

Good grief! 

“Would you do that with an individual? How would you look at a person who makes fun of your name day-in day-out? It’s probably not ethical to do it. But apparently with companies it is different,” he added.

Has he forgotten the artist formerly known as Prince then? He got tons of stick! As did Snoop Dog when he requested a name change to Snoop Lion. 

...it settled on Abrdn in the spring of 2021, prompting scorn from City analysts, linguists and the press, who joked the company was experiencing “irritable vowel syndrome”, and was trying to be “too cool for schl”, and that the decision was “rlly stpd”.

All very amusing.  

Doesn't Cambridgeshire Nick Have Access To A Dictionary?

If they do have one, they might find it useful to look up the word 'deterrant':

Campaigners have accused police of 'caring more about protecting a predator than women' after they refused to name or picture a depraved pervert who they fear is a 'risk to women'.

Cambridgeshire Police said a man in his 30s, from Peterborough, has been slapped with a Sexual Risk Order after displaying 'very concerning and escalating' behaviour over a number of years. This includes paying sex workers to pander to his fetishes such as licking his boots while he performs sexual acts on himself. During one incident, a woman was forced to assault the predator to escape.

I'm only surprised they didn't charge her with something... 

While the order now bans him from entering a specific area of Peterborough city centre between 7pm and 7am for the next two years, police have refused to identify him to the public.

Can't be expected to do any work if no-one can tell you he's breached it, eh? Well played, lazy cops, well played... 

When MailOnline quizzed the police force about how anyone would recognise the pervert, they said: 'While no court order was made to prohibit the naming of the man, we have chosen not to release this information as we do not believe it is proportionate given he has not been convicted of any criminal offences and the [Sexual Risk Order] was intended as a deterrent.'

It's no such thing if no-one knows who to watch out for, is it? 

 Here, look it up! 

People might wonder why you put out a press release at all, if it's worse than useless...

The force said the purpose of their press release about the man was 'for public information and to highlight the action taken by the local Neighbourhood Policing Team'.

Ah, I see. You wanted the kudos of having 'done something' without realising it made you look like a partisan laughing stock.  

Hopefully, The Owner...

...and not an innocent member of the public, if such a thing even exists in this notorious area of Brighton:

Two XL bullies have been seized by police after a man was bitten by a dog. Police were called to the scene where the dog had bitten the man at an address in Whitehawk Road, Brighton, at 3.30pm on Saturday, April 6.

The 36-year-old suffered minor injuries.

A spokesman for Sussex Police said: "Officers went the address and two dogs, which are believed to be XL bullies, were seized and taken to a secure kennelling facility while enquiries continue."

When you see a comment section with 50 comments in it, you know what you're going to find. It's like the Midnight Bark for the pit nutters: 

 

Utterly delusional. 

Makes A Change From Them Doing It Metaphorically, I suppose...

By which I mean, 'shooting themselves in the foot'! 

The officer, who is attached to the Metropolitan Police's Specialist Firearms Command, was taking part in a training exercise at Fingringhoe Ranges, near Colchester, Essex.

Few details have been released about the incident although the Met said 'no other officers were directly involved'.

It's no surprise, is it, really?