Results are, of course - as I draft this - still coming in. Four ReformUK MPs so far, including Nigel & Tice! And Galloway out! That's a surprise! Corbyn voted back in sadly. The SNP have lost 36 seats so far, and gained none. Labour held my own area - no surprise - but with ReformUK hot on their heels.
The only thing left now is Sunak to resign. He can't even say 'the best man won' since the new party in power doesn't appear to know what a man is.
Recriminations have begun to fly around the Conservatives as a senior figure called the last few weeks the “worst campaign in my lifetime” and criticised the party for failing to tackle the threat from Reform.
Rishi Sunak started the week with warnings against handing Labour a “supermajority” and a “blank cheque” and claimed a vote for Reform would hand more power to Keir Starmer.
They even brought on Boris at the last minute to 'help':
I expect, like me, a lot of ex-Conservatives looked at that and said to themselves 'Why would we need to vote Starmer in for that, when we've got it under Sunak anyway?'...
Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are displacing healthy diets “all over the world” despite growing evidence of the risks they pose and should be sold with tobacco-style warnings, according to the nutritional scientist who first coined the term.
“UPFs are increasing their share in and domination of global diets, despite the risk they represent to health in terms of increasing the risk of multiple chronic diseases,” Monteiro told the Guardian ahead of the conference in São Paulo. “UPFs are displacing healthier, less processed foods all over the world, and also causing a deterioration in diet quality due to their several harmful attributes. Together, these foods are driving the pandemic of obesity and other diet-related chronic diseases, such as diabetes.”
And how does 'The Guardian' choose to illustrate this article? Not with anything any normal person would consider 'food', but rather sweets and snacks:
Sainsbury’s said sales growth slowed in recent weeks as food inflation eased and as consumers shop “more cautiously” amid poor weather and the cost of living crisis.What has 'poor weather' got to do with anything? I'm glad you asked, Reader!
The retailer said the decline reflected “an unseasonal start to summer”, with cold and wet weather hitting sales of summer goods such as paddling pools and garden furniture which did well in a hot start to the summer last year.
And this is 'news'?
“Consumers continue to shop general merchandise more cautiously,” the retailer said in a statement, adding that shoppers were responding where it had offered discounts.
When you offer a reduced price, people buy more stuff! Gosh! This is earth shaking stuff, 'Guardian'!
...and I'm off to go do my bit, passport in hand! This is the first general election for which photo ID is required.
We won;'t see this man in No 10, sadly, but I really hope his party wipes out the so-called 'Conservative Party' completely. Then it might just evolve into something I can vote for once again.
If there's anything to vote in, that is, after five years of a Labour government.
A Marvel show with two 'minor' characters on a buddy mission? Ugh! This shouldn't have worked!
But...it did, and a lot was to the credit of Sebastian Stan and Antony Mackie, whose chemistry together on screen turned what could have been a dull affair into a great show.
On 22 January 2022, 11 boys entered a CCTV blind spot at the intersection of two roads in Stretford, Manchester. Only 10 left alive. Sixteen-year-old Kennie Carter was stabbed, his last words heard by his older brother to whom he was on the phone at the time: “They’ve stabbed me in my heart, bro.”
What happened in that CCTV blind spot has been the focus of a six-week trial at Manchester crown court, at which 10 Black boys, ranging in age from 12 to 16 at the time of the killing, stood accused of murder. Described as “a jigsaw with pieces missing” and “a net that had been cast wide” by lawyers defending the boys, the trial was the latest of several high-profile joint enterprise prosecutions involving large groups of Black youths in Manchester.
These trials attracting the attention of the usual suspects, of course, the ones who think that it's somehow 'unfair' that those whose hands aren't the ones holding the knife should be punished. Especially if - as is usually the case - they are black.
The controversial legal doctrine allows prosecutors to charge multiple people with the same crime. It can be applied even if a defendant played no active role but is found to have encouraged or assisted the main perpetrator. What it means to assist or encourage can fall to the the jury to interpret.
And the jury, mercifully free of critical race theory, seems to often take the view that if you're involved to the point of being part of the gang, you're just as guilty, which upsets the progressives.
The contention surrounding the legal doctrine was not lost on the judge. Before the jury was even sworn in, Judge Julian Goose was heard warning the lawyers present about the term. “I’m not a fan any more of the words ‘joint enterprise’; it raises concern amongst people interested in these matters,” he said.
A coy and judicial way of saying 'activists and race hustlers', m'lud?
But while the phrase was avoided, the principle behind the doctrine was clear. Despite the lack of CCTV at the moment of the stabbing, there was no question over who had caused the death. Everyone involved in the trial, including the defendant himself, agreed that the fatal blow was struck by Boy A, then 14, who cannot be named for legal reasons. He argued he was acting in self-defence after Kennie produced a knife. The prosecution said the knife was his own.
And if that won't work win over the jury, how about a bit of 'they was good boys, they dindu nuffin'?
There was no evidence that any of the other nine defendants ever had any weapons or played any active role in the killing. Three of the boys said they were around the corner on another street and so did not even witness the events. Two of the boys, one of whom was just 12 at the time, were described as having abnormally low IQs. Another, who was 13 at the time, was autistic and had ADHD. And yet, Boy A was found guilty of murder and another three convicted of manslaughter after the Crown Prosecution Service argued that, through their presence at the scene, they intentionally assisted or encouraged Boy A in his actions. All nine boys had denied that suggestion.
And the jury clearly said 'pull the other one!'...
“It’s collective punishment,” said Gloria Morrison, the founder of the campaign group Joint Enterprise Not Guilty By Association (JENGbA). “It messes with the whole idea of what young people, or anybody, thinks justice is. What benefits can there be of locking up a child who hasn’t actually done the crime?”
Pour encourager les autres, Gloria...
Terrifying video shows the moment a mob of men brutally beat a lesbian couple who were out celebrating one of their birthdays. Emma MacLean said she and her girlfriend, who she only identified as 'Tori,' were walking in downtown Halifax, Canada on June 22 when they first encountered a group of about 10 men...
Bloody macho lumberjacks, I expect?
...they believe to be of Middle Eastern descent and from Syria.
Oh.
As they were passing by, one of the men allegedly made a rude comment about MacLean - prompting her girlfriend to stand up for her.
'My girlfriend, Tori, said "Hey that's my girlfriend,"' MacLean recounted to CTV News. 'They continued walking and then Tori followed them to basically verbally be like "That is not OK,"' MacLean said.
So not only did you fall for the multiculti 'we can all live together' bullshit, you swallowed the Hollywood premise that girls can challenge grown men with impunity. Say, haven't we heard this one before? I think we have. And closer to home, too.
That's when the group allegedly started to beat Tori.
And 'allegedly' is doing a lot of work here, because there's video. So we don't have another HMMONA case this time.
Eventually, a bystander alerted police patrolling the area nearby - but by then, MacLean said the fight had already ended.
Hurrah, policemen to the rescue, ladies! Aren't you lucky? They won't stand for this nonsense in ultra-liberal Canada! Will they?
Officers then spoke with one of the men involved in the assault, who blamed the fight on the two women. The other men involved refused to cooperate with police, or give their IDs, MacLean said.
Oh. I thought that would earn you a trip downtown to correct your attitude. I guess 'immigrant' trumps 'lesbian' in Trudeau's frozen liberal paradise...
The NHS is having to provide emergency care to rising numbers of patients suffering serious complications following weight loss surgery and hair transplants abroad amid a “boom” in medical tourism, doctors have warned. Medics said they were being left to “pick up the pieces” as more Britons seeking cheap operations overseas return with infections and other issues.
And thereby bumping other people out of their slots:
Hospitals have even had to cancel elective procedures for patients because beds were being taken up by someone who needed an overseas procedure fixed.
Whicj must be utterly infuriation. And all for vanity.
David Strain, chair of the BMA’s board of science, said more Britons were travelling abroad for procedures, but not all were getting the care they would expect in the UK.
They are probably getting better care (except for when the treatment goes wrong).
Delegates passed a motion expressing concern about patients who need emergency surgery on their return to the UK. They also called for more weight management services, to be partially funded by a rise in the sugar tax.
So everyone pays more to placate those who have no self-control?
Strain warned that the increase in surgeries abroad had been spurred on by a “social media nation” where people felt the need to present themselves in a certain way.
Why blame social media. and not the people in thrall to it?
Families of two girls killed when a car slammed into a school party have told of their 'disappointment' after the CPS revealed the motorist suffered an epileptic seizure behind the wheel and will face no criminal charges.
Claire Freemantle, 47, had a seizure while driving her Land Rover, sending the £80,000 4x4 ploughing through a fence and into an end-of-term celebrations at The Study Prep school in Wimbledon, south-west London, on July 6 last year.
If it's true that she had no previous episodes, then no matter how hard for the families, it's the only possible decision.
Trevor Sterling, lawyer for the families, said: 'This is disappointing; justice must not only be done, but seen to be done.
'In the absence of a process, how do we interrogate the evidence? What does this message send to the public that deaths can arise in a road traffic situation, and there could be no sanction because there is no process to interrogate the evidence?
'The next focus will be on the inquest, and there will be a deep and thorough review of the evidence, which will be examined by a jury if necessary.'
Now that the police investigation is finally over - it took nearly an entire year to find this out? - the inquest will no doubt come to the same conclusion.
Jaswant Narwal, Chief Crown Prosecutor with oversight of the Crown Prosecution Service London Homicide Unit, said the incident was a tragedy. She added: 'We have carefully considered this complex and sensitive case, taking into consideration all the material gathered as part of the lengthy and detailed police investigation.'
Perhaps too lengthy and detailed?
Nurses at an NHS Accident and Emergency department have been caught on film laughing about how they weren't hitting targets after they admitted one of their patients had already waited 46 hours for care. The shocking state of NHS care was revealed after a Channel 4 Dispatches reporter went undercover at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital's A&E, posing as a trainee healthcare assistant.
I think a reporter doing actual undercover work is more shocking than anything he found...
...the programme's footage left an expert in disbelief at the 'unacceptable' practices.
I guess they managed to find a reporter who hadn't had any experience of the NHS, the lucky chap. No-one who has will be even surprised.
The shocking programme showed:
- Sick patients waiting overnight in the 'Fit to Sit' area, with a suspected stroke case sitting in the waiting room for 24 hours.
- A man who was forced to urinate on a trolley in full view of 30 staff, patients and members of the public.
- A dementia patient who ripped out their cannula and left a room covered in their blood when they were supposed to have been watched over.
- A makeshift ward set up on the X-ray corridor which is isolated from doctors and nurses and which has no sinks and insufficient plug sockets.
- Shocking levels of hygiene, with dirty bedpans left by staff without being cleaned up.
- Patients forced to wait up for up to four and a half hours in ambulance queues.
- Some ambulance crews who cannot wait just dump their patients in the 'Ambulance Reception Area' without a proper handover.
A spokesperson for the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said: 'As with other hospitals, our Trust is facing significant challenges with urgent and emergency care.'
You could always sell some 'art' to fund improvements. Or stop having to pay out huge settlements because you seem to employ Srevie Wonder as a surgeon.
Exactly how was this person 'forced out'?
Axel Pritchedd is non-binary and moved into Phoenix House after being forced to leave their shared house. They said: "I did say I was non-binary, but they kind of dismissed it. They kept calling me she/her. I didn't feel comfortable in there at all. I can be myself here [at Phoenix House] whereas I couldn't be myself at my old place."
So not forced out at all, left in a huff because the others in the house refused to bow down and play the pronoun game.
Specialist LGBT+ caseworker Courtney Jennings, herself bisexual, works with Axel and others to help them become independent.
"A young girl, about 20 years old, was recently kicked out of her mother's home, because she didn't want the other kids to see her go through this [transgender] transition. We've managed to find her a house to live in. She's settled, she's happy."
So much for there being a housing crisis then, if a 20 year old can afford a house after all!
More than three-quarters of LGBT+ homeless people cited family rejection or abuse as a cause of their homelessness.
Once again, I think we need to check the definition of 'abuse' being used here...