It's Also Very, Very Easy Not To .. Millions of Children Manage It!

Jodian remembers her son as a happy child, eager to learn, but she suspected something was wrong when Daejaun's behaviour changed in his early teens. She believes friends from secondary school introduced Daejaun to older boys who, in turn, groomed him into selling drugs. It can be all too easy for teenagers in inner city areas to get involved in this lifestyle, says Michael Jibowu, a former gang member from Woolwich.

The description of recruiting into a gang being described as 'grooming' crops up a lot in these stories lately. Is it because it absolves the perpetrator of responsibility, I wonder?

"Imagine being a young boy and you want to make money. The drug dealers are about, they have cars, they have chains, they have watches," he says. "It's very, very easy to get involved in selling drugs... Sometimes you can say literally nothing and they will approach you.

Then isn’t the appropriate response to continue saying nothing until they give up and go away? 

"Daejaun always wanted to be wealthy, says Jodian. She remembers telling him he had to find ways of making money legitimately: "But then you find that the influence on the outside was greater than mine."

Then you managed to raise a child with no morals. 

Daejaun had made a choice, she says, but adults were exploiting him for their own financial gain.

Of course, it couldn’t possibly be that you raised a defective child, could it? Perish the thought! It must have been outside influences that did it! These people never admit to their own responsibility in anything! 

Not that there isn't a lot of blame for the supposed 'authorities' who have swallowed the 'ethnicity equals victimhood' tropes.

In 2023, Jodian raised her concerns with his school, Woolwich Polytechnic for Boys. It arranged counselling for Daejaun and asked Greenwich Council to provide help for the family. However, Jodian says she remains critical of the school for not sharing important information with her about who Daejaun was mixing with. Some of his friends had been barred from school grounds, but the school did not tell Jodian why. She says she later found out it was because of their links to drug distribution and weapons.

Shocker!  

Woolwich Polytechnic's head of safeguarding, Jo Lumbis, says: "I wouldn't have been able to tell her about the drugs and the knives because that child is entitled to confidentiality. I can't give that information to parents."

I think you may need to rethink your title, Jo, if your concern is all for the privacy of future knife-wielding hoodlums...

Many experts believe the system for dealing with child criminal exploitation is not working properly at present, and children are slipping through the cracks.

Undoubtedly, but let's nor ignore the effect of poor parenting, or no parenting. It's a shame we don't hear from the boy's father in this article, after all. 

Ooh! Oooh! I Can Guess The Answer!

 And I'll have to, as it's behind a paywall.

Could it possibly be 'We stopped doing this' and started dieting..?

Wildlife Campaigners: 'No, Starve Them Instead, It's More Humane'

Culling deer in England will be made easier under a long-awaited government 10-year plan to deal with a population explosion that threatens woodlands, newly planted trees and farmland.The government has unveiled a deer management strategy that will identify priority culling areas and make it easier to carry out licensed night-time and closed-season shooting. Farmers could also be given new legal rights to shoot them to protect their crops.

At last, a sensible and wortehile government decision. Who could possibly object? 

But some animal welfare campaigners said culling was inhumane and not effective in the long term.

Oh. Of course!  

🙄

...a spokeswoman for the animal rights campaign group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said that culling wild deer would not resolve the problem of overpopulation. "Removing deer from the landscape doesn't stop their numbers from rebounding, and, in many cases, a temporary reduction in population leaves more food available per animal, which can increase breeding rates in the survivors," she said.Instead, PETA called for "humane and sustainable" options to be used, including habitat modification, appropriate fencing and limiting access to artificial food sources.

So it's more humane to slowly starve them to death than it is to cleanly shoot them? Well, I suppose that's the sort of 'logic' you can expect from an organisation that's studiously ignored halal and kosher slaughter...

H&S is an issue too:

More than 74,000 deer are involved in collisions with vehicles each year, killing between 10 and 20 people and injuring more than 700, according to the RSPCA.

And don't forget, this is a crisis that has no downside, unless you're a vegetarian: 

The government said it also wanted to promote and support a domestic market for the venison from culled deer, including pushing for more to be bought and served up by schools, prisons and hospitals.

Why 'push' - legislate!  

Coming Over Here, Picking The Pockets Our Home Grown Artful Dodgers Won't Pick....

A Chilean pickpocket who preyed on Tube commuters was caught carrying a contactless card reader in the first case of its kind. Daniel Maldonado Paulson, 35, had only been in the UK for two weeks when he carried out his “ghost tapping” crime spree at South Kensington London Underground station.

Hurrah! Isn't it nice to read a 'good news story' about crime in London for once?  

Plain-clothes British Transport Police spotted Maldonado Paulson scouting the Piccadilly line for victims at 7.30pm on February 7. They swooped when the thief displayed behaviour typical of a professional pickpocket and stopped him on the platform.As police escorted him up the escalator, Maldonado Paulson attempted to flee but was subsequently arrested and handcuffed. He was found to have Sophie Halford’s £1,300 phone which had been reported stolen just 20 minutes earlier and an electronic card reading device.

They haven't said exactly how this worked so presumably, they don't want to encourage copycats. 

The handset was returned to Ms Halford just two hours after Maldonado Paulson took it.

Lucky lady. Let's hope the courts did their part!  

At Westminster Magistrates’ Court on February 13, Maldonado Paulson pleaded guilty to two counts of handling stolen goods and resisting arrest by PC Alison Levi. The defendant, of Alvey Street, Southwark, was jailed for six months.

*sigh* 

Well, I Suppose They Did At Least Get The Species And Breed Right This Time...

 ..which, let's face it. is good going for this particular member of the MSM!

Germiran Bryson, 26, showed up at Las Vegas’ Harry Reid International Airport with her two-year-old goldendoodle earlier this month, only to be turned away when she didn’t have the proper paperwork to bring the pup aboard as a service animal.

*sighs* A two year old dog is in no sense 'a puppy'... 

Sunday Funnies...

 Frankly, I often do think that, no matter the film...

Not Entirely Due To The Technology, Rhett

Last week, Rhett Reese, the co-writer of Deadpool & Wolverine, Zombieland and Now You See Me: Now You Don’t, said “it’s likely over for us” after watching a widely disseminated AI-generated clip featuring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt fighting.

He added: “In next to no time, one person is going to be able to sit at a computer and create a movie indistinguishable from what Hollywood now releases....

Is that not in part because what Hollywood releases these days is mostly garbage?

...True, if that person is no good, it will suck. But if that person possesses Christopher Nolan’s talent and taste (and someone like that will rapidly come along), it will be tremendous.”

Why wouldn't someone with that talent work in Hollywood - is it because he is shut out for having the wrong opinions and only welcomed in if he professes to have changed?

The first iteration of Seedance launched in June last year. The Motion Picture Association, the Hollywood trade association that represents studios such as Paramount, Warner Bros and Netflix, accused ByteDance of “unauthorised use of US copyrighted works on a massive scale”. The actors’ union Sag-Aftra has accused Seedance of “blatant infringement”.

They are worried. Mainly because their closed shop is threatened. Good!   

Unforseen Consequences

Sir Keir Starmer issued a direct plea to London parents to get their children vaccinated against measles as health chiefs were scrambling to contain a “big outbreak” in the north of the capital. The Prime Minister’s intervention highlighted how worried the Government is about the outbreak in Enfield.

And they are right to be, but it’s a disaster entirely of their own making, no matter what they want you to believe. 

Taking a swipe at Nigel Farage’s Reform UK for giving a stage to a doctor who wrongly claimed Covid jabs were linked to cancers affecting the King and Princess of Wales, the PM added: “Public health isn’t a culture war.

 It became one when you acquiesced in the government of the day’s plan to lock down the entire country for a flu variant, and encouraged everyone to get ineffective jabs to ‘combat’ it.

“It’s about keeping our communities safe.

 Which ‘communities’ are these anyway? Remember when the UK only had the one to worry about? 

Health minister Stephen Kinnock stressed that the Government was “very concerned” about the big outbreak in north London.“Our country expects its leaders to stand firmly behind science to protect our children, not to give oxygen to conspiracy theories.”

Dismissing discredited claims of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism, he stressed that the jab was “completely safe in terms of the science”.

Yeah, science, from the people that believe women can have penises and men can, if they take hormones, grow a cervix! It is to laugh!

'National Emergencies' Aren't What They Used To Be...

Deepfake nudes and “revenge porn” must be removed from the internet within 48 hours or technology firms risk being blocked in the UK, Keir Starmer has said, calling it a “national emergency” that the government must confront.

Really? Pictures are a 'national emergency'? Even admittedly fake ones, or ones supplied by the 'victim' themselves? Don't we have real life things to worry about? 

Of course, they have to get this through the Commons, and then the Lords, first: 

Companies could be fined millions or even blocked altogether if they allow the images to spread or be reposted after victims give notice.Amendments will be made to the crime and policing bill to also regulate AI chatbots such as X’s Grok, which generated nonconsensual images of women in bikinis or in compromising positions until the government threatened action against Elon Musk’s company.

WE all know the real reason why thin-sknned Starmer has it in for social media, don't we Reader?  

The prime minister said that institutional misogyny being “woven into the fabric of our institutions” meant the problem had not been taken seriously enough. “Too often, misogyny is excused, minimised or ignored. The arguments of women are dismissed as exaggerated or ‘one-offs’. That culture creates permission,” Starmer wrote.

So, Starmer, what are you planning to do about Hampshire Police?  Or would the answer be 'Nothing, because it's not linked to social media'? 

Oh Look, It's The Consequences Of Our Actions Once Again!

 How it started: 

How it's going: 

Just once, I'd like the conseqences to fall on those ptoposing something, and not on everyone else. 

"a childish escapade that got out of hand very quickly"

A 16-year-old girl and 15-year-old boy were cleared of murdering Alexander Cashford, 49, but convicted of the secondary charge of manslaughter at Woolwich crown court. The attack took place in Leysdown-on-Sea on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent on 10 August last year after Cashford had given his phone number to the girl two days earlier. A 16-year-old boy who was also involved in the attack previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

The three defendants cannot be legally named because of their ages.

 Old enough to plan to ambush a man and set about him, leading to his death, yet still 'vulnerable children' im the eyes of our ludicrous legal system...

The court heard that the three teenagers exchanged messages with Cashford using the alias Sienna after he had met the 16-year-old girl at an amusement arcade and given her a business card with a fake name.The teenagers arranged to meet him at the seafront in Leysdown-on-Sea at about 7pm, the court was told, before following him as he walked along the promenade with the girl.

Copying, it would appear, the internet notoriety of the so-called 'paedophile hunters', who have set themselves up to catch the Third World predators our police farces don't seem interested in stopping. 

During his evidence, the older boy was asked if, in the immediate aftermath – before they were arrested or discovered Cashford had died – he had thought he had “done the right thing” by attacking him. The boy replied: “Yeah, kind of, yeah.” When asked why, he said: “Because I feel like the police wouldn’t have done anything.”

A chilling indictment of modern youth, and also, may I suggest, how the forces of authority have failed us all? 

The three teenagers are expected to be sentenced in April.

And no-one will face any censure for the failures of society that put them in the dock, and Mr Cashford in a grave.  

So You Think It's Easy To Defend Against Online Harms?

Sir Keir Starmer will today say he is stepping up Government action to protect children online amid growing pressure for him to ban under-16s from social media. The Prime Minister will vow that no social media or internet platform will get a 'free pass' when it comes to children's safety.

Even though the Pakistani rape gangs all did?  

Ministers will also look at ways to prevent children using VPNs - which can bypass age verification systems - to access pornography. And they will consider measures to preserve phone data in tragic cases where online activity is suspected of being involved in a child's death.

They haven’t a clue, have they? If an adult gives a child in their house permission to use a VPN, what can the government do about it? Why do they even consider it their business? Especially considering they mandate VPNs for the public sector when WFH...

The PM said last night: 'As a dad of two teenagers, I know the challenges and the worries that parents face making sure their kids are safe online. 

'Technology is moving really fast, and the law has got to keep up. With my government, Britain will be a leader not a follower when it comes to online safety.

Which is why you immediately jumped on Australia's social media ban for under 16's without even waiting a few months to see how (or if) it worked?  

'We are acting to protect children's wellbeing and help parents to navigate the minefield of social media.'

IF you genuinely cared about children’s welfare, would you have locked them up for a year under Covid and imported infinity Third World migrants to compete with them for scant (and ever dwindling) social resources?  

What’s More Niche Than Niche?

The manosphere is back (Ed: Did it ever go away, then?), and we’ve lost mainstream feminist websites such as Teen Vogue; bigots everywhere are celebrating what they see as the death of “woke”. Put it all together and we have a dismal stew of doom for someone like me, a queer woman and a feminist who’s been a games journalist and critic since 2007.

Perhaps because your immediate focus is on what you are, as opposed to what you do...?  

In the mid-2010s, I worked for a small “geek girl” feminist website called the Mary Sue, and it was a unique pleasure to write very specific articles for a very specific audience. The Mary Sue relied on advertising income, which meant that all of us had to write up to six articles every weekday; there wasn’t time to spend on investigative reporting, for example, or long-form critical essays. I’m still proud of what we achieved, despite the intensity of those working conditions, not to mention the amount of harassment we faced just for existing.

'Harassment' no doubt limited to people's refusal to read said website? 

Later, I left the Mary Sue and went on to work for Kotaku and then Polygon, both huge games websites where I was writing for broader audiences, rather than the hyper-specific one we catered to at the Mary Sue.

Both huge games websites thst were once readable, but are now shadows of their former selves, conquered as they have been by the identity politics crowd,  

But then, in the summer of 2025, my then-employer Polygon underwent a mass layoff and acquisition. We went from a staff of 42 people to just eight. After a particularly disheartening video call with our website’s new owners, I realised I was going to have to quit.

The only surprise was she disn't leap into a cozy spot at Reactormag. Another publication that seems to hire mostly people unable to sublimate their political leanings and personal sexual hang-ups long enough to do their job.

Another one of my colleagues at Polygon – Zoe Hannah, games editor – quit as well, for similar reasons. She hit me up with an idea she had for a feminist games website. “You should do it,” I told her. And then I sat there for a moment and thought about it. No, we should do it!

I believe our website is a necessity in our current political climate. It should have existed before, when I and millions of other girls who grew up playing games were made to feel out of place by media and advertising that was laser-focused on teenage boys. But it’s not too late for me to make sure it exists now.

Well, I wish you luck. You're gonna need it!  

Well, THIS Will Need A Very Specialised Team...

                                             

Who could possibly take this one on? 

"Jesus, Mary and Joseph and the wee donkey"

Most Of Us Don't Fall For This, Emma

When did food become medicine? There’s all the pseudoscientific supplementary stuff, but even normal food has started to feel functional, mere units of nutrition. A tally runs in my head of things I “need” to eat: am I getting enough oats, beans, leafy greens? What about nuts?

The edible sort, or your equally neurotic fellow columnists at the 'Guardian', Emma? 

I’m not sure I remember what I actually enjoy eating any more. I’m certain no one on earth enjoys eating flaxseeds – they have all the personality of polystyrene packaging chips – but I choke them down daily, for my cholesterol and gut health.

Then more fool you!  

A twentysomething man I know told me he knows the protein content of every food, which conjures the spectre of the generations of women unable to erase calorie counts from their brains. We’re making food a source of anxiety, not enjoyment.

I refuse to belive any  normal red-blooded chap would, but then I realise the sort of circles Emma likely runs in... 

It’s a luxury problem...for those with means, dietary neurosis is whipped up and egged on by companies and influencers, convincing us we need “immunity shots”, “brain food” packs and protein bars.

Indeed it is, most of us look askance at this sort of ultra-processed crap and wouldn't eat it if we could afford to.

Could we stop seeing eating as another way to self-optimise and remember it’s a daily joy? With Lent coming up, I’ve decided to observe what I’m calling “anti-Lent”. I’ll be giving up consuming anxiety-inducing nutritional content and instead eating food I love every day. It definitely won’t include sea moss.

Congratulations on joining the majority of people at last!  

Remember When Newspapers Felt A Duty To Inform Their Readership?

A 51-year-old Suffolk woman's appeal against an 18 month ban for drink driving has been upheld at Ipswich Crown Court.

Oh?  They are usually pretty open and shut - what grounds was her appeal made on?

Nicola Charalambous, of Folly Road, Mildenhall had been found guilty of drink driving and driving without due care and attention at Suffolk Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, October 8.However, at an appeal hearing on Friday (February 6), prosecutors withdrew their evidence against her meaning she has been cleared of the charges and her driving ban has been overturned.

 Hmm, suspicious, or what? Shame there's no...oh, what did they used to call them...*snaps fingers...* reporters, that was it! to tell us. 

In addition to being disqualified from driving for 18 months, Charalambous was also fined £180 and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £144, plus £650 in costs.

Does she get those refunded? We shall never know, if we rely on local newspapers...

H/T : Dave Ward via email

It's Not Just The Muslims!

Campaigners are calling on theatre bosses to stop serving bacon, sausages and ham in their cafes...

Whut?  The usual suspects? No, Reader, and yes.

...at least while Peppa Pig and her family are performing in the same building.

Oh, for god's sake! What happened to people who once did this in response to stupid demands from lunatics? 

 This is how you should have dealt with PETA! 

Grimsby Auditorium in Lincolnshire said this week it would remove pork from the menu when Peppa Pig’s Big Family Show opens next month, after a request from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta UK). The campaign group is sending the venue vegan ham as an alternative. Jennifer White, an associate director at Peta, welcomed the decision, saying she hoped it would remind people “that all pigs are individuals with personalities and not body parts to be chopped up”.

They are both, actually. 

The auditorium told Peta it would remove pork products from the Stage Door cafe menu as a “considerate gesture” during the show’s run on 3-4 March.

Why? Why not tell these charlatans - who kill more animals than anyone - to sit and spin if they don't like it?  

In November, Peta said it had persuaded Chichester Festival theatre to drop pork products from its menus during a run of The Three Little Pigs.

Ah. Because yet more spineless arty types encouraged them... 

So Many Long Names..

Police have charged four people with the murder of a 17-year-old boy in a village in south Wales. Officers were called to Lower Francis Street in Abertridwr, Caerphilly, at about 17:45 GMT on Thursday after reports a teenage boy from the village had sustained a serious injury. He was declared dead at the scene and later named as Tristan Shae Kerr.

What a good old fashioned small Welsh village name, eh, Reader? As for the 'serious injury' it was caused by a zombie knife.

Three men, aged 18, 24 and 26, and one woman, 24, are being held in custody and will appear at Newport Magistrates' Court on Monday, Gwent Police said.

Are any of those called Jones or Evans, I wonder?  (Ed: no,Ricardo Elliot, 26, Connor Palfrey, 24, Elexi Manny, 24, and 18-year-old Georgie Mears). And neither are the authorities:

"We understand that there has been a great deal of interest in this investigation," senior investigating officer Det Ch Insp Jitka Tomkova-Griffiths said. "However we would ask people not to speculate about the identities of those involved," she continued.

It seems Wales is in danger of a severe hyphen shortage.  

It seems feelings are running high, judging by this rather cryptic comment. 

Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke (Ed: !!) told the court that it was "vital" for court proceedings not to be interrupted. "I am well aware that feelings ran high when this case went before magistrates' court [on Monday]," she said.

Another one to watch.  

I Love Modern Twists On Old Fairy Tales...

...and so, it seems, does Matt! 

I Beg Your Pardon?

                                 

The term is 'hangdog'....

Sunday Funnies...

 No 9 is just applying the same rules as Narnia....

Happy 30th Birthday, Little Japanese Time Sink!

During the first wave of Pokémania in the late 90s, Pokémon was viewed with suspicion by most adults. Now that the first generation of Pokémaniacs have grown up, even becoming parents ourselves, we see it for what it is: an imaginative, challenging and really rather wholesome series of games that rewards every hour that children devote to it.

And even those who didn't grow up with it (as I was never a console kid, but rather a PC gamer), now feel the call and like me, take a day off work and travel to the Excel Centre in London to take part in mega-events like The 2026 EUIC.

Over the three decades since the original Red and Blue (or Green, in Asia) versions of the video game were released in Japan in 1996, Pokémon has earned a place among the greats of children’s fiction. Like Harry Potter, the Famous Five and Narnia, it offers a powerful fantasy of self-determination, set in a world almost totally free of adult supervision. In every game, your mother sends you out into the world with a rucksack and a kiss goodbye; after that, it’s all on you.

 No kidding! 

It was designed from the beginning to be a social game, encouraging (and indeed necessitating) that players traded and battled with each other to complete their collection of virtual creatures and train their teams up into super-squads. Today, the internet has entirely normalised the idea of video games as social activities, but in the late 90s this was a novel idea.

Not for us PC gamers, of course, we had MMORPGs like Ultima Online and Everquest...but for the console kids, hooking up to a fellow player's machine - via physical cable! - to play co-op or evolve a 'mon was revolutionary!

But it hasn't all been smooth sailing... 

Today, Tajiri is a reclusive figure. Almost everything we know about him comes from a single 1999 interview with Time magazine. The tone of Time’s piece is shockingly dismissive. Declaring the series “a pestilential Ponzi scheme” it describes the “delinquent” and “criminal” behaviour of young Pokémon fans, and the moral bankruptcy of the whole craze – which, it comforts, is likely to peter out soon, like it did for the Power Rangers. Now that Pokémon has become one of the most enduring and successful entertainment properties of all time, this alarmist attitude seems ridiculous. But the scaremongering was very real.

Thankfully I missed all that, as it was 2016's smartphone accessible 'Pokemon Go' that hooked me in, followed by my first ever console (barring a Playstation 2 I bought to play Cabelas's Hunting games and soon ended up using as a DVD player), the Switch, and recently the much more powerful Switch 2. 

Perhaps understandably, given the disrespectful and, presumably, hurtful tone of that Time interview, and the moral panic that Pokémania unwittingly ignited, Satoshi Tajiri has shunned the limelight ever since. Now 60, he remains at Game Freak and is still involved in the creation of each new Pokémon game (as of 2025, there are 38 in total), though he reportedly stepped back from day-to-day development in 2012.

They haven't all been winners, the most recent, 'Pokemon ZA' changing the combat to real time rather than turn based didn't sit too well with older less nimble-fingered players like me, but the upcoming 'Pokopia' (which I got a chance to play a demo of yesterday at EUIC) looks far more my idea of a cosy and relaxing game to pick up after work.

Pokémon’s story speaks to an important truth about video games: they are a powerful vector for connection between people. Millions are united by these imaginary creatures, born from one boy’s love of the natural world.

Indeed so. If any of those 'Time' writers are still around I hope they now realise just how wrong they were. 

FULL SPEED AHEAD....

 ...AND DAMN THE TORPEDOES*! 

* Sadly, Reader, there are no torpedoes. Nothing can seemingly prevent this dead-on-its-feet government from fatally wounding the country as it thrashes around in its death throes...

The Judicial System Of Great Britain - Protecting The Rights Of UK Citizens?

No, not really.

Pakistani national Sheraz Malik, 28, was found guilty of raping a 'vulnerable' teenage girl whom he and a friend pounced on in a park in the constituency of Reform MP Lee Anderson. Mr Anderson first exposed Malik as an asylum seeker last year after he was arrested for targeting the 18-year-old woman when she was alone in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire.

But a judge stopped the public from being told about the rapist's asylum status by gagging the Press from reporting it until the end of his trial, it can now be revealed.

A jury on Monday convicted Malik of two counts of rape after just a few hours of deliberation at Birmingham Crown Court.

Who imposed the order? One of those 'diverse' judges we were told we desperately needed to 'improve' our justice system, of course: 

At a hearing at Nottingham Crown Court in September, Judge Nirmal Shant imposed a reporting restriction postponing publication of Malik's immigration status until the end of the trial, to avoid a 'substantial risk of prejudice to the administration of justice'.

But don’t focus all your opprobium on her, Reader, the old white male judges are really no better:  

In court Malik was asked why he took advantage of the victim, and replied: 'What else was I supposed to do?' Asked how he arrived in Europe, Malik protested that the question was not relevant – prompting Judge Simon Ash to intervene and side with the defendant.

Malik will be sentenced at a later date.

The entire edifice needs sweeping out like the Augean Stables. For the same reason.

Boy, Was Joe Jackson Right...!

"Don't you know that it's different for girls?"

Harry Potter being a work for children, about children, starring children. Good grief, If a male star had reported that he employed a Hermoine Granger stripper at his stag do, we'd all be looking for his name to pop up in the Epstein Files.

Margot said: 'So we all had a weekend in London when the job was done. And of course, we went to Infernos, and within about 15 minutes, we got kicked out. 

'And while we're getting dragged out by security, I was screaming, “but this is Infernos, you can’t get kicked out of Infernos.” 

'And the bouncer was like, “Look, we allow most things, but when your friend does [redacted], then we kick you out”. 

And I was like, “okay, fair enough!”' Margot did not reveal what her friend had done to alert security, but went on to admit: 'Most of the clubs in Clapham, I'd say, have kicked us out.

Ugh. Am I the only one that wishes we could go back to the times when movie studios employed people to ensure the public didn't find out their stars were degenerates? 

Bet You Won't See The Elites Eating It Though...

“If we’re going to address the world’s insatiable craving for animal meat, we’re going to have to replace like for like.” That means cultivating meat from cells in brewery-like factories or making taste-identical plant-based meats. In both cases, for people to buy them, the products must also cost the same or less than conventional meat.

In most cases, for people to buy them, you'd have to hold a gun to their head. Or maybe that's just me?  

These alternative proteins are the electric vehicles (EVs) of food, Friedrich says; the same experience, but better: “Just like a car doesn’t now need a combustion engine, a phone doesn’t need a cord, and you can take pictures without film, you can make meat without the need for live animals.”

It's Frankenfood. I suppose it's a natural progression from the 'science' that seems to believe it's possible to change women into men and vice versa. 

But such progress will require governments to ramp up their support for the scientists overcoming the obstacles in this still-embryonic field. They have done it before for previous transformative technologies, from penicillin to the internet to renewable energy, Friedrich says.

All vastly useful inventions, that had no viable alternative at the time, or like this, did but it suited governments and lobbyists to pretend the viable alternative had become problematic.  

If China went all-in for example, he says, conventional meat could be all but history by mid-century: “They took EV sales [at home] from 1% to more than 50% in the 10 years to 2025, and that’s a tougher tech challenge and scaling challenge than alternative meats.”

China? You're pinning your hopes on China?! The population of which eats everything with wings that isn't a airplane, and everything that with four legs that isn't a table? Well, good luck with that!

Friedrich is a compelling advocate for his goal of ending industrial agriculture, with answers for the many criticisms: “It’s just a shockingly inefficient way of producing food. It takes nine calories of crops to get one calorie of chicken, 10 or 11 calories of crops to get one calorie of pig meat or farmed fish and 40 to 100 calories of crops to get one calorie of beef.”

That's industrial factory farming. But - for example -  lamb and goat can be produced on land that is useless for any other type of food production.

Frequently raised is the “yuck factor” of cultivated meat. This is overblown, Friedrich says. “People are not eating meat because of how it’s produced,” he says. “They’re eating meat because it’s delicious and affordable. All of the polling indicates significant enthusiasm for cultivated meat, especially among people who eat the most meat.”

Who are you polling, Friedrich ? Is it the people who are expected to eat this? Because, let's face it, this stuff isn't going to be on the menu at Davos or the Oscars, is it? 

I Find It A Perfectly Acceptable Risk...

 ...and so, I suspect, would most people: 

Requiring transgender prisoners to be held in jails matching their sex at birth would breach their human rights and create an unacceptable risk of suicide, a court has been told.

Oh, well...the suicide risk for those not in prison is pretty high too, due to their mental condition,  so *shrug* 

The case follows a Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman in equalities law in April last year. The Scottish government insists it respects that judgement - but said it did not override the need to uphold the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The sooner we elect Reform and junk this bloody thing, the better!  

The Scottish government's KC, Gerry Moynihan, said the ECHR meant transgender people had the right to live their lives in their acquired gender. He added there had long been recognition in the UK that this included the right to be held in prisons aligning with that.

He said trans women also had vulnerabilities and needs, and the government's judgement was they were best dealt with in the female estate "assuming they don't pose risks to others". He said this offered them "protection against mental health difficulties and the route to rehabilitation," noting that a "trans woman will return to the community as a trans woman".

They will return to the community a man, because that's what they are and what they always will be... 

O'Neill told the court on Tuesday that there was "incredible sensitivity" to the rights, dignity and privacy of trans people, while the rights of "incredibly vulnerable" female prisoners were not factored in. He said the government wanted to retain the flexibility to put "a totally non-violent trans-identifying man" in the women's estate but questioned why female prisoners had to "bear the risk" of this and act as "human shields". O'Neill continued: "What is required is the preservation of women's only spaces. 

"All I am interested in, because of the situation of women, is the preservation of women's dignity, security and sense of safety vis a vis men - that's all."

Spot on. How have we come to this as a nation? Still, we are at least marginally ahead of the open air asylum that is Canada: 

Van Rootselaar was understood to have used his mother's name, Strang, socially and at school. He was named by Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Wednesday and described as a woman.

But he wasn't.  

Amid questions over how Van Rootselaar was described in alerts, McDonald said police “identified the suspect as they chose to be identified” in public and in social media.

The Trans 'community'  is reacting with all the decorum you would expect from a crowd of narcissitic men in frocks, of course:

                            

 

Perhaps French Children Have Changed..?

In French culture, seven is known as “l’âge de raison”, the age at which children know right from wrong and can take some moral responsibility. France’s national rail operator, it seems, puts the age at which a child can be trusted to behave in a non-annoying way onboard a train a bit higher.

Well, yes. 

In launching its new Optimum plus tariff earlier this month, offering spaces onboard its weekday TGV trains between Paris and Lyon with bigger, more comfortable seats, fancy food and no under-12s, SNCF was trying to appeal to the many business travellers who make that journey.

Perish the thought! Unusually for the 'Guardian', who usually feels there's no desire so niche that it shouldn't be satisfied, the desire to not have your work commute enlivened by unruly brats is considered beyond the pale, and they found a columnist who agrees. 

But the move has sparked a backlash and a philosophical debate about the place of children in society, against the backdrop of a worrying decline in French birthrates. “We can’t on one hand say that we are not having enough children and on the other hand try to exclude them from everywhere,” argues Sarah El Haïry, France’s high commissioner for childhood.

And the name of the high commissioner is itself a clue to the social change, I suspect...

SNCF’s move was certainly a surprising one in a country that has a reputation for being family-friendly and respecting children’s right to take part in the rituals of everyday life, starting with the elaborate three-course meals they are served in school canteens. My own half-French children, growing up in Paris, have had customs such as politely greeting neighbours and shop workers drilled into them from babyhood, not to mention sitting patiently in a restaurant and chacun son tour (taking turns) on the swings in the park.

Perhaps the influx of 'new French' don't feel the same obligation that you felt to adapt to the social mores of their new homeland. 

A society that cannot bear the presence of children is “worrying”, El Haïry argues. The former minister has spoken out before about the “no kids” trend, whereby restaurants and hotels are increasingly targeting child-free grownups who are seeking peace and quiet and have deep pockets.

Is it because they have acquired a loathing of well-behaved children with their fortunes? Or is it because well behaved children are no longer the norm? 

One To Watch...

Police have seized two dogs in Havering following a distressing incident in Raphael Park where a two-year-old girl was injured and required hospital treatment. The incident has caused significant concern among local families and park users, with officers confirming that enquiries are ongoing.

The mutts were initially identified as Cane Corsos, but they turned out to be rottweilers...with a reputation in the area for past attacks. As always, social media fills in the blanks:

Not the usual chav with a vicious dog if he gave his details, though of course he didn't wait around for the police.

Well, well, well. Wonder why the police haven't acted before? 

Oh. Never mind. 

Then Make Them Personally Accountable

The family of a 15-year-old boy who was stabbed to death at school by another pupil has said her son’s murder was “senseless and avoidable” and that a report ordered by the school showed too many “red flags” were missed.

Thisis, of course, the family of Harvey Willgoose, stabbed to death by an enricher at his school. One with the now-expected history of poor behaviour that was no doubt excused by well meaning liberal teaching stagg on account of his race.

“I’m determined that no other family should be sitting in court listening to how their child was killed, have to read a report that lays bare how their child could have been protected. I want to use my voice for Harvey’s memory to push for real change.”

Such as? 

There needed, she said, to be better record-keeping and training in schools nationally. The family have called the report “damning” and said it should be published in full so other schools can learn from mistakes that were made.

You don’t think enough mistakes have been made that they should have already learned from, then? I certainly do. 

Yogi Amin, the head of public law and human rights at Irwin Mitchell, which represents Harvey’s family, said the review had identified “weaknesses in leadership”, failure to implement national policy and “serious shortcomings in record-keeping that meant weapons-related concerns and escalating behaviours were not acted upon effectively”.

Maybe start asking why they weren’t? 

Maria Turner, Harvey’s grandmother, said “all the red flags were missed” including one, she said, that identified 130 incidents in Khan’s records which included “violence, weapons, gangs and anger … and the school did not seem to pick up on this”.

Caroline Willgoose and her family are now campaigning for all schools to install knife arches to help prevent another stabbing.

Yes, by all means, let’s start installing elephant proof gates on our schools but never, ever address the elephant in the room, oh dear me no. 

Another Choirboy, I Presume..?

A 15-year-old boy has been accused of attacking a female teacher with a kitchen knife after asking for help with work, a court heard. A schoolboy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, allegedly launched the assault on the teacher at Milford Haven Comprehensive School on Thursday afternoon.

And if the court refuses MSM applications to name him after conviction, we'll never know..

He was charged with attempted murder, grievous bodily harm, and possession of a bladed article on education premises. He was remanded into youth detention over the weekend and will appear at Swansea Crown Court on February 9.

What the hell is going on in our schools? And our country?  

Once Again, The Scottish Government Is Preferable To Westminster's Lack Of Foresight...

Swift bricks will be installed in all new buildings in Scotland after the Scottish parliament voted in favour of a law to help endangered cavity-nesting birds.The Scottish government and MSPs across the parties backed an amendment by Scottish Green Mark Ruskell to make swift bricks mandatory for all new dwellings “where reasonably practical and appropriate”.

Fot once, a sensible and unobtrusive policy from the Greens, one that will benefit the environment with little to no drawbacks. Why can't we have it here? 

Because, Reader, our government is once again proven utterly useless:  

The swift move contrasts with the four-year battle to bring the hollow £35 bricks into law in England. The Labour government last year rejected an amendment to make the bricks mandatory for new buildings, instead introducing them into planning guidance, meaning there is no legal obligation on developers or planning authorities to provide them.

And Wales too, another Labour stronghold, followed suit. 

The Welsh government rejected swift bricks last year, arguing that developers could use the bricks to argue they were meeting “net benefit for biodiversity” requirements without providing other nature-positive measures.

So rather than applaud the nature-positive thing they were doing, the dog-in-a-manger morons in Wales chose to focus on the things they weren't doing? Sounds about right.

In Gibraltar, an important point on the swifts’ seasonal flyway between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, swift bricks have helped populations recover. Prof John Cortes, the environment minister of Gibraltar, said: “Scotland’s decision on swift bricks is a significant step in ensuring the survival of this species, which has come to depend so much on us. On the ‘Rock’ we have had this policy for several decades and we have seen a declining population of swifts first stabilise and then increase.”

Shortsightedness from Westminster is clearly to be expected.  

We Found A Real One!

A 'talented footballer', that is...

'One of his main passions was football, and he had played since the age of four. He was an Arsenal supporter, and we believe he was on his way home to watch the game later that night when he was stabbed and killed.

So typically 2026. As was the unnecessary coyness from the authorities about the reason for the overwhelming police presence and road closures.

And of course, while the MSM was still in bed, Twitter was making the predictions and getting them right:

A post-mortem examination showed that Oladipo died from a stab wound to his chest. Harper Dennis, 18, of North Road, West Drayton, London, has been charged with Oladipo's murder and with the possession of an offensive weapon in a public place, Leicestershire Police confirmed.

Let's hope he didn't source his weapon from the university canteen. 

Always On Point And Topical...

 ...that's Matt! 

 

Sunday Funnies...

 It's a tactic that works, so of course they over-use it. 

How Is It A ‘Superpower’ If It needs This Level Of Encouragement?

Stormzy called reading a “superpower” as he backed an initiative aimed at encouraging people who don’t see themselves as readers to pick up a book.

What sort of people ‘don’t see themselves as readers?’ you might ask, Reader? Is it once again the demographic that dare not speak its name? 

“Reading helped me when I was young and it still does today,” said Stormzy. “Books have the power to carry you through life.” 

Not as much as being a DEI media darling who can do no wrong in the eyes of the MSM…

“I encourage anyone who doesn’t usually read to pick up a Quick Read – because reading really is a superpower,” he added. “Music and books are both about finding your voice. We are all made of stories – they define who we are.”

If it really was a ‘superpower’ would you have to plug it so hard, or water it down to suit the audience you are aiming at, though? 

“Having never read a book until the age of 24, I wish I had come across Quick Reads sooner,” said Owusu. “They’re accessible, affordable and gentle in their approach, allowing new or lapsed readers to find their way into the pleasure and fulfilment of reading fiction and nonfiction. “I’m excited to be part of their legacy and to add my voice to something that helps people feel confident enough to pick up a book and look forward to spending time with it,” he added.

So what sort of literary masterpieces are you creating? 

Owusu is also the author of That Reminds Me, Losing the Plot, Borderline Fiction and the editor of Safe: 20 Ways to be a Black Man in Britain Today.

 Gosh, I’ll leave you to it…

Expecting People To Exercise A Little Self-Control In 2026 - Is That Futile?

'I have a thing with the broadcast,' she said in her press conference shortly after the loss. 'I feel like certain moments - the same thing happened to Aryna (Sabalenka) after I played her in the final of the US Open - they don't need to be broadcast.

 Well, don't do them then. Is that so hard? 

'I tried to go somewhere where I thought there wasn't a camera, because I don't like breaking rackets. I broke one racket at the French Open and I said I would never do it again on court, because I don't feel like that's a good representation. 

Well, you’re right, it isn’t. This isn’t the 70s anymore, we got over the John McEnroe era, and decided to push good sportsmanship instead. 

'I went somewhere where I thought they wouldn't broadcast it, but obviously they did. Maybe some conversations can be had, because I feel like at this tournament the only private place we have is the locker room.'

 So you're fully aware of how it looks, yet you can't possibly control yourself?

She was then asked about the benefits of letting her frustrations out on the racket, revealing it calmed down her emotions ahead of speaking to her team. 

'Yeah, definitely,' she said. 'I think for me, I know myself. I don’t want to lash out on my team. They’re good people. They don’t deserve that. I know I’m emotional. 

'I just took the minute to go and do that. I don’t think it’s a bad thing.'

Well, if you don't want people to see you do it, you clearly realise that it is.  Are you a moron?

She is world No 3 and despite her young age, has spoken confidently and passionately about various cultural and political controversies, always handling them delicately and professionally. Therefore, it came as a shock to see her red mist descend after the quarterfinal loss, which saw her dumped out at the hands of the 12th seed Svitolina.

Did it really? 

Unforseen Consequences

A horror about mythical Welsh fairies had filming relocated to north Yorkshire after crew found out about strict non-smoking rules on sets in Wales.

Does it matter these days, when so much film scenery doesn't exist outside of a hard disc anyway? 

The ban made it impossible to make key scenes look authentic, according to Rabbit Trap, external director Bryn Chainey, as the main characters Darcy and Daphne Davenport - played by Dev Patel and Rosy McEwen - are chain smokers.

It's a film, an original script - if the filming in Wales was felt to be so necessary, just write them differently to please the prodnoses, surely?  

In England, there is an exemption if someone is required to smoke as part of a role, according to the British Film Commission, external.

Relaxing the rules around film sets in Wales was discussed in detail more than a decade ago in the Senedd, with the BBC warning it could move filming of prestigious dramas over the border, but proposals were dropped after opposition from campaign groups.

Well, that's about the level of decision making we've come to expect from the Labour fiefdom in Wales, after all. 

While the Rabbit Trap team had encountered other issues around filming in the country, the director called the smoking ban "the nail in the coffin" for its original plans in Wales.

"It gives the audience a visual hint at the anxiety they're not talking about."

You're hiring these people to act, surely they can convey that some other way? 

"The only workaround would have been using CGI (computer-generated imagery) to make the cigarettes appear to burn and produce smoke," Chainey said. "That would have looked fake and was out of our budget."

As he is half-Welsh, the project was inspired by Chainey's desire to connect with his roots, with the film set entirely in a remote cottage. Welsh actor Jade Croot, from Merthyr Tydfil, whose character is bilingual, was cast in a main role. The production team then spent months searching Wales for the ideal location for filming.

And flouncing off to Yorkshire when he came up against the nonsense that has overtaken the land of his roots, rather than change his script. 

The Usual Contrast...

The killer:

The benefit claimant, whose only child is in foster care, has amassed a record of criminal offending for repeated shoplifting, theft, drugs and assault in both Scotland and England but has never previously served a jail sentence, the court heard.

The victim:

ex-Royal Marine Alun Harris-Richards...who had an undiagnosed heart disease, 'suffered such physical and emotional stress that he then and there sustained a heart attack, fell to the ground, struck his head and died'.

The punishment...perhaps

A judge told Smith, formerly of North Grimsby, Arbroath, that the only possible punishment for her offending was 'a significant custodial sentence'. The hearing was adjourned for sentencing at a later date and Smith was remanded in prison.

Adjourned so reports can be written, no doubt, reports that will outline how leniency is expected for the killer. They certainly won’t mention the gulf between the victim with his decent life and worthwhile job and the worthless waste of skin who killed him, will they? 

OK, Kenneth, Let's Expand This, Shall We?

Trump didn’t pull the triggers that killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, but he bears political responsibility for having greenlighted the agents’ regularly lawless conduct.

Say I accept your reading of the current sitauation, Kenneth. Who, then, is responsible for the killings of Iryna Zarutska, Ashli Babbitt, Laken Riley, Decara Thompson, Lizbeth Medina? 

Could it be the politicians who let their killers into the country or who argued that their killers shouldn't be judged too harshly because of years of 'racism'?

Or could it be, Kenneth, that you don’t think about Iryna Zarutska, Ashli Babbitt, Laken Riley, Decara Thompson and  Lizbeth Medina at all? Are they not even worth remembering to you, simply offerings to your god of Diversity?

What's Another Barmy Idea From The World Of Education, After All?

Pupils should not automatically be sent home if they are suspended from school in England and could instead remain on site, the government has said. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said being sent home could mean children "retreating to social media". She said on-site suspensions should be used for pupils who had not been violent.

Starmer is getting pretty deseperate to avoid pupils reading that he's a wanker on Twitter and Snapchat I guess. Everyone already knows, Kwier... 

And why is there such a desperate need to suspend pupils anyway?

The number and rate of suspensions had been increasing before Covid, but the rise has accelerated ever since.

Ah, Covid panic - the gift that really does go on giving. 

What About The Harms Done To Them By Parents Like You?

Esther Ghey has called on MPs to vote for an age restriction on social media in the coming weeks, as she accused the government of “kicking the can down the road” with its planned consultation.

Who she? How quickly one forgets, eh, Reader? 

She has previously detailed how she believes her daughter’s social media addiction contributed to her mental health issues, leading her to take risks with her personal safety.

Except she didn’t have a daughter, she had a son. A mentally ill son who believed he was a girl, and who she supported and encouraged in that belief, instead of getting him the help he needed. And now she has the gall to believe anyone should listen to her on this subject:

“Brianna wasn’t alone. We know that there are each day, in England alone, 500 mental health referrals for children and we need to really think what is impacting this, why is there such an increase in mental health issues, why is there an increase in peer and peer violence in schools, why is there a difficulty retaining teachers in schools. 

“We need to move now because as we’re waiting, more and more children are being harmed.”

They are. But not all of them by social media. 

Another Of Those Things That 'Never Happens' Has Happened...

...and produced this surreal situation for the judge:

The jury was told they will be taken to the scene of the incident in a site visit. Judge Daniel Sawyer said: 'Ordinarily I would tell you not to go to the location but in this case it's just out the back of the building and it would be utterly pointless, you can see most of it from your jury retiring room.'

I'm surprised he didn't just tell them anyway, since the justice system loves futile gestures. 

Feels As If The Muzzle Was Serving A Useful Purpose, Kristen

Stopping you from embarrasing utterances like these ones, for a start:

Stewart first read the book in 2018, while on the set of the movie JT LeRoy. She saw the visual potential in this mass of chaotic images and quickly decided it would be her first feature-length film as director. “Forty pages in, I was so rallied and so viciously adamant that nobody else could make the movie but me,” she says.

Really? Yet you've never made one in your life. 

“It was so physical. So vital. Such a permeating secret. There’s an unearthing quality to the way that [Yuknavitch] talked about trespass, and how your desires are carved into your body. As a woman, we have these seeping birthplaces that are our orifices, and it’s where we hold our power, but it’s also where we’re taken advantage of.”

This particular line generated much amusement over at Tim's place... 

At this point, less than two minutes in, it’s fair to say that it isn’t quite turning out to be your run-of-the-mill movie-star promotional chat. “We’re all so muzzled,” Stewart says. “And it just felt like the muzzle was off. That’s the fun part. It’s got a loud mouth. A big, wide-open mouth.” So she sent Yuknavitch an email.

Didn't pick up the telephone and use your loud mouth, then? Luckily for her, the auther appears to be cut from the same cloth: 

“A wildly exciting email,” the author says, from her home in Portland, Oregon. “She was explaining to me why I could never let this book be a regular biopic movie, and how I had to let her make a piece of art out of it. The language she used went under my skin immediately, because it wasn’t regular-person language.”

No, you're not kidding!  

Yuknavitch, obsessed with films since she was five, was, of course, familiar with Stewart’s work. “I even wrote a novel with her in mind, a while ago. She was younger. She had just punched through the Twilight experiences, and she was moving toward independent art films, and I pictured her in my brain when I wrote this novel.” It is called Dora: A Headcase. It sounds like a spooky connection, if she believes in that kind of thing? Artists, Yuknavitch replies, have a tendency to find each other.

Words fail me... 

Is The Clue In The Name?

The Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) released a report on Thursday into the actions of the former orthopaedic surgeon who treated hundreds of children over five years. The review found that 98 patients (12.4%) experienced some level of harm, and 94 of these cases were linked specifically to the care provided by (him.).

Why was he allowed to continue for so long? Could it be because he wasn't British?

Well, Who? Apart, Of Course, From The Usual Suspects...

The mother of a man who was mauled to death by an XL Bully he was dog-sitting is demanding someone take accountability.

Scott Samson's remains were discovered alongside the dog in the blood-soaked living room of his home in Rutherglen in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, on March 15 last year. The XL Bully, named Mitch, belongs to Neal Stark, 37, who had given it to a friend when he was jailed for drug offences in February 2025.The friend then asked Mr Samson to look after the dog while he went on holiday.

I guess having criminal-adjacent friends who palm off unregistered dangerous dogs on you in Scotland is a risk factor akin to going out to attend a protest while armed in Minnesota albeit with a far more grueome outcome...

Mr Samson's mother Morag said police did not tell her he had been attacked by the dog when his body was discovered, and instead said he died from an accidental drug overdose - leaving her confused when an undertaker said she would not be able to see his body and he would need a closed coffin.

So they lied. Is anyone surprised? Think they've sunk about as low as they could go? Reader, you ain't heard nothin' yet:  

Morag said dog catchers were unable to remove the aggressive XL Bully from the house, meaning it was left in the room with Mr Samson's body for another 13 hours during which time she believes it continued to attack him, targeting his 'private parts'.

The cause of Mr Samson's death was inconclusive due to the extent of the damage done to his body.

Yes, Police Scotland let this monster mutt eat the victim rather than risk the emails from the 'aww poor puppy' lunatics by sending in an ARV to riddle the thing with bullets. 

Morag was reeling with anger when she learnt no one will be prosecuted over her son's death and police have spent thousands of pounds keeping the XL Bully in kennels since the attack.

It's only taxpayer's money, Morag... 

The grieving mother said the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) told her there isn't enough evidence to prosecute the dog's owner, despite the animal being confirmed by experts as an XL Bully and found to be unregistered - a legal requirement for the banned breed.

Once again, the CPS living down to their nickname. 

Scottish Conservative shadow minister for community safety Sharon Dowey MSP said: 'This deeply troubling case exposes serious failures in how dangerous dogs are dealt with in Scotland, leaving families devastated and police tied up with costly, drawn-out processes. 'SNP ministers were far too slow to act on XL Bullies, and this failure has left communities less safe while taxpayers foot the bill. 'Police and prosecutors need the powers, clarity and resources to act decisively, and SNP ministers must urgently explain why that is still not happening.'

But they won't and they won't face any genuine consequences for this either, and you know it... 

Inventions Often Turn On Their Creators...

Didn't anyone at the Home Office ever read Mary Shelley or H G Wells? 

The origins of the character are ironic, to say they least. An early iteration of Amelia began life in a counter-extremism video game funded by the UK Home Office and created to deter young people aged 13-18 from being attracted to far right extremism in Yorkshire.

Why would they be? What's been happening in Yorkshire, I wonder?  

Pathways: Navigating the Internet and Extremism is a simple multiple choice format game with basic animation. Its players are taken on a journey as characters at a college. They are invited to make decisions in scenarios including whether or download potentially extremist content or join an Amelia character on a rally organised by “a small political group” protesting against changes in society and the “erosion in British values”.

You released a virtuesignalling hectoring game, one that you really should have known would be subverted by gamers post-Gamergate... 

Certain choices result in a referral under the British government’s Prevent counter-terrorism programme.

And of course, that's exactly what happened!  

However, it is a subversion of the Amelia character that has exploded across social media channels in a way that has astonished even the creators of the original game. Among the plethora of increasingly sophisticated AI-generated iterations are a Manga-style Amelia, a Wallace and Gromit version and AI-generated “real life” encounters between her and the characters of Father Ted or Harry Potter, accompanied by racist language and far-right messaging.

 We live in ....interesting times, don't we?