Why Are We Worried About Food Security, And Not About Food Purity?

What’s worrying French supermarket bosses should be prompting British ministers to action. On Sunday, hackers forced up the temperatures of refrigerators in hundreds of food stores across France to as high as 50C, resulting in waste and fires. Beyond the immediate destruction and inconvenience, it raised the prospect of other malicious actors finding new ways to play havoc with the food chain.

 Well, how stupid is it to sync all your fridges together and not password protect them?

Only weeks before, 150 experts together warned the British government that it does not have a plan to feed people in a crisis ­– and that the west is entering an era in which not only disruption but the weaponisation of food is a real possibility.

If so, the government has opened the door when they sanctioned actions like these.

The Covid pandemic was a salutary reminder of how vulnerable modern systems are – a shock for consumers used to strawberries in October.

i remember no lack of strawberries in the first lockdown, or the second. In fact, no shortages of anything, even the infamous toilet rolls. 

One issue is overall supply in the UK, which imports about 40% of its food. But affordability, logistics, distribution and nutrition are also essential components of food security.

But not knowledge of whether your meat is religiously slaughtered, of course. Or whether it contains an additive you don’t need and would rather not consume. 

The government has encouraged households to stockpile several days’ worth of tinned goods and bottled water in case of an emergency.

As long as you have the room to store it all in, of course.  

Real improvement requires a structural shift away from the “leave it to Tesco” approach decried by Prof Tim Lang, a leading food-policy expert.

Why wouldn't we want to leave it to them? They know what they are doing, after all -who else should we leave it to?

Geographical distribution – including relocalisation of food production – is also central. Almost 95% of retail food comes via 131 food-distribution centres. Disruption to just one supermarket chain’s infrastructure could have a mammoth impact.

Experts have rightly called for food supply shortages and disruption to be included as risks in their own right in the national security risk assessment. There is also a strong case for a dedicated national food council to focus on food security.

Oh, the State? Well, I think you can imagine how much I think of that idea! 

Tweet Of The Month

Quote Of The Month

Longrider on the futility of government attempts to force us all to buy electric vehicles: 

"I know I’ve mentioned it here before, but my Renault dealer faced exactly this problem. I was just one of many regular buyers who decided to keep what I had rather than be forced to buy a milk float. If the new Renault 5 had a decent petrol engine and sporty performance (RS version), they would have had a deal. As it is, all-electric means a hard pass from me. Now I have the facilities in place to install a charger if I want to. I don’t want to. I do not want to buy what amounts to a massive battery that causes the whole vehicle to become obsolete once the battery is worn out. I don’t want to have to spend ages charging when I can refuel a petrol car in a matter of minutes, and despite some gains in range, it still isn’t close to where it needs to be and is unlikely to ever become so."

"

Post Title Of The Month

 From Tim Worstall, some economic prediction:

Blog Quote Of The Month

From Chris Snowdon's site, this interesting anecdote:

Post Of The Month

 Bucko on the conundrum of bias in music. 

'We Only Respect SOME Australian Cultures'

A convicted murderer serving a life sentence in Australia has lost his bid to overturn a ban on prisoners consuming Vegemite - the salty yeast-based spread that has become a national symbol. Andre McKechnie argued that the ban, in place since 2006, denied him the right to "enjoy his culture as an Australian".

You should have been an aboriginal, the authorities would have shit themselves at the thoughts your culture had been disrespected! Why is it banned anyway?

Authorities in the state of Victoria say inmates may use the strong-smelling paste to disguise contraband substances or to brew alcohol behind bars.

Ah.  Well, better than eating the stuff I guess....

And on Monday, a Supreme Court judge rejected McKechnie's appeal, saying the prisoner's "cultural rights are limited primarily by the fact he has been sentenced to a term of imprisonment".

As is only right. And as should apply to all in this position, not just some! 

Clearly Not A Friend Of The Whole Family!

A man has been charged over the alleged attack on Australian MP Helen Haines on Monday.A 43-year-old remains in custody and will appear in court on Wednesday. Here's a recap of what we know:

'We' being the mainstream media, who like everyone else these day, has realised that social media is where everyone goes to for the real news these days.... 

The suspect has not been formally identified, but he was named by local media as Brendan Nugent.His father, Rod, says he and his partner were friends with Helen Haines "for more than 20 years", and calls the attack "devastating and unfathomable"

Victorian independent MP Helen Haines was at the opening of a dog park in Mansfield on Monday, out and about in her sprawling electorate of Indi, talking to locals and moving freely. Later in the afternoon, at 3.35pm, she was unpacking a car outside her electorate office in Wangaratta when a man understood to be known to authorities struck her with his car. He allegedly completed a U-turn when he saw Haines. What happened will urgently change how MPs assess their personal safety, not least because local settings are no longer free from danger.

’Known to the authorities’, God, I’m so sick of that term! It usually means 'Yes, we know they are a danger but we can't be bothered to do anything about it yet, because it's less work for us when they finally kill someone...'

There is much we don’t know about what has happened, including the motivation of the alleged attacker. But a dark tide of threats and abuse has been rising.

For years, federal politicians have had an ominous sense that something was shifting in Australia’s national life.

You mean, when politician ignore the desires of their constituents to persue their own diametrically opposed agenda, there may be anger?  You don't say! 

Long having warned against the growing intensity of political debate, Albanese reflected the grave shock of the country in the hours after the incident. Human rights commission says ‘violence has no place in our society’ after alleged attack. Along with the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, Albanese revealed that recorded threats against politicians numbered more than 1,067 last financial year, as the cohort of office holders requiring around-the-clock close personal protection grew.

And it's not just the Land Down Under.... 

But the alleged attack on Haines shows something rapidly being lost in our politics. The shift in sentiment can no longer be dismissed as social media noise or harmless comment.

More needs to be done to stop a normalisation of violence and gratuitous insults. That includes the importation of rhetoric from the US and Europe, like calls for politicians to be locked up or harmed for their decisions. The politicians dishing out verbal attacks themselves, or inciting individuals to hate online, must be held accountable.

Would that be the Left wing ones as well?  Or do they still get a pass...?

I'm Conflicted, Here...

A van driver has been jailed for three-and-a-half years after deliberately running over a cyclist who spat at him.His face showed little reaction as his van mounted on top of the cyclist's body.

I'm surprised the police charged him, given the awful fuss they make when they are spat on. C'mon, be consistent, is it the worst assault in the world, or not?

Woolwich Crown Court heard Okotie was delivering blood products to a south London hospital when he moved his van into the left lane 'seemingly without looking' and came close to the man on his bike in New Cross Road in March 2024. At the next set of traffic lights, the cyclist spat in Okotie's direction, which 'went through the open driver's window', the court heard.

Probably done this before, and got away within it, as shock and disgust rooted the driver to the spot. But Okotie was made of sterner stuff.

Okotie, 44, who mentors young people to keep them out of violence, was found guilty of grievous bodily harm with intent last week.

Today, he was sentenced to three years and six months but was not banned from driving.

I personally wouln't have convicted. 

In a victim statement, the cyclist said that the attack had made him 'more cautious of people'.

Good! Maybe that'll make him a better ayclist!  

Then You'll Have More Cases Like These Ones. Is That What You Want?

Effective policing depends upon inclusivity. If you are committed to policing by consent that stands or falls on the trust of all communities, you cannot do without it.

You'll have to, because you’ve lost it irrecoverably. 

London is the world’s greatest and most diverse and globally connected city. Nine million people live here. Hundreds of languages are spoken. The scale and complexity of policing London today is unlike anything Sir Robert Peel imagined when founding the Metropolitan police. Yet, in 1829, he recognised that policing success in a democracy relies on public approval, respect and cooperation as much as on “impartial service to the law”.

We cannot be effective if large sections of society do not trust us, do not work with us, or do not see policing as a service that understands their experiences.

Well, I think some of them understand it only too well. 

An inclusive workforce is not a public relations exercise.

Except when it is, and subesequntly goes badly wrong! As it did only too recently.

It makes us better at protecting victims, catching criminals and preventing crime.

We cannot police London effectively without the trust and confidence of the communities we serve.

Stop thinking of them as many disparate 'communities' then and start thinking of them - and treating them under the law - as Londoners.  

By listening to people’s lived experiences and working in partnership with communities, we can build stronger relationships and greater legitimacy. This is particularly important when using police powers, including stop and search, where fairness, empathy and accountability are essential to maintaining public confidence and keeping London safe.

But it never works as intended, does it, Rowley?  

Nice 'Work' If You Can Get It...

Wade through all the jargon and word salad in the new 12-page mission statement and you might think you'd stumbled across a Green Party manifesto or a blog by Greta Thunberg. It talks of 'proudly cross-cutting strategic ambitions of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and Climate Action'. There is a lot about 'justice' – climate, racial, social and economic justice, that is.

🥱 

Yet this is a document issued by a 700-year-old City of London charity with a very specific role: to maintain all the Square Mile's non-rail bridges over the River Thames. These include one of Britain's most famous landmarks, Tower Bridge. And, because it has £1.5 billion in the bank, the charity does all this at zero cost to the taxpayer.

Well, great! Then why should we care how it wastes it’s money..? 

Whopping grants to outfits such as Spectra CIC (£1 million to help it 'build capacity in the trans and sex-worker sector') or Race On The Agenda (£1.5 million to 'combat racial injustice'), may assist a subset of London life. But is it too much to ask a charity set up to maintain bridges to, well, maintain a few more bridges?

Maybe safeguarding the infrastructure of our capital city shouldn’t be something we are reliant on a charity for? Maybe it should be brought back into government control like all the other bridges not covered by this shower?

This all raises broader questions. Whose money is it anyway? And who voted for this stuff? The cash belongs to the people of London, whose antecedents paid all those tolls to cross the river. And over centuries the fund has grown into a vast investment portfolio.

And the people who paid those tolls are long dead and so don't have a claim on the money.

No one is suggesting the City Bridge Foundation had any idea of a possible Hamas link. However, it all adds to the impression of an organisation with more money than it knows what to do with. As well as appointing its own poet in residence, for example, it pays each one of its 29 staff more than £60,000 a year.

I really don't care, not when government and local councils are squandering my taxes willy-nilly. I just wish I earned that much for not doing my job.

The Answer To Everything Is 'More Taxpayer Money'...

so why not try a different tack?

Back in late 2025, when Keir Starmer’s grip on the Labour party was loosening and Reform UK was still in its pomp, the then health secretary, Wes Streeting, commissioned what the government called its “Independent review into prevalence and support for mental health conditions, ADHD and autism”.

Probably the only useful thing he could have done if it really IS independent, of course…

Here, it seemed, was not just an inquiry into England’s ever-extending waiting lists for the diagnosis of mental illness and neurodevelopmental conditions, and the dire lack of support for people who experience one or both of them. The review would also dovetail with two other huge issues: mounting claims of “overdiagnosis”, which Streeting had appeared to partly endorse, and the government’s drive for the reform of so-called welfare.

And no doubt it had orders to  reject those claims, and it followed them.

Last Friday saw the publication of the 600-page final report Fonagy had co-authored with Gillian Baird – a specialist in paediatric neurodisability – and the psychiatrist Simon Wessely. And, as so often happens with such inquiries, its interpretation suggested the media’s equivalent of a Rorschach blot. One of the Guardian’s headlines was “No ‘snowflakes’: mental health review says today’s youth have it harder and harms are real”. The Mail, by contrast, yelled out a rather different message – “Rush to diagnose ADHD and autism can damage children” – while the Telegraph went for “ADHD surge fuelled by benefits, report warns”.

When he appeared on Radio 4’s Today programme, Fonagy said that Streeting had been “completely wrong” to agree with suggestions of the common overdiagnosis of mental health disorders. When it comes to autism and ADHD, he and his colleagues’ report says that “if present trends continue we are clearly entering a phase in which the balance of risks is changing, from previous merited concerns with under-recognition and underdiagnosis towards an increased risk of misdiagnosis and overdiagnosis”. But it also insists that right now, “we cannot conclude that overdiagnosis is occurring at scale”, and points out that any data that might settle this festering argument “largely do not exist”. This is not the kind of stuff that suits a world that craves simple binaries and polarised shouting, but it speaks an undeniable truth.

And what suggestions did it make? 

For the most part, in fact, it is hard to disagree with what the review points out. But among its conclusions lies one troubling proposal – that provision for both mental illness and so-called neurodivergence can and should often be led by observations of need rather than formal diagnosis

Whose need? 

The review, by contrast, is altogether more calm and evidence-based: for a bundle of reasons, it says that overdiagnosis and misdiagnosis may well be a future risk, but we can guard against those dangers by more closely regulating private diagnostic clinics (which are often partly NHS-funded) and stop them advertising their services. These are proposals that many autism and ADHD insiders agree with.

Of course it would be private clinics at fault, and not the sainted NHS… 

By way of lessening an increasingly frightening crisis that is partly centred on pitifully long waits for formal diagnoses that can easily be ignored, it suggests moving towards a more “needs-based” approach, which echoes the government’s plans for special needs education.

But without sufficient money, “needs-based” help is likely to amount to very little at all.

There will never be ‘sufficient money’, its an impossibility.

Meanwhile, the Department for Work and Pensions still has a culture built around crackdowns and pushing people into work. Councils repeatedly fail to meet their responsibilities for the care and education of neurodivergent people. And, in the absence of properly funded change, both they and people suffering mental illness only stand even a faint chance of pushing their way through an almost impossible mess of bureaucracy and obstruction if they have pieces of paper confirming that their condition – or conditions – are real and true.

Because if you have a piece of paper issued by the government or its agents, that cures all, right? Shall we ask the men in frocks?

Yeah, Yeah, Tell Us Another...

A man who was killed on the M56 after being chased by police on a motorbike had been "turning his life around" after finally finding "a purpose" through his daughter, his family said. Cody Lowndes, 27, was stopped by officers after being spotted driving in a "dangerous manner" on the M60, around Stockport Pyramid, at about 19:30 BST on Saturday, Greater Manchester Police said. The force said he left the bike and ran off across the motorway and was struck by another vehicle and died at the scene.

At least no innocent people were harmed in the making of this karmic incident. 

His family said they were "heartbroken" that their "best friend" had died, and his daughter would never know the "real Cody" that they "all knew and loved".

Peobably the best thing that could happen to her… 

The tribute added: "We will always love Cody, and he will live on in our hearts and memories. Please let us mourn Cody in peace, as a family.  

"As a family we are heartbroken that our best friend Cody has passed away."

He did ‘pass away’ , he FA and FO! 

Greater Manchester Police said it had referred the case to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which decided an independent investigation was required.

Why? Its hardly their fault he had a room temperature IQ, is it? 

The Horror Of Gentrification..

Gail's has confirmed the opening date of its new Brixton branch, which is taking over a former takeaway unit next to the Tube station.

'Hurrah!', said most people? No? No, Reader, you're forgetting....  

Earlier this summer, a petition opposing the plans was launched on Change.org and amassed 1,312 signatures. The petition set out several key demands, including recognising the potential impact that Gail's could have on small independent traders and businesses, which are already facing financial issues.

The petition stated: "The proposed development of a Gail's Bakery branch in Brixton is causing genuine concern among residents and local business owners.

Why? Brixton is full of millennials and hipsters now, surely they aren’t fickle folk who love to get in on the latest trend and so will abandon their local artisan bakeries for a taste of the new one? 😏

The chain has been accused by some of being "insanely overpriced" and has become synonymous in London with gentrification though others point out it's a successful business people are clearly using.

Fast forward and the protests became violent, because of course they did:

Cash4Commons – the activists who were behind a series of posters highlighting the growing commodification of public green space in Lambeth – have struck again, attacking Brixton’s new Gail’s Bakery which is scheduled to open today. A few days ago they put up anti-Gail’s billboards outside Brixton Market, as well as a series of posters on the soon to be opened Gail’s premises.

They told Brixton Buzz: We want to draw attention to the damage being caused by Gail’s bakeries across London through a capital-driven ownership which prioritises aggressive corporate expansion into our local communities, whilst also maintaining significant ties to the genocidal State of Israel through investments into Israeli cybersecurity & defence firms. We’re aware that the displacement of local communities across London is nothing new, but we believe Gail’s embodies the current wave of what can only be described as late-stage gentrification in Brixton. Continuing on from our last project ‘Cash4Commons’, our broader focus is on the relentless prioritisation of capital over people, and how Lambeth council continues to allow corporate developers to eat up what little space we have left in the name of ‘development’.

So you’ll smash it up to prevent it being eaten up? Surely both result in no progress at all for the ‘local people’ you claim to care about? 

Oh God, Just Give Us All A Break!

'Woke' scientists claim that female animals, monsters, robots and magical creatures are 'underrepresented' in children's cartoons. From Frozen's Olaf to Mike Wazowski in Monsters, Inc, many of the most loveable characters in children's cartoons are non-human. But experts from UC Berkeley point out that the majority of these characters are portrayed as male.

Ah, Berzerkley, no wonder! 

In fact, in some popular movies, such as Disney's Moana, female non-human characters have no screen time at all.

Well, why should that matter when the movie’s main character is a YOUNG GIRL!? 

Dr David Bamman, who led the study, said: 'I think our research is so important because it exposes the gender disparity that exists not only within movies broadly, but even within animation. 

'It shapes the ways children get acclimated to what's considered the norm.'

I wonder if the young David Bamman ever dreamed of being the first person to invent a world-changing device, or cure cancer, instead of wasting his career whinging about ‘representation’.

I'm No Longer Capable Of Surprise...

 

…or so I thought! 

Sunday Funnies...

 Hmmm, not convinced myself, but 'tis the season.... and the whole world can take part! Don't have nightmares :)

The New Luddites

When Dan had had enough of his television, he threw a rock straight through the screen. The offence? His smart TV was downloading its third update in three days. “It drove me crazy with what seemed like daily software updates that never fixed anything and ‘features’ that never seemed to work,” says the 71-year-old from Illinois.

Is Dan a Luddite? Why, no Reader, or rather, he shouldn't be, by rights. 

Some may accuse Dan of being a luddite, but his master’s degree in computer science and decades of experience in telecommunications would suggest otherwise.

So what's his issue then?  

The first smart TVs entered the market in the late 2000s, when companies introduced operating systems, media players and apps to screens that were becoming wider and thinner. In recent years, the luxury status of smart TVs has waned and increasingly affordable options are widely available.

Tom Parsons, TV and audiovisual editor at the electronics magazine What Hi-Fi?, explains that these cheaper models can struggle under more advanced features. “They’re not necessarily super-fast and responsive out of the box,” he says. “And then two, three, four years down the line, they can end up slowing down quite a lot under the weight of all that processing.”

Something they share with all modern tech, I think you'd agree.  So what does Dan do, I wonder, when he has issues with his laptop? Hopefully not tip a cup of tea all over it, as I’ve just done with mine while writing this post!

Dan is just one of a growing number of tech-savvy watchers wishing their TVs weren’t so smart. Erin McQuiston and Matthew Schroyer, a couple from Connecticut, share his smart-screen scepticism.

“I don’t think we’ve ever used [our TV] as anything other than just a giant display,” says McQuiston. “There was a period where we were running it through an Xbox. And that was a constant battle because that was constantly being updated and patched and then you’d have to redownload all the apps for it.” Meanwhile, Schroyer says his job as a software engineer has influenced his decision to “intentionally keep it very dumb” by keeping their TV disconnected from the internet.

That certainly seems dumb to me- now you wont get security updates! 

Instead, the 41-year-old connects his screen to an Apple TV box as a streaming workaround, and cites privacy as well as “highly invasive” advertisements for doing so. “Our living room is not a billboard for sale,” he says.

I don’t get peoples aversion to adverts - yes, some are irritating (more so in the modern era), but not so much that I’d willingly forgo convenience to avoid them. 

For Helen Northmore, a 51-year-old from Wales who works in AI delivery for the UK Health Security Agency, privacy is also a worry. Her grudge against smart screens began four years ago, when her faithful dumb TV broke without warning and she had to quickly find a replacement. “We had already decided that we didn’t want the smart functionality, but it became really clear that it was very hard to find one that didn’t have any,” she says.

Did she try alternatives to Currys? Vinted eBay and the like? I have an old non-smart tv thats going unused, and I bet others are the same. 

More consumers are becoming worried about how their information is being used by manufacturers. “There are increasing privacy concerns around to what degree TVs are essentially scraping your data,” says Parsons. “TVs these days are full of sensors, including microphones, and that can make people nervous.”

In September, the YouTube channel Gamers Nexus released a two-hour investigation into LG Electronics’ smart televisions, saying that the devices record audio – even when they are offline or powered down.

Disclaimer; I have an LG smart TV, and who cares if it's listening in, all it's going to hear is me swearing as I once again hit the wrong button on its absurdly small and cramped remote! 

It Doesn't Require 'Peace And Safety' Any More...

“We have cordoned off the area to leave this creature in peace and safe from the attention of people,” Randwick Council mayor, Dr Clare Willington, told reporters.

... beacuse it is a dead whale!

Willington said there were no plans to remove the whale and that staff were working with Gamay Rangers about a culturally and environmentally sensitive approach to take.

Well, I wouldn't suggest blowing it up, that usually doesn't go well…

But why the emphasis on cultural aspects, and why prioritise them over health and safety or hygiene concerns.

The Gamay Rangers are an Indigenous ranger team who undertake natural and cultural resource management activities like protection work, conservation, and threatened species management in the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council area.The whale is an important totem animal to the local Bidjigal people, and Gamay Rangers manager Robert Cooley said previous instances where beached animal carcasses were taken to landfill had distressed his community.

Ridiculous pandering to the ‘culture’ of primitive folk who never invented the wheel! 

Consequences...

Sally Rooney has said she is being forced to withdraw her books from sale in the UK because of her support for the banned organisation Palestine Action.

Her financial support, to be perfectly clear. 

After Palestine Action was banned last year, Rooney said she would use proceeds from her sales to support Palestine Action. Supporting organisations banned under the Terrorism Act is an offence and she subsequently cancelled a trip to the UK to pick up an award, for fear of arrest.

In a high court statement in support of the legal challenge to proscription, warning against its impact on freedom of expression, Rooney said her books could disappear from UK stores and the publication of new works in the UK could be prevented.

Oh, well, people will just have to download it on Kindle then, because the 'ban' is so easily thwarted it might as well not exist. But that won't stop the left screeching about it. 

Her books have been critically acclaimed – she has been described as the voice of a generation – and hugely commercially successful in the UK.

Who by? Her Mum? The books are perile rubbinsh, I know, I sampled a chaper on Kindle to see what all the fuss was about. 

Normal People has sold more than 1m copies, while Conversations With Friends and Beautiful World, Where Are You have each sold more than 500,000. Normal People and Conversations With Friends were adapted by the BBC, and the former racked up 62.7m views, becoming the broadcaster’s most-streamed series of 2020.

In a world where rubbish like 'A Court Of Thorns And Roses' becomes a bestseller, that really doesn't say much. Still the royalties from tv adaptations will keep her from having to live on ramen for a while, eh? 

Rooney said last year that she had been advised by the independent producer of the TV dramatisations that any payment to her for those series, both broadcast before the ban, would be a breach of terrorism laws if it knew or suspected that she was using the royalties to fund Palestine Action.

Ha Ha Ha Ha!  

Her UK and Ireland publisher, Faber, said: “Current legislation in the UK has led to circumstances where Faber cannot pass on UK earnings to Sally Rooney for her work. To sell a writer’s work and not be able to pass on earnings is an unconscionable situation for a publisher. “As such, and in full agreement with Sally, we have taken the decision that we can no longer supply her works in the UK in any format. We remain the proud publisher of her remarkable body of work, which we will continue to sell in other territories.”

I woulsn't be too proud of it if I were you, it's beginning to look a lot like a publishing gimmick to shift mote copies every day. 

Sabotaging The Justice System From Within....

Court hearing transcripts now show how judges ignored pleas from the families of Dogan's victims, prosecutors and the Met Police to remand him in custody. One judge said she had 'every sympathy' for the families involved, but said the legal bar for remanding someone in custody meant the prosecution had to prove he may abscond, commit further offences or interfere with witnesses. 

'He has not done any of those things,' Judge Barbara Mensah said.

Well, not yet, but thanks to you he has the chance to now! Which shouldn't surprise anyone, since like the guilty party she's black. But she's not the only one determined to grant leniency to the underservibg:

At an initial hearing there, prosecutors said Dogan should be remanded, while his defence lawyer said he could be tagged and subjected to a curfew. Judge Daniel Fugallo declined to take either option.

Couln't find a picture of him, but the surname is of Italian origin, so I have my suspicions.

Hoplophobia

How else to describe the furore over this?

Extraordinary video footage of HS2 night-shift workers firing a powerful air rifle inside a workshop led to a police investigation, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. Five workers were sacked from the £100billion rail project after a whistleblower came forward with allegations concerning the 'dangerous and unethical' behaviour of his colleagues.

No one likes a Karen (though as this is a bloke, perhaps a Kevin?): 

Footage captured by Aminadab Enos de Souza Dias, 42, showed mechanics at HS2's construction site in West Ruislip, London, whiling away the early hours blasting targets with an air rifle while listening to heavy metal music.

Clearly determined to ruin their hearing! 

Mr Dias, a fitter's mate from Brazil, also submitted a dossier of maintenance and safety concerns, including photographs of his colleagues asleep on the job, and alleged he was subjected to 'verbal abuse, xenophobic comments and intimidation'.

🙄 

The Government ordered an investigation after Mr Dias emailed the then Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to warn him that the gun had been smuggled into the West Ruislip site, where an 8.4-mile tunnel is being dug.

Bet his SPADs loved that! 

Mr Dias claims the air rifle – owned by mechanic Keith Mewes – was kept at the site for more than two months in the spring of 2025. He said the gun was 'frequently' used on site, adding: 'I left Brazil looking for a safer and better life. Ironically, I was forced to return.'

You were forced to return to a country where street gangs rule the streets because some people were whiling away their spare time with some target practice after hours? 

Well, She Wasn't...

A posthumous note written by Dame Esther Rantzen said she was "deprived of any choice over my own death".She said she had become "too physically frail to take the flight" to an assisted dying clinic in Switzerland.

But if you really believe this, it makes you wonder what the objection really was; that she might die in transit? And if so, well, that’s pretty much the desired outcome, isn’t it? 

The farewell message was released as the 86-year-old broadcaster and campaigner's family confirmed she had been laid to rest in an "incredibly beautiful" private funeral last week.

She made her desire to change the law so very public, the old hypocrite! 

Rantzen's daughter Rebecca Wilcox said the family had been inundated with messages since her death. "It's been hugely comforting to know that people around the world felt the same way about her as we did," she said.

They don’t. 

Oh No...

Is there any more horrifying sign than a film you've been looking forward to for ages getting a favourable review in 'The Guardian'?

It is a fantasy adventure in Laika’s distinctively crafted stop-motion animation, written by Chris Butler from the bestseller of the same title by Carson Ellis and Colin Meloy, the latter being a band member of The Decemberists, one of whose tour posters we duly glimpse in this film. The director is Laika’s lead animator Travis Knight. It’s a forthright, exuberant, good-natured and old-fashioned children’s tale which CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien might have recognised, a story about the mysterious glory of going on a quest and the terrible fear and wish-fulfilment euphoria of being called upon to confront secret forces that the grownups know nothing about.

The trailer is brilliant and I plan to see it at the Vue after work on Friday. I can't go to the Everyman because the only showing is 7pm, and that's too late.

The setting is modern-day Portland, Oregon, a groovy city whose hipster-ish stores (there’s a coffee shop actually called Dripster) and Woke 1.0 signage are affectionately mocked.

‘Affectionate’ mocking is ok, then? 

The stop-motion animation style has, as with Coraline, a robust and pleasing directness, and results in, for me, a more organic character and physical immediacy than Pixar’s ubiquitous digital look, to which it makes a welcome change.

*sigh* They have to get in a dig, don’t they? ‘No, the films I like are hand-made artisan ones, not gorrible artificial CGI ones, like you peasants’

 

Why Do The Underclass Want These Dogs?

This is why:

A letting agent was attacked by an XL Bully after its owner commanded it to 'get him'. John Walkden, 62, had been residing at a rented property in Bolton but had been experiencing problems with cleanliness.

Thats a very modern way of saying he made his rented property a haven of filth. Almost like it was some sort of natural occurrence that he had no part in. 

Consequently, James Melly, the letting agent, had raised concerns with him on several occasions. During one particular visit, Walkden became hostile towards Mr Melly before instructing his dog, Tank, to assault him.

And the police couldn’t pass on this one: 

Tank was seized on the same day and has remained in kennels ever since, the court heard. Ms Brooksbank-Laing revealed that those caring for Tank reported he was behaving 'perfectly', however there was no safe environment for him to be returned to.The total cost of his time in kennels since the incident stood at £8,565.

If they’d taken the right action on the day, the taxpayer wouldn’t now be on the hook for the kennelling costs! He’s a serial offender who’s used dogs as a weapon before! 

Walkden was reported to have 44 previous convictions for 89 offences, amongst them a comparable attack in 2019. Bolton Crown Court had previously heard that Walkden's bulldog, Shadow, bit his neighbour on the arm as he made his way through the front yard of a property to reach his flat while seated in his mobility scooter.

He received a 12 month community order in 2020 and the dog was due to be destroyed. In mitigation, Graham Rishton said: "62 - how regrettable it is that he still finds himself in and out of prison."

Not at all surprising, though… 

He explained that Walkden had long-standing problems with drug misuse and had 'shown discontent for the unsavoury incident'.

For the incident or for the bother of getting caught again? 

Imposing a suspended sentence, Recorder Sarah Griffin stated that Walkden had shown 'limited remorse' and poor compliance with court orders. Issuing a destruction order for Tank, she noted that he did inflict injury to Mr Melly, and that she did not consider Walkden to be a fit and proper person to care for him.

It’s right the mutt gets put down (though predictably the nutters don’t agree) but the owner should see jail time, without question!

He was prohibited from owning dogs for five years.Walkden, of Purcell Close, Bolton, received a nine month prison sentence suspended for a year, a 12 month probation service requirement and 120 hours unpaid work. He must also fulfil a six month drug rehabilitation requirement.

He won’t be any more responsible in five years time, will he? 

Well, They WERE an Invading Force Of Foreigners....

.. so it seems appropriate methods, after all we all saw the videos.

French lawyers and rights groups have said that several teenagers have suffered war-like injuries from police weapons used during school protests, and an unprecedented number of children have been held in police custody, some of whom reported being hit or racially insulted.

The 'students' in question...

Police have opened internal investigations into 36 allegations of officer violence against demonstrators, including four children allegedly being “mutilated” by explosive weapons, and six sustaining “significant injuries”, as well as other complaints over physical blows, insults or alleged sexual assault, the interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, told the senate.

Lock and load… 

Evan, a 15-year-old studying carpentry at a vocational high school, had a hand blown off in the explosion of a police stun grenade outside a school protest in Lens, northern France, on 5 October. His lawyer, Bertrand Wattez, said: “His injuries resemble war injuries.”

And his lawyer disputes the reason for his injuries. 

Wattez said Evan had gone to school to attend class and discovered a protest under way. He said Evan had not taken part in violence and denied the Béthune state prosecutor’s assertion that the grenade had been picked up from the ground.

It's hard to see how he'd have got those injuries if he hadn't, but you do you, Bertrand...

Another boy, Eden, 14 – who had been near a school protest in Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône, north-west of Paris – suffered extensive facial injuries, including two fractures to his jaw, the loss of his bottom teeth and all his top teeth broken after he was allegedly hit by a shot from a grenade launcher.Eden’s parents said he had gone to school but found it blockaded and had wanted to go home. Video footage appeared to show him facing three riot police officers. One officer hit out in his direction with a truncheon and Eden kicked in the direction of the police before a grenade shot was fired.

Ah, video footage! It's been worth its weight in gold, hasn't it? 

                                     

Since the school protests began in mid-September, a total of 6,773 under-18s have been taken into police custody after they were arrested, the justice ministry said. For more than 1,000 of those children, no charges were brought; 2,190 are facing legal action and almost 2,000 were handed an alternative to further legal action, such as a citizenship course, without their case being heard at trial and without a conviction.

And President Macron has has the temerity to say 'How can French people do these things?'. Well, you ansered your own question there. 

Well, Of Course He Did...

Michael Bogle, 38, from Brent, who was assessed as a “high risk offender”, was captured on CCTV stealing from two supermarkets in north west London within 24 hours of being freed last Thursday from HMP Wandsworth.

Who’s surprised by this turn of events? 

He reportedly had 16 previous convictions and to have been linked to more than 100 investigations.

Definitely someone who should have been kept behind bars. 

Detective Chief Superintendent Luke Williams, borough commander for Barnet, Brent and Harrow was so concerned about the case that he has raised the matter with local MPs and councillors.

Why? What can they do..? It’s Andy Burnham’s policy, not some local decision! The scofflaw even had the nerve to thank him for the chance to go robbing agin!

Bogle was released from the south west London prison last Thursday where he had served 78 days in prison after breaching a 32-week suspended sentence for shoplifting.Asked at the time for his message to Andy Burnham, Bogle said: “Keep the early release going. It’s good.”

DCS Williams added: “The concerning nature of the Early Release Scheme in this case was a known prolific offender being put back into the community, only to immediately re-offend. “Not only does this place communities at risk but puts demand straight back into policing who must arrest, investigate and put the individual into custody. “In this case, 27 officer hours were needed, leading to a cost of £1,887.”

But it’s only taxpayer  money, Luke!

As Ever, 'The Guardian' Is Wrong...

It’s hard to think of a published author in living memory who risked arrest in the UK for their political beliefs, hard to think of one whose books could be published anywhere but here. Sally Rooney went into this debacle with her eyes open: she said last July that royalties from her books, and their BBC adaptations, would be used to support Palestine Action.

The ‘Guardian’ knows full well that she’s not risking arrest because her novels are puerile crap, nor because she hold progressive political beliefs, though it hopes you, the reader, might believe this… 

Rooney’s courage is not so much in risking imprisonment, since there is a fix for that, which is what she’s doing – avoiding the UK.

But not avoiding the reason for her publishers to run scared, of course.

Rather, she has chosen the thorniest possible path for this cause. Authors can write essays and sign letters in support of the Palestinian people; actors can voice it in interviews, musicians can say it from the stage, and there is always a cost to it, whether it’s in plain sight and they’ve been kicked off a global tour, or it’s behind closed doors and they are simply excluded from opportunities. But such actions, even if they logically suggest support for a proscribed organisation, don’t entail actively breaking the terrorism laws.

Eventually, even the ‘Guardian’ can’t hide the truth forever. 

She’s never been an apolitical author. Normal People was razor sharp on class, Conversations With Friends wasn’t shy of a Marxist analysis.

There are countless thousands of political authors but they aren’t subject to any consequences for their politics. Hell, I still read Stephen King… 

It was from a reputation of delicately challenging but everyday subtlety that Rooney assumed her outrider position, and in so doing, took on the idea that caring about Gaza is somehow a crank’s life choice; insisted that it is a human response, as natural and quotidian, as passionate and important, as friendship.

She can care about Gaza as much as she wants, donate her entire book revenue to charities caring for Palestinians if she feels that strongly. What she can’t do is fund a proscribed organisation.

It also, come on – surely at some point we’re allowed to say this – makes an absolute mockery of the terrorism legislation thus applied. Nobody anywhere thinks Sally Rooney poses a danger to the British state, or any state, just as nobody anywhere thinks a 94-year-old human rights barrister who was a friend of Ed Miliband’s late mother does. Keir Starmer, paradoxically, given that the two things in his favour were his caution and his legal hinterland, painted himself into an absurd corner, where terrorism arrests went up between 2024 and 2025 from 250 to nearly 3,000. On demos where anyone crunched the numbers, more of them were over 80 than under 20.

Elderly terrorists and terrorist sympathisers are still dangerous, and the state is entitled to take action against them.

See, What It Takes To Stop A Bad Man With A Gun...

...really does turn out to be a good man with one. Not necessarily a cop.

Schools in Bend, Oregon, will be closed on Friday after a 16-year-old shooter opened fire at an elementary school in the city on Thursday, killing three children and a teacher before he was shot dead by a community member.

How did he get in? Simple!  

He shot his way through a locked gate into the school grounds and through locked doors to gain access to the premises, the authorities said.

The police did turn up eventually.

At 1.02pm, police responded to Silver Rail elementary school after receiving several reports about an active shooter. One 911 caller reported an individual armed with a long gun firing at their car.

By the time officers arrived on scene, the suspected assailant had been shot and killed by the bystander, who apprehended him inside.

See, when seconds count, the police really ARE only minutes away.

Gun control advocate Gabrielle Giffords, ⁠a former congresswoman who survived a mass shooting in 2011, said in a statement she was “heartbroken” by the shooting.“This cannot continue to be a reality ​in our country. Leaders at every level must step ​up and act,” Giffords said.

Leaders weren’t there, they never are - a citizen stepped up, with the means to stop it that you would deny to him if you could. 

🎶Oh, Those Russians....🎶

 Matt can't resist a double, and nor can I....

Now how do I get rid of this earworm? 

Sunday Funnies...

 The real scary movies....

Confession Time!

Well, I was wrong, sort of. 

You really can't go back, not when you secured your account with an authenticator that's now run out of battery and the instruction at the site for removing it don't work! 

So it's farewell to my night elf druid, human hunter and shadowpriest, and the various low level alts  I had on that account. 

So, I registered a new account, spent a day and a half downloading it all again on my gaming laptop, and I was back in Azeroth! And straight away slaughtering murlocks on my new main, a Worgan Warlock.

Will certainly create another feral Druid and a Hunter alt for old times sake, but for now, I’m just revelling in nostalgia!

It’s #FishandChipFriday!

…and look, the 'Guardian' has an article on it -  what will they get right?

But what really makes a good chippy? One man has the answer – Andrew Crook is president of the National Federation of Fish Friers, which runs the annual National Fish & Chip Awards.

Well, he must surely know his…err, onions? 

For industry expert Mr Crook, there's one particular quality in top fish and chip shops that help them stand out against others.

What it’s cooked in, perhaps? 

Mr Crook adds: 'The thing that makes an excellent fryer is they're always changing something. They've always got a desire to improve. They're always constantly tweaking things, and I think that's what drives the industry forward.'

No no no! We don’t want change, constant change isn’t good. When you’ve a good local chippy, like mine, you want it to stay exactly the same forever!

Where does he stand on the perpetual debate over whether you should order cod or haddock? After 27 years in the industry, the Lancashire-raised frier has developed a well-rounded take. 'I think it’s a very regional thing, there are lots of fantastic species out there but in fish and chips on the whole people want cod or haddock,' he says.

Now he’s talking - as a southerner, my usual is cod, with an occasional haddock or plaice or even cod roe for variety or maybe when I can (sadly my local doesn’t offer it) skate! Always with a wally (gherkin). But I’ve noticed the further north one travels, the less often the option of cod is available. 

The chippy expert dubs Whitby, in North Yorkshire, as the 'spiritual home of fish and chips'.

 Now he’s talking! The Magpie Cafe in Whitby is the best!

As for Mr Crook's go-to order? Despite being from Lancashire he sides with the 'Yorkshire way of doing fish and chips'. 'It would be haddock battered, not lightly battered just normal batter, chips, mushy peas,' he says, adding that he prefers it to be cooked in beef dripping too.

Now he’s spot on - vegetable oil in the south and beef dripping in the north, and I have to give it to the northerners on points!

Roll on dinner time!

 

Just Who Was The 'Careless' One Here?

A motorist who struck and killed a Pakistani international student who was praying in the middle of an Adelaide road has been given a suspended prison sentence and banned from driving for a decade.

Sounds like the start of a joke: What’s the difference between a dead kangaroo in the road and a dead Muslim? 

…

The skid marks in front of the kangaroo!

Ah, the old ones are the best!

Samia Malik, 20, was seen by witnesses and caught on CCTV appearing to kneel in prayer for almost four minutes on North East Road in Hillcrest on the night of May 6, 2025, before she was hit by then-19-year-old Ashton Jacob Friend. Friend, who kept driving because he thought he had hit a kangaroo, pleaded guilty to causing death by careless use of a vehicle and leaving an accident scene after causing death, and faced court for sentencing on Friday, The Advertiser reported.

The court heard Friend was not affected by alcohol or drugs, was driving under the speed limit, and was looking in his rearview mirror in the seconds he would have needed to avoid hitting Ms Malik.

Did they test her for drink or drugs or just conclude she was impaired by being Muslim? Who else would be stupid enough to pray in the middle of a road?

Judge Barnett told the court that while Friend realised he had hit a person after seeing the news reports, the community expected drivers to be vigilant and attentive, and respond appropriately after accidents.

The community also expects people recognise that roads are for vehicles and not pedestrians surely? 

In America, They Have 'Suicide By Cop'. Over Here, We Go One Better...

...and choose 'suicide by tiger'

The devastated family of a child actor who was mauled to death by a tiger have paid tribute to their 'bright, warm and engaging' son who suffered from 'significant mental illness'.

But not, to the immense frustration of all the armchair experts and disability activists who commented on the story,  autism or leaning difficulties. Just your garden variety nut whose life didn;t turn out as he'd planned, so why not end it all in spectacular fashion?.

William Chapman, 24, died on Saturday after climbing into a big cat's enclosure at Yorkshire Wildlife Park near Doncaster, where he was attacked by a 200kg Siberian tiger named Altai.

'The family are hopeful that the relevant authorities will do their upmost to get to the bottom of why our amazing son did what he did.'

Why should they? People kill themselves all the time, usually not by spoiling everyone's nice day out, but by ruining their commute home, but even so, the only person that could tell you why isn't around to... 

It emerged on Tuesday night that Mr Chapman was a 'passionate' child actor who appeared in an ITV comedy drama.

Then we must be thankful he chose only to delete himself from the world, unlike others. 

But his acting work apparently largely stopped during his adolescence and he appeared to not have had any screen work for many years before his tragic death on Saturday in the tiger's cage at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park near Doncaster.

In a statement, the park said: 'Many, many people have contacted us about Altai, the tiger. 'We can reassure everyone that he is safe and well and will not be euthanized as a result of this incident.

Why should it be? It's too late for that to do any good, and he's no more dangerous now that he was before a disturbed person chose him as the instument of his suicide. 

The licensing authority for Yorkshire Wildlife Park, City of Doncaster Council, has now launched a health and safety investigation into the man's death.

And will no doubt find the zoo up to code, because nothing could have prevented this. 

Food Blogging

 Well, not to be left out, I’ll contribute something. I saw these in my local Sainbury's a fortnight ago, and as I love game, particularly exotic game (Lidl's Christmas offering of frozen reindeer steaks are fondly remembered) I was tempted, except the species wasn't indicated anywhere on the packaging so I declined at first. 

When I got home I looked them up and the reason they give for not being more specific is that the meat comes fron commercial culls so it could be any one of a dozen species, and presumaly no guarentee the two pre-cooked indivudually packaged steaks come from the same animal.

So this weekend, I took the plunge, and bought one. The packaging gives you instructions from frozen, but these were found in the meat aisle unfrozen - and as they are precooked, all you are really doing is reheating, so take them out of the fridge an hour before to come up to room temperature, and away you go!

My verdict? 100% would buy again; delicious and trouble-free lean wild meat, goes paticularly well with redcurrant sauce and a nice glass of red wine! 

And posting will be light for the next few days as I,m taking some time off to play 'Planet Zoo 2' which releases today, and maybe get back into 'World of Warcraft', although I may have to start again from the beginning as the little authenticator I used to login is dead and it's proving hard to remove it *sigh*...

More Legislation, Or The Police Doing Their Job Properly?

A woman has begun a campaign to change the law after her dog was killed by a "bully hybrid". Karen Hawthornwaite, 55, of Darwen, began a campaign to strengthen the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 after her seven-year-old Lhasa Apso, Benji, was attacked by an off-lead unmuzzled pocket bulldog in 2025 - and had to be euthanised. Despite capturing the attack on CCTV, Karen said it did not meet the criteria for prosecution.

Why not? Beceause the police are lazy and the CPS complacent, of course. And there are few consequences for them of not doing their job. 

Lancashire Police said it had sought expert advice but the incident "did not meet the criteria" under the Dangerous Dogs Act.Under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991,external dog attacks on other animals may amount to an offence, but it is for the individual police force and Crown Prosecution Service, to decide whether this is appropriate, on a case-by-case basis.

The dog in question was a pocket bulldog - a cross-breed that is technically not on the dangerous dogs list. But Karen argues that mixed breeds of dogs such as pocket bulldogs fall under a "grey area", allowing dangerous dogs to "evade the full force of the law".

Thr full force of the law is so easy to evade that it may as well not exist at all. 

The spokesperson added: "However to reduce the likelihood of a similar incident happening again, the owner of the pocket bulldog was given an Acceptable Behaviour Contract under the Anti Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act, 2014 with specific conditions which include ensuring their dog is on a lead at all times in residential areas."

Conditiond that no-one will ever check are being complied with are a waste of time. 

"We're all fed up of hearing about these incidents," Trevor Cooper, solicitor and dog law specialist, said. "There are victims who deserve better and the law that we have is a complete mess. "It is high time the Dangerous Dogs Act was perhaps thrown away and let's start again with something that is fit for purpose."

It's high time we realised tha the police and CPS are not fit for purpose, and tinkering with legislation won't fix that. 

Does ‘Care In The Community' Lead To This...

A man has died after being attacked by a tiger after jumping into its enclosure at a zoo in Yorkshire, police have said. Emergency services were contacted shortly after 1.30pm on Saturday when the man entered the enclosure at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, near Doncaster, and was set upon by the tiger. He was pronounced dead at the scene, South Yorkshire police said, adding his family had been informed.

It remains to be establised whether this was a person known to the authorities as someone who was mentally ill, but anyone at the zoo that day must be thanking their lucky stars that this time, an innocent child wasn't harmed.  

If it's revealed that this was a mental case, questions will no doubt be asked as to the wisdom of letting the severely mentally deficient attend zoos. Of course, we’ve had the usual idiots on Twitter opining all weekend;

‘Why didn’t staff shoot/tranquillise the tiger sooner?’ From people who seem to have no idea that zoos must have firearms in case of escapes as a condition of their licence, but they have to be stored in safes, unloaded, and that safe may be the other side of the zoo, or the person licensed to use the firearm could be on the other side of the zoo. And no tranquilliser known to man is instantly effective to stop the cat killing him.

‘How awful it is that people are hoping that the tiger is ok and not the person!’ This from people who want to drive engagement or virtue signal, completely oblivious to the fact we have very few tigers and a seemingly overwhelming number of mentally deficient people. 

But nothing sums up the sheer lack of education in society as much as this:

Hey, ‘journalists’, Google is your friend!

That’s GB news interviewing a man from the ‘British Big Cat Society’ not realising that he’s not a qualified zoologist but a lunatic who thinks big cats are roaming the UK…

A police spokesperson said the tiger attacked the man and inflicted “serious injury”.The force urged people not to share “distressing” video footage of the attack, circulating on social media.

Too late, far, far too late. 

But Who's The Real Tit Now?

Nice one Matt, but the voters had the last laugh...

Sunday Funnies...

 I'll name that tune in 3....

Well, She'll Fit Right In Here

A controversial proponent of natural remedies who has been banned from providing any health services in Australia is due to embark on a series of events in the UK and Ireland despite criticism from scientists, health charities and academic bodies.

Must be the first time in history that Australia has shown better judgement than the UK! 

O’Neill, who describes herself as a naturopath and nutritionist, lectures internationally on “natural self-healing”. She has previously claimed that cancer is a fungus that can be treated with bicarbonate soda, that vaccines have caused an epidemic of conditions including autism and cot death, and that pregnant women with Strep B do not have to take antibiotics.

She sounds like the sort of nutter who'd fit rght it over here - at a Green Party Conference. 

Now experts in the UK have raised concerns in a letter to venues across UK and Ireland where O’Neill, 73, is scheduled to speak.

The letter – which was organised by Dr David Robert Grimes, a science communicator and expert in Biostatistics at Trinity College Dublin – describes O’Neill as “a leading vector of medical misinformation”, adding that she repeatedly made “misguided medical assertions”, gave “unqualified advice” and promoted “abject demonisation of conventional medical treatment.”

Wow, a 'leading vector of medical information', eh? I wonder, does the NHS and the UK Media know they've been toppled? 

The letter notes that O’Neill charges thousands of dollars for retreats and telephone consultations, and raises concerns about the events due to be held at the venues. “At the event, she will spread dangerous health fictions to a susceptible audience, leeching off an illusion of legitimacy afforded to her by the surrounds of your respectable establishment,” it said.

Ah, so it's jealousy, and not concern for scientific accuracy that's driving the perveyors of 'Men van be women and vice versa!' and 'folic acid for everyone!' to speak out... 

Grimes, who has authored a book on medical misinformation, told the Guardian that O’Neill presented as a kindly grandmother dispensing natural wisdom. “Medical misinformation kills, and we wrote the letter because we have seen first-hand the profound and tragic harms that health fictions inflict on vulnerable patients … We hope making people aware of this reality mitigates her ability to inflict harm elsewhere,” he said.

The latest string of engagements includes a five-day retreat at the Cranage Estate in Cheshire in early October. Titled A Taste of Misty Mountain, the event includes lectures by O’Neill with titles such as What Really Does Cause Disease, The Science of Breath and The Immune System, as well as talks by Michael, including one titled Barbara Under Attack. A ticket for the event, which includes a dinner dance, costs £700.

I have better things to spend my money on... 

What Finally Gave The Game Away?

A Wisconsin woman who lives with Bipolar disorder allegedly impersonated a substitute teacher before spewing racist and inappropriate remarks to children. Amy L Jones, 23, is now facing charges of impersonating a public employee and five counts of exposing children to harmful descriptions in her September 24 arrest. Jones allegedly managed to con her way into Rufus King International High School in Milwaukee, a school she previously attended, and struck gold because substitute teachers were working that day to cover absent full-time teachers.

Was it that she seemed more stable than their other teachers? 

Students became suspicious of Jones when she allegedly organized students by race and gender.

Jones also allegedly bragged about having felonies and said she was okay with going to jail, according to police.

Jones was accused of playing rap music extremely loud and then making fun of the children for their weight, looks, race, and finances. She allegedly called one student ‘fatty’ before allegedly asking students for marijuana and vapes.

She should just ask to be hired, she’d fit right in.

And of course, there’s video evidence: 

Videos recorded by students showed Jones cursing and telling a one pupil to ‘shut the f**k up,’ and describing explicit sexual acts to male students. According to documents, a student reported Jones for making racist statements toward white classmates, specifically calling them ‘white as s**t’ and using the phrase ‘white motherf***ers.’

So of course, even a US defence lawyer is going to have his hands full with this one! 

Police arrested Jones and took her to Milwaukee County Jail. Jones seemed proud when cops interviewed her about the incident a few days later.She remains in custody at the Milwaukee County Jail awaiting her scheduled October 20 court date.

Should make it 31st October, frankly. 

Guys, It's Not A Contest!

Canada: 'Let's euhanise the mentally ill!That'll show we are the most deranged and woke nation on Earth' 

Australia: 'Hold my beer, mate, and watch this!'

A long-serving and highly decorated ambulance volunteer has been stood down over allegations of misconduct, including claims he failed to provide a vegan meal option for a visiting staff member, sparking community outrage.

What the hell happened to you, Australia? Well, there’s hope: 

Pinnaroo locals in the Murray Mallee region have rallied around station captain Robert Berlin, 70, after he was ordered to hand in his South Australian Ambulance Service uniform following almost five decades of service. Claims circulating on social media allege the Ambulance Service Medal recipient was stood down last week over a series of alleged incidents, including failing to provide a vegan meal option for a visiting staff member.

Good for them. He’s obviously pissed off some utter snowflake, because the allegations are ridiculous. 

Other allegations include frightening staff by knocking loudly on the roller door at Pinnaroo ambulance station, 'speaking aggressively to another emergency team during a critical patient incident', and inappropriately using SAAS facilities.

And his colleagues - all people who give their own free time to this - have rallied round: 

The entire SAAS crew at Pinnaroo has since walked off the job in protest over Mr Berlin's dismissal.

But I fear they might be claiming victory too soon. 

SAAS volunteers vowed to return to their duties once authorities launch an external investigation.

Schoolboy error - wait until the results are known! 

How Should I Know, I'm Just The Guy In Charge?

Alex Norris has been unable to say how many prisoners freed early from jail this week have been tagged, despite previous reassurances from the justice department.

Does anyone really think the civil service, an organisation that loves paperwork and tickboxes like middle-class white women like a bit of virtue signalling, don’t know? Or would be unable to tell him if he was to ask?

In an interview on Sunday, the justice secretary said it was “too soon” to say how many of the roughly 700 male prisoners let out on Thursday had been fitted with monitoring devices.

He means ‘It’s too embarrassing!’, no doubt. 

The government has introduced a “presumption of electronic tagging” for offenders released early from prisons in England and Wales to help manage severe overcrowding.

In other words, the government have lied through their teeth and not a single tv news or major newspaper saw fit to call them on it until it was too late. 

The first wave of releases began on Thursday, with nearly 5,000 prisoners due to be freed in stages over the next year as the Sentencing Act 2026 comes into force. Asked how many of those released so far had been tagged, Norris told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “I don’t have that figure today, it only happened on Thursday. You know, there can be a bit of a lag. 

“We don’t have that number. But you know, we’re very candid about who’s leaving prison and when they do.”

And you’ll be equally candid about the number that reoffend, will you? 

Asked if he knew if released domestic abusers have been tagged or not, he said: “It would be too soon to know that, as it was only on Thursday. We’ve been talking to every victim to offer them the chance to say what controls they’d like to see over that individual.

And now it’s too late, some journalists have decided to do some proper reporting, and go to the source: 

Several prisoners released last week told the Guardian that they had not been tagged.

I know, Reader, I’m sure you are shocked too… 

Michael Bogle, a former bus driver who left HMP Wandsworth on Thursday having served 78 days in prison after breaching a 32-week suspended sentence for shoplifting, said he had no idea when he was going to be tagged. “I have an appointment with probation officers on Thursday, but as far I know it could take months before I actually get given a tag,” he said. Bogle, who is taking anti-psychotic drugs and has more than 100 convictions including for common assault and drug possession, was told in prison that he would be housed in a bail hostel and had been promised a place in south-east London. However, he said he had instead been housed in a bed and breakfast facility in north-west London. “I am running out of money, and if I have to shoplift a sandwich to stop being hungry, I will just have to do it,” he said. “I won’t have a choice. But I really do not want to go back to prison – it is a pigeon-infested, rat-infested place and people are dying in the conditions there.”

Clearly not as often, or we wouldn’t have a space issue! 

Prisoners thanked the prime minister as they celebrated walking free from jail on Thursday. One told the press as he left HMP Durham: “Justice system, what justice system? Thank you, Andy Burnham.” A prisoner released from HMP Cardiff after being jailed for burglary said he would “probably be back in the next month or two”.

Who knows, by the time he goes back in, we might have a different PM…? 

Traitors To Their Country

Protesters clashed with police and flares were set off as cross-Channel migrants arrived in Hampshire on RNLI boats. Police made 12 arrests for a range of offences including assaulting an officer following a protest in Gosport on Sunday night.

Demonstrators had gathered in the town amid reports that authorities were preparing for the arrival of a boat. The dinghy was being shadowed by French rescue vessels until it was met by the RNLI boats in English waters, according to ship tracking data.

Given the government knows exactly what they are importing it's hard to see why they treat the demonstrators like this.

A Government spokesperson said: “The Border Security Command works around the clock to protect our border. We have established contingency plans to make sure we can securely disembark, check and process all small boat arrivals.

Strange interpretation of ‘protecting the border’, that!

“Migrants will be transported to short term holding facilities in Kent where they will be processed as normal and undergo stringent health, security and biometric checks.”

Given they routinely discard all ID just what are you checking them against? And true migrants come on planes with visas - call a spade a spade, these are illegal immigrants!

On Sunday, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary said it had deployed officers to Gosport to “support our partners in the event of an emergency at sea”.

Who are 'yout partners'? It's not the general public, is it? The emergency is on land!