Choose Your Friends Carefully...

Anja Housden-Brooks was left with a broken nose, shattered cheekbones and a split tear duct in the attack on Saturday.

She says she was battered 'out of the blue' by a member of staff at The Venue Bar in Southend, Essex, after having drinks with friends.

Hmmm. Let's see if this one passes the smell test.

Mother-of-three Ms Housden-Brooks explained she was running errands in Southend on Saturday evening when she bumped into a friend by chance. She joined the pal who was meeting a group of friends at The Venue Bar and drank two gin and tonics.

Ms Housden-Brooks added: 'There was a wider group of about ten of us. We were laughing a joking and maybe being a bit loud - but no more than any other town centre bar on a Saturday evening.

'A woman working behind the bar came over a couple of times and kept telling us to keep the noise down.

'In the end she singled me out and told me I would have to leave because I was being too noisy.

'I told her I'd done nothing wrong and stood my ground. She didn't like it all and kept giving me evil looks from behind the bar, but I just ignored her.'

So you were causing a noise nuisance, were told to get out but didn't?

Ms Housden-Brooks says she left about fifteen minutes later to return home.

'I admit that I did have a couple of choice words for her as I left,' she said.

Ah!

'As I reached the door of the bar, my face exploded in pain. This bar worker was raining punches on me.

'I begged her to stop, but she just kept hitting me. It was over in minutes, but felt like a lifetime.'

And what were your friends doing during this? Or any of the other people in the bar?

Ms Housden-Brooks says she staggered into the street where a motorist took pity on her and drove her home.

She said: 'This guy saw me slumped in a heap against the wall. I'm so grateful to him. He said I should go to hospital but I just wanted to be with my family.'

So...your friends didn't step in to defend you. And didn't check you were OK to get home?

A spokesperson for The Venue Bar said: 'We've been advised by the police not to say anything.'

Yes. I bet you have...

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From The Tree...

Mr McLean's family were campaigning for justice following the incident.

'The incident' being the young scamp fleeing police, straight under the wheels of a police car.

Some might say justice was indeed done.

Following the jury's verdict, which said there was not enough evidence to establish a connection between the actions of the police and Mr McLean's fall, the Berkshire Coroner, Heidi Connor's inquest hall erupted into shouts - and police said a fight broke out which spilled into the lobby outside the inquest meaning additional officers were called to the scene.

The moral of the story being: Don't run from the police, and if you do, and something bad happens, you've only yourself to blame.

ACC Ward said: 'An internal review of this incident has been carried out and no changes to our officers training have been identified...'

We haven't lost a budding brain surgeon here.

Too Close To Home...

An eyewitness described seeing a child of no more than seven or eight years old being savaged by a pit bull in Ilchester Road, Dagenham, on Tuesday, November 19.

The man, who asked not to be named, said neighbours rushed out of their homes after hearing the youngster's screams, before trying to beat the beast off him.

He said: "I've never seen anything like it in my life. I saw people running. Someone said there was a dog attacking a child. I saw a child on the ground and the pit bull on top of him.

"It was horrible. It was too much. The child was crying, screaming. It was bad I'm telling you. The dog was mad."

I know Ilchester Road, it's not far from my mother's house, and I've probably driven down it a few time when taking one of her friends home from a visit.

According to the witness, another man came and tied a lead around the animal's neck with police later taking it away.

Why wasn't it shot then and there at the scene? We should adopt the US method of dealing with these things. And tell the bloody useless CPS that that's not going to give them an excuse not to do their job.

A spokesman for the Met Police said officers were called at 3.24pm to reports of a dangerous dog.

Paramedics treated the boy in the street before taking him to hospital.

"His condition has been assessed as not life-threatening, but life-changing," the Met spokesman said before adding that the dog has not been destroyed.

A man, woman and teenage boy were all arrested on suspicion of having a dog dangerously out of control and of having a prohibited dog out in public. They were taken into custody and later released, though they are still under investigation.

Now it sits in kennels, wolfing down taxpayer-funded Pedigree Chum until the justice system can get it's arse in gear. How many more of these cases do we need?

Fear The Wolves, Not The Sheepdogs...

Another woman told The Mirror: 'That's probably one of the scariest moments of my life. Me and my daughter were in a queue to watch frozen, loads of little kids there, all dressed up and everything, then these girls jumped on another girl and loads of these kids just started fighting.

'Armed police came with Tasers. All the people that were fighting run off into the cinema. There's about 15 to 20 police cars. I'm shaking.

'The police were very aggressive there was lots of little kids there.'

I wonder why the police were 'aggressive', I mean that's not....

Oh.

 Yeah. That'll be why.

It's Good, It's Very Good...

But is it as good as this one from Torfaen council? You decide, reader!

 

Open vote!

A Freudian Slip, Surely..?

Whoops!

Sunday Funnies...

Admit it, who thought modern celebrities could do anything quietly..?

Oooh, Where To Start..?

A heartbroken mum whose son was jailed for the murder of teenager Lyrico Steede said her world was torn apart when she found out he was responsible.

Amanda Jamieson, 49, from Beeston, said she went through her life "with a fine-toothed comb" and spent many days hiding under a quilt while she tried to make sense of what went wrong.

Hmmm, are there any clues?

The single mum believes her son, Christian Jamieson, who was brought up going to church, probably needed more male mentors to stop him falling in with the wrong crowd.

Ah!

As a mother, she said, she tried to do everything to steer her son away from crime, even moving out of St Ann's.

But not settling down in a stable relationship with the father.

She added: "We need to provide support to families - the home should be the biggest pull - the best gang should be the family unit."

That's the 'family unit' you clearly failed to provide?

The Changing Face Of Christmas...

I took a day off yesterday and went on a trip to the Bury St Edmunds Christmas market with some work colleagues.

If you've not been, I thoroughly recommend it - Bury St Edmunds is a lovely little town, lots of small cobbled streets, independent traders, an astounding cathedral with lovely grounds, and the Christmas Market itself was huge. It bills itself as the biggest in the UK, and that's not a vain boast.

We had a great time wandering around sampling the various cheeses, liqueurs, preserves and other local produce, and despite having all my presents bought already, I couldn't resist buying a few more (ok, a LOT more!). When we'd done the main market and needed a rest, we had some lovely tea at the quirky little Edmundo Lounge, just off the main area and refreshingly free of Christmas Market shoppers.

Making our way back to the main market from there down the little cobbled side streets to pick up some things we'd noted down but wanted to get last so as not to carry them around all day, we were met with this jarring reality of Christmas in modern Britain:

Yes. They are exactly what they look like - anti-Muslim terrorism barriers. I wouldn't say the sight of them spoiled the day, we still had a lovely time.

But even so...is this what we can now expect every Christmas, even in the smallest, most quintessentially English town? How very sad.

And how very avoidable...

It's ... Not The Word I'd Have Chosen!

The Crumpet Burger will feature two fillets sandwiched between three crumpets.

Born out of the British obsession with crumpets, it will be topped with cheese and smothered in sweet chilli sauce.

I'd have chosen 'abomination'.