On The First Day Of Trumpmas, Twitter Gave To Me…

...a typical left-wing journalist being wrong:

 

Confession: I was going to do a 'Tweet of the Month Election Special' with these, back in November, until I realised how many I had! 

I’m Not Sure Why She Needs To Go to School…

 …she looks a bit of a clown already!

What Happened To Science?

Betsy, seven, and five-year-old Lacie have a very special friendship. Despite living less than a mile apart in Bridgend, and attending the same school, they did not meet until April 2023. This was when they were both diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, (ALL) just three weeks apart. Since then both the girls and their parents have become like family.

Is anyone looking to find a common cause for this? Environmental, perhaps? Or....dare one say it, vaccination? 

H/T: IanJ via email

Or You Could Stop Cramming Them Full Of Boat People?

A majority of towns that saw rioting last summer have a “torn social fabric” and have been bearing the brunt of economic deprivation, according to a new report. The report was published by the charitable trust Power to Change, using a “social fabric index” produced by the Onward thinktank which looks at the changing nature of community in different parts of the UK. It found that 23 of the 27 places that experienced disorder last summer have a social fabric score that was far below the median.

And who tore that 'social fabric', and how did they do it? Maybe years of underinvestment and cramming them full of unwanted immigration? Well, then, I wonder what the solution is?

The Social Fabric Index, which has been produced by Onward every year since 2020, looks at an area’s economic value, such as employment rates; relationships, such as rates of volunteering; positive norms, such as the levels of education in the area; civic infrastructure, such as trust in government; and physical infrastructure, looking at data on local assets and green spaces.

I'd forget trying to fix the 'trust in government' bit, with TwoTier Kier firmly ensconced in No 10... 

The Power to Change report used the findings to develop 10 recommendations that call for an investment in cohesion so people have places to meet, empowering communities so they feel more control over their lives, and supporting community-led growth that can be seen and felt across the country.

But if you 'empower communities', aren't they more likely to riot when it becomes apparent to them that things aren't going the way they want and that, no matter what, the diversity keeps on coming? 

Can’t Do This In The Norfolk Farce…

....all the DNA's the same!

Around half of the Metropolitan Police’s 33,000 officers could be missing from its own DNA and fingerprint databases hampering efforts to weed out sex predators like Wayne Couzens. Scotland Yard bosses are planning a multimillion-pound 12-month project to retake staff biometric data, which is expected to face fierce opposition.

Oppose away! It's a condition of the job, and you've got away with it for far too long. 

It is understood as many as 16,600 current serving officers’ DNA samples and 19,100 fingerprints are not on the force’s systems.

Labour’s Dawn Butler, who wrote to Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley with concerns last October, is furious having been reassured that “the majority” of officer DNA profiles are stored.

Sack him, then, Dawn. The blighter's lied to you!

In a letter responding to her inquiry, the Met’s director of forensic services - who admitted “there is currently a gap” - told the Brent East MP: “We intend to establish a robust process to ensure samples are collected from those officers whose samples are not on the database and will seek to do this within 12 months.”

Another year to do what you lied to Parliament was already being done? 

When Is An Acquittal Not An Acquittal?

The answer would appear to be, when it's a 'offences against women' issue:

The change is part of the government's plans give more protection to victims of stalking in England and Wales - with Home Secretary Yvette Cooper pledging the government will use "every tool available" to take power away from abusers. About one in five women aged 16 and over in England and Wales have been a victim of stalking at least once, external, official figures show.

The news that the identity of the (often anonymous) stalker will be disclosed to the victim garnered all the headlines, but this bit is rather more sinister:

If an accused person is acquitted, courts will still be able to apply protection orders on them if there is sufficient evidence indicating they still pose a risk to someone.

If they have been acquitted, then the court hasn't proved that to the satisfaction of a jury, and therefore that should be the end of it.  

Quite Easily, It Seems…

Tim Worstall does a great job of fisking the article, which is just a lot of squealing that black racists are being held to the same standards as white racists, so I won't bother. 

I would just like to point out that if I ran a 'Blog Comment Of The Month' award, this would be a shoo-in:

And so do I, Simon, so do I...

And What Exactly Are ‘The Values Of The Royal Society'..?

A leading scientist at the University of Oxford has resigned from the UK’s national academy of sciences over concerns about Elon Musk’s continuing fellowship. Prof Dorothy Bishop, emeritus professor of developmental neuropsychology and a leading expert on children’s communication disorders, said she handed back her fellowship of the Royal Society last week.

Oh. Well, bit long in the tooth for a strop like a toddler denied a lollipop befor dinner, aren't you? 

Bishop told the Guardian her move was a gut reaction, adding she had met the president and the chief executive after indicating her decision to resign, who stressed the need to follow due process over Musk. “I just started to think, you know, the Royal Society seemed to be set up to make it very, very difficult to ever get somebody to resign or to actually get thrown out, and given all I know about Musk, it felt grubby, to be honest,” she said.

We aren't told what it is she 'knows about Musk' but what she says reveals a great deal about her...

“It just felt having him in the Royal Society seemed such a contradiction of all the values of the Royal Society. And I didn’t really want to have anything to do with it.”

The values of the Royal Society? Doesn't it honour entrepreneurs and showmen then? I mean, it honoured Michael Palin, and all he does is take holidays with BBC licencepayer money.

Bishop also pointed to the Royal Society’s code of conduct, which stresses the need for fellows to treat each other with courtesy. “What I said to them was, I’m not going to be polite and nice to Elon Musk I’m afraid, so I can’t keep to the code of conduct,” she said.

Imagine being a lady of a certain age, and admitting that you have no social graces and self control? 

"I Don't Believe It...!"

Well, actiually, I do. And I sympathise. Hasn't he heard of Internet shopping, though?

A man banned from shops in a Norfolk town has blamed his hatred of queuing for abusing staff.

Wonder why the photo comes from Esses Police? Yes. Me too. 

H/T: Dave Ward via email

Cheer Up, Starmer, Al Assad’s Having an Even Worse Time…