Hardly A Representative Sample!

Villagers say they have "no concerns" over proposals to turn a former RAF base just outside Norfolk's border into housing for asylum seekers.

Really? 

The Justice minister Jake Richards acknowledged the Government would face local opposition as officials look to house migrants in UK hotels.

Were they wrong then? 

On the streets of Barnham, those who spoke to this paper said they saw no concern or problems with the proposal.

Aha! How many? 

Sid Bullock said the majority of asylum seekers were no trouble.He added: "Not a problem with it. Not really."

Emma Moss said: "I'm impartial. If people need help then we should give it to them. The location has good links to Thetford and the village is quite diverse anyway." 

Another local, who wised (sic) to remain anonymous, said: "I have no objection to it. Anyone who comes here seeking support it should be the British way to help them. "No concern whatsoever. I feel sorry for the refugees because it’s a bit out the way and and the gates are right on a busy road."

Three, out of a village of how many? In the end, 200 protestors turned up! And people wonder why local journalism is dying… 

H/T: Dave Ward via email

Here Comes The Whitewash

A council is investigating the care given to a disabled man accused of throwing a three-year-old boy into a crocodile pit over suspected neglect concerns.

Yes, he is alleged to have thrown a toddler into a pit of crocodiles, but he's potentially the real victim here... 

Norfolk County Council has opened a safeguarding inquiry into the support provided to the 30-year-old after he was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder on June 18.

A spokesperson for the local authority said it was working with 'partners in the health and care system to identify and review all those individuals receiving care from this provider and to ensure the care they are receiving is of the quality and consistency they expect and deserve'.

In case carers from the same agency are in the habit of taking potential public dangers to zoos that might have enclosures of dangerous creatures?

While the suspect was from Norfolk, it is understood his care was not commissioned, provided or paid for by Norfolk County Council.

Interesting...will we ever find out why? I suspect not. 

They Aren't Dubbed 'Carnage Corsos' For Nothing...

A man has been banned from owning a dog for seven years and has had four of his pets taken away after he pleaded guilty to having a dog dangerously out of control in a public place. Leyion Charles-Bain, 64, of Military Road, Northampton, was also given a one-year community order by the town's magistrates.

Yes, it’s the replacement mutt for the bloodsport breed enthusiast who doesn’t want an XL bully any more, because of the hassle of compliance with restrictions.  The sort that a man half his age would find it difficult to control.

Police said Charles-Bain had been walking two cane corsos - a large, muscular, mastiff-type breed - on The Racecourse, a park near the town centre, on 6 March 2025 when they had attacked two other dogs. Charles-Bain's four dogs were handed over to the police for rehoming.

For ‘rehoming’ in a vet’s incinerator one hopes… 

Meanwhile, in another county:

A dog owner was found dead days after his two pets were put down after being visited by police. Arminas Jakubauskas, 34, was discovered dead at his home on Northgate in Lowestoft on Saturday. Lowestoft Police had said before Mr Jakubauskas’ death that officers attended his home in the town on Monday, June 22 “due to safety concerns raised by the owner of two dogs”.

Suffolk police said the dogs “were assessed to be dangerous and a risk to public safety” and were sedated by specially trained officers before being taken to a vet.

The statement added: “The dogs, with the permission of the owner, were then euthanised.”

And the family dispute this, of course, scenting compo the way a cane corso scents a delicious toddler… 

The Lithuanian national who lived alone was described by his sister, Eglè Jakubauskaitė, as “a lovely man who always had a smile on his face”.However, Ms Jakubauskaitė, who lost contact with Mr Jakubauskas on June 24, believes her brother wouldn’t have allowed his dogs, Brisius and Merė, to be killed. 

“We have also been told that it was publicly stated that he had requested for his dogs to be euthanised. 

“Our family believes this is not true. He loved his dogs deeply and could never have wanted this to happen. 

The claim is going to be that the cops bullied him into it, no doubt. That’s already the claim from the ‘ae, poor doggies’ crowd on social media, naturally.

“The loss of his dogs had a profound impact on his mental state.” 

Ms Jakubauskaitė explained that the family believed that the events surrounding their euthanasia contributed to his poor mental health, which ultimately led to his death.

He sounds just like the kind of unstable, easily-led individual who shouldn’t travel been put in charge of powerful and aggressive mutts! 

A Device That Could Only Be Thought Up in Britain In 2026

cannot believe the uselessness of these hooks in the toilets at st. thomas's hospital pic.twitter.com/Uqd7aSwRgF

— Carrie Walsh (@carrie_walsh_) June 30, 2026

Commenters have suggested that they are specially designed to prevent suicide by hanging, and I can believe it, because it’s typical of the NHS to install something so utterly useless, rather than simply have no hook on the doors at all. 

I shudder to think how much they cost! 

That Tune's Familiar: Parody Songs

This is a really popular one to parody, and this one in particular is just sublime, as well as handy if you're struggling through the book!

The North/South Divide Will Continue....

 

...if Matt has anything to say about it!

Sunday Funnies...

 Typical American-centered site, they left out Fred and Rose West!

A Failure Of Training? Or Just 'Wales'?

Not to tread on Longrider's turf here, but this story caught my eye in the week...

A fatal train crash could have been avoided if a driver had used an emergency system designed to reduce speed, an investigation has found.

They stated it had “not occurred to them” to use their train’s manually operated sander, according to a report into a head-on collision between two trains in mid Wales on October 21 2024.

Eh? 

It happened near Talerddig in Powys on a rural section of the Cambrian line, which is predominantly single track with loops to allow trains travelling in opposite directions to pass each other.Despite braking, a westbound Transport for Wales (TfW) train failed to stop as intended inside a loop and rejoined the single line too soon, crashing into an oncoming train run by the same operator.

Slippery leaves on the line was the main cause, but not the only one. 

The RAIB revealed in an interim report in April last year that the westbound train’s automatic system did not work in the moments before the crash because of several failures, including blocked hoses, electrical faults and incorrectly installed plates measuring the flow rate of sand.

Oh dear... 

The RAIB said a rule book for TfW drivers states they should deploy the emergency sander “when a train is unable to stop in the usual distance” and its use may avoid a collision.

But the driver – who was not identified in the report – did not recall “any training” on the system and had not previously used it, according to the report.

I tend to think that at the moment you realise a crash is inevitable, you'd be pressing/pulling anything you felt might help! 

An RAIB survey of other TfW drivers after the accident “revealed a lack of clarity” about the circumstances requiring the system to be used, investigators said.

And this is the country that demands people take training courses before buying a pet rabbit. 

Abomination!

A few years ago, my family and I went on holiday to Denmark. In between Legoland and the airport, we stopped at roadside services for lunch. As we ate our chicken and chips, I spotted a man eating what appeared to be an enormous burger covered in gravy – using a knife and fork, as to do otherwise would have been logistically challenging.

I find a lot of the so-called 'gourmet' burgers to require a knife and fork or careful dismantling to eat, especially if they come with a little stake through the middle to hold them together. Covering them in gravy is a new form of diner inconvenience though... 

I had always thought that gravy was a uniquely British invention and holidays to France, Spain and Italy had done nothing to change that view. However, after some quick Googling, I discovered that the man was eating a bøfsandwich, colloquially known as a “gravy burger”.

I didn't have to google, there's a picture of this gatronomic disaster in the article, and as someone who loathes gravy, I cannot understand it's popularity at all. 

This creation is local to Jutland, although is now spreading around Denmark and probably dates back to the 1950s.

It's a firm 'no' from me. 

You Actually Think You're 'Saving Democracy'?

The Guardian puzzles over US politics again...

Try as we might, we could not close the deal at every door. I still think regularly about a Bucks County man I met in the fall of 2024 who told me that he could not imagine his state supporting Donald Trump, but he refused to cast a vote for Kamala Harris. I wish I had done more to convince him to hold strong for democracy.

He was 'holding strong for democracy', though - he just wasn't prepared to listen to some stranger who wanted him to change his vote. 

Does the door-to-door approach still work when Republicans are successfully using digital strategies that seem to bypass the doorbell entirely? Free votes is a cornerstone of democracy.

It's a credit to the political situation that you are allowed to canvass, but it's pointless crying 'foul!' when people use technology to avoid you... 

Those questions feel valid, particularly in a country where so many have fallen prey to the lures of Trumpian authoritarianism.

Of course, they’ve been ‘lured’, it can’t possibly be because they weighed up the alternative and found it wanting… 

For those of us who have been feeling unmoored by the state of the country and the future of US democracy, those doors are where our ideals meet unforgiving reality. If we want to build a better future, we will have to do it right here, surrounded by unfriendly dogs and intrusive Ring doorbell cameras.

The only legitimate  reason to own a pitbull, to keep people like this away!