Should You Be Breeding If This Is Your Attitude To Your Babies Health?

Twenty-week-old Grayson easily could have become one of the tens of thousands of British babies left unvaccinated against polio. His mother, Lily, agrees with the principle of immunisation. But overwhelmed by the early weeks of motherhood, and suffering from post-partum depression after a traumatic birth, she was daunted by the prospect of a long journey to a doctor's surgery.

"I've been through the trenches, awake all night. You don't want to leave the house, or go to a different town."

Not even to protest your newborn against fatal disease? I know better than to wonder why the father couldn’t have taken the kid! 

Weeks ticked by, and eventually Grayson missed the polio and diphtheria jabs he was supposed to get at eight weeks old. By that point he was officially classed by the NHS as "overdue" for vaccination; effectively, he was on his GP's naughty list.

Then Lily realised there was a clinic practically on her doorstep - at a location she hadn't expected.That clinic - in Keighley, west Yorkshire - runs from a vacant retail unit at the Airedale shopping centre, a 1960s-era precinct that locals say has fallen on hard times in recent years, with plenty of empty, boarded-up units. The staff who created the clinic thought: why not use one of those vacant units to administer vaccines?

Well, marginally better than a self-immolating vape shop or Turkish barber VAT fraud outlet, I guess....

It's an imaginative solution to a national problem. Over the last 15 years, childhood vaccination rates have fallen across Britain. The share of five-year-olds in England who have received a four-in-one jab (which protects against viruses like polio and tetanus) is now 81%, down from 89% in 2014. About 84% have received both of their recommended MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) jabs, down from 88% a decade ago.

And no, the culprit isn't what you'd expect, either:  

Beccy Baird, a senior fellow at the King's Fund think tank, says that despite colourful media reporting around "anti-vaxxers", most parents who turn down vaccination are not ideologically opposed to it. Convenience plays a big role, she says; vaccination rates are highest when parents regularly interact with medics, who can remind them to get their children jabbed and tell them exactly where to do it.

Then make sure the GP service is there for them to do it, and not ring-fenced by barbed wire and dragon-like receptionists that make it impossible to get an appointment! 

There's Lily, the 18-year-old who finally gets her son Grayson his polio and diphtheria jabs. And there's Keeley, an assistant in a ceramics shop, who arrives with her baby Luca, and is impressed by the clinic's convenience, with no need for an 08:00 phone call or complicated online form.

See? Why aren't the GPs run like this?  

Most of the young mothers have come across online anti-vax posts. "I see these things on Facebook where it's like, don't give your child vaccines because it's got ADHD in them," says Lily. Indeed, Hussain says she still hears parents asking if the MMR jab causes autism, a full 28 years after a link was suggested in a now-discredited paper by the former doctor Andrew Wakefield.

And you'll no doubt hear it until a more convincing arguement for the cause of the rise in the disorder is discoverered. 

The clinic - which serves a relatively poor community - has vaccinated hundreds of infants since 2023, helping to boost coverage in an area that's historically had a low rate of immunisations. As of March this year, 88% of the children registered with Modality AWC (the GP practice that runs the clinic) now receive their first MMR dose by the age of 18 months, up from 78% three years ago.

Is it a 'poor' area in monetary terms, or educational ones? 

Oh, Wales...

A 102-year-old great-grandfather with dementia died days after he was allegedly pushed off stage in his local pub after making a noise complaint.

A 56-year-old man from Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, was arrested on suspicion of inflicting grievous bodily harm, and remains under investigation.

Another act of midless savagery from the Land of the Dragon Bully Dog... 

Philip is understood to have been visiting the pub for a drink when he went onto a stage in the venue to complain about the volume of the music.

Robert said: "He just asked them to turn the music down." He said his father turned around to come back down off the stage when he was pushed, and that resulted in a broken hip."[That's] the most upsetting part. He wasn't going to live forever but it's not a nice way, obviously in pain," he said. "We want to see justice, of course. "They must have known he was an old man. It makes you wonder what the world is coming to."

Frequently, yes... 

Det Ch Insp Shelley Comley, senior investigating officer for Gwent Police, said: "We understand the public interest in this incident but want to remind people that, not only is this an active criminal investigation, but there is a family at the heart of it processing the loss of a loved one." She urged people to "consider the impact that inaccurate or speculative comments" including "online commentary" could have.

This boilerplate has to be stuck onto every police statement now, doesn't it? 

The First Burnham Victim Goes Under The Bus....

Step forward, victim:

Ms Haigh serves as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and First Secretary of State, effectively making her Andy Burnham's deputy. The Prime Minister appointed the convicted fraudster to her powerful role, as well as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, after she masterminded his victory in the Makerfield by-election in June. Her position in the higher echelon of Mr Burnham's administration comes less than two years after she was forced to resign from former PM Keir Starmer's Cabinet.

And now we know why he took such a step, so he'd have someone to blame when things went tits up. 

Louise Haigh signed off on a nationwide emergency wildfire alert that startled millions of people across the country. Ms Haigh, who is head of the Cabinet Office, is understood to have approved the alert, which led to panicked Britons jamming 999 lines and startled drivers swerving across motorways.

Bullshit! Don't tell me a decision like this never crossed the PM's desk. 'Meet the new boss, same as the old boss', as the song goes...

The Conservatives, who devised the system more than a decade ago, said the alert was only intended to be used in cases where there was an imminent, direct and mainly localised threat to life.A Cabinet Office report explicitly warned against its use for 'lower level' incidents for fear of creating a 'cry wolf' effect, in which phone users either disabled or ignored the alert in cases of genuine emergency.

Indeed, I first heard this fot real as I headed out to a restaurant in Edinburgh for a birthday meal, because extremely high winds were predicted - and materialised! - the next day. 

The Government had initially considered sending a targeted alert to the areas which were most affected or at risk of wildfires. However, by the afternoon, Ms Haigh's department decided to release the alert across the country following calls from the Fire and Rescue Service, The Telegraph reported.

A request they soon had cause to regret. 

But the plea from fire chiefs soon came back to haunt them as emergency switchboards became overloaded by members of the public accusing their neighbours of having a barbecue.

But every cloud has a silver lining for someone: 

One unlikely benefit of the disruptive alerts was that dozens of prisoners had their hidden mobile phones seized after the loud noises blared out from inside their cells on Friday evening.

Oh. well. 

Is This Unusual?

 

Well, It IS Ireland, maybe they dom't bother over there if the cause of death is so blindingly obvious...

A seven-year-old boy is among four seriously injured people in hospital after a crash in County Kildare in which five teenagers were killed while driving the wrong way down a motorway. Two women are in a critical condition, while another woman and the boy are in a serious condition after the head-on crash. It's believed the injured family - two women aged in their 30s and one in her 20s, and the young boy - were travelling to the airport to go on holiday.

And this wasn't a case of teenagers driving like that because they got confused as some elderly drivers do, or were being cgased by police - it was deliberate. 

The five teenagers have been named locally as Joe Carthy from Athy, County Kildare, Alex McCarthy from Carlow, Kamil Pustkowski from Limerick, Jeremy O'Brien and Jack Kennedy, according to Irish broadcaster RTÉ News.

Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Micheál Martin said his thoughts and prayers were with the injured and the death of the five teenage boys brought untold grief.

Social media immediatly gave the lie to that, wirh many people quite happy that these hooligans had deleted themselves from the world, being notorious as thorough nuisances in their town, and the sympathy went to the innocent victims who were just trying to get away on holiday. 

Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly described it as a "horrific incident" and "irresponsible and dangerous driving". "What makes this reckless behaviour even more appalling is that in some cases it is being done for social media likes regardless of the potentially devastating impact it might have on innocent people and themselves."

Ireland's Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan said on Monday that he condemned "in the strongest possible terms" the "reckless criminal behaviour". "I also want to emphasise that anyone who makes the decision to drive a vehicle deliberately the wrong way down a motorway is engaged in lethally dangerous behaviour and it must stop," O'Callaghan said.

But why would they stop, whrn the police are powerless - or unwilling - to stop them, and they lack the brainpower to realise the consequences of a crash ayyspeed? 

And This Is A Progressive National Newspaper?

...It reads more like some girls magazine like 'Jackie' (Ask your mum):

Having hope in your heart is all well and good, but you also need to know when to give up. At a certain point it’s time to accept cold, hard reality: we’re never going to see pictures of Taylor Swift in her wedding dress, are we?

*shrugs* 

There are many reasons this matters...

There's none, actually. 

...and the first, admittedly, is plain old nosiness, with a side order of entitlement.

Those are reasons, yes, but none of them matter. 

Obviously she is allowed to keep her wedding private, but being denied a glimpse of the dress feels – insert foot stamp here – unfair.

Are you an adult woman? or a 15 year old girl? 

Seeing Swift in her wedding dress would have divulged more about the human being underneath than her most undefended lyric, exposed truths that carefully crafted interview replies have distracted from so far. Seems like the oversharing era was her maiden game.

Polly Hudson is a freelance writer

Makes sense, even the 'Guardian' hasn't sunk so low as to enploy someone to write like this full time! 

'Ms Carty is a complex person...'

Francesca Kolar, mitigating for Carty, said: 'The pre-sentence report highlights that Ms Carty is a complex person. She is grappling with several issues, with alcohol and mental health at the forefront. 'She has a real sense of shame about what happened. She does take accountability for her actions. 'It is plain that alcohol was the disinhibiting factor in this offence.'

Whar did she do? Only climbed over seats at Emirates stadium to grope a teenage girl during an Arsenal Women's match! So less a complex person, more a run of the mill sex offender.

Carty was found guilty of one count of sexual assault against the older girl but cleared of a second charge by a jury at Snaresbrook Crown Court. She was also cleared of two counts of sexual assault relating to the victim's cousin. Carty avoided jail but was given an 18-month community order.

So, multiple teenage girls in fact, even if the jury didn’t think so. Think there might have been more than alcohol circulating in her bloodstream.

Judge Leslie Cuthbert said: 'Instead of immediately admitting to your drunk and unpleasant behaviour you chose to suggest that the girls were lying, meaning that the victim and her cousin had to give evidence. 'You sought to shift the blame onto others.'

So Ms Kolar has lied to the court, shouldn’t she face consequences for that? 

She was given a restraining order which means she will be prevented from contacting the victim for three years and will have to pay £500 in prosecution costs.

£500 is a fraction of the true cost. 

Updating English Country Traditions...

 

...Matt leads the way!

Sunday Funnies...

 See, Disney could be traumatising childhood so much more...

And Then They Will Predict The Winning Lotto Numbers Too

Primary schools in England should be required to identify children at risk of leaving education at 16 without finding a job, a government review is to recommend.

How on earth are they supposed to do that?! 

Alan Milburn, who is leading a review into Britain’s crisis in youth worklessness, said he would call for sweeping changes in education policy alongside a shake-up of the benefits system to address the problem. Speaking to the Guardian, he said ministers needed to “make somebody responsible” for identifying and supporting the children who risked becoming Neet (not in employment, education or training) after their GCSE year up to the age of 24.

I suppose you can't make the parents responsible for breeding the hopeless little shits in the first place, not if you want their votes, anyway, 

“The warning signs are there from a very early, early age. You know, frankly from preschool,” he said.

 Apart from obvious chavnames and ghetto monikers, I can’t see what else would be a predictor of future uselessness…

In an interview during a visit to Dublin this week, the former Labour health secretary said the recommendation would form part of his final report into Britain’s youth worklessness crisis, which is expected this autumn.Britain’s young adults are bearing the brunt of a rise in unemployment, with the number of 16 to 24-year-olds who are Neet surpassing a million earlier this year for the first time in more than a decade.

No shortage of unskilled jobs, but it seems they are all being filled by those imported to work for next to nothing by this and past governments! 

Ironically, The Only Thing About Him That Isn't Suspicious....

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement: 'Police were called by the London Ambulance Service at 3.12pm on Friday, August 14, following a report that a man had been found unresponsive inside a property. 

'Sadly, a 41-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene. His next-of-kin have been informed and are being supported by officers. 'At this time his death is being treated as unexpected, but is not believed to be suspicious.'

After days of questions from all quarters, he said: 'There comes a point when the personal cost becomes too great. I have a family. I want to be present for them.'

Guess he lied about that too. 

The message that the usual suspects want to get out is not that he was a DEI hire from the get-go and that the questions asked were relevant, but that the 'racist' white establishment is responsible for his death. 

Arday’s family said in a statement: “Jason was subjected to a campaign of sustained abuse for more than three years since he accepted the role of professor at Cambridge University by those who would leave no stone unturned in their quest to undermine him.

“We are in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son. 

“We won’t comment further at this point beyond asking the press to leave us alone now, and to stop the campaign of harassment which has been waged against Jason and his family for too long.”

Every inveterate race hustler is coming forward now to (literally) flog their dead horse before the spavined nag's body is even cold: 

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I’m devastated for the family and friends of Jason Arday. He faced an unacceptable public hounding and campaign of abuse. I know many Londoners will be angry and upset this evening. “Jason Arday was the victim of a pernicious public shaming that other people in his position simply wouldn’t have faced. His death was a tragedy, but once again it should be a wake-up call for all of us.”

What are we supposed to 'wake up to', Khan? The practice of tokenism and identity politics that led to this?

Speaking to BBC Newsnight, Professor of Black Studies Kehinde Andrews and friend of Arday described him as "very down" after resigning from Cambridge. "He was very upset. He felt that there was no way out. He effectively wasn't leaving the house. He had lost a lost of weight," Andrews said. "There should be a wakeup call to just how bad black academics actually have it in academia," he added.

Yes, very bad, I'm sure. And the undeserved lionisation of this inadequate fantasist and liar will have made things much more difficult for them, as Longrider points out.