Bet You Won't See The Elites Eating It Though...

“If we’re going to address the world’s insatiable craving for animal meat, we’re going to have to replace like for like.” That means cultivating meat from cells in brewery-like factories or making taste-identical plant-based meats. In both cases, for people to buy them, the products must also cost the same or less than conventional meat.

In most cases, for people to buy them, you'd have to hold a gun to their head. Or maybe that's just me?  

These alternative proteins are the electric vehicles (EVs) of food, Friedrich says; the same experience, but better: “Just like a car doesn’t now need a combustion engine, a phone doesn’t need a cord, and you can take pictures without film, you can make meat without the need for live animals.”

It's Frankenfood. I suppose it's a natural progression from the 'science' that seems to believe it's possible to change women into men and vice versa. 

But such progress will require governments to ramp up their support for the scientists overcoming the obstacles in this still-embryonic field. They have done it before for previous transformative technologies, from penicillin to the internet to renewable energy, Friedrich says.

All vastly useful inventions, that had no viable alternative at the time, or like this, did but it suited governments and lobbyists to pretend the viable alternative had become problematic.  

If China went all-in for example, he says, conventional meat could be all but history by mid-century: “They took EV sales [at home] from 1% to more than 50% in the 10 years to 2025, and that’s a tougher tech challenge and scaling challenge than alternative meats.”

China? You're pinning your hopes on China?! The population of which eats everything with wings that isn't a airplane, and everything that with four legs that isn't a table? Well, good luck with that!

Friedrich is a compelling advocate for his goal of ending industrial agriculture, with answers for the many criticisms: “It’s just a shockingly inefficient way of producing food. It takes nine calories of crops to get one calorie of chicken, 10 or 11 calories of crops to get one calorie of pig meat or farmed fish and 40 to 100 calories of crops to get one calorie of beef.”

That's industrial factory farming. But - for example -  lamb and goat can be produced on land that is useless for any other type of food production.

Frequently raised is the “yuck factor” of cultivated meat. This is overblown, Friedrich says. “People are not eating meat because of how it’s produced,” he says. “They’re eating meat because it’s delicious and affordable. All of the polling indicates significant enthusiasm for cultivated meat, especially among people who eat the most meat.”

Who are you polling, Friedrich ? Is it the people who are expected to eat this? Because, let's face it, this stuff isn't going to be on the menu at Davos or the Oscars, is it? 

I Find It A Perfectly Acceptable Risk...

 ...and so, I suspect, would most people: 

Requiring transgender prisoners to be held in jails matching their sex at birth would breach their human rights and create an unacceptable risk of suicide, a court has been told.

Oh, well...the suicide risk for those not in prison is pretty high too, due to their mental condition,  so *shrug* 

The case follows a Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman in equalities law in April last year. The Scottish government insists it respects that judgement - but said it did not override the need to uphold the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The sooner we elect Reform and junk this bloody thing, the better!  

The Scottish government's KC, Gerry Moynihan, said the ECHR meant transgender people had the right to live their lives in their acquired gender. He added there had long been recognition in the UK that this included the right to be held in prisons aligning with that.

He said trans women also had vulnerabilities and needs, and the government's judgement was they were best dealt with in the female estate "assuming they don't pose risks to others". He said this offered them "protection against mental health difficulties and the route to rehabilitation," noting that a "trans woman will return to the community as a trans woman".

They will return to the community a man, because that's what they are and what they always will be... 

O'Neill told the court on Tuesday that there was "incredible sensitivity" to the rights, dignity and privacy of trans people, while the rights of "incredibly vulnerable" female prisoners were not factored in. He said the government wanted to retain the flexibility to put "a totally non-violent trans-identifying man" in the women's estate but questioned why female prisoners had to "bear the risk" of this and act as "human shields". O'Neill continued: "What is required is the preservation of women's only spaces. 

"All I am interested in, because of the situation of women, is the preservation of women's dignity, security and sense of safety vis a vis men - that's all."

Spot on. How have we come to this as a nation? Still, we are at least marginally ahead of the open air asylum that is Canada: 

Van Rootselaar was understood to have used his mother's name, Strang, socially and at school. He was named by Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Wednesday and described as a woman.

But he wasn't.  

Amid questions over how Van Rootselaar was described in alerts, McDonald said police “identified the suspect as they chose to be identified” in public and in social media.

The Trans 'community'  is reacting with all the decorum you would expect from a crowd of narcissitic men in frocks, of course:

                            

 

Perhaps French Children Have Changed..?

In French culture, seven is known as “l’âge de raison”, the age at which children know right from wrong and can take some moral responsibility. France’s national rail operator, it seems, puts the age at which a child can be trusted to behave in a non-annoying way onboard a train a bit higher.

Well, yes. 

In launching its new Optimum plus tariff earlier this month, offering spaces onboard its weekday TGV trains between Paris and Lyon with bigger, more comfortable seats, fancy food and no under-12s, SNCF was trying to appeal to the many business travellers who make that journey.

Perish the thought! Unusually for the 'Guardian', who usually feels there's no desire so niche that it shouldn't be satisfied, the desire to not have your work commute enlivened by unruly brats is considered beyond the pale, and they found a columnist who agrees. 

But the move has sparked a backlash and a philosophical debate about the place of children in society, against the backdrop of a worrying decline in French birthrates. “We can’t on one hand say that we are not having enough children and on the other hand try to exclude them from everywhere,” argues Sarah El Haïry, France’s high commissioner for childhood.

And the name of the high commissioner is itself a clue to the social change, I suspect...

SNCF’s move was certainly a surprising one in a country that has a reputation for being family-friendly and respecting children’s right to take part in the rituals of everyday life, starting with the elaborate three-course meals they are served in school canteens. My own half-French children, growing up in Paris, have had customs such as politely greeting neighbours and shop workers drilled into them from babyhood, not to mention sitting patiently in a restaurant and chacun son tour (taking turns) on the swings in the park.

Perhaps the influx of 'new French' don't feel the same obligation that you felt to adapt to the social mores of their new homeland. 

A society that cannot bear the presence of children is “worrying”, El Haïry argues. The former minister has spoken out before about the “no kids” trend, whereby restaurants and hotels are increasingly targeting child-free grownups who are seeking peace and quiet and have deep pockets.

Is it because they have acquired a loathing of well-behaved children with their fortunes? Or is it because well behaved children are no longer the norm? 

One To Watch...

Police have seized two dogs in Havering following a distressing incident in Raphael Park where a two-year-old girl was injured and required hospital treatment. The incident has caused significant concern among local families and park users, with officers confirming that enquiries are ongoing.

The mutts were initially identified as Cane Corsos, but they turned out to be rottweilers...with a reputation in the area for past attacks. As always, social media fills in the blanks:

Not the usual chav with a vicious dog if he gave his details, though of course he didn't wait around for the police.

Well, well, well. Wonder why the police haven't acted before? 

Oh. Never mind. 

Then Make Them Personally Accountable

The family of a 15-year-old boy who was stabbed to death at school by another pupil has said her son’s murder was “senseless and avoidable” and that a report ordered by the school showed too many “red flags” were missed.

Thisis, of course, the family of Harvey Willgoose, stabbed to death by an enricher at his school. One with the now-expected history of poor behaviour that was no doubt excused by well meaning liberal teaching stagg on account of his race.

“I’m determined that no other family should be sitting in court listening to how their child was killed, have to read a report that lays bare how their child could have been protected. I want to use my voice for Harvey’s memory to push for real change.”

Such as? 

There needed, she said, to be better record-keeping and training in schools nationally. The family have called the report “damning” and said it should be published in full so other schools can learn from mistakes that were made.

You don’t think enough mistakes have been made that they should have already learned from, then? I certainly do. 

Yogi Amin, the head of public law and human rights at Irwin Mitchell, which represents Harvey’s family, said the review had identified “weaknesses in leadership”, failure to implement national policy and “serious shortcomings in record-keeping that meant weapons-related concerns and escalating behaviours were not acted upon effectively”.

Maybe start asking why they weren’t? 

Maria Turner, Harvey’s grandmother, said “all the red flags were missed” including one, she said, that identified 130 incidents in Khan’s records which included “violence, weapons, gangs and anger … and the school did not seem to pick up on this”.

Caroline Willgoose and her family are now campaigning for all schools to install knife arches to help prevent another stabbing.

Yes, by all means, let’s start installing elephant proof gates on our schools but never, ever address the elephant in the room, oh dear me no. 

Another Choirboy, I Presume..?

A 15-year-old boy has been accused of attacking a female teacher with a kitchen knife after asking for help with work, a court heard. A schoolboy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, allegedly launched the assault on the teacher at Milford Haven Comprehensive School on Thursday afternoon.

And if the court refuses MSM applications to name him after conviction, we'll never know..

He was charged with attempted murder, grievous bodily harm, and possession of a bladed article on education premises. He was remanded into youth detention over the weekend and will appear at Swansea Crown Court on February 9.

What the hell is going on in our schools? And our country?  

Once Again, The Scottish Government Is Preferable To Westminster's Lack Of Foresight...

Swift bricks will be installed in all new buildings in Scotland after the Scottish parliament voted in favour of a law to help endangered cavity-nesting birds.The Scottish government and MSPs across the parties backed an amendment by Scottish Green Mark Ruskell to make swift bricks mandatory for all new dwellings “where reasonably practical and appropriate”.

Fot once, a sensible and unobtrusive policy from the Greens, one that will benefit the environment with little to no drawbacks. Why can't we have it here? 

Because, Reader, our government is once again proven utterly useless:  

The swift move contrasts with the four-year battle to bring the hollow £35 bricks into law in England. The Labour government last year rejected an amendment to make the bricks mandatory for new buildings, instead introducing them into planning guidance, meaning there is no legal obligation on developers or planning authorities to provide them.

And Wales too, another Labour stronghold, followed suit. 

The Welsh government rejected swift bricks last year, arguing that developers could use the bricks to argue they were meeting “net benefit for biodiversity” requirements without providing other nature-positive measures.

So rather than applaud the nature-positive thing they were doing, the dog-in-a-manger morons in Wales chose to focus on the things they weren't doing? Sounds about right.

In Gibraltar, an important point on the swifts’ seasonal flyway between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, swift bricks have helped populations recover. Prof John Cortes, the environment minister of Gibraltar, said: “Scotland’s decision on swift bricks is a significant step in ensuring the survival of this species, which has come to depend so much on us. On the ‘Rock’ we have had this policy for several decades and we have seen a declining population of swifts first stabilise and then increase.”

Shortsightedness from Westminster is clearly to be expected.  

We Found A Real One!

A 'talented footballer', that is...

'One of his main passions was football, and he had played since the age of four. He was an Arsenal supporter, and we believe he was on his way home to watch the game later that night when he was stabbed and killed.

So typically 2026. As was the unnecessary coyness from the authorities about the reason for the overwhelming police presence and road closures.

And of course, while the MSM was still in bed, Twitter was making the predictions and getting them right:

A post-mortem examination showed that Oladipo died from a stab wound to his chest. Harper Dennis, 18, of North Road, West Drayton, London, has been charged with Oladipo's murder and with the possession of an offensive weapon in a public place, Leicestershire Police confirmed.

Let's hope he didn't source his weapon from the university canteen. 

Always On Point And Topical...

 ...that's Matt! 

 

Sunday Funnies...

 It's a tactic that works, so of course they over-use it.