Don't Expect Any 'Fast, Effective Relief' From This Rennie...

A convicted armed robber was given a last chance to avoid prison after ...

Declaring his intention to go straight? Saving an orphan from a house fire? Impressing the judge with his commitment to his aged mother?

...failing to show up for community service.

Ummm...

Judge David Rennie accepted the case had exceptional circumstances and imposed a two-year suspended prison sentence, with 300 hours of unpaid work and 30 rehabilitation sessions with the Positive Futures Programme.

Oh, yes! I remember this case now.

But last week, Bassett, now 22, appeared back before the judge at Hove Crown Court after failing to attend the unpaid work days.

Andrew Stephens, prosecuting, said Bassett has only completed 37 hours of unpaid work in the past year, leaving 263 hours outstanding. He said the probation have had no contact with him since April, and believed all options had been exhausted.

Except one, of course. But heaven forfend the judge actually does what he's put in place to do!

Judge Rennie invited a tearful Bassett into the witness box to explain why he should be allowed to continue with unpaid work, despite being brought before the courts for breaches in November and February, and most recently in April.

He didn't even bother with any inventive excuse. Why should he, after all?

Bassett, formerly of Hailsham, said: “I messed up, I know I have messed up badly. All I can do is apologise.”

He knew it wasn't worth the effort.

Judge Rennie said: “If we meet again, you will be sending yourself to prison.”

He'll have to. You clearly won't!

Compare And Contrast. Again.

Appalling cruelty resulting in a 10 year ban on keeping animals:

A dog owner has been banned from keeping animals for 10 years after he tried to kill a terrier by shooting it four times in the head with an air rifle before dumping the animal in a bush.

Microchip details revealed Hancock's former partner owned the dog and an RSPCA investigation found Hancock, from Hedge End, brutally attacked the dog and dumped him.

He was convicted of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal following a trial and banned from keeping pets for 10 years, ordered to carry out 200 hours community service and pay £1,621 in costs.

Appalling cruelty resulting in....wait, what?

Paul Oliver was handed a 16-week suspended jail term for allowing his hounds to kill four cubs, causing their “painful, terrifying” deaths.

However, Oliver, who was master of the now-disbanded South Herefordshire Hunt, was not barred from keeping animals because he would have lost his job at a stud yard.

District Judge Joanna Dickens also imposed a 12-week suspended sentence on Hannah Rose, the hunt’s kennel maid. 

Explaining her reasons for not banning the couple from keeping animals, she added: “I think the chance of any reoccurrence is minimal.

“I also take into account that to disqualify them from being in control of animals would cause them to lose their current employment and any hope of future work, as this is their livelihood.”

Those are what we call 'consequences', judge. Aren't they?

"No More Broadband, Thanks, I'm Full!"

They must be hungry for success!

H/T: Dave Ward via email

I'm Sensing A Flaw In Your Design...

Thank goodness the designer didn't go into zoo work!

Sunday Funnies...

Celebrities! Is there nothing they can't do?

In Which I'm Forced To Agree With Piers Morgan...

Councillor Andrew Gordon, who represents Lee Chapel North on Basildon Council, took to Twitter to condemn the Good Morning Britain host’s “toxic views”.

About immigration? Racism? Jeremy Clarkson?

The controversial GCSE question asked: “There are 84 calories in 100g of banana. There are 87 calories in 100g of yogurt. Priti has 60g of banana and 150g of yogurt for breakfast. Work out the total number of calories in this breakfast.”

Piers said: “This country is going completely bonkers. We don’t re-write the entire maths paper which has a perfectly reasonable question because somebody may have a trigger moment.

Otherwise - here’s what will happen - with this snowflake generation, you end up with zero questions. You won’t be able to ask any questions about anything because it may trigger somebody and their anxiety - it is nonsense.”

Errr, in other words, like a stopped clock, Morgan is actually right...

What's this idiot's beef, again?

In response Mr Gordon said on Twitter: “My girlfriend had an eating disorder and is unfortunately no longer with us. I had an exam days after she died which asked me to count calories. That question broke me. Piers Morgan if you ever want to be educated on the subject, drop me a line because your views are toxic.

“Unfortunately, I just have to accept there is no real support for people in my shoes. I failed the exam, but oh well.

“That man is so dangerous, he is pushing a narrative that is dangerous and Good Morning Britain just sits back and allows him to shout over everyone who disagrees.

“There is absolutely nothing to gain from exposing someone to such a question. Compassion costs us nothing.”

This isn't 'compassion', any more than coddling a child in cotton wool is 'compassion'. Sooner or later, they have to contend with life, and the realisation that it isn't run to their own personal wishes and desires. They have to learn to cope.

How can anyone elect someone who advertises to the world that he can't?

Another BabySeal™ Bites The Dust...

Ginario Da Costa, Edson's father, said: "Edir's passing has left a huge hole in our lives. Seeing him with his little boy made me so proud, but now his son will have to grow up without his father.

"Losing Edir has broken my heart. We will forever feel that if things had been done differently his life may have been saved."

He added that hearing details of the last moments of Edson's life had been extremely traumatic for the family and something they would never forget.

"We cannot help but wonder whether Edir would still be here had the police identified the risk of Edir choking earlier and taken steps to help him," Mr Da Costa said.

Did the poor man have a medical condition? Was he brutally restrained in a dangerous and illegal fashion?

Well...no.

Cmdr Musker said: "The inquest heard evidence that Mr Da Costa had chosen to swallow 88 wraps of controlled drugs wrapped in a plastic bag in the course of being stopped to avoid detection by police.

"This was not immediately apparent to the officers involved. It is clear that swallowing drugs is a lethally dangerous thing to do."

Well, it's apparent to everyone except the family of this waste of oxygen.

And to the usual suspects, who see yet another campaign slip through their fingers:

Edson is one of five young black men who died within a six-month period following police restraints, according to the charity Inquest. It slammed the tactics the officers and Met's legal teams employed during Edson's inquest.

Deborah Coles, Inquest's director, said she believed "a hostile environment was created through the defensive and combative tactics of police lawyers, who sought to narrow lines of inquiry and divert attention away from the circumstances that resulted in Edir's death.

"This adversarial approach must not be tolerated as it fundamentally undermines the ability of an inquest to seek the truth."

Translation: "Waaah! S'not fair! How dare you not just roll over and let us excoriate you for doing your job (for once)!"

Susie Labinjoh, head of civil liberties at Hodge & Allen, representing the family, said the inquest highlighted concerns about how police respond to people suspected of placing drugs in their mouths.

"A great deal needs to be done, both with officers on the street and those in the control room, to ensure tragedies like this do not happen again," she added.

What 'tragedy'..?

I Feel Most Sorry For The Mice...

The mum of a 15-month old baby who has been in and out of hospital has slammed her housing association for forcing them to live in a house infested with mice.

Brooke Keen, 24, has taken her daughter Desire to A&E about six times in the last seven months with sickness and diarrhoea.

Brooke believes her daughter’s condition is linked to the mouse problem in her flat on Waters Road, which is run by Phoenix Housing Association.

...it can't be nice having to live with chavs, the poor little things.

The mum-of-two, who has lived in the flat for five years, told News Shopper: “I used to love my house, but now I don’t want to live there. I don’t even want any of my stuff because of the mice.”

Despite pleas to Phoenix to be moved out of the house, the housing association has not placed her in a new property – instead using temporary measures to try and get rid of the pests.

She claims the problems have continued despite traps and poison being laid, and despite Brooke's attempts to clean and ventilate the flat.

The pictures in the paper don't show a lot of cleaning, it has to be said...

Brooke, who has a history of depression, believes the ordeal has taken a toll on her own mental and physical health.

Of course she does. How better to get the move she wants than to try the old excuses?

In March, Brooke moved back in with her mum, Carina Keen, in Thornton Heath.

So she hasn't been living there for the last three months after all?

“I’ve seen how it affects her. I watch her washing her hands all the time, like she’s paranoid," Carina told News Shopper. “She should be happy in her own home. Your home is a place you should feel safe. She shouldn’t have to keep running back to me."

She shouldn't expect to sponge off the taxpayer forever either, yet here we are...

Never Say Never, Kim...

Kim Leadbeater is extremely angry. This Sunday marks the third anniversary of the murder of her older sister, the Labour MP Jo Cox.

Oh, it's that time again? Let the griefwhoring begin! Mind you don't step on the toes of the Grenfell Tower mob, love...

‘This week, with the anniversary, is always difficult but then every day is difficult. The sadness and sorrow never disappear. I still haven’t processed what happened properly. We’re very lucky that that individual who killed Jo will never be out of prison.’

Hmmmm, really?

What assurances has the Cox family received that they can confidently say this, I wonder? Because with the parole board, it seems anything can be excused:

The panel said it had found McGreavy had “developed self-control”, and took “full responsibility” for his crimes. It also said he had a “considerable understanding of the problems he has had and what caused them”.

The problems 'he has had'. Not those he caused. So why won't the same apply to Cox's killer some time down the line?

But never mind, there's virtue signalling to be done:

‘Our politics feels bitterly divided. Brexiteers are labelled fascists, Remainers called traitors, people who disagree with us are “The Enemy”... it’s a total mess.’

The statistics seem to back her up. In the short period since Jo was killed, the number of people charged with sending malicious messages has risen by 38 per cent, and the number of death threats reported to the police has risen by 70 per cent in two years.

‘The people I have spoken to are struggling to pinpoint why this is happening, but what I’m clear on is that we need to fix it,’ she says.

It's happening because finally, the public have woken up to what a shower of shits they've elected. 

What A Load Of Caltrops!

Security pins left "lying around" the floor of a Merseyside superstore are a danger to life and limb, said concerned shoppers.

The potential dangers were highlighted by thalidomide survivor Kevin Donnellon and former Sefton councillor Ralph James, who likened them to "lo-tech anti-personnel devices".

The tags are standard in most clothing stores. However, it was the potential for injury from them being left "pin upwards" on the floor of the Tesco Litherland superstore that concerned campaigners.

Health and safety first!

Kevin Donnellon, 57, is a dad-of-two and thalidomide survivor from Crosby who uses a powered wheelchair.

He said: "I'm always on the lookout for the pins. They're lethal. It's not just the odd one, there's loads.

"As you can see, they are extremely long and sharp and must have presented, during the many years they have been in use, a severe danger to anyone stepping on them such as young children, guide dogs and could easily deflate tyres in wheelchairs or prams."

So how many guide dogs have been injured? How many kiddiewinks punctured? How many wheelchairs put out of action?

Ralph James, 65, a former Sefton councillor from Bootle, said he had picked up "dozens" of the security tags on his visits to the store.

He said: "It's an inherently unsafe design. They bounce out of the box staff throw them in and end up lying all over the floor of the exit aisle at a 45-degree angle.

"There's a danger they could cause sepsis if they were stepped on and caused a puncture wound.

"I want to prevent somebody suffering injury or possibly death as a result of some sort of infection setting in."

Hmmm. I'm starting to think the answer's 'None'. Despite them being around 'for years', according to the complainants...

A Tesco spokesperson said: "These security tags are the standard type used in clothing stores across the UK.

"Unfortunately these particular tags seem to have been misplaced and so we will remind our colleagues of the correct way they should be disposed so they are not found on the floor."

Is that fancy business PR speak for 'Oh, go away & get a life!'...?