Why Can't You Do This When They Are Actually Doing The Act?

Fifteen activists from a group which claimed to be behind stunts targeting the Ritz and the Crown Jewels have been arrested over alleged plans for a “mass shoplifting campaign” in London, police say. The Metropolitan Police said members of Take Back Power, which describes itself as a “non-violent civil resistance group”, had been preparing a campaign to steal goods from supermarkets and redistribute them.

Now, you might be asking why the show of force here, and not when people are actually engaging in thieving stuff in broad daylight, Reader? Well, this might provide a clue!

According to the force, activists had gathered at the Quaker Meeting House in Westminster on Thursday evening to take part in “non-violent direct action training”. Officers moved in to halt the meeting and arrested 15 people on suspicion of conspiracy to commit theft.

Clearly, the police fancy arresting unarmed middle class Quaker types having tea and biscuits at a meeting far more than they do rolling around between the shelves of a corner shop with a young fit, potentially infectious dinghy invader. And I’d say who can blame them but then I remember they are paid to do both!

Deputy Assistant Commissioner James Harman said: "There is a clear difference between lawful protest and criminal acts. 

Cool. it's not just that you fancied an easy arrest, then? 

"This evening's operation tackled a group who we have grounds to suspect were planning to steal from shops in a large, targeted and organised way. 

"Theft is a crime and the public expect the police to deal with it - which is exactly what we have done today."

You're right, we do expect you to deal with it, whenever and whever it happens... or we'll wind up like America:

Oh, too late! 

H/T:skscartoon via twitter

Are We That Desperate For Vets?

Tudor Herlea downed beer and vodka on a boozy evening before he was stopped by police during a routine drink drive check. Officers then found he was one and a half times the legal drink drive limit, a tribunal has heard.

And it wasn’t his first time, either:  

Herlea, a registered vet who began working in the UK in July 2024 as the lead surgeon for Vets4Pets in Blackpool, was already banned from driving for a speeding offence at the time.

And yet was hired anyway such is the state of our country, and the craven behaviour of our institutions is but one reason!

However, he has been spared from being struck off the official vet register after a panel was told that the Home Office would deport him if he was suspended.

So, that’s a consequence, and surely we can’t be so short of vets that we need to keep this one around? 

It was heard that Herlea committed the crimes in his home country and was convicted at a Romanian court in March 2024 - four months before he came to Britain as a convicted criminal to work.Despite this, The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) still allowed him to work in the UK.

Are all our organisations so totally captured that no matter what, they will continue to inflict diversity on us? 

The Most Horrible Thing I've Ever Seen On The Internet; Conclusion

A dog owner whose XL bullies attacked and killed a man has been jailed for five years. James Harrison Trimble-Pettitt, 33, previously pleaded guilty to having dogs dangerously out of control when Ian Price, 52, was attacked outside a property in Stonnall, Staffordshire, near Walsall, on 14 September 2023.

The video of this incident was the most distubing thing I've ever seen on the Internet - the sheer power on these animals and the utter helplessness of the unarmed people trying in vain to save him.

Judge John Edwards said Ian Price was "utterly overpowered by these young, powerful creatures who ravaged him for 12 minutes". Just hours after his death, then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the XL bully breed would be banned in England and Wales.

He should have ordered a cull of the damned thing, but he had as little backbone as Starmer has proved himself to have. 

The court heard both of Trimble-Pettitt's dogs, named Via and Ares, managed to escape their owner's home through an insecure door and open window, while the garden gate was also left ajar. Prosecutors said the animals attacked Ian Price's face and continued "jumping and biting". Members of the public tried to help the victim with one attempting to use their car and others using wheelie bins to try to stop the dogs. The attack was witnessed by both his wife and mother, with Ian Price eventually falling to the ground in the latter's garden.The court was told Heather Price called police and was heard telling them the dogs were "absolutely ravaging him".

And, although they sent armed officers. they failed to use them, sonething we've seen more and more, as they run scared of bad publicity from the boodsport breed fanciers and the sentimental public who haven't seen what damage these things can do. 

Judge Edwards said while Trimble-Pettitt did not intend for them to attack Ian Price, he displayed a "wholesale disregard" for his responsibilities as a dog owner.

We shouldn't regard people who want to keep these breeds as simple 'dog owners' - we should treat then as people who want to own a deadly weapon, because that's what they are. These breeds bear as much relation to the pooch curled in his basket in a normal houshold as your Sunday lunch table cutlery does to a zombie knife.

Thomas Schofield KC, mitigating, said Trimble-Pettitt's fault was one of negligence rather than intention, adding: "He didn't wake up that day thinking he was going to hurt somebody."

Then why did he have not one, but two of these things? 

In his sentencing, Judge Edwards also disqualified Trimble-Pettitt from keeping dogs indefinitely.

And no-one will check for compliance.... 

The Biters Bit

Scotland Yard is using AI tools supplied by the US tech company Palantir to monitor staff behaviour in an attempt to root out failing officers, the Guardian has learned.

Oh dear!  

The Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, criticised the approach as “automated suspicion”. It said: “Officers must not be subjected to opaque or untested tools that risk misinterpreting unsustainable workload pressures, sickness or overtime as indicators of wrongdoing.”

But it's perfectly OK for the public to be subjected to  

Must Be A Day With A 'Y' In It...

 ...because the 'Mail' fudges an animal story yet again:

What the spokeman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife would have said is'they hunt for mule deer'

Sunday Funnies...

 I maintain no 7 is a far, far better movie than the most recent remake.

Would there Be A Backlash If A Female Said This?

Reform UK’s Nadhim Zahawi has clashed with a senior Tory after doubling down on his claim that London is unsafe.

It demonstrably IS unsafe, how could anyone claim it isn't?  Anyone who wasn't knowingly trying to paint fears as 'rightwing concerns', that is? 

Mr Zahawi had told how he felt unsafe one morning after coming across a man in one of the capital’s most affluent areas who looked like he hadn’t slept and who he felt might be violent.

And that invited detractors to claim he was imagining things, something they'd never dare to say to a woman who expressed the same concerns. 

Reigniting the row, the senior Reform figure highlighted a report on crime in Mayfair and took a swipe at Sir Chris and Mr Hollinrake. “Both @kevinhollinrake @RhonddaBryant laugh and belittle people who think London is unsafe, only @policylaila @ZiaYusufUK and @reformparty_uk will take our streets, neighbourhoods & country back from the criminals & thugs,” he messaged on X.

 I applaud any such effort, doomed as it is to failure by people who will argue the sun rises in the west and sets in the east rather than admit the truth.

However, plain-speaking Yorkshire MP Mr Hollinrake hit back, posting: “Hi Nadhim, first time we’ve spoken for a while but we were very friendly last time we did. “No - as you actually know - I wasn’t belittling the problems we have in London and other parts of the UK - I was belittling your ludicrous example of a personal threat to you which never was.”

Trust your instincts, Nadhim - if they tell you someone is sketchy, they are probably right. 

Are We Really Employing Such Nervous Nellies In MI5?

A failed asylum seeker sparked a major terror alert after he left a fake stick of dynamite outside MI5's HQ.

A clearly fake stick, that he didn't actually even bother to light. If he'd written 'ACME Explosives' on it, it couldn't have looked any more fake. So why did it spark 'a major terror alert'? 

Did it, in fact, do such? Not that I can gather, I never heard anything about it until this story!

Julian Valente Pereira, a 32-year-old Brazilian national, staged a protest at the secret services central London base at Thames House a day after he had been told he would be kicked out of the UK.

A counter terrorism bomb expert rushed to the scene where it was then discovered Pereira had used rolled-up A4 paper, brown masking tape, and string to create the fake dynamite.

I'm suspecting now that the 'major terrorist alert' has been made up by the MSM... 

Pereira came to the UK with permission to work in July 2018 and has remained in the country illegally since February 2019.

Yes, this is how long it's taken to kick out this loony overstayer...and I fear that as a result of this stunt, he'll be here even longer.  Not because his stunt worked, at least as he hoped it would, but beause now our useless judiciary will shower him with understanding and sympathy:

Pereira has been remanded into custody until sentencing on April 1, and the footage of the incident has now been released by the Crown Prosecution Service.The judge asked for reports on Pereira's mental health and risk of reoffending, and warned that he may be jailed or sent to the Crown Court for sentencing.

Just put him on a plane, FFS!  

'Someone Should Have Saved Me From The Consequences Of My Own Actions!'

Emma Dyer remembers the moment she clicked "buy now" on a set of weight‑loss jabs she found online. She had no medical consultation, no ID checks, and no questions about her history of anorexia and bulimia. "It was just so easy - too easy," she says. "They never asked for my medical history or what medication I was taking. It was like buying groceries."

Except you weren't ordering cornflakes and crackers, and you knew that.

Within days of taking the injections, Emma collapsed on her bathroom floor and thought she was going to die.

She didn't, Reader. She survived to deman ACTION! on her behalf.

Emma had a history of eating disorders. She says she had reached a healthy weight, felt stable, and was working in a job she enjoyed. But a single comment from a customer who she said told her "you looked a lot better when you were skinnier", sent her spiralling.

Oh, well.  

The 40-year-old, from Carlton in Nottinghamshire, said the website she used offered no safeguards. She says it only asked for her body mass index (BMI), which she was able to lie about. "If they'd checked my medical history with my GP, I don't think I would've been eligible," she says. "My BMI was normal. I just wasn't in the right headspace to make a logical decision."

And a website is supposed to know that?  

When the injections arrived back in March 2024, the instructions were "poorly printed", Emma says. Not realising she needed to start on a low dose, she injected a medium one.

So she can't read either. 

She has now decided to share her story in the hope others will think twice before ordering weight-loss jabs online.

I've no intention of thinking even once about ordering medication (after self-diagnosing) from the Internet, thanks. Because I'm not a moron. 

It Shouldn't Be A Competitive Sport!

Every January, thousands of readers log on to Goodreads, Instagram or TikTok and make the same declaration: this is the year I read 50 books. Or 75. Or 100. Screenshots of spreadsheets circulate, templates for tracking pages and percentages are downloaded, friends publicly pledge to “do better” than they did last year.

Why? They aren't, can't be, reading for pleasure. Not if this is what's driving them.  

The appeal is obvious: in a distracted age, reading can easily become crowded out by work, screens and fatigue. Literacy rates in the UK are stagnating: in 2024, around 50% of UK adults read regularly for pleasure, down from 58% in 2015.

What they are describing doesn't seem too pleasurable to me. I love Goodreads for its options to recommend books, and see what others are reading, not for any competitive reducing of reading to a numbers game!

As the UK launches its National Year of Reading, a steady drumbeat of commentary has framed the decline of book culture as a civilisational crisis. Columnists have painted lurid pictures of a post-literate society, in which the shrinking cultural centrality of books represents a slow unravelling of the habits that once underpinned modern public life. In this context, reading targets promise discipline and a sense of progress.

The death of great authors like the sadly missed Dan Simmons at the weekend isn’t helping! 

But do yearly reading goals actually help us read better, or do they risk hollowing out the very activity they claim to protect?

The latter, I fear. What say you, Reader?