Well, That's A Turn-up For The Books..!

Bloody misogynist right-wingers, denying a feminist shibboleth like th...Oh hang on, 'Guardian' letters page? Really?

I write about the recent coverage of the Fordingbridge case (Court of appeal to review rape sentences of three teenage boys, 26 May). I experienced a remarkably similar crime over 20 years ago: same number and age of perpetrators, same incident, same court outcome.

Still, I’m worried by some of the discourse for the girls in question and others who have experienced similar. There have been comments in print and social media which, in attempting to emphasise the severity of the crime, have said things like “their lives are ruined” or “they’ll never heal”.

Yes, that’s been the case for some time, why, when the perpetrators are from an identity group, do you want this not to be the case? 

Now, on the one hand, the impact on my life can hardly be overstated. I’ve struggled to make healthy decisions for myself, had a number of harmful coping mechanisms, and spent many years either feeling numb or creating or fabricating problems in the present because, surely, the pain I’m feeling can’t still be a result of what happened. I’ve allowed people to treat me very poorly and struggled to see it, subconsciously modelling a template that had been set.However, to say that my life is ruined? Hardly. I have many wonderful friendships, a successful career in a field I’m passionate about and I’ve travelled the world.

The girls in the Fordingbridge case – and others in a similar situation – are going to need a lot of support, time and space to feel a lot of things (I would advise them to seek out places and people that provide these, and to give time and space to themselves too), but I hope they can know that there is hope for the lives ahead of them.

Its a measure, I suspect, of how cynical I’ve become, that I firmly believe that we’re the perpetrators of this crime white men of Christian Anglo Saxon heritage, not only would we not be seeing members of the lanyard classes writing in to the ‘Guardian’ about it in this fashion, they wouldn’t be published if they did!

The Dropping Of Charges Is Almost In The Bag...

A teenager accused of staging a bomb hoax which forced a Peter Kay comedy show to be evacuated had to be removed from court after he started stripping down in front of the judge. The hearing for Omar Majed, 19, who appeared at Birmingham Crown Court via video-link from HMP Brinsford, was cut short after prison officers removed the defendant from the room when he started to take off his prison-issue grey tracksuit bottoms.

Yes, it's him again. 

Judge Andrew Smith KC was trying to address the defendant, who was not arraigned during the hearing due to the need for psychiatric reports, to let him know when he next needed to appear.

Or 'if' should he keep this up until the CPS gets cold feet.

A further case management hearing for Majed, of Saltley, Birmingham, who was charged with communicating false information to police contrary to the Criminal Law Act, was set for July 27 and a provisional date for a trial, lasting two weeks, was scheduled for November 3.

Once again, I'm forced to note no year is mentioned... 

'How Very DARE You, It's For Charity, Don'tchaknow?'

Two charity hikers who skipped queues to reach the summit of Yr Wyddfa have spoken of their anger at being booed.

Not their shame, no, of course not! Their unjustified anger. 

Jamie Richardson, 32, and Richard Thiedeman, 34, avoided "Alton Towers-like" queues as they hiked different routes up the mountain on Sunday and were met with jeers from those waiting as they tapped the trig point to complete a charity challenge.

And they claimed they had no clue why they might have got that reaction,  of course. And I believe them, they seem to suggest that because they were doing it for charity they were entitled to skip the queue!

Richardson said: "There's no policing of it at all, it is purely free will, if you want to queue you can."

Yes, and people did, because it's the polite thing to do. But not you, because you’re special….. 

Thiedeman said: "Knowing what I've just been through with the other two mountains, I was really exhausted. 

"I just needed to get it over with, I'm in the sun, I'm getting sunburned. I just need to tap [the trig point] and leave."

Like, I suspect, the majority of the people queuing, who still have manners and a sense of social responsibility and not simply a charidee T-shirt and an overweening sense of your own self importance.

Richardson experienced another hiker trying to physically stop him from reaching the trig point. "I'm up to the third mountain, I'm physically exhausted, it was 20 odd degrees. No shade or anything," he said. "I was physically struggling. I wanted to just go up and touch the summit and get myself down. "I was getting booed and then there was a gentleman who was at the top, who had just had his photo taken and he physically tried to stop me." He added he had just touched the summit point and heard someone say "you should be ashamed of yourself".

A waste of breath, these kids are incapable of it… 

Thiedeman continued: "If you've got nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all. 

"Instead they were trying to belittle the attempts of people they don't even know. 

They know all they need to know about you-that you don’t feel society’s unwritten rules for cohesion apply to you. 

"When I'm wearing a T-shirt that you can see what this person's hiking for... surely anybody at the summit of a mountain deserves a cheer and a well done? 

"I was coming up feeling proud and then I'm being booed, so now I'm really angry and I'm not focused on being proud. 

Awww, poor baby! 

"Whatever anybody's belief or approach is, you don't boo somebody else because they don't have the same approach."

"The queuing, that is just purely down to British culture traditions. "A bit more encouragement in the world would go a little bit further, rather than trying to put people down."

You see, you won’t be able to understand this, but we really value those cultural traditions, and we want to keep them. It’s bad enough we are importing people who don’t and never will, share them, but to see you come along and scorn them, well, you’re lucky all you got was booed! 

At Last, A Magistrate With Some Balls....

...so of course, they censure him:

A magistrate has been given a formal warning after suggesting he would give a 'good hiding' to a defendant who was shouting about being jailed. Paul Gibson, a former magistrate on the South-East Essex bench, admitted he 'let himself down badly' when he lost his composure during a 'difficult and stressful hearing'. He has now been issued with a sanction of formal advice for misconduct following an investigation.

Ridiculous! 

Mr Gibson said he had 'allowed himself to be provoked by the defendant', who had shouted abuse at him and his fellow magistrates from the dock. The defendant had also started filming proceedings on their phone - an offence for which an individual can be found in contempt of court.

Then find him in contempt! 

Senior judge Mr Justice Keehan and Lord Chancellor David Lammy agreed on the sanction for misconduct.

Of course they did… 🙄

It has not disclosed the court at which the exchange happened, nor the name of the defendant or the nature of the offence for which they were sentenced.

I wonder why? 

No Amount Of Youth Clubs Will Make A Difference

The father of murdered teenage footballer Kiyan Prince set out a new vision for young Londoners on the 20th anniversary of his son’s death.

It might be new to him, but it won’t surprise most people! It is of course ‘more youth clubs’ as if the knife-wending street vermin would be only too happy to give up eternal  feuding over their ends if only they had the chance of a game of snooker in a rickety hall selling curly sandwiches and warn bottle of ginger beer.

Dr Prince dedicated his life to steering young people away from knife crime since Kiyan, 15, was fatally stabbed trying to break up a fight outside his Edgware school on May 18, 2006. The Kiyan Prince Foundation - set up in honour of the tragic Queens Park Rangers youth team player – today launches a campaign, The Champions’ Club, calling for more investment into youth services to help them succeed.It includes an ambition to raise £400,000 so that the charity can fund a new space for youngsters dedicated to Kiyan’s legacy.

No amount of this pandering will reach the demographic responsible for these type of murders.

Dr Prince has also created a 20-point blueprint to improve the lives of Gen Z – one for every year since the teenager’s death. It sets out 10 asks of policymakers – including better pay and recognition for youth workers, more long-term focus and greater prominence for community voices.

No point in that if they aren’t listened to and they aren’t. 

The other 10 recommendations are for young people themselves, and include prioritising physical exercise, developing critical thinking skills and volunteering for local organisations.

The government isn’t interested in anyone developing those, least they start realising uncomfortable realities .

I Was Considering Buying An Apple Watch Too....

...because I have become fed up with my Radley watch deciding not to charge up and I have a cash reward for completing 40 years service to spend. So I was already looking at Apple, since it'll seemlessly blend with all the other Apple products I have. And I have in facy now ordered one. Then I saw this:

Two men who filmed themselves speeding at 139mph in a 30mph zone while inhaling from balloons before crashing and killing the driver of another car have been sentenced to a total of 23 years in jail. 

Uways Hussain, 20, and Usmon Mahmood, 23, had spent the night driving dangerously through Manchester before colliding with a vehicle being driven by Sylvester Abayomi.

Just more 'driving while ethnic' on Britain's streets, entirely unhindered  by traffic cops...

Rachel Shenton, prosecuting, said the Golf had been driven 'at speed' through the light and Mahmood had 'chanted encouragement' to Hussain as he drove. Immediately after the collision, Greater Manchester Police received an alert from Hussain's Apple watch which detected he had been involved in a collision.

Wow! I didn't know that was a feature. A watch that alerts the cops you've crashed! No wonder they are all seemingly incompetent and lazy these days, tech is doing their job for them!

Today they were jailed at Manchester Crown Court after pleading guilty to the charges against them.

Greater Manchester Police received several emergency calls to the crash and the automatic alert from the Apple watch.

The judge was pretty harsh, considering the race of the defendants and the location: 

The judge described the video footage as 'terrifying' and said Hussain had shown a 'flagrant disregard for the safety of other road users' and undertaken 'deliberate risk-taking seemingly for the thrill of it'.The pair had not attempted to assist the victim, he said, but had fled the scene following the crash and Mr Abayomi was killed by 'conduct that was appalling and entirely avoidable'.

But not when it came to their driving: 

He also handed both men an eight-year driving ban.

It should have been a lifetime ban. 

But It's No Longer Serving The Needs Of The Audience, That's Why It's Failing

New BBC director general Matt Brittin has told staff the BBC "has never been more needed" but that "tough choices are unavoidable as we make savings".

What do we need it for, that other broadcasters cannot provide, exactly? 

In an email to staff, Brittin said: "The BBC has proved throughout its history how quickly it can reinvent itself to serve the needs of audiences - from restructuring for World War II to repurposing during Covid to spinning up services in conflict zones. We need, collectively, to call on that sense of urgency now."

The BBC has never served its audience because that’s not who it’s geared to and on which it has no need to depend for its cash flow. Just like the NHS. 

"I know change will not be easy. Tough choices are unavoidable as we make savings. We should ask ourselves, honestly: if we were inventing the BBC today, what would we do? Then respond with clarity, pace and purpose."

Well, as the old joke goes, I wouldn't start from here! And I agree with Longrider - no one should be forced to pay for a license simply for possessing a tv. Move with the times, move to a subscription model. Then we will see what people truly rhink you are worth...

What A Surprise, Said No-one….

A mother has told a court that she thought her daughter was going to die after she was attacked by a retired police officer’s two rottweilers

.Aha, this case! 

Nigel Gray’s dogs, Indiana and Dakota, ‘tossed the girl around like a toy’ during the incident in Raphael Park, East London.

As we saw from social media, it wasn’t a first attack. 

The attack was the second in two years involving the 63-year-old’s pets, but he was not banned from keeping dogs in the future and he was handed a suspended prison sentence.The elderly victim of the first of Gray’s dogs’ attacks – who had to have his dog put down as a result – called the sentence a ‘joke’.

An elderly man loses his pet and police are not interested and so a child is almost killed. He might be retired but the other cops days should be numbered! 

Gray was not banned from keeping dogs in the future, but the court heard he had already agreed to the two rottweilers being destroyed.

Cant help feeling that was an easy cop-out for him, and now he’s free as a bird to get another mutt and use it as a weapon! 

'Guardian' Puzzled By Recurring Phenomenon...

 

Because it's summer, you loons! 

Sunday Funnies...

 This'll make you feel old!