And The Beat Goes On...

....and on and on.

A schoolgirl has been rushed to hospital after she was mauled by an unregistered XL Bully as she played in the garden. The 10-year-old, who was bitten in the neck by the out-of-control animal, remains in hospital as the summer holidays begin, while a woman, 37, and two teenagers, aged 13 and 15, have been arrested. The woman was arrested on suspicion of possession of a banned breed of dog, allowing a dog to be dangerously out of control and child neglect. Meanwhile, the two teens were arrested on suspicion of allowing a dog to be dangerously out of control and possession of a banned breed of dog. They have since been released from custody. The dog was seized at the scene and remains in police kennels.

And over in Coventry meanwhile... 

A mother was mauled to death by a family dog which had never previously shown any signs of aggression, her partner said last night. Kelly Reilly, 33, was discovered 'unresponsive' in her flat in Coventry by her horrified partner Noel Spring, 50, shortly after midday yesterday. Paramedics rushed to the scene in a matter of minutes, but, despite their efforts, Ms Reilly died a short time later, according to West Midlands Police.The dog - understood to be a bull mastiff - was seized by officers, the force said.

Who exactly is it that 'understands it to be a bull mastiff'..? The owner, who was clearly an animal lover, despite seemingly not having the resources to manage such a breed? 

Ms Reilly had two children who no longer live with her and was unemployed due to her poor health and history of seizures, Mr Spring said.

The police are characteristically clueless, or want us to think they are: 

Police said they did not believe the dog was a banned breed, following the recent spate of fatal attacks involving XL Bullies.'Although the breed of the dog is yet to be confirmed, at this stage we do not believe it to be of a banned breed. However, a full assessment will be required before we can confirm this.'

Here's what the useless bastards claim to believe what they are told is a pure bred English Bull Mastiff: 

It couldn't be any more of a 'pitbull type dog' if it had a toddler's arm in its jaws...

Here's a breed-standard stock image:

Someone needs to go to Specsavers. 

Where's My Heart Of Stone?

I'm going to need it for this one! 

The latest repairs to the Isle of Wight's troubled chain ferry have been held up over delays receiving spare parts.

And you'll never guess why they were delayed!  

Floating Bridge 6, which crosses the River Medina between Cowes and East Cowes, was pulled from service at the weekend with "mechanical issues".

The council said parts to fix the vessel were due on Monday but "did not arrive as scheduled from our supplier due to ferry disruptions".

Ha ha ha ha ha!  

H/T: Ian J via email

Don't The Police Have Better Things To Do With Their Time?

Sadly, these days, the answer's 'Probably not'!

The boss of the missing persons charity supporting Jay Slater's family has vowed to wage war on cruel trolls who sent him misleading and untrue tip-offs about the youngster before he was found dead on Tenerife earlier this week.

Matthew Searle, chief executive of LBT Global, says he received hundreds of malicious emails, phone calls and messages with false information about the 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer after he disappeared on June 17.

He has passed messages sent to him and Jay's mother, Debbie Duncan, to police to investigate under telecommunications laws.

And just how are they supposed to prove they are knowingly false reports? Since Britain is stuffed to the gills with young petty criminal chavs who all dress alike?  

The malignant messages included false ransom demands from people claiming to have Jay in their custody.

That one at least should be easy to prove! Even for UK police. 

Others included claims that Jay had been seen in a Sainsbury's in Basingstoke, watching a football match in Germany and on a Eurostar train. Mr Searle said the bad actors had delayed genuine investigations into Jay's disappearance because he had to 'follow up every single lead'.

Since he's not the police, but a private citizen sticking his oar in, it's be hard to prove that the actual search was hindered in any way... 

It is an offence under the Communications Act 2003 to send a false message that causes 'annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety to another'. Those found guilty of the offence can face up to six months in prison.

Many of those sending the cruel false tips did so using 'burner' SIM cards and single-use email addresses, making it harder for him to identify those who might be responsible.

So what are the police supposed to do? 

Mr Searle is, it seems, no lover of freedom of speech: 

Mr Searle, speaking to Sky News earlier this week, says he intends to speak to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper about the damage and hurt caused by online trolls who turned Jay's tragic disappearance into a true-crime free-for-all.

'Ultimately it hinders the search and it's terrifyingly horrible for a family that are going through this,' he said.

'Wherever there's a real-life crime drama acting out in front of our eyes on television, half the population need to jump on Facebook, set up a Facebook group… to tell the world "what really happened".

'It's really worrying to the point where our charity thinks it's time that it has to stop.'

Good luck with that, Mr Searle, I very much doubt even Labour are so bonkers they are going to go to war on Facebook on behalf of this 'cause'. Although one can never tell.  

You’ve Sacked The Wrong One!

A school has lodged a complaint against a coach company after footage emerged of a driver’s expletive-filled rant to schoolchildren.

And why was he abusing the cerubic little passengers?  

In the video seen by the BBC, a man believed to be the coach driver is heard accusing children of not wearing a seatbelt and smoking on the bus.

Heh! Surely not? Well, when they are out of their teacher's sight...

Oh, wait!  

Gill Lane, whose child was onboard the coach on 11 July, said there were seven teachers on the coach at the time of the incident, which happened halfway through a four-hour journey. “The teachers' job is to keep our children safe and to manage them on the coach,” she said. "And on this occasion, they failed our children.

“I don’t know if I can keep my children at the school because I don’t know if I can trust them to keep them safe.”

Well, I'd say the answer is no, you can't. Especially if they did nothing to ensure they put their seatbelts on and didn't smoke.  

Wise Coaches, based in Hailsham, said the pupils had been “disruptive”, but the driver no longer worked for the company as of the day after the incident.

Why sack him? Just because he tried to instil some discipline that the teachers couldn't? 

The school said staff on the trip had attempted to reason with the coach driver and asked him to moderate his language and behaviour.

But did nothing about the behavior of their pupils? Sounds to me like there should be more sackings. At the school!  

It's Schrödinger's Gender Critical Worker!

James Orwin changed his email footer in protest after East Riding of Yorkshire Council chief Caroline Lacey urged staff to 'consider adding pronouns to your email'.

The ICT project officer was suspended and eventually sacked when he continued to refuse to remove the footer 'XYchromosomeGuy/AdultHumanMale' having been told it posed a 'serious risk' to the transgender community and the council's reputation.

I can believe the latter claim, because there may have been people unaware their council was staffed by lunatics, but what the hell does the former claim mean? What 'risk'? 

Mr Orwin sued the local authority for religion or belief discrimination and unfair dismissal saying he believed remaining silent when 'morals and principles are under threat facilitates the steady creep of evil'. But the employment tribunal in Hull dismissed his case having found he was not discriminated against.

However, it did accept his gender critical beliefs amounted to a protected 'philosophical belief'.

Wait, both can't be true, surely? They are either protected - and so he can't be sacked for them - or they aren't?  

However, Employment Judge Ian Miller concluded he had not been discriminated against by being told to change his pronouns. He said: 'The real reason that [Mr Orwin] decided to add 'XY-chromosome-guy/adult-human-male' was in protest.' Mr Miller added: 'The footer was designed to provoke and, we think given his acceptance of possible offence, was designed to offend.'

The judge said the implementation of the policy was 'poorly thought through and badly executed'. Dismissing his claims of discrimination, he said: 'None of the treatment he experienced was because of his beliefs (or expression of beliefs). His claim of unfair dismissal was also dismissed as it was 'well within the band of reasonable responses of a reasonable employer'.

A 'reasonable employer' wouldn't, surely, have expected someone with gender critical beliefs to adopt a pronoun footer in the first place? 

It looks like this employment tribunal wants to have its cake and eat it. 

And Parents, Hannah? Where Do They Feature?

Received this on Thursday: 

Here's the text:

"The King’s Speech contained some positive first steps on health, reiterating the government’s commitment for the NHS to focus more on prevention. This included specific legislation to restrict the advertising of junk food to children and banning sales of high caffeine energy drinks to children.

"However, if Labour is going to meet its ambition of achieving the healthiest generation of children in our history, they will need to go much further than this and take a wider range of steps to improve our food system. Recent evidence showed children in England are getting shorter, that life expectancy at birth is decreasing, and children are more likely to have obesity and type 2 diabetes, highlighting just how important addressing this issue is.

"The King’s Speech also touched on issues of wealth creation, opportunities for all, and getting through the cost of living crisis, however there was no mention of the child poverty strategy previously committed to. With millions sadly still experiencing food insecurity across the UK, it was positive to see commitments around a better deal for workers, however more action is desperately needed to ensure everybody can access and afford a healthy and sustainable diet, including by enhancing benefits and strengthening existing nutritional safety nets such as Healthy Start and Free School Meals."

You could be forgiven for reading this and thinking that the UK was some strange sci-fi world where children were raised in podding hutches as wards of the State, and not by mothers and fathers with responsibility for their welfare and upbringing, couldn't you..? 

When Did 'Scotland The Brave' ....

...become 'Scotland The Virtuesignaller'?

Scotland's police officers will be paid to take part in Pride parades despite the force cutting back on fighting crime, the Mail can reveal. Uniformed officers are being urged to represent the overstretched force at LGBTI marches in exchange for pay or a day off in lieu. While hundreds will be on active duty policing the marches, senior officers have requested that other staff join the parades to show support for the marchers.

And what if they don't want to? Will they be forced to?  

The 'astonishing' move will also see plain-clothed officers on light duties given special Pride badges.

And told to wear them or else?  

Calum Steele, the former general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation (SPF), said: 'Moving to a situation where officers are now paid to march (and actively encouraged with the inducement of payment to do so) is an astonishing development and has to raise questions over the effective use of resources.'

Well, der, Calum!  

The new policy comes after Scotland's police chief was accused of 'virtue-signalling nonsense' when she apologised for enforcing laws which 'criminalised love'. Chief Constable Jo Farrell said in May that she was sorry for 'recent and historical injustices' suffered by 'lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, and intersex' people.

I can't wait for the next season of 'Rebus' on the BBC! It's going to be quite something... 

With This Sort Of 'Justice', He Never Will Learn His Lesson...

Richard Pierce, 54, was travelling on the B5105 from Ruthin towards Clawddnewydd in North Wales in July last year when he got stuck in a queue of traffic. The road was being resurfaced and two men stood holding stop-go signs to control passing cars.

After waiting for less than a minute, Pierce 'took the view that he could drive through the roadworks' and pulled out from the stationary traffic, showing a 'disregard' for the rules of the road, a judge said.

Unsurprisingly, since he's a serial motoring offender: 

Mold Crown Court heard Pierce was previously jailed in 1995 for killing a pedestrian in a road crash and had 'clearly not learned his lesson'.

Because the justice system fails to teach him. His brief had an uphill struggle, but did his best: 

Defending Pierce was Alan Williams who said his client's 1995 conviction was 'almost a lifetime away'.

Speaking of last year's incident, the defence lawyer admitted it had been 'a poor piece of driving'.

Well, d'oh!  

He said Pierce was going through a 'stressful time' with his business and had 'genuine victim empathy'.

And there's no way that can ever be challenged, so why not say it? 

Williams argued it would be 'catastrophic' for the defendant to be sent to prison as his mother, 84, is in a care home.

Why? She's clearly not going anywhere.  

He would also be leaving behind his wife, two children and his business, said the defence counsel.

Yes, those are called 'consequences'. 

Mr William added that the defendant to 'his credit' had looked into whether he had ADHD.

Why is it to his credit that he looked into another excuse for his brief to proffer as a reason for his utter disregard for other people?  

But Judge Nicola Saffman sentenced Pierce to 14 months in jail for dangerous driving. She also disqualified him from driving for two years and seven months, enforcing that he must pass an extended retest after the ban is up.

Which he'll have no trouble passing, then reverting back to type. Since a driving license isn't a human right, why can't he be banned for life?  

It Seems 'Asylum Seeker' Translates to 'Get Out Of Jail Free'...

Two asylum seekers who targeted a reveller for his £25,000 Rolex in London’s West End walked free from court today. Egyptian Yousef Garef and Algerian Amin Abdelkadar were both spared jail and handed community orders on Wednesday. Both admitted to robbery.

At least the police did their bit this time, shame the courts didn't uphold their end.

Judge Adam Hiddleston told the pair: ‘You followed and attacked a member of the public with the intent of stealing from him a valuable watch. Such offending has become a scourge of the West End. They have become an all too frequent occurrence in the past few years.

‘These offences took place in the early hours of the morning. You were both acting as part of a group and you were targeting high value property.’

Yes, they were, so why aren't they serving a sentence commensurate with that? Or subject to immediate deportation?  

Abdelkadar was handed a two-year community order and Garef was given a three-year community order. Both will have to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and 40 hours of a rehabilitation activity requirement. They will also be subject to a six month curfew between 9pm and 6am and must reside at the Home Office Asylum Centre in Islington. The men were issued with a five year criminal behaviour order and will not be allowed to enter the western half of the City of Westminster or have any contact with one another.

Meanwhile, elsewhere:

An asylum seeker who assaulted a female police officer cannot do community service because he can't speak English and needs an interpreter, a court heard. Jordanian national Mustafa Al Mbaidin would need a full-time translator with him if he were to do a period of unpaid work which would raise 'issues' with the health and safety at work laws, his lawyer argued. Instead the 27-year-old was fined £26 for the offence of assaulting an emergency worker which he will pay at a rate of £2 a month.

No, which we, the taxpayer, will pay... 

Magistrates handed Al Mbaidin a 12 month conditional discharge and told him that if he gets in trouble again in that time he will be dealt with for this offence and any fresh matter. They told him to pay a victim surcharge of £26 which is to be paid at a rate of £2 per month.

Why is he simply not removed from the country?  

The Plastic Mesh Bags Were Bad Enough...

...making it hard to see what the brand you were buying was, and taking longer for the till operator ro remove. But this!

Tesco has installed artificial intelligence-style locked security cabinets in the alcohol aisles to stop shoplifters nicking booze. The technology works by asking shoppers to use a digital touchscreen and complete a 'four-step process' to open the cabinets, which contain premium spirits.

All because the police and justice system have been too lenient for too long.... 

It is understood to have been rolled out across a handful of larger Tesco stores, including Purley, Croydon, south London.

And no doubt soon to come to my local store. 

Recent research from the British Retail Consortium's (BRC) annual survey found the amount lost to shoplifting in the latest year was the highest ever recorded. Shoplifting cost retailers about £1.8 billion in the latest year, the first time it has surpassed the £1 billion mark, the BRC said.

But then, why is it still treated as a petty offence? 

Martyn James, an independent consumer champion, said: ' Is there a sadder indictment of society than this - the fact that buying a bottle of booze is now like getting into a high-end luxury jewellers?

'If the epidemic of shoplifting and aggressive customer behavior is not dealt with firmly and definitively, then we face a future where everything we buy is behind bars or plastic screens.

'That's not a future I want to live in.'

Me neither, but it seems we're heading that way regardless. 

'Professional' Printing..?

Not if they don't employ a spellchecker, it isn't! 

Apart From Being A Different Animal Entirely, 'Mail'?

 

And lacking a barbed tail?

But the image caused a stir online with many fans confusing the aquatic animal with a stingray, a fish that tragically killed his father Steve Irwin in 2006.

Just like your headline writer did?

Sunday Funnies...

The movies, lying to us all again....

It's Deja Vu All Over Again...

...just like the London riots 

Terrified residents have taken to the streets of Leeds to defend their homes after 'violent' thugs drove riot police out after setting the city ablaze. Chaos erupted in Harehills, east Leeds early yesterday evening following an outbreak of 'serious disorder' that saw bonfires lit across the city, a cop car overturned and a double decker bus torched, reducing it to a charred and twisted wreck. Community members were forced to plead with the rabble as police, despite having first responded to the disturbance around 5pm last night, remained relatively absent from the mayhem until 1am today.

In other worfs, just at the Met Police did years ago in Croydon, they ran away. And no doubt just as in Croydon, they will face no sanctions for their cowardice and dereliction of duty... 

Credit where credit's due, one person did face down the mob, and it appears it's solely thanks to him that lives and businesses weren't lost as in 2012:

Green Party councillor Mothin Ali, who after being elected to Leeds Council in May declared his victory a 'win for the people of Gaza', begged the rioters to stop, saying 'there's children in there', as fires burned in the streets.

He clearly has more courage than the whole of the West Yorkshire Police farce and fire brigade put together. 

Officers were called to an incident at an address in Luxor Street at 5pm on Thursday where they found an 'ongoing disturbance' involving agency workers and children, West Yorkshire Police said. Locals allege the chaos was linked to local children being taken into care, adding that some people in the community responded by setting fires and 'throwing stones'. A large crowd began to gather at the location, prompting the agency workers and children to be taken to a safe place and more officers were requested to attend the area where 'pockets of disorder' were emerging.

The Home Secretary has condemned the 'shocking scenes and attacks' in the northern city and West Yorkshire police, which has been accused of intentionally avoiding the riot, vowed that the 'full weight of the law will be brought against those responsible'.

Meanwhile, in Whitechapel in London, The Met Police were dealing with the fallout of politics in another country. Or rather, not dealing with it: 

Some people expressed frustration at the absence of a visible police presence, though it did appear to de-escalate the situation. One man said: “The police don’t care about our area. They’ve just left, they’ll let us deal with it.”

Some will say that the police are right, saying that for them, it's 'damned if they do and damned if they don't', and that they shouldn't face bricks and bottles when they try to save these people from themselves. But that's to forget that that's what they are paid and trained to do.

And they are failing to do their job. 

Failing The Public Consistently...

...that's the 'contingent destruction order' option for magistrates:

This attack came just days after Baxter had bitten another dog on Dickens Drive where the defendant lives in Newport.

This animal sustained injuries that included a large cut to the centre of his chest, cuts to his face and mouth and a lump to the eye.

Baxter was only allowed out in public wearing a muzzle and when he was on a lead after a contingent destruction order was imposed in 2022 following a previous attack on a man.

And look how well it worked! The latest victim was very lucky one of the passers-by was a nurse.  

On these two further occasions “neither of those requirements were followed”, Cardiff Crown Court was told. Millett pleaded guilty to being the owner of a dog that was dangerously out of control. He has 19 previous convictions for 33 offences.

It seems that this isn't unknown - it's quite common for the owners of these things to be incorrigible scofflaws that the justice system ignores until the inevitable disaster.  

The defendant, represented by his barrister David Pinnell, works full-time as a construction industry worker, the court heard.

So? Is that supposed to mean he should be treated even more leniently? If so, the judge clearly bought it: 

Judge Vanessa Francis jailed Millett for 20 months, suspended for 24 months. He must carry out 80 hours of unpaid work and complete a 10-day rehabilitation activity requirement.

The defendant will have to pay £350 compensation each to Mr Osbourne and the owner of the dog in the earlier attack on November 3, 2023. A destruction order was made in respect of Baxter.

A pity one couldn't be issued for the owner too... 

H/T: Sam Browfan via Twitter

DEI Risks Lives...

...and sometimes it is revealed to have infiltrated the last place you'd expect it:

Security experts are still baffled that a roof top overlooking the presidential podium, just over a football-field away and with an elevated, unobstructed view of Trump, could have been left unguarded so that the shooter could make it on to the roof and then, unhindered, position himself for his assassination attempt. The Secret Service has yet to offer a credible explanation for this.

 Because there really isn't one...

Instead its director, Kimberly Cheatle, incredibly appeared to tell ACB News on Tuesday that health and safety protocol was to blame.

'That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there's a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn't want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,' she said.

I don't remember the bit in 'In The Line Of Fire' where Clint's character checked his risk assessments before chasing John Malkovitch, but it was a long time ago. Perhaps that's in the Director's Cut?  

Cheatle and her acolytes have also been busy throwing local law enforcement under the bus. The warehouse on top of which the shooter clambered (we still don't know exactly how) was outside the Secret Service's perimeter of responsibility, she claims.

But since it was inside the range of any nut with a gun, pehaps it shouldn't have been?  

It would seem the Secret Service under Director Cheatle has had other priorities. A former Secret Service agent told me privately that she quit because field agents were understaffed (working 60 consecutive days with no time off). Money has instead been diverted to DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion). Investment in new technology, including state-of-the-art drones, was also sacrificed at the altar of DEI.

Drones would have been very useful here, rather than out of shape women who struggle to holster their service weapon properly. 

Like me trying to get my Oyster Card back in my bag after going through the Tube barriers...

It is, of course, the inevitable result of hiring people not for their competence, but for the 'message' they send...

Director Cheatle was appointed two years ago by President Biden with the blessing (perhaps even active support) of his wife Jill. Cheatle had been on the Biden family's security detail when Joe Biden was Vice President. Jill Biden is obsessed with DEI, like most leftwing pseudo-academics. Cheatle talks more about reaching 30 percent female agents by 2030 than she does about protecting those under her agency's tender care. Her ambition is all over the Secret Service website.

And now the results of that ambition are all over the world's media. 

Got To Keep The Money Flooding In....

The London Climate Resilience Review (LCRR) has urged Keir Starmer's new Labour UK government to consider introducing 'stormwater charges' for people who have no natural run-offs in their gardens such as grass. It was ordered by Sadiq Khan following what his office branded 'increasing severity and frequency of climate impacts' in the capital, including flash floods in 2021 and the 2022 heatwave - and warns of a 'lethal risk' to Londoners posed by floods.

That 'lethal risk' has accounted for how many deaths in London? Would you believe, zero?  

In 2008 the government changed the laws on resurfacing gardens - meaning anything larger than five square metres was only permitted when the surface was rendered permeable. But the Greater London Authority says these rules are poorly enforced because of a lack of defined standards on the absorbency of the materials to be used.

Another piece of utterly useless legislation then?  

And the reasons people are thought to be paving over their gardens so they can park their cars off the street are twofold: to avoid parking permit charges from their local council, and to be able to charge the rising number of electric cars on the roads.

Ha ha ha ha! Can't anyone see beyond getting legislation passed and not accounting for people's responses to it?  

Doesn't Anyone Remember How 'War Games' Ended?

It ended when WOPR learned 'The only way to win the game is not to play'. That's something the Left need to learn, and learn HARD. So spare me all the anguished cries to not act like the Left and go after people for what they say on social media about the Trump assassination bid, because it's somehow 'unsporting', and that we should be 'better than that' and not stoop to their level. 

Firstly, they began the tactics of cancelling people, not for wishing death on a political opponent, but for simply believing in biological facts so when prominent Tweeters on the right go after people for wishing a political assassination attempt hadn't failed there's no real equivalence here. They don't need to restrict themselves only to high profile targets if they don't want to, because the left didn't. 

And secondly, what's the point of being 'better than them' if we lose? I'm with Conan the Barbarian, and this is war - better to crush your enemies, drive them before you and hear the lamentations of the women (and soyboys) than to not use everything in your arsenal so you can claim some spurious 'moral victory'.

If those on the left are capable of learning anything (and the jury's out) it's that the tactics they use can be turned on them. The only way to win, therefore, is not to play. 

Maybe The ASA Would Like To Get Involved?

I mean, surely calling it a 'secure hospital' breaks some rule? 

A vicious sex offender was let out of a secure hospital and went on a horrific four-day rampage of sexual violence against eight women, eventually raping a jogger at knifepoint. Louis Collins, 29, subjected his final victim to an hour-long ordeal after dragging her away from her running route just days after he walked out of Lambeth Hospital unescorted.

After all, we already know the medical profession won't allow the culprits to face any consequences:

Collins left Lambeth Hospital in south London on August 18 after doctors agreed he could have an unescorted leave of absence, Patricia May, prosecuting, told his sentencing hearing.

Who gave them the authority to allow that absence?  

Siobhan Molloy, defending, said Collins, who is originally from Croydon in south London, claimed that voices in his head had compelled him to carry out the attacks but a doctor had found he did not have a psychotic illness.

Although what faith can we put in any doctor's opinion on anything? 

Well, I Guess It Beats A Blackboard Rubber Whizzing Past Your Head...

...that's the method my teachers often employed! 

The “silent fox” gesture – where the hand is posed to resemble an animal with upright ears (the little and forefinger) and a closed mouth (the middle fingers pressed against the thumb) – has long been seen as a useful teaching tool by educators in Germany and elsewhere. It signals to children that they should stop talking and listen to their teacher.

Seems harmless, I suppose.

But authorities in the port city of Bremen say the symbol is “in danger of being mistaken” for the right-wing extremist “wolf salute”, from which it is indistinguishable. The salute was recently the focus of a diplomatic and sporting row, when the Turkish national football player Merih Demiral used it to celebrate scoring a goal in Turkey’s round of 16 match against Austria at the Euros earlier this month.

And why should this be controversial?

Germany is home to an estimated 3 million ethnic Turks, who make up the country’s largest single ethnic minority and form the largest Turkish diaspora globally.

Ah. I see.  

At This Point, I'm Starting To Wonder Whose Side They Are On...

...because this sounds less like the usual lackadaisical incompetence and more like protection for the criminal underworld:

A man whose luxury watch was stolen from his wrist while he ate at a central London restaurant says he wants to "leave the country" after an "appalling failure" by the Metropolitan Police to convict those responsible. Luca, who works in the finance industry and did not want to give his full name, said his Rolex watch was stolen off his wrist by three men while he was having dinner at a Chelsea restaurant in September last year.

He chased the suspects down the King's Road and caught one of the men...

Hurrah!  

....but says the Met Police was unable to gather CCTV footage of the crime and suggested that he drop the case over potential threats to his safety.

Oh.  

A Met Police spokesperson said the force was "sorry" to hear the victim felt let down and remained "regretful that we were not able to achieve justice in this case".

How could he possibly feel anything other than 'let down'?  

Luca said that in June an officer suggested he should drop the case because, if it went to court, the suspect would learn his identity and could therefore endanger his life due to "potential retaliation". He says he was also told that if he pursued the case, the suspect would likely receive only "a few hours of community service" as a court sentence.

Firstly, what's this 'drop the case' stuff? This isn't America, victims of crime don't 'press charges' over here, that's the Crown Prosecution's job. Looks like they aren't doing their's either... 

So all this talk of him 'pursuing the case' sounds like an attempt to make him withdraw support for the prosecution. Why? It can't just be because they are lazy, incompetent bastards who want a quiet shift. Can it?

The finance professional added the Met Police failed to secure CCTV footage from the restaurant and other public areas from the night of the theft, and told him this was due to "capacity and understaffing constraints".

Bollocks! It doesn't take that much work. Someone should look into what's really going on here... 

H/T: Ian J via email

Another DEI 'Success' Crashes In Flames...

Lambeth council’s chief executive has quit after being charged with drug and drink driving offences.

Quite a few of them, at that... 

Bayo Dosunmu is accused of fleeing the scene of a car crash in Westminster at the end of June. The 46-year-old, from Hammersmith, was arrested on suspicion of failing to stop, being in charge of a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, possession of class A drugs and driving without insurance.

Following the arrest, Lambeth council said Mr Dosunmu would be taking some time “away from work”.

Heh! 

On Wednesday a town hall spokesman confirmed he will officially leave the £185,000-a-year post from next week.

He's been a long time recipent of diversity hire policies... 

He was appointed Lambeth’s chief executive in 2022 having previously acted as the borough’s deputy chief and strategic director for resident services.

Before that, he was an executive director at Homes England and assistant chief executive at the Homes and Communities Agency.

He also served at a senior level in a range of civil service roles including for the Welsh Government and the Olympic Delivery Authority.

And now the gravy train has pulled into the sidings.  

If You Need More Proof That Islam Is Incompatible With Modern British Society...

...then just read the 'defence' put forward by the named Palestinian priestor in the Birmingham University eviction case: 

Muslim British-Pakistani student Mariyah Ali, 20, from Walsall, the only named defendant in the Birmingham case, said the legal action was a 'censoring tactic'.

She also claimed it amounted to discrimination against the 'manifestation' of her religious and philosophical beliefs.

Well, you know what you can do with your 'philosophical beliefs' that crying when your terrorist chums get their arses kicked is A-OK, don't you? 

Because the British legal system said 'No thanks, we'll have none of that here', thankfully.  

In two written rulings yesterday, Mr Justice Johnson granted the orders and concluded that protesters had 'no real prospect' of showing that the universities had breached their duties or that an order would be incompatible with their human rights.

He said there were 'many other ways' activists could exercise their right to protest without occupying land, concluding that protesters were trespassing.

Would that they could order your removal from the country, and not just the university grounds...

Naturally the leeches continue to suckle from this tasty feast: 

Oliver Edwards, a solicitor for Hodge Jones & Allen, which represented Ms Ali, said: 'Naturally my client is disheartened by this judgment, but she remains committed to her cause.'

He said the firm is considering appealing the judgement.

Who's bankrolling this? I do hope it's not the British taxpayer. 

'It's Only Taxpayer's Money' Pt 7871125

A new cat cafe has received a £1,200 grant from a local council. Andover Catfe on Winchester Road, Andover, was awarded an Independent Retailer Grant from Test Valley Borough Council.

Owner Stuart Waue said the money was a "great help to get us off the ground and up and running".

Jennie Pell, principal economic development officer at Test Valley Borough Council, said the cafe was a "unique attraction" for Andover and that the council was "delighted" to support it.

A pretty niche 'economic development' there, I think! What's its longevity?  

The Andover Catfe was first proposed by Mr Waue's son Jack at the Youth in Test Valley Awards. It was not the winning bid but attracted substantial interest, so the family decided to pursue it.

With other people's money... 

H/T: IanJ via email

Another Police Failure

"As for the other dog, it was allowed to go home with its owner by the police, who escorted it.

"It also tried to attack another small dog on its way home as well as us finding out it has previously attacked other dogs."

The only place the police should be 'escorting' what is clearly an out-of-control-in-a-public-place suspected XL bully breed that has injured a person is to police kennels while they question the owner under caution. 

Lancashire Police has been contacted for comment.

What's their answer going to be, I wonder? 

H/T: ProtectOurPets via Twitter

British Summertime...

...as encapsulated by Matt. He's not wrong. 

It Was No 'Mistake', 'Mail'...

 

...a shark is 'a huge fish' after all! 

Sunday Funnies...

I consider myself a dedicated foodie, but I'd pass on at least 15 of these without hesitation! 

These Tuskers Have Passed On Their Genes Already

...a series of super-tusker killings has sparked a bitter international battle over trophy hunting and its controversial, sometimes counterintuitive role in conservation. Some conservationists believe the killing of these extraordinary animals should not be allowed. Others say controlled, regulated hunting can actually contribute to elephants’ long-term survival by providing jobs for local people and incentives for habitats to be preserved.

Something that always gets the bunny-huggers backs up... 

“The targeted elephants were among the largest, oldest bulls,” a group of conservationists wrote in a letter decrying their loss, which was published in the journal Science in June. They represented “one of the last gene pools for enormous ivory and the source of the largest tusks ever collected”.

These old, solitary except for younger bulls, animals are usually well past breeding prime. They've contibuted their genes, and all they have to look forward to is a slow lingering death by starvation because thet've outlived their supply of teeth. Nature isn't Disney.   

This month, the Tanzanian government will decide whether to issue more super-tusker hunting permits for the coming year. The authors urged them not to do so, and focus instead on ecotourism. “Alive, these super tuskers have great biological, economic and social value,” they wrote. “Once they are shot, their contribution ends.”

The money raised by hunting far outweighs the money raised by photography tourism, which seems just as potentially dangerous a hobby, and it also provides much needed jobs: 

...other scientists say many who oppose hunting seem to push for bans even if they harm habitats, wildlife and communities. “However distasteful many may find hunting, it can and does work as a provider of revenue for conservation and communities,” says Prof Adam Hart from the University of Gloucestershire, co-author of the book Trophy Hunting. Evidence shows that abolishing trophy hunting – and the incentives it creates for conservation – without funded alternatives can lead to greater loss of wildlife.

Protecting a valuable resource for hunting has the fringe benefit of protecting other species that share their environment.  

Amy Dickman, professor of wildlife conservation at the University of Oxford, said the argument is a microcosm of a much wider debate about the unintended harms of hunting bans. Focusing on the “scientific value” of the bulls perpetuated the idea that elephants and researchers were more important than local people, she says. “The letter follows the damaging pattern of demanding that hunting ends now, while providing no immediate alternative revenue stream,” she says. “[It] failed to even mention local communities. “People don’t care as much about unintended consequences,” she adds. “[They] assume if you just ban something, then those animals will live in harmony in that place. It’s often not the case.”

The sort of people who object to hunting are the sort who would no doubt decry 'colonialism' except when they get the chance to demand what foreign countries should do. Because it's never about the animals, really.  

'I didn't see how I could live with what happened.'

But you seem happy for it to potentially happen to someone else?

An epilepsy sufferer has been left 'heartbroken' after his pet dog ripped off his nose in a vicious mauling which was triggered when the animal got 'spooked' by a night seizure. Ben Horne's house was left 'plastered in blood' after the attack which left his top lip hanging down and only the septum bone in his nose intact.

The dog? Well, no photo or breed description, but probably not a Labrador or chihuahua, folks! And not dealt with, either.

His dog Henry has since been rehomed and is living happily with a new family after an assessment.

A dog which mauls savagely when 'spooked' should only be 'rehomed' to the vet's freezer. 

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished...

Country singer Dolly Parton has been branded as 'racist, sexist and homophobic' after she recommended a children's book that a woke academic declared to be pushing 'white western values'.

The artist and philanthropist offered the book, Llama Llama Red Pajama, as part of the library of free titles her club periodically mails out to children up to the age of five in an effort to promote literacy.

Given that 'white western values' are clearly dominant in successful countries, why wouldn't they be pushed? What does this idiot think should be pushed instead?  

Jennifer K. Stone's Ph.D. dissertation, titled 'Reading Power With and Through Dolly Parton's Imagination Library (DPIL): A Critical Content Analysis,' asserts that the book selections in the program conform to dominant white western values.

Stone's analysis of the children's book claims that characters with disabilities, LGBTQ+ couples, and non-normative gender identities are erased.

Ah, the same woke nonsense they can get from school and TV. I don't think they're missing out somehow...  

She also critiques the portrayal of values such as individualism, work, single-family homes, physical fitness, and goal-oriented literacy, arguing they privilege a narrow worldview.

One worth acquiring if you want your children to get on in life. Maybe that's the real issue?  

When Matt Fleming of the Orange County Register read the story to his one-year-old daughter he claimed he had 'no idea I was supporting 'white saviorism.''

You aren't.  

Stone's dissertation has sparked controversy, with many parents continuing to support Parton's initiative, which is simply aiming to promote literacy among youngsters.

Another failed acandemic goes down in flames, almost certainly still thinking she's the right one and the parents are wrong...  

You Really Can't Fix Stupid...

The XL Bully ban comes to Northern Ireland, and rescue centres are starting to whine about the likely effects:

Karen Matthews, from Almost Home Animal Centre, says her team work to "rescue, not destroy" animals.

"The last thing I want is to have a centre full of XL Bullies and having to make that choice [to destroy]," she added.

Kill the dogs unable tro be rehomed to have the room to house those that can be rehomed? It seems a logical choice. 

But logic doesn't seem to be the driving factor for the pitnutter crowd: 

Michael McCartney from Glen Craig Canine training in Lisburn has more than 40 years' experience working with dogs, including XL Bully types.

"A dog's a dog, it just depends who's on the other end of it," he said.

Would that be the end with the teeth?  

Mr McCartney added that he often had more bother with smaller breeds.

But a chihuahua sends you to the medicine cabinet for a plaster, not to A&E or the morgue.  

H/T: Protect Our Pets via Twitter

Want To 'Protect The Environment'? Here's How...

René Heiden pulls two glass yoghurt jars off the shop shelf, and lists the nearby supermarkets in which they can be returned once empty. His Berlin grocery shop avoids single-use packaging in favour of reusable containers, a waste reduction model that is having something of a revival in Germany. But it’s surprisingly hard to get right.

It's something we could do with over here, in place of the huge number of different bins our councils inflict on us. Or the infuriating new bottle caps.  

“You need a range of packaging to make it as convenient as possible for the consumer,” says Heiden. An oil bottle, for example, needs a thin neck and a small spout to help it drip – “you would never put yoghurt in one of those”. Marmalade and spreads, on the other hand, work best in cylindrical jars that a knife can fully scrape.

We used to recycle glass bottles - doorstep milk deliveries, soda bottles returnable for money. Why don't we bring that back?  

“I’m seeing more and more products that use reusable packaging,” says Heiden, who has devoted a wall of his shop Samariter Unverpackt to dispensers of grains and cereals from which customers can fill home-brought containers. “But I also see some producers who are trying to expand, but have to go back because the handling costs are too high.”

Then surely tax breaks would help? 

“The best packaging is the one you don’t produce,” says Nathan Dufour, who leads efforts to promote reuse systems at the campaign group Zero Waste Europe. If you need to use it – for hygiene reasons, say – “then that packaging needs to stay in the loop for as long as possible”. Germany has a head start on many of its neighbours with its bottle deposit schemes, in which customers are charged a bit more upfront for their purchase – whether fancy juice from an organic store or cheap beer from an off-licence – and given the money back when they return the empty glass.

If the efficient Germans can do it, why can't we>  

Can They All Be Done For Supporting Terrorism Now?

A family doctor suspended after being exposed by The Mail on Sunday as the leader of a banned extremist group has raised more than £50,000 to fight the NHS. Abdul Wahid was the leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT), which caused outrage after its members screamed for jihad on the streets of London days after Hamas's terror attack on Israel on October 7. The extremist chief himself praised the attack as a 'welcome punch on the nose' for Israel.

One wonders what MI5 were doing that meant a rag like the 'Mail' found this out? 

NHS England suspended Wahid and, in January, the then home secretary James Cleverly proscribed HT as a terror group, making membership punishable with a jail term of up to 14 years.

What punishment for those that are bankrolling this, then? Probably nothing with Labour in charge now.  

The news of Wahid's fundraising has caused anger among terrorism experts. Colonel Richard Kemp, the former commander of UK forces in Afghanistan, said: 'Nobody should be giving this person a platform to raise money for legal fees. It is disgusting. The platform should remove him at once.'

Last night CrowdJustice could not be reached for comment. On its website it says: 'We don't allow certain types of cases and behaviours.'

Clearly, you do.  

If 'Kamala Harris' Is The Answer, You're Surely Asking The Wrong Question...

Yikes, Mehdi! 

I was an outspoken critic of her candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, earning the ire both of her then spokesperson and also the notorious “KHive” of terminally online Harris fans. Nor did I shed any tears when her campaign turned out to be a disaster and she ended up withdrawing from the race before a single vote had been cast in the primaries. So it is with some surprise, reluctance and even trepidation that I am now writing these words: Joe Biden should stand aside and endorse Kamala Harris as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee.

So what changed your mind? 

First, some facts about Joe Biden. The president was trailing Donald Trump in the polls before last week’s debate – and he is still trailing Donald Trump after the debate. The president was old before the debate – and he is even older after the debate. He, of course, continues to get older with every passing day. On Sunday, a CBS News poll found a whopping 72% of voters say Biden does not have the “mental and cognitive health” to serve as president. Almost half of Democrats say they want the Democratic presidential nominee to step aside. So I won’t waste time making the case for why Biden shouldn’t be running for re-election.

You don't really need to, he's making it all on his own!  

You might not want to believe it, and lazy pundits may say otherwise, but the polling is pretty clear these days: Harris actually has a better chance than Biden of beating Trump.

There's the triumph of hope over expectation! 

Charge Him? With What..?

...it's not illegal to have sex with a willing woman. So he hasn't actually broken any laws. 

Victims of a prisoner who was filmed allegedly having sex with a female guard have slammed reports that he will not see further punishments, claiming 'this is not what we thought it meant to get hard time in prison'. Linton Weirich, 36, of West London, was seen in a clip filmed on a smuggled phone appearing to have sex with prison officer Linda De Sousa Abreu at HMP Wandsworth. The incident involving the prolific burglar, who is currently serving four years and nine months, led to police investigation with married De Sousa Abreu, 30, charged with misconduct in public office.

Because she has committed a crime. And she is yet another case where a good perusal of her social media before hiring her would have been a good idea!

De Sousa Abreu, 30, who is married, appeared at Uxbridge Magistrates' Court yesterday charged with misconduct in public office. The prison officer was arrested at Heathrow Airport on Saturday before she could catch a flight to see relatives in Madrid, a court heard yesterday. She was attempting to travel on a Portuguese passport, which was seized by the Metropolitan Police.

When will the Prison Service learn not to recruit foreigners with pouting 'glamour shots' all over their social media to be prison officers?  

.

Utter Insanity...

Trained shooters will be deployed to the dense forests of the West Coast forests to kill almost a half-million barred owls that are crowding out their endangered cousins.

Given how similar the two species are, there's almost certain to be 'mistakes'.  

'Without actively managing barred owls, northern spotted owls will likely go extinct in all or the majority of their range, despite decades of collaborative conservation efforts,' said Fish and Wildlife Service Oregon state supervisor Kessina Lee. But the notion of killing one bird species to save another has divided wildlife advocates and conservationists.

If the spotted owls can't compete they will lose. That's biological reality. I guess 'believe the science' doesn't apply here?  

'The Fish and Wildlife Service is turning from protector of wildlife to persecutor of wildlife,' said Wayne Pacelle, founder of the advocacy group Animal Wellness Action. Pacelle predicted the program would fail because the agency won't be able to keep more barred owls from migrating into areas where others have been killed.

As a habitat opens up, it will be colonised. Nature is far more ruthless than even man.  

It's Like Reading The Comments Of Flat-Earthers...

An XL bully dog has attacked an 11 year-old-boy, who was taken to hospital.

Here we go again, and Wales again too...

A registered XL bully dog was surrendered to officers by the owner.

Which the pit nutters will of course say 'This proves BSL doesn't work', of course. Except...do you think that this would have happened if the dog hadn't been registered? It'd be another pitnrun.

And the Facebook crowd? What are they squawking about, I wonder?

Totally deranged... and only a few days after police in Greater Manchester had to deal with another dangerous dog on the loose. Properly, this time. 

Double-Barrelled Name Quadrupled!

My maths isn't up to this!

A primary school headmistress who was sacked and accused of assault after tapping her own toddler's hand while he played with a bottle of hand sanitiser has been awarded more than £100,000. Shelly-Ann Malabver-Goulbourne was trying to get her three-year-old to stop playing with the bottle in her office when she used two fingers to attract his attention, an employment tribunal heard.

Wow, usually, this wouldn't even be worth mentioning, let alone calling the police over. The police, Ambush? Yes indeed, Reader... 

Despite the police ruling that her actions were 'reasonable chastisement' by a parent, Ms Malabver-Goulbourne, 46, was found guilty of gross misconduct and sacked.Yet an employment judge concluded there was no evidence that she had committed 'physical chastisement or an assault' and ruled her dismissal unfair.

So who instigated this, and has lost the school £10k as a result?  

'It was around 6.20pm and [Ms Malabver-Goulbourne] was packing up her things to go home after having a meeting with Ms Bhagwandas, the designated lead for safeguarding,' the hearing was told.

Ah! Well, if you sack a teacher for tapping a child on the hand, what do you do to someone who lies about a colleague's actions and files a false report, I wonder? 

Back To The Future!

Story published on BBV News on 28th June:

Event organisers were "devastated" after two music festivals were cancelled at short notice. The Summer Solstice Festival was due to take place in Left Field, Weeley in Essex last weekend, but was called off by Tendring District Council days before it was meant to go ahead. A folk music festival at the same location was also cancelled.

Oh, dear! When were they told?  

The council’s licencing sub committee decided to refuse the applications after they heard from residents on 17 July.

Errr, what? Did they mean July 2023, perhaps?

H/T: IanJ via email

No Wonder Argyle Can't Win Matches!

Unless they're in goal, I suppose...

H/T: IanJ via email

I...I Can't Even...

Why would that be the word you grab for? When 'Mammal' fits just as well in the headline? It's England, we don't even have marsupials! 

H/T: Stephen Brown via email

Sunday Funnies...

I suspect in a few years time we'll see something to top all of these...

Because He's A Liar As Well As A Thief...

Xristina had gone to buy a drink from Chaiiwala on Monday, 24 June. She said it was "just a normal, casual working day, everybody was having a lunch break". Then, out of the blue, two mopeds pulled up carrying three passengers. One of them grabbed her motorbike. "I felt like I was being attacked and I had to protect myself, and what's mine," she said. "I've been trained in martial arts and at that moment, my whole instinct kicked in." CCTV footage shows her sprinting out of the cafe and pulling the thief from the moving bike, while the other two mopeds swerved around her and drove away.

Lovely to see these feral thugs not getting away with it, for once!  

"One of the other riders kicked me. After, I was thinking, 'What if they had had a knife?' But even if they had, I would know how to react." She then put the thief into a headlock and wrestled him to the ground, with help from a member of the public.

But no help from those paid to apprehend thieves, the police.  

Xristina said they subjected her to "emotional warfare", crying and claiming to be forced into the robbery. "He said he was only 12 years old, although they looked like older teenagers to me.

"I was fighting him for about 10 minutes. Eventually I let him go. I felt like I was doing something wrong - he made me feel bad for something that he did."

Well, then, you're a fool. He's a '12 year old' in the same way all those 'refugees' are 12 years old, even the husky ones with full beards.  

Although a "supportive" police officer arrived shortly afterwards, Xristina felt frustrated. "If only the police could have turned around and helped me when I needed them most," she said. "Something needs to be changed with the law and the police force. It's like an epidemic. Everybody is being targeted by these moped thieves. "I feel like the system is failing."

Well, 'failing' implies they are at least doing something, so no. It's not even trying, is it?  

Congratulations, Banksy, You're Now In The People Trafficking Trade...

A rescue boat financed by Banksy has been seized by Italian authorities after being involved in an effort to rescue 37 people from the central Mediterranean sea, the British street artist and the vessel’s crew have said on social media.

Because unlike in Britain, the authorities are fed up with z-list celebutards helping illegal immigrants into their country, and are determined to stop them.  

In a statement posted on his Instagram channel on Wednesday, Banksy said the migrant rescue vessel he funds, the MV Louise Michel, had on Monday night “rescued 17 unaccompanied children from the central Mediterranean”.

He added: “As punishment, the Italian authorities have detained it – which seems vile and unacceptable to me.”

As 'vile and unacceptable' as helping criminals, Banksy? Guess it's not surprising from someone who routinely helps themselves to other people's property for their childish daubings.  

Aftermath...

Results are, of course - as I draft this - still coming in. Four ReformUK MPs so far, including Nigel & Tice! And Galloway out! That's a surprise! Corbyn voted back in sadly. The SNP have lost 36 seats so far, and gained none. Labour held my own area - no surprise - but with ReformUK hot on their heels. 

The only thing left now is Sunak to resign. He can't even say 'the best man won' since the new party in power doesn't appear to know what a man is.

Was It All Down To One Man?

I don't think so, I think there's plenty of blame to go around the rest of the shower. It was their election to lose, and lose it they have. Good to see a healthy showing for ReformUK, though, and both Farage & Tice now in the HoC.

Recriminations have begun to fly around the Conservatives as a senior figure called the last few weeks the “worst campaign in my lifetime” and criticised the party for failing to tackle the threat from Reform.

Rishi Sunak started the week with warnings against handing Labour a “supermajority” and a “blank cheque” and claimed a vote for Reform would hand more power to Keir Starmer.

They even brought on Boris at the last minute to 'help': 

I expect, like me, a lot of ex-Conservatives looked at that and said to themselves 'Why would we need to vote Starmer in for that, when we've got it under Sunak anyway?'...

The Media Lying To Us Again....

Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are displacing healthy diets “all over the world” despite growing evidence of the risks they pose and should be sold with tobacco-style warnings, according to the nutritional scientist who first coined the term.

“UPFs are increasing their share in and domination of global diets, despite the risk they represent to health in terms of increasing the risk of multiple chronic diseases,” Monteiro told the Guardian ahead of the conference in São Paulo. “UPFs are displacing healthier, less processed foods all over the world, and also causing a deterioration in diet quality due to their several harmful attributes. Together, these foods are driving the pandemic of obesity and other diet-related chronic diseases, such as diabetes.”

And how does 'The Guardian' choose to illustrate this article? Not with anything any normal person would consider 'food', but rather sweets and snacks: 

Want to see some real ultra-processed foods? Here they are:

Although judging by their continuing presence on the 'yellow sticker' shelves, not enough people are buying it. 

 

Well, You Could Knock Me Down With A Feather...

Sainsbury’s said sales growth slowed in recent weeks as food inflation eased and as consumers shop “more cautiously” amid poor weather and the cost of living crisis.

What has 'poor weather' got to do with anything? I'm glad you asked, Reader! 

The retailer said the decline reflected “an unseasonal start to summer”, with cold and wet weather hitting sales of summer goods such as paddling pools and garden furniture which did well in a hot start to the summer last year.

And this is 'news'? 

“Consumers continue to shop general merchandise more cautiously,” the retailer said in a statement, adding that shoppers were responding where it had offered discounts.

When you offer a reduced price, people buy more stuff! Gosh! This is earth shaking stuff, 'Guardian'!  

We Teeter On The Edge Once More...

...and I'm off to go do my bit, passport in hand! This is the first general election for which photo ID is required. 

We won;'t see this man in No 10, sadly, but I really hope his party wipes out the so-called 'Conservative Party' completely. Then it might just evolve into something I can vote for once again. 

If there's anything to vote in, that is, after five years of a Labour government.

 

Streaming TV: The Falcon And The Winter Soldier (Disney+)

A Marvel show with two 'minor' characters on a buddy mission? Ugh! This shouldn't have worked!

But...it did, and a lot was to the credit of Sebastian Stan and Antony Mackie, whose chemistry together on screen turned what could have been a dull affair into a great show.

The People 'Interested In These Matters', Judge? Why Don't You Be More Explicit About Who They Are?

On 22 January 2022, 11 boys entered a CCTV blind spot at the intersection of two roads in Stretford, Manchester. Only 10 left alive. Sixteen-year-old Kennie Carter was stabbed, his last words heard by his older brother to whom he was on the phone at the time: “They’ve stabbed me in my heart, bro.”

What happened in that CCTV blind spot has been the focus of a six-week trial at Manchester crown court, at which 10 Black boys, ranging in age from 12 to 16 at the time of the killing, stood accused of murder. Described as “a jigsaw with pieces missing” and “a net that had been cast wide” by lawyers defending the boys, the trial was the latest of several high-profile joint enterprise prosecutions involving large groups of Black youths in Manchester.

These trials attracting the attention of the usual suspects, of course, the ones who think that it's somehow 'unfair' that those whose hands aren't the ones holding the knife should be punished. Especially if - as is usually the case - they are black.

The controversial legal doctrine allows prosecutors to charge multiple people with the same crime. It can be applied even if a defendant played no active role but is found to have encouraged or assisted the main perpetrator. What it means to assist or encourage can fall to the the jury to interpret.

And the jury, mercifully free of critical race theory, seems to often take the view that if you're involved to the point of being part of the gang, you're just as guilty, which upsets the progressives. 

The contention surrounding the legal doctrine was not lost on the judge. Before the jury was even sworn in, Judge Julian Goose was heard warning the lawyers present about the term. “I’m not a fan any more of the words ‘joint enterprise’; it raises concern amongst people interested in these matters,” he said.

A coy and judicial way of saying 'activists and race hustlers', m'lud? 

But while the phrase was avoided, the principle behind the doctrine was clear. Despite the lack of CCTV at the moment of the stabbing, there was no question over who had caused the death. Everyone involved in the trial, including the defendant himself, agreed that the fatal blow was struck by Boy A, then 14, who cannot be named for legal reasons. He argued he was acting in self-defence after Kennie produced a knife. The prosecution said the knife was his own.

And if that won't work win over the jury, how about a bit of 'they was good boys, they dindu nuffin'? 

There was no evidence that any of the other nine defendants ever had any weapons or played any active role in the killing. Three of the boys said they were around the corner on another street and so did not even witness the events. Two of the boys, one of whom was just 12 at the time, were described as having abnormally low IQs. Another, who was 13 at the time, was autistic and had ADHD. And yet, Boy A was found guilty of murder and another three convicted of manslaughter after the Crown Prosecution Service argued that, through their presence at the scene, they intentionally assisted or encouraged Boy A in his actions. All nine boys had denied that suggestion.

And the jury clearly said 'pull the other one!'... 

“It’s collective punishment,” said Gloria Morrison, the founder of the campaign group Joint Enterprise Not Guilty By Association (JENGbA). “It messes with the whole idea of what young people, or anybody, thinks justice is. What benefits can there be of locking up a child who hasn’t actually done the crime?”

Pour encourager les autres, Gloria...