On The Twelfth Day Of Trumpmas, Twitter Gave To Me…

...that glorious moment when hope triumphs over experience and the evidence of your own eyes:

Not Sure This Is The Win You Think It Is, O2...

As part of their Databank promotion, where they gouge their existing customers like me to then make consessions for the 'data poor', they are sending out emails thanking you for being an (un)willing donor with a spinning selection of the people you've 'helped'...like this one.

 

You know, O2, if it's all the same to you, I would far rather not help more fake refugees to come here.

"Yes, It Worked! I Got The Attention I Was Craving!"

Nick Dumont is ready to speak about their coming-out journey after announcing that they are trans masculine nonbinary earlier this month.

? Me neither, Reader, me neither...

The Oppenheimer actor, who clarified that they now use they/them pronouns, spoke about how 'rewarding' coming out was in a statement to Out. Dumont, who has had small roles in the Paul Thomas Anderson films Inherent Vice and Licorice Pizza, also shared that they would continue using their birth name, Emma Dumont, for work projects, but they plan to go by Nick Dumont in their personal life.

How handy... 

'Coming out to myself as trans has been one of the longest challenges I've faced in life. It has also been the most rewarding by a mile,' they said.

You've clearly had quite the cossetted and easy life, then... 

'Now I'm out, have a life I could have only dreamed of as a kid, and I still get to play women at work.' Dumont proudly declared: 'I'm trans. I love being trans. We're here. We've always been here.'

But you've never been feted and tolerated like you are now, so it's really not so brave of you after all... 

They added that they were 'grateful' to live in the present and to have access to 'safe spaces and support' and to be able to 'go to the LA LGBT Center and get medical care without fear.'

By 'medical care', I think she means the opposite. And one day when we come to our senses, we'll look back on what doctors did to people like you the way we look back on Dr Mengele's 'work'.... 

'I didn't think I'd be out to everyone so soon but I made a promise to myself that if someone asked, I would share,' they said. 'Someone did ask and I shared…because I'm proud.'

If it's truly natural and your 'real self', what do you have to be 'proud' of, exactly? 

On The Eleventh Day Of Trumpmas, Twitter Gave To Me…

...advice that hopefully someone will take in the future, though the signs aren't good:

 

Even China Isn't That Heartless...

On point as ever, Matt! 

No Wonder The Train Timetables Are A Mess...

...TfL appear to have bought some dodgy Calendars from Del Boy! 

Sunday Funnies...

Something a little topical for the season...

On The Tenth Day Of Trumpmas, Twitter Gave To Me…

...an example of the complete and decisive victory in pictoral form:

 

Why Have You Told Us For Years That It Is, Then?

And more to the point, why are you telling us something different now?

The list of problems inherited from the Conservatives by Keir Starmer is long, but near the top is how to respond to record levels of net migration.

Is it because Starmer is now getting it in the neck? Well, that's one of the drawbacks of no longer being in opposition - the buck stops where now, Larry? 

Starmer has pledged to reduce the economy’s dependency on foreign workers, yet he will need them if he is to have any hope of hitting the government’s target of building 1.5m new homes in England in the current parliament. The construction industry says an additional 251,000 skilled workers will be required in the next five years and there simply aren’t enough UK-born plumbers, bricklayers and electricians to meet the expected demand. The same applies to the target that 92% of patients in England should be waiting no longer than 18 weeks for elective treatment. There is not the time to train more domestic doctors and nurses, so without the NHS being able to recruit from overseas, waiting lists will not come down as planned.

And are we to believe the government doesn't know this? So, they are lying, Larry. Aren't they?

It is because migration is so complex and contentious that those who highlight the possible downsides of migration need to have their voices heard.

Then why have you shouted them down with cries of 'racist!' for the last few years? And why have you changed your tune now? 

...the list of those concerned starts at the top with the prime minister, who said that the latest figures were “off the scale”. Starmer is right about that. If the OBR is correct, by the end of this parliament migration will have boosted the UK’s population by 4 million in just eight years. The idea that this can happen without economic effects, without political ramifications and without the public noticing is for the birds.

It's because Starmer's in trouble, isn't it? 

Surely They Should First Ensure That It Is..?

The government must urgently reassure consumers that feed additives given to cattle to reduce methane emissions are harmless, and a vital tool in tackling the climate crisis, the chair of an influential parliamentary committee has warned.

But is it? Is anyone who isn't already a die-hard 'anthropogenic global warming' fanatic claiming that it is?

Lady Sheehan, chair of the environment and climate change committee of the House of Lords, called on ministers to step up as a row has blown up over the prospective use of the additive Bovaer in British dairy herds supplying Arla, the dairy company.

“The government has the evidence it can use” of the product’s safety, she said. “I can see why the government wouldn’t want to throw its weight behind recommending one of the feed additive options out there because there are others, but the government can point to the evidence to date that the FSA has licensed it and has reassured [consumers] that it is safe.”

Unfortunately, love, the government insisting something is safe doesn't hold as much weight as it once did... 

She said seaweed, willow and maize added to cattle diets were also showing promise in reducing methane, and should be further explored.

So we no longer know whether our tea tastes funny because the milk's off, or it's got a tang of seaweed? 

Arla announced last month it would start trials of Bovaer in the UK, but an online backlash ensued with some people claiming they would boycott the dairy. Arla and the manufacturer of Bovaer, DSM-Firmenich, have been forced to make public statements that the additive – which has been developed over 15 years and was certified by the UK’s food safety watchdog over a year ago – is safe.

Consumers don't want to buy your product with this stuff in it. What's hard to understand about that?  

Sheehan put the row down to “misinformation and disinformation” spread on social media. She added: “The government needs to continue with the trials that it’s doing to stay on top of this, to make sure what the long term effects are.”

So if it's a 'trial' and they don't know what the long term effects are already, how can you claim it's safe? 

On The Ninth Day Of Trumpmas, Twitter Gave To Me…

...the 'Royal We' employed unironically...

 

There's An Easy Solution, And South Yorkshire Police Has Trialled It For You....

The cost of kennelling dangerous dogs has quadrupled to £1 million in the last year, the chief constable of Essex Police revealed yesterday.

Don't seize them alive then. What evidential value do they have, when they have attacked and killed another pet or human, despatch them then and there as dangerous.  

Ben-Julian Harrington Harrington said the huge cost was contributing to an £11 million shortfall that could see 200 fewer officers on the county's streets. It comes ten months after XL bully dogs were banned in the UK following a series of deadly attacks on people.

'We've got to look after these dogs, it's not their fault,' he said. 'But of course, it's another cost, another pressure taking away from other crimes.

'We've seized 145 dangerous dogs this financial year at a cost of nearly £1 million to house and kennel them.

'It's the right thing to do - we saw a tragedy in Essex where a woman lost her life to a dog attack, so it's right we investigate and keep the dogs safe and healthy, but it's a massive cost.'

Then don't do it! Good grief, why are we employing people this thick in the police farces? 

Earlier this year it was estimated that housing dangerous dogs would cost £2.2 million nationally each year, but based on the amount spent by Essex alone, the bill could be far higher. The National Police Chiefs Council said the total cost would not be known until February, which marks one year since the XL bully ban came into force, or the end of the financial year in April.

The final bill is likely to dwarf what was being spent a decade ago, when a BBC investigation found it was costing £1million a year for the UK's 45 police forces to hold dangerous dogs across the entire country.

Change the policy then.  

Who Is Bankrolling This?

Is it us, the long-suffering taxpayer? I bet it is....

Pub bosses and punters working at Saracens Head pubs across the UK have rallied around a landlord who is being taken to court by a convicted terrorist because he is 'deeply offended' by the name.

Khalid Baqa, who was jailed for four years for preparing Jihadi propaganda, has sparked outrage by trying to win nearly £2,000 from the Saracens Head Inn in Chesham, Buckinghamshire. He described the 'depiction of a bearded Arab/Turk' on the pub's sign as racist and also insisted the depiction 'incites violence'.

For once, they aren't rolling over for a quiet life.  

Pub landlord Robbie Hayes has vowed to fight back against the lawsuit - and he is being backed by other Saracens Head establishments across the UK.

Good for them! If only other organisations had done the same, maybe this cheeky little shit wouldn't be trying his luck. 

Baqa has filed a 'claim of money' form an application to county court for a sum of cash a person believes they are owed. His application was previously referred to a small claims court.

Why wasn't it simply thrown out then and there?

H/T: Macheath via comments 

On The Eighth Day Of Trumpmas, Twitter Gave To Me…

...yet another great Twitter riposte, if one only the British will understand:

 

There Is No Real Question

Like most hearing parents of deaf children, my first close relationship with a deaf person was with my child. Despite a relatively broad cultural education, I knew next to nothing about hearing loss or deaf culture. What little I had absorbed was an incomplete and almost entirely inaccurate patchwork of pop culture snippets – the mother’s horror when her baby doesn’t react to the fire engine’s siren in the film Mr Holland’s Opus (1995); Beethoven’s struggle to hear the first performance of his Ninth Symphony; the lift scene in Jerry Maguire (1996) where the loving boyfriend signs “you complete me” to his partner; Quasimodo’s apparent industrial deafness from the bells of Notre-Dame; and, worst of all, the appalling memory of my university housemate imitating a deaf accent for laughs.

This woman's dilemma is whether or not to put her child under the knife to install a cochlear implant that would allw them to hear. Why is this even a dilemma? 

But what I had experienced as a genuinely caring, evidence-based and pragmatic attempt to empower deaf children and give them the widest set of options had been singled out as an example of “audism” by influential deaf and deaf-adjacent critics – a sinister assimilationist model with paternalistic colonial overtones and a complicated history.

Ah. Yes. The nutters... 

Not only was it inaccurate (no hearing technology makes hearing easy or natural for deaf people), but it spoke of, at best, a normative desire to correct or fix something that was not in their view broken – only different.

Humans should be born with functional hearing - if they aren't, then it's a defect. Not a sign that they are part of a community with its own culture. 

It’s Up To Her, She Could Always Go With Him

A husband and wife face enforced separation because the Home Office wants to put him on a deportation flight to Pakistan on Tuesday, leaving his wife in the UK.

Give her a ticket too, problem solved!

The couple, both 37, have been together for 14 years in the UK where they met. They are fearful of being publicly identified as they say if the husband is forced on to a plane on Tuesday he would have to go into hiding, as he fled an arranged marriage in Pakistan and his intended fiancee then killed herself.They say that they will be at risk from both the man’s and the fiancee’s family if one or both of them is returned to Pakistan, their home country.

Thry are both claiming asylum on that basis. 

The couple both claimed asylum on the basis of being at risk because of the man fleeing the arranged marriage but their claim has been refused by the Home Office. The wife is a dependant on her husband’s asylum claim.

But Pakistan's cultural mores aren't our problem to fix, are they? It's not like they are likely to ever be an asset to the UK, after all: 

“We have not committed any crimes, we just want to be together. My husband ran away from an arranged marriage and we married for love. My husband has mental health problems and I have many physical health problems including diabetes.”

*rolls eyes* 

On The Seventh Day Of Trumpmas, Twitter Gave To Me…

...the best and quickest Twitter riposte since the classic Gerry Adams one:

 

The Sort Of People That Have These Dogs...

 ...are always showing us that they are the very last people that should have them.

Justin Allison's pet Rocco ran towards the youngster, 12, before sinking its teeth into her arm - leaving the bone and tendon exposed. The 37-year-old, from Blaenau Gwent, has admitted criminal offences following the dog attack in Nantyglo.

Did he help get his 'pet' off the girl? Reader, no... 

Prosecutor Lisa Lewis told Newport Magistrates' Court that the girl had been walking with her dad on October 7 when they heard shouting behind them.

'She saw a dog running very fast towards her and it reached her in seconds. As it got closer it began growling at her and she felt very scared and turned to run to her dad,' Ms Lewis said. The off-the-lead dog, Rocco, jumped on the girl's back and as she covered her head it latched onto her arm. The prosecutor said: 'It was on her arm for a matter of seconds.

'The next thing she could remember was her dad on top of the dog, wrestling it.

'She has then walked into the middle of the road to shout for help. The dog owner has then appeared. She said he walked over but didn't come close and wouldn't do anything.

'She described him as not being bothered to help her dad while she was shouting in the middle of the road. She managed to push her dad in the direction of the owner and he managed to put a lead on the dog.

Not clear who applied the lead, the owner of the dog or the dad, but we can say whoever it was, they didn't apply it to the throat tightly enough, or for long enough.  

'The owner, Allison told the girl and her dad that if anyone wanted him he would be at his home nearby. 'He did not offer any assistance at all,' the prosecutor continued.

If not for her father's actions, it seems likely she'd kave been killed by this thing. 

'The girl's mum arrived and had a go at the defendant asking why there was no muzzle on the dog. The dog then tried to go for her mum but thankfully the defendant told the mum to go away and pulled the dog back.'

Police have thankfully destroyed the mutt, but society is sadly stuck with the owner. 

Allison, of Lilian Grove in Ebbw Vale, admitted being in charge of a dog that was dangerously out of control causing injury, possessing a dangerous dog, and possessing an offensive weapon in a private place. He will be sentenced for those charges in January but the magistrates did impose a sentence over an incident in which Allison was caught drug-driving in Brynmawr.

Always other criminality with the owners of these things, isn't there? 

The defendant, who is single and unemployed, has depression and anxiety. He lives with his grandparents and receives £248 per fortnight in benefits.

We, the taxpayer, are paying his bills. Why? 

Arse Man And The Waspi Women...

No, not the next Marvel flop, this is once again a Starmer broken election promise:

Labour was accused of hypocrisy last night after abandoning a vow to compensate women hit by increases in the state pension age. Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said government would not pay a penny to the 3.8million ‘Waspi women’ who were told they would have to work five years longer to receive their pension.Senior Labour figures, including Sir Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Ms Kendall, all backed the women’s campaign in opposition.

Well, of course they did. They wanted their votes. Now they've got them. 

In 2022, Sir Keir signed a pledge calling for the women affected to receive ‘fair and fast’ compensation. Last year, he said they had faced a huge injustice’. But on Monday, the Prime Minister said the Government could not afford the estimated £10.5billion cost – which would have seen a payout of up to £3,000 to each of the more than 3million affected.

Just like the pensioners who have lost their winter fuel payment, these women will hopefully never vote Labour again.  

On The Sixth Day Of Trumpmas, Twitter Gave To Me…

An even more delicious 'FAIL!' than the 'Guardian's' Clark County project!

 

Stop Infantilising Grown Women...

A 26-year-old woman died after she was subjected to a “frankly barbaric” Brazilian butt lift procedure without giving informed consent, a coroner has ruled.

Yes, you read it right - 26 years old. Not 16. 

Demi Agoglia travelled to Turkey for the operation after seeing celebrity endorsements for Istanbul-based Comfort Zone Surgery on social media. The mother of three was said to be “conscious about the way she looked” and was insistent on undergoing the procedure, which sees fat taken from elsewhere on the body and injected into the hips and buttocks.

And if you think that's a good idea, what's ever going to dissuade you? Certainly not a 'medical professional' from Turkey! 

It later emerged that the Comfort Zone staff who were called out to the villa were not qualified nurses. The inquest heard that their “completely bizarre” actions included trying to feed pieces of cucumber to Agoglia after she collapsed.

Dr Omar Tillo, a Harley Street consultant plastic surgeon, told the inquest: “The lack of proper care and response, particularly the failure to address post-operative complications, are likely to have played a significant role in Demi’s tragic outcome.”

You don't say? 

The Bolton coroner, John Pollard, ruled that the medical cause of death was a microscopic fat embolism in which tissue leaks into the bloodstream. Concluding that Agoglia had died as a result of misadventure contributed to by neglect, he said: “I find there was no proper informed consent in this matter, there was no proper pre-operative care and advice, and no proper post-operative care.

“All of this meant the care in total fell well below the standard expected of this type of treatment and the lack of care contributed significantly to Demi’s death.”

Well, it's a foreign country, so what on earth can anyone here do about it? 

Pollard said he would write to the health secretary, Wes Streeting, adding: “I do feel something further needs to be done to stop this frankly barbaric medical practice being conducted to such low standards that would certainly not be tolerated in the UK.”

Then isn't it the Turkish Health Secretary you should be whining to, and not the UK one? 

A Mind Is Like A Parachute, Chief Barnes. It Doesn't Work If It Isn't Open.

Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes says it was not clear if Abundant Life Church School shooter Natalie 'Samantha' Rupnow was transgender and that it does not matter. Barnes slammed speculation over Rupnow's gender on social media after he was asked about it. 'I don’t know whether Natalie was transgender or not. And quite frankly, I don’t think that’s important at all,' he said. 'I don’t think whatever happened today has anything to do with how she or he or they may want to identify.'

Once, hearing of a school shooter or other spree killer being a female, you said to yourself 'How unusual!'. And now, you say 'Is she? Is she really?'.  

But not Chief Barnes, oh dear me no, despite the fact all there is for him to do now is look for a motive:

Wide eyed and clueless...

As usual, the Internet is all over the killer's social media before the diversity hire police farce have got theirselves into their squad cars and radioed the PR departmnent for something bland and comforting to say to the MSM...

On The Fifth Day Of Trumpmas, Twitter Gave To Me…

Someone who really should know better about the nature of the 'classy ladies' they are Tweeting about...

'No Consequences' Britain....

A 'veil of secrecy' was placed over the Sara Sharif scandal yesterday after a court banned the naming of a judge who placed the little girl in the custody of her murderous father. A High Court judge ordered that none of the professionals involved in the family court proceedings could be named, including social workers, experts and guardians.

Of course, they look after their own. They always have done...

They also included the family court judge who made the fateful decision to give Urfan Sharif custody before he beat the ten-year-old to death.

It should surprise no-one, of course, but there's room for some appalling chutzpah from our disaster of a prime minister: 

The extraordinary ban sparked a secrecy row yesterday as Keir Starmer said questions must be answered about the appalling case.

Really, Starmer? Now you think questions are warranted? 

The anonymity ruling effectively prevents full public scrutiny of those responsible for the key decisions which culminated in Sara's death on August 8 last year.

Rather like an injunction does. You know what an injunction is, don't you Starmer? 

Not that he's the only failed politician to decide the public have forgotten all about their previous screw-ups. Lady Dogshit decided to open her trap too:

Yesterday, former victims commissioner Dame Vera Baird KC said: 'This has placed a veil of secrecy over this case. I think it's appalling that we cannot know who was responsible for this obviously extremely damaging order which played a key role in the horrible death of this child.

'This is the judiciary protecting the judiciary. How can the public be confident that the family courts can protect future children if the public are denied the knowledge of who is making such decisions... The judiciary needs to be held to account for the decisions they make. This is an awful case, people got it seriously wrong and the public need to know the truth.' She added: 'It is sinister.'

Bit of a stretch to insist the judiciary should be held to account when you've never been, eh, Vera? 

Sometimes I Have Trouble Believing What I'm Reading....

Neighbours last night claimed the tragedy comes just months after the grey dog was reported to police and the city dog warden after the ‘aggressive’ animal attacked another pet in July.

And once again, the police have a death on their hands through inaction - at least this time it's only the brainless owner and not an innocent, as in Stratford.  

Dog owner Ryan Gray, 25, said he was out with his ten-year-old collie, Clyde, when Bailey lunged for his pet and punctured its neck, leaving him with a £180 vet bill. He said: ‘Even with a muzzle, he managed to get a grip of my dog’s neck. I really felt like that the dog was trying to kill him. I was really pleading with her to get him [Bailey] off.’ Mr Gray, who was also injured trying to prise the dog’s teeth from his pet, told how Ms McLeod struggled to control the muscular pet and would shout at him and others to keep their dogs away from him.

So why wasn't it seized then? Was it the attitude of the victim that stopped the police? 

But he said: ‘It is really horrible what has happened. No one deserves that to happen to them. I never wanted to see that dog put down – I would have liked to see it go to someone who could have controlled it better.

‘It was only a year-and-a-half-old, so just a pup. This should never have happened.’

Imagine what the thing would do fully grown! Who exactly was he hoping would come forward who'd be able to control it, Kraven the Hunter?  

On The Fourth Day Of Trumpmas, Twitter Gave To Me…

...someone  who has confused 'Americans won't vote for a woman' with 'Americans won't vote for this woman':

Christmas Promises...

🤣

Christmas Lists...

A double helping of Matt for Christmas! What could be better?

Sunday Funnies...

Finally, some actually useful and interesting science...

On The Third Day Of Trumpmas, Twitter Gave To Me…

...a delicious MSM meltdown on air:

But Without Enrichment, We'd Have Bland English Food, Right?

Kebab shop bosses have been ordered to pay over £10,000 after more than 50 customers were poisoned at their takeaway shop. Eleven customers - including an 11-year-old boy - were hospitalised after the contaminated kebab outbreak. Bosses Sami Abdullah, 46, and Hassan Saritag, 38, ran the Marmaris Kebab House in Abergavenny, South Wales, where dozens of diners fell ill.

I have never eaten a kebab of this type, and I never will. But it seems it wasn't the meat that was the issue, unappetising as it always seems, but the salad! 

Yes, I wasn't expecting that either, Reader.... 

The precise source of the outbreak could not be determined, but Newport Magistrates' Court heard that it was associated with a failure to separate washed and unwashed vegetables while preparing coleslaw. Takeaway director Abdullah and business partner Saritag both previously pleaded guilty to placing unsafe food on the market, failing to put in place food safety procedures, and failing to register new owners at the business.

Coleslaw! And it wasn't just British hygiene regulations they scorned, it was other business legislation too:

Scott Tuppen, defending Abdullah, said he had a long history working in restaurants with no previous hygiene issue. 'Mr Abdullah offers his deepest apologies to those affected and in particular those who suffered permanently,' he added. The kebab business was at some point handed over to Abdullah - but it was not registered.The court heard that they both accepted the suggestion to close the business after it was raised by the council.

Before the council stepped in and closed it for them? 

Judge Toms said Abdullah and Saritag have no previous convictions, she had been told that they are 'remorseful' and have co-operated. She added: 'Penalties you will face will be financial but I also appreciate you lost your good character and good names.'

So the judge just goes by what she's told? She doesn't actually judge whether they are remorseful?

They've Failed More Than One Family, They've Failed Society...

The pit bull’s owners were not home but a friend of theirs, a woman, was in the property at the time. She reportedly came out after hearing the child’s scream and threw water on the dog to get it off.

And called an ambulance? No, let the sobbing child run home covered in blood! 

Gillian rushed her crying daughter to hospital and police were called to A&E to note down a report of the attack.

But clearly, not to actually do anything about it. 

But the mum isn’t happy with how the case has been treated and is now hitting back at Police Scotland, saying they have “failed” her family. The attack happened on 11 September this year. Nearly two months later, on 8 November, the police went back to the family with an update.

She said: “Knowing that Rose is lucky to be still here makes me so angry. “[I am even] angrier that the police don't see this as serious as it is.

“The police said that they wouldn't be charging or having the dog destroyed as Rose wasn't in a public place, and the dog hadn’t attacked anyone before.

“No dog should be able to live after attacking anyone – even more so a child.

Quite! They've already had several attacks and one recent death to these dogs in Scotland so what the hell is with the nonsensical 'one bite' policy? 

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "Around 8.40pm on Wednesday, 11 September 2024, officers received a report of a dog attack on Tresta Road, Glasgow.

"Enquiries were carried out and advice and assistance were given.

“No further police action was required.”

Oh, it was required all right, it just wasn't undertaken. Why not? 

H/T: Baz via Twitter 

On The Second Day Of Trumpmas, Twitter Gave To Me…

...a lot of people who aren't learning a thing from this, and this is just one:

 

In Case You Wondered Why Trump Won...

...wonder no further:

“Racism is designed in such a way to make you question your humanity, but sexism is also. Sexism is really a power move,” said LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund. “When you combine those two things together, I think that that best explains what [Harris] experienced.”

Oh, right. It's not simply that she was a weak candidate, VP to a disastrous lame duck President? No, of course not. 

Throughout the 2024 election campaign, Trump and other conservatives launched an onslaught of racist and sexist attacks against Harris: repeatedly claiming that Harris “slept her way” into political power, was unintelligent and that she was not a Black woman. Such attacks are unsurprising given American’s history with racism against Black women, the call participants said. But what was especially frustrating were platforms Trump was given to spread disinformation, Crenshaw argued, specifically calling out Trump being featured at the 2024 National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention.

Perhaps that's because the most important word there isn't 'black' but 'journalist'.... 

Following the general election on 6 November, exit polling showed that 53% of white women voters still supported Trump, calling into question who the legitimate allies of Black women’s interests are, said Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation.

“Donald Trump was the biggest beneficiary of identity-based preferential treatment in terms of his media coverage,” she said. “He was like a Teflon-coated pan. Unlike Kamala, who was rendered by the media like a static, clean repository, anything would stick to her over and over again. It’s hard to imagine anybody other than a wealthy white male claiming he could shoot someone in broad daylight and get away with it, and then prove to us that this is, in fact, virtually true.”

In what way is it 'virtually true'? He was the one who was shot! 

Rebuilding freedom schools – educational programs in marginalized communities – creating spaces of communication on social media, akin to “Black Twitter”, targeting disinformation being spread by artificial intelligence, and addressing ongoing attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion are just some of the potential strategies, said the speaker Fran Phillips-Calhoun, an Atlanta Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta.

“This really is not time for retreat or apathy,” said Phillips-Calhoun. “We really do have to turn inwards so we can build again.”

Build what, exactly? What is it - other than ghettos - you built the first time? 

And Now The Police Have To Defend Themselves....

...from the nutters that think these are suitable 'pets'.

Officers are searching for the victim of a reported XL Bully attack after a 'woman was bitten as she tried to protect her dog'.

Armed police were called to Dunella Road in Sheffield at around 1.10pm on Saturday afternoon following reports that an XL Bully had bitten a woman. It is believed that the victim was holding a small dog above her head for its own safety before a passer-by stopped to help, putting the woman and her dog into their car and driving them to safety.

And they feel they need her because the trout-pout chav owner is whipping up a mob on Facebook and demanding 'justice' for her mutt.

South Yorkshire Police have confirmed that the dog which launched the attack was destroyed at the scene.

Cop on video cool as any African PH, standing over it and putting in a finisher. Well done, South Yorkshire Police, and I don't say that too often!  

If only Kent Police had shown as much determination and acted, instead of backing off, a 8 month old baby girl might not be in a hospital right now, clinging to life.

On The First Day Of Trumpmas, Twitter Gave To Me…

...a typical left-wing journalist being wrong:

 

Confession: I was going to do a 'Tweet of the Month Election Special' with these, back in November, until I realised how many I had! 

I’m Not Sure Why She Needs To Go to School…

 …she looks a bit of a clown already!

What Happened To Science?

Betsy, seven, and five-year-old Lacie have a very special friendship. Despite living less than a mile apart in Bridgend, and attending the same school, they did not meet until April 2023. This was when they were both diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, (ALL) just three weeks apart. Since then both the girls and their parents have become like family.

Is anyone looking to find a common cause for this? Environmental, perhaps? Or....dare one say it, vaccination? 

H/T: IanJ via email

Or You Could Stop Cramming Them Full Of Boat People?

A majority of towns that saw rioting last summer have a “torn social fabric” and have been bearing the brunt of economic deprivation, according to a new report. The report was published by the charitable trust Power to Change, using a “social fabric index” produced by the Onward thinktank which looks at the changing nature of community in different parts of the UK. It found that 23 of the 27 places that experienced disorder last summer have a social fabric score that was far below the median.

And who tore that 'social fabric', and how did they do it? Maybe years of underinvestment and cramming them full of unwanted immigration? Well, then, I wonder what the solution is?

The Social Fabric Index, which has been produced by Onward every year since 2020, looks at an area’s economic value, such as employment rates; relationships, such as rates of volunteering; positive norms, such as the levels of education in the area; civic infrastructure, such as trust in government; and physical infrastructure, looking at data on local assets and green spaces.

I'd forget trying to fix the 'trust in government' bit, with TwoTier Kier firmly ensconced in No 10... 

The Power to Change report used the findings to develop 10 recommendations that call for an investment in cohesion so people have places to meet, empowering communities so they feel more control over their lives, and supporting community-led growth that can be seen and felt across the country.

But if you 'empower communities', aren't they more likely to riot when it becomes apparent to them that things aren't going the way they want and that, no matter what, the diversity keeps on coming? 

Can’t Do This In The Norfolk Farce…

....all the DNA's the same!

Around half of the Metropolitan Police’s 33,000 officers could be missing from its own DNA and fingerprint databases hampering efforts to weed out sex predators like Wayne Couzens. Scotland Yard bosses are planning a multimillion-pound 12-month project to retake staff biometric data, which is expected to face fierce opposition.

Oppose away! It's a condition of the job, and you've got away with it for far too long. 

It is understood as many as 16,600 current serving officers’ DNA samples and 19,100 fingerprints are not on the force’s systems.

Labour’s Dawn Butler, who wrote to Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley with concerns last October, is furious having been reassured that “the majority” of officer DNA profiles are stored.

Sack him, then, Dawn. The blighter's lied to you!

In a letter responding to her inquiry, the Met’s director of forensic services - who admitted “there is currently a gap” - told the Brent East MP: “We intend to establish a robust process to ensure samples are collected from those officers whose samples are not on the database and will seek to do this within 12 months.”

Another year to do what you lied to Parliament was already being done? 

When Is An Acquittal Not An Acquittal?

The answer would appear to be, when it's a 'offences against women' issue:

The change is part of the government's plans give more protection to victims of stalking in England and Wales - with Home Secretary Yvette Cooper pledging the government will use "every tool available" to take power away from abusers. About one in five women aged 16 and over in England and Wales have been a victim of stalking at least once, external, official figures show.

The news that the identity of the (often anonymous) stalker will be disclosed to the victim garnered all the headlines, but this bit is rather more sinister:

If an accused person is acquitted, courts will still be able to apply protection orders on them if there is sufficient evidence indicating they still pose a risk to someone.

If they have been acquitted, then the court hasn't proved that to the satisfaction of a jury, and therefore that should be the end of it.  

Quite Easily, It Seems…

Tim Worstall does a great job of fisking the article, which is just a lot of squealing that black racists are being held to the same standards as white racists, so I won't bother. 

I would just like to point out that if I ran a 'Blog Comment Of The Month' award, this would be a shoo-in:

And so do I, Simon, so do I...

And What Exactly Are ‘The Values Of The Royal Society'..?

A leading scientist at the University of Oxford has resigned from the UK’s national academy of sciences over concerns about Elon Musk’s continuing fellowship. Prof Dorothy Bishop, emeritus professor of developmental neuropsychology and a leading expert on children’s communication disorders, said she handed back her fellowship of the Royal Society last week.

Oh. Well, bit long in the tooth for a strop like a toddler denied a lollipop befor dinner, aren't you? 

Bishop told the Guardian her move was a gut reaction, adding she had met the president and the chief executive after indicating her decision to resign, who stressed the need to follow due process over Musk. “I just started to think, you know, the Royal Society seemed to be set up to make it very, very difficult to ever get somebody to resign or to actually get thrown out, and given all I know about Musk, it felt grubby, to be honest,” she said.

We aren't told what it is she 'knows about Musk' but what she says reveals a great deal about her...

“It just felt having him in the Royal Society seemed such a contradiction of all the values of the Royal Society. And I didn’t really want to have anything to do with it.”

The values of the Royal Society? Doesn't it honour entrepreneurs and showmen then? I mean, it honoured Michael Palin, and all he does is take holidays with BBC licencepayer money.

Bishop also pointed to the Royal Society’s code of conduct, which stresses the need for fellows to treat each other with courtesy. “What I said to them was, I’m not going to be polite and nice to Elon Musk I’m afraid, so I can’t keep to the code of conduct,” she said.

Imagine being a lady of a certain age, and admitting that you have no social graces and self control? 

"I Don't Believe It...!"

Well, actiually, I do. And I sympathise. Hasn't he heard of Internet shopping, though?

A man banned from shops in a Norfolk town has blamed his hatred of queuing for abusing staff.

Wonder why the photo comes from Esses Police? Yes. Me too. 

H/T: Dave Ward via email

Cheer Up, Starmer, Al Assad’s Having an Even Worse Time…

 

What Has The World Come To?

As I’m away this weekend, a double helping of Matt’s brilliance will have to tide you over. 

Sunday Funnies...

And none of them are Teddy Roosevelt? 

What A Snowflake Generation Means In Reality

Young people must "earn or learn" or face having their benefits cut, under government plans to get them back into work and grow the economy.

I recall the backlash when the last government annouced this. Yet there's been little outrage from the usual suspects this time around. Isn't that strange? 

Official figures suggest nearly a million young people were out of education, employment or training between July and September. Job centres and mental health support will get more funding to help people into work, the government has said.

However, business leaders have said rises in employer National Insurance contributions and minimum wages will leave them less money to create new jobs. The BBC has spoken to young people yet to enter the workforce, as well as those with different reasons for leaving it.

Which was quite brave of them, but I don't think they realised what they were going to say... 

Hassan, 20, from Birmingham, finished his A levels in 2022 and has been out of work ever since. “This year has been kind of a constant struggle. I want to get a job but how do I get a job? And how do I write the right CV? And how do I apply for things?” He is receiving help with these struggles from the King's Trust.

This is a product of our education system? 

Hassan missed out on sitting his GCSE exams because of the Covid pandemic and said sitting formal exams for the first time at 18 was "overwhelming". “I realised what I had been calling 'stress' for many years was actually anxiety. I had been carrying it with me for so long," he said. “There’s a lot of talk these days about mental health. But a lot of people think it’s overrepresented… that makes you feel uncertain about trying to identify these problems you deal with in your daily life.”

Those are just the normal vicissitudes of life. No-one's going to hand you anything on a platter, and if they told you they would, that's yet another failure of the educational system. 

Amy Wilkes, 23, from Coventry has a degree in criminology, policing and investigation but said she gets no responses when she applies for jobs. “It’s really frustrating, soul-destroying and gutting," said Amy, who has been volunteering with the witness service for over a year. “It is very hard to find a job, let alone a career,” she said.

She told the BBC her morale can get low sometimes, and that she occasionally struggles emotionally, especially as “applying for loads of jobs is draining”.

Another one who believed that if she gained a degree, plum jobs would land in her lap without any effort on her part. The fact that 'life is hard' seems not to have been imparted very well. 

But if you've got a 'disability' to fall back on... 

Kiarna, 18, from Birmingham said her struggle to find a job began at sixth form where she felt misunderstood because of her learning difficulties and mental health struggles. “I went to college... but I felt like they didn’t understand me, they would moan at me, have a go at me. They didn’t understand that for someone with learning difficulties it’s really hard to learn stuff. It takes longer to make it click in your head," she said. Kiarna said the lack of support and structure after she finished formal education had also been a barrier in finding work. She is now receiving help from the Kings Trust.

And yet, the Royals get no thanks or even recognition for providing a service to mop up the results of our educational system from the Left. 

Maybe You’re The One Who’s Wrong About The Value Of His Role, George?

Bob Lambert worked for the Metropolitan police’s Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) in the 1980s and 1990s, first as an undercover cop infiltrating environmental and animal rights protests, then as operational controller of the squad, supervising other spy cops doing similar work. In the course of his undercover assignments, while posing as a radical activist called Bob Robinson, he deceived four unsuspecting women, innocent of any crime, into starting relationships. He stole his identity from a dead child.

*yawns* He used a trick right out of Freddie Foersyth's 'Day of the Jackal'. So what? 

With one of the women, Jacqui, he fathered a child. Two years later, he vanished. She discovered his true identity by chance more than 20 years later, and has yet to recover from the devastating shock. She says she feels “raped by the state”. The person she loved and trusted was a ghost.

Oh, dry your eyes! You're not the first woman to feel betrayerd, and you won't be the last. 

These fake relationships were standard practice in the team of spy cops Lambert ran. The officers used similar seduction techniques, built similar falsehoods about their lives and used similar methods for destroying or abandoning the relationships when they were redeployed. It looks like a refined, state-sanctioned grooming operation. As Helen Steel, another woman deceived by a spy cop, remarked, “there weren’t any genuine moments – they were purely manipulative and abusive. …. it was as if he set out to destroy my sanity.”

The great majority of the people being spied on were peaceful activists who presented no danger to democracy or human life.

Which we know because they were spied on, George. That's the point. 

We love spy series, spy novels, spy films, how do we think these spies really operate? It's not a world of Aston Martins, shaken Martinis and roulette wheels all the time - it's often convincing some dim bird on reception to look the other way while you access the visitor's book. 

None of the spy cops have suffered legal consequences, though activities such as identity theft and entering homes without a warrant are illegal. Their pensions remain intact, they have kept their medals and commendations. On Tuesday at the inquiry, Belinda Harvey, one of the women deceived into an 18-month relationship with Lambert, damned him as a “cruel and manipulative” liar. But the authorities see him differently. In 2008, Lambert received an MBE for services to the police.

As well he should - he did a man's job. The only reason people like you are squawking about it is you sympathise with the 'victims'.  

Well, Clearly, You Married The Wrong Type Of Man, Sweetie

A singer with a Swedish disco band who performed at this year’s Eurovision has told of the “dehumanising” and “distressing” consequences of Brexit after her British husband’s application to remain in Sweden was rejected.

It's not a vendetta against Brits, love. Sweden has fallen out of love with immigration and obviously doesn't want to have to make a value judgement about who deserves to stay. 

Their ordeal began three years ago when Solomons, who had been living in the country since 2012, learned from one of his British employees that he should have applied to remain in Sweden by the end of 2021. He quickly applied but was this rejected in August this year on the grounds that he was late.

Merkel Solomons said she felt embarrassed to be Swedish and could not understand the approach of the authorities given that Solomons is a fully integrated member of society, a stepfather to her two children, paying taxes and a Swedish speaker.

Should probably have married a drug dealer instead, love. They went soft on those for years.  

All those things - that we think of as good things - never counted for much before, and Sweden has reaped the whirlwind of that particular policy in the past. 

We Know The Real Goal Of This, And It’s Not ‘Protection Of The Children’

Ofcom has warned social media companies they will be punished if they fail to take significant extra steps to address the problem of children pretending to be adults online. A newly released survey, conducted by the UK media regulator, indicates 22% of eight to 17 year olds lie that they are 18 or over on social media apps.

Yes, what's driving this is registration of everyone on social media by the back door, under the guise of 'protecting children'.  

This is despite the Online Safety Act (OSA) requiring platforms to beef-up age verification, a responsibility that will come into force in 2025. Ofcom told the BBC its "alarming" findings showed tech firms had lots to do to meet that new legal standard - and said they would face enforcement action if they failed to do so. It said children being able to pass for adults increased their risk of being exposed to harmful content. "Platforms need to do much, much more to know the age of their children online," Ian Mccrae, Director of Market Intelligence at Ofcom told the BBC.

There's really only one way to do that, isn't there? And it's not going to stop at children wanting access to social media, it's going to affect everyone. Powerful people want to strip anonymity from the Internet, and this is the Trojan Horse they will use to get it. 

A number of tech firms have recently announced measures to make social media safer for young people, such as Instagram launching "teen accounts." However, when BBC news spoke to a group of teenagers at Rosshall Academy, in Glasgow, all of them said they used adult ages for their social media accounts. "It’s just so easy to lie about your age", said Myley, 15. “I put in my actual birthday - like day and month - but when it gets to the year, I’ll just scroll ten years back," she added. “There’s no verification, they don’t ask for ID, they don’t ask for anything," added another pupil, Haniya, who is also 15.

The kids seem all right to me.  

Those Slow, Slow Wheels Of Justice Again…

A 62-year-old man whose dog launched a "horrific" attack on an 11-year-old girl and two men who helped her has walked free from court. Farhat Ajaz, whose dog is believed to have been an XL bully, was handed a two-year suspended prison sentence after he also admitted threatening to kill a former partner.

Yes Reader, it's this incident, finally coming to an unsatisfactory conclusion after over a year...

CCTV from a shop that was played in court showed the dog, named Tyson, snapping its collar and attacking the 11-year-old in Bordesley Green, Birmingham, on 9 September last year. The victim, who cannot be named because of her age, was left with scarring on her arm and shoulder. Further footage filmed by bus passengers showed subsequent attacks on Numaan Ahmed and Yousef Ahmadzai, who helped the girl but were injured on a nearby petrol station forecourt, with one of them fearing he would die.

The video was horrific, and undoubtedly contributed to the government implimenting a ban on these dogs.  

Birmingham Crown Court heard Ajaz was subject to a life-long licence at the time of the offences, having been jailed in 1979 and serving 25 years before his release in 2004. No details about this offence were given to the court.

Well, it must have been serious to do that length of bird, even though back in 1979 we weren't afflicted with a woke 'justice' system.... 

Passing sentence on Ajaz, Judge Heidi Kubik KC said the harassment, relating to a series of incidents in February and March 2022, involved "vile, threatening and abusive" behaviour which on its own merited a custodial sentence.The judge told him: "I make it perfectly plain that were you a younger man in good health, you would be going immediately to prison today.

"Bearing in mind your guilty pleas and the health conditions that you now suffer, I take the view that it would not be in the interests of justice to send you to immediate custody today."

Ask any man in the street, Heidi, and I think you'd find they would have a rather different view of 'the interests of justice'.... 

Don’t They Just Fall Right Through?

Another day, another crackpot definition of 'poverty'. This time it's 'lack of flooring'. Really? Yes indeed, Reader.

Ah. Just the BBC flirting there with getting checked by their own Verify service - of course they have flooring, it's floor covering they lack.

When Pia Honey had her house extended in 2021, the builders planned to put her old flooring into a skip - much to her surprise. After all, it was in perfectly good condition. Instead, Pia listed the carpet on Facebook. Three families each took a share. "All three were single parents living in social housing with no floor covering," Pia, 55, says. "Each one told me the council had removed the previous carpets before they moved in."

I think we can all understand why they might do that, can't we, Reader? 

It was this that ultimately led to the creation of her community interest company No Floor No More, which provides second-hand carpets to social housing tenants who would otherwise have to make do with bare floors. Pia, who lives in St Albans, says it's "disgusting" that council and housing association properties are routinely left with partial floor coverings.

I think you'd find it even more 'disgusting' if the council didn't rip it out. And surely it's better to put up with no carpet for a while than be out on the street, isn't it? 

The quality of social housing - including the provision of flooring - can have a huge impact on tenants' lives, says Aileen Edmunds, chief executive of Longleigh Foundation, which supports social housing tenants. "We hear some really shocking stories," she says. "For example, people are more likely to return to the perpetrators of domestic abuse if where they've been rehoused doesn't feel like a home. We've heard of children being embarrassed to bring their friends round to play."

God save us all from a world where children are embarrassed by the housing they live in... 

Streaming TV: Slow Horses (Apple TV)

And so we reach the final offering, and it's this incredible adaptation of Mick Herron's novels.

This one has everything. Inspired casting (although Gary Oldman is not a good physical match for the obese Jackson Lamb, in all other respects he captures his cunning and seedy character perfectly), some great set pieces and a good cast of characters you can come to root for as the ultimate underdogs, it's a triumph. 

And that theme song! Superbly matched to the show's themes and with Mick Jagger's incomparable vocals!

A Perpetual Crisis Is All In Your Mind

Let's see how the folks at Reactormag are dealing with the recent US election.

I’ve been trying to write a new column for three weeks. I’m pretty sure you can guess what’s been holding things up, distracting me, sending my attention off in approximately 97 directions at once, each more upsetting than the last.

No, I can't really...oh, wait. It's the election, isn't it? 

I’m not going to harp on the looming state of affairs in this country, but I am going to acknowledge that people are scared, worried, angry, concerned, furious, fired up. And distracted.

Nice excuse for slacking on the job, I suppose.  

One bit of advice I keep seeing is to find our lanes. To acknowledge that no one person can do everything, or try to help fix everything at once.

What exactly is there to 'fix'? Trump won. He's there for another term. It's what the rest of the country wanted. What horrors do you think are going to unfold, anyway? 

Book bans aren’t going away. Companies’ obsession with what they like to call “AI” isn’t going away. Authors aren’t swimming in new and exciting (and affordable) ways to promote their work. Tired arguments about the role of politics in art, alas, aren’t going away either.

Probably because you're the ones keeping them alive.... 

Authors write about attempts being made to ban their books; they write about books they love by their peers and friends; they write about the reality of being an artist in these times.

Not exactly starving in a garret is it? 

Are there author events in your town? If it’s safe and comfortable for you to do so, go to them. (It would really be nice if more event hosts so much as encouraged attendees to mask, but they probably won’t. That doesn’t mean you can’t still do it.)

It's no surprise that the blue-haired anti-Trump contingent are still wearing the useless masks, is it, Reader?  

I have a little bit of a hard time with suggesting things that involve public events, these days, because it usually means telling people to go to indoor spaces in which people are often pretending covid is over. (I just had covid last month. It’s not over.)

Of course it's not. It's here to stay, just like all the other flu-based viruses.  

It is an obvious statement, but I am not afraid of being obvious. I am not going to give you any of those treacly, trite, and all too often untrue statements about how books will keep us alive or bring us together or save the day or make us better people. But I am going to say that books, or the stories within them, are art; that we need art, and we need stories, and it’s cool if some of those stories are about better ways for the world to be and for us to live in it.

I very much dounbt that your 'better world' matches mine.... 

Isn’t The Solution In Your Own Hands, Ladies?

A man has become the first in the UK to be arrested over videos filmed of women on nights out without their consent, with some in vulnerable states.

The 27-year-old from Bradford was taken into custody on suspicion of stalking and harassment after reports of women being followed, filmed and harassed in Manchester city centre.

What? For public filming? But that's legal!

In April, a number of women spoke to the Guardian after being filmed without their knowledge and consent, with the videos being posted on social media. In some cases, the women were later identified and harassed online. Some victims described it as “disgusting” and said they felt violated on finding out videos of them had been viewed hundreds of thousands of times and attracted misogynistic comments.

Well, ladies, maybe show a bit of decorum and don't get falling down drunk in the street, perhaps?  

Though filming on a public street is not a crime, it can cross the line into harassment, and women who discovered they had been targeted were asked to report it to police.

And the cops, always eager for an easy life and an offence that doesn't take much work to solve, leaped into action. 

GMP said: “After the issue was first brought to our attention, we made several appeals for anyone directly impacted by these videos to come forward. Many women did so, explaining the fear this had created for them, and the impact on their feeling of being safe while out at night.”

Not such 'fear' that they drank sensibly, I take it? 

Over the past few months, neighbourhood police officers worked with the CPS to see if charges could be brought against any of the accused. The videos in Manchester were primarily filmed around the Peter Street and Deansgate areas, while videos were also filmed in cities such as Liverpool and London.

Seems like they've put more effort into this than into real crimes, doesn't it?  

Ch Insp Stephen Wiggins said: “We took the concerns of the public really seriously on this issue, and have worked hard with partners to assess the full circumstances and what courses of action were available to us. It is a very new and complex issue, but this is a significant development.

“Everyone has the right to feel safe as they enjoy a night out, and these videos have made people, particularly women, not feel like that, which we can’t tolerate.

“Filming in public is legal. However, where this filming crosses the line into offences such as upskirting, stalking or harassment, it’s important that we don’t allow that behaviour.”

You're tackling the wrong behaviour.  

What's 'Harrowing', Graham, Is That You Are Blaming The Wrong People...

A two-year-old girl who drowned in a bin containing 9cm of water in a back garden in east London was a victim of “gross failures” largely by social workers, a coroner has concluded at an inquest.

Really? Let's look at the facts, shall we?

At the time of her death, Mazeedat Adeoye was being cared for in Dagenham by an acquaintance of her mother, Balikis Adeoye, who had to stay in hospital with Mazeedat’s baby brother when he required urgent heart surgery.

Adeoye had asked social workers at Newham council if they could provide foster care for her daughter for 10 days during the hospital stay. She had come to the UK on a visitor visa with Mazeedat in spring 2021 to join her partner but the relationship ended in May that year and she overstayed her visa, which expired in September 2021, because she had no means to return home. She was not eligible for state support, a status referred to as “no recourse to public funds” (NRPF).

Yet she was soaking up public funds with the baby's hospital stay, wasn't she? And wanted more, of course. Thankfully, the social workers - for once - weren't having any.  

The NRPF team at the council declined to provide foster care and told Adeoye to look for someone “in her community” who could look after her daughter. A woman from a local mosque agreed to take care of the child until Adeoye and her son left the hospital.

The senior coroner for east London, Graeme Irvine, found that while playing alone and inadequately supervised in the woman’s back garden, Mazeedat fell head first into a plastic refuse bin that contained water. Despite the water’s depth being no more than 9cm, Mazeedat drowned. Irvine described the case as “particularly harrowing”.

Well, I sort of agree. If she'd been deported the moment she overstayed her visa, we wouldn't be here right now, wasting yet more taxpayer cash on this inquest. And castigating social worker who, for once, did their job.  

This is the first death of a child thought to be linked to NRPF. In his conclusion, Irvine said: “There was a missed opportunity to provide effective care in the form of an offer of a temporary fostering placement which would have probably resulted in the avoidance of Mazeedat’s death … Local authority children’s services failed to support Mazeedat.” He said some of the social workers who failed to support the family were “obdurate and stubborn”. “Balikis Adeoye was treated in a dehumanising way on account of her status in the UK,” the coroner said.

We had no obligation to spend more money on her. We were already spending enough!  

Juliet Spender, a human rights lawyer at Irwin Mitchell, representing Adeoye, said: “There were several opportunities to ensure an appropriate foster placement was put in place for Mazeedat. Sadly, we believe, these opportunities were missed with devastating consequences. It’s now vital that lessons are learned from this tragedy to protect children in the future.”

Might I suggest 'immediately deporting visa overstayers' in future Juliet? Or would that impact on that hose of taxpayer cash pumping into your chambers in legal aid? 

Is 'A Breakdown In Communication' A Euphemism?

A football club has been told it is not allowed to play matches at home because its changing rooms are too small. Newbury FC returned to council-owned Faraday Road on 9 November, six years after being evicted ahead of potential redevelopment work. But West Berkshire Council has been informed the changing rooms do not meet the standards required by the Thames Valley Premier League, meaning the team can only use the site for training.

Who was the architect? Who at the council approved the plans? Someone dropped the ball here!  

The club was evicted from Faraday Road in 2018 when the then-Conservative run council said it wanted to use the site to redevelop the London Road Industrial Estate. The site fell into disrepair and most of it was destroyed in an arson attack three years later. The Liberal Democrats pledged to bring Newbury FC back to Faraday Road when they took control of the authority in 2023.

Oh. Lib-Dems. What a surprise.  

Nigel Foot, the councillor in charge of sporting facilities, said the council had "worked extremely hard... to get proper league football back on Faraday Road". But he said a "breakdown in communication" meant the changing rooms did not meet standards, something that was only flagged in an inspection after the first match had taken place.

Surely they have an inspection before opening? This is about as believable a story as Louise Haigh's missing mobile!  

H/T: Ian J via email

Wales Shows Us How Efficient A Labour Government Is At Anything

Politicians and residents in south Wales have lashed out at what they say is a lack of preparation and insufficient warning for Storm Bert, which led to devastating floods. Andrew Morgan, leader of Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT) council, said he was "amazed" that only a yellow weather warning was put in place, saying he stands by his comments that the Met Office should have upgraded to amber or red. Rhondda and Ogmore MP Sir Chris Bryant and Plaid Cymru MS for South Wales Central Heledd Fychan also criticised the timings of warnings.

And were their fulsome apologies from all and a promise to do better next time? Reader, there were not... 

But First Minister Eluned Morgan warned climate change means protecting some Welsh homes from flooding is not possible.

The triumph of modern engineering can't protect civilisation from flooding? Even not in places where idiot developers have been allowed to build on floodplanes by idiot councils? 

In an interview with Newyddion S4C, external, Andrew Morgan said RCT council will make £1m to £2m available to people and businesses affected by Storm Bert from emergency funds. He said all residents and businesses will be offered £1,000 initially with additional funds available for businesses to make longer-terms adaptations, such as raising electricity sockets. He added that he was “happy” overall with the way the authority responded in light of the information available to them.

I wonder why he was so happy? I'm guessing he didn't buy a house in a flood area. But his constituents did. Will they forget, Andrew? Or will they give their votes to someone else?