Because People Remain People, Yvonne…

...even at Christmas.

Every Christmas, domestic abuse rates soar as women find themselves on the receiving end of batterings, abuse and controlling behaviour from a partner, son or former spouse demonstrating anything but festive peace and goodwill. It’s a year-round problem with a seasonal peak.

Though rarer, pretty sure there'll be a few men dreading Christmas with a violent female wife of partner too, Yvonne. Doesn't that concern you?

Keir Starmer is committed to halving violence against women and girls (VAWG) in a decade. Several initiatives have been announced. They include embedding domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms; new domestic abuse protection orders that mean perpetrators could face tougher sanctions; and powers given to six police forces to charge a domestic abuse suspect without first going to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Kier Starmer said a hell of a lot before getting into No 10 Yvonne. I don't think anyone will be surprised if this is yet another of his broken promises...

These are early days but so far, like random jigsaw pieces that have ended up in the same box, the initiatives don’t cohere. What’s more, it might have been better to establish what already works well: to implement existing legislation, for instance, on stalking and coercive control; and to introduce an oversight mechanism that monitors whether police, probation, health, housing and all the services are collaborating to address a constant (and repetitive) stream of recommendations from domestic homicide reviews, inquiries and inquests that could save the lives of women and children. But that’s not happening.

Of course not! This is politics, and 'We're making the public sector do their jobs properly now!' doesn't get the same headlines as 'We're introducing new legislation!'. Does it?

When All Else Fails, Blame The Internet

More young people, including children aged 10, are viewing a “pick and mix of horror” on the web that pushes them towards violence, a UK counter-terrorism leader has said.

Deputy assistant commissioner Vicki Evans of the Metropolitan police, the senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism, said the nature of radicalisation had changed and warned of a “rapidly increasing fascination with extreme content that we’re seeing throughout our casework”. Evans said suspects increasingly had no ideology or would scour the internet for material justifying or depicting violence from different sources.

Yes, let's not look at what in their home lives or origin culture might be making them susceptible, let's just blame the electronic Satan corrupting otherwise normal youth.  

Detectives in the counter-terrorism policing network were expending huge amounts of time and resources on digital forensics, uncovering young people seeking extreme material, which was “hugely worrying”, she said. “We most definitely need to think differently about how we stop that conveyor belt of young people who are seeing and being exposed to this type of material, and unfortunately, sometimes then going on to commit horrific acts,” she said.

Well, perhaps a start would be to stop the absurd soft justice that treats them as children and seeks to to accept every bullshit excuse going to ensure the punishment does not fit the crime?  

The government is also reviewing the thresholds for entry to Prevent, which currently requires there to be a clear terrorist ideology. Increasingly people referred to Prevent have an alarming interest in violence with no obvious ideological driver.

If you can't find one, maybe you just aren't looking hard enough? 

The Tools Necessary To Do The Council’s Job, You Mean…

Rejoice, Basildon!

New bin bags will be delivered to residents early next year as a controversial waste system is set to be scrapped.

Basildon Council approved returning to weekly collections and introducing new recycling bags earlier this month after a “huge majority” of residents “demanded” the change during a consultation. The current blue and white reusable recycling sacks will be replaced with single use disposable bags in early 2025, the council has revealed.

As the upcoming changes have sparked a flurry of questions from residents, Aidan McGurran, councillor for environment and leisure, has answered their top queries.

Take it away, Aiden!  

Quizzed on how the new recycling bags will work, the Basildon councillor, dubbed “king of the bins”, said: “The disposable blue and white bags will function similarly to the present system, facilitating the separation of waste.

“Clear bags are designated for plastic and cans and blue bags are for paper and cardboard.

”However, Mr McGurran explained: “You will not be able to use pink sacks for recycling, residents are asked to please use the new bags that will be provided.”

Clear as mud. One thing IS clear though - the council expects you to sort the rubbish for them.  

The borough is returning to weekly residual waste collections, with the change set to take place in spring 2025.

What have they had up to now? 

The proposal was approved at cabinet on Monday, December 9, following feedback from residents in the recent waste consultation. The meeting was told at the time that residents could be hit with “enforcement” for not disposing of waste correctly, as the council is now “going to equip people with the actual tools necessary to do the job”.

And how have the grateful residents taken the news? 

Sounds about right.

But It's A Christmas Tradition!

A number of shoppers around the UK have complained after finding Easter eggs on supermarket shelves in December.

It can't have come as a shock, surely - it happens every year!

Chocolate eggs and hot cross buns have already been spotted for sale in shops including Morrisons, Tesco and Asda.

As reported by Sky News, Gary Evans, 66, from Margate, shared a picture of Creme Eggs on display at his local Morrisons on Boxing Day.

"I just think it's crazy that everything is so superficial and meaninglessly commercial... [there's] something quite frantic about it," he said.

You're in a supermarket, Gary - 'superficial and meaninglessly commercial' is its raison d'etre.

"I wish that supermarkets weren't so blatantly consumerist-driven and would actually allow customers and staff a time to decompress during the Christmas period."

You could always stay home?

At Least He Was Intelligible

...which puts him one up on a lot of the London Tube staff:

A ticket inspector’s bilingual greeting to a Flemish train passenger has created a political war of words – and an official complaint – in language-divided Belgium. The country’s language watchdog is investigating after a Dutch-speaking commuter protested a conductor’s use of “bonjour” – French for “good morning” – to welcome him onboard during a rush-hour train from Mechelen, in Flanders, to the capital, Brussels, in October. Writing on Facebook, Ilyass Alba, the French-speaking conductor, said that on the day in question he greeted passengers entering his carriage with a resounding “goeiemorgen, bonjour”.

And this is a big thing over there! 

The use of both the Dutch and French greetings was not good enough for one Dutch-speaking passenger, who told him off, saying: “We’re not in Brussels yet, you have to use Dutch only!”

That told him!  

The passenger was technically right, as under Belgium’s complex language rules conductors should in theory use both languages only in Brussels and a few other bilingual regions. “The file is under review,” the Permanent Commission for Linguistic Control said, adding it would ask the national railway operator, SNCB, for more information on its enforcement of language policies.

Ah, if only that was the only thing other country's transport systems had to worry about.... 

If They Rebooted 'The X Files', Mulder's 'I Want To Believe' Poster...

...would refer not to UFOs, but to the FBI itself. 

That's if Mulder wasn't a black gay wheelchair-bound woman. Like the DEIhires who turned up in New Orleans to attend 2025's first Islamic terrorism event.

Well, I guess they are teaching something at Quantico other than investigation - they certainly aren't turning out agents like they used to:

Once they found the bombs and ISIS flag on the truck (visible in Tweets from the scene), ol' Althea's earpiece was no doubt buzzing like a hornet nest and the story immediately changed to what everyone else had already figured out - the NOLA Mayor was right after all. 

And this rot in the heart of the administative agencies is why the re-election of Trump is probably not going to be the turning point that people hope. Not unless there's a plan to deal with the cancer of DEI going forward.