We’re The Sweeney, Son, How About Some Vivaldi?

Residents in northwest London have been told by police to “play classical music” to deter criminals after a spate of drug-fuelled crimes and robberies in the area.

I would claim astonishment but I fear it wouldn't be believed. Nothing the Met do astonishes me anymore. 

Car windows have been smashed and drug deals have been reported in broad daylight in St John’s Wood, with one person found taking crack cocaine on a doorstep. One resident claimed he was threatened by a drug dealer and warned he would be “shot and chopped up” after confronting them, the Sun reports. Another resident, a businessman who lives near the Abbey Road recording studio, told the newspaper he had sent pictures of similar offences to the Met Police in the hope they would solve the issue.

Fancy expecting the Met, of all farces, to be interested in ordinary crime!  

In response, he said he had received an email from a police constable advising him that should he witness an incident, he should film it, if safe to do so, and call 999. The email added: “You can also contact your housing association/the council and ask them to play classical music as this has proven to deter and prevent crimes.”

Which is why I often hear it in my local Tube station. While the staff ignore the thugs pushing their way through the barriers because they clearly haven't bought a ticket. The only time I don't see this is when the police attend to man a knife arch.

Strangely the email also added that music should not be played at excessive volume “as that can cause other complaints”.

And god forbid there be complaints! Crime can be tolerated, but not complaints. 

The Met told the Standard: “While clearly well-intentioned, the advice in the email sent to the resident in this case doesn’t reflect Met policy.”

Translation: "Shit! He said the quiet part out loud!" 

And What Is The RSPCA Doing?

No, don't tell me, I already know - nothing. 

A young terrier cross has found itself at Many Tears Animal Rescue in Llanelli in heartbreaking circumstances. 14-month-old Bella grew up as a normal puppy in a happy home but has now been left without sight after being attacked on two occasions. "Sweet" Bella was sadly attacked by one of the resident dogs she was living with which caused her eye to rupture and meant it had to be removed. Tragically, as she was healing from her surgery, the dog, who was much larger than her, attacked her once again and ruptured her only remaining eye.

A family allows their dog to savage their other dog not once, but twice, and from the so-called animal protection charity there's not a peep. And it's Wales again - why are dangerous dogs so popular there?

Bella is also in the sad situation of looking for a new home, after her owners decide to rehome her for own safety, and her unfamiliar surroundings are making everything a lot more difficult for her. Many Tears have described Bella as "very noise-sensitive" and heartbreakingly cries when she is left alone.

What I'd like to see done to those owners would probably get me banned from Blogger...

I Don’t Have Any Thinking To Do, Gaby…

Mainly because, under other circumstances, the police would undoubtedly be hunting him for the murder of another identikit black kiddy-thug. Except they struck first.

Kelyan was a caring boy, according to his mother, and his teachers called him “funny, kind and ambitious”. But he was not an angel. An aspiring drill rapper, he had been expelled from school, spent time in care, and lately got into trouble with the law. He was on the way to meet his social worker when he died and, according to the BBC, was due in court shortly himself on charges of carrying a machete.

QED. 

His mother used a word we have heard a lot over the past few days to describe what had gone wrong for him. He had, she said, been groomed. That adult criminal gangs are using increasingly sophisticated tactics to recruit schoolchildren should not be news to anyone.

They aren't forcing them to make TikTok drill rap videos as well, are they Gaby?  

Boys such as this, Longfield has argued, aren’t freely choosing a life of crime any more than 13-year-olds in Rochdale were choosing (as some police officers wrongly concluded two decades ago) to become sex workers, and in both cases what they need is swift protection from predatory adults.

The children of Rotherham and Oldham didn't get that, yet they killed nobody, they haven't recorded rap songs about killing their tormentors, have they? So I'll pass on any further taxpayer-funded efforts to stop these street rats from killing each other.  

Now the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, is leading a cross-government “young futures” unit designed to bring together the threads of everything that is happening in young people’s lives, from a mental health crisis that may be aggravating offending rates to the loss of specialist youth services. (One recent analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies calculated that teenagers in neighbourhoods where all the youth clubs in walking distance had closed – as 30% of youth clubs in London did between 2010 and 2019, thanks mostly to budget cuts – were 14% more likely than their peers to have a criminal conviction.)

Ah, the magical qualities of youth clubs. No, don't quibble, just pay up, taxpayer, and England will be a better place again... 

It's A Matter Of National Shame That They Were Ever Under Investigation In The First Place....

...but then, the animal lovers who complained will never accept the harm these dogs (originally thought to have been XL Bullies, now confirmed as the latest menace, Cane Corsos) can cause:

Metropolitan Police firearms officers who shot dead two dangerous dogs during a stand-off on a canal towpath have been cleared of wrongdoing.

On Friday, Scotland Yard said the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) had concluded its investigation into the incident, finding that the incident had been handled correctly.

Why on earth did it ever take so long? The video of the incident was quite clear! 

Detective Chief Superintendent James Conway, who leads policing in the area, said: “The IOPC investigation has been extensive, examining every aspect of what happened that day and scrutinising body worn video, mobile phone footage and CCTV of the incident as well as consulting dangerous dog experts.

“The investigation found the officers faced a really challenging situation and made numerous attempts to get the owner of the aggressive animals - after they had attacked a woman and her dog - to surrender them to prevent further injury to anyone.

“The officers demonstrated impressive restraint and bravery in trying to resolve the situation in the face of the owner repeatedly refusing to comply, and only took further action when they were left with no choice after the dogs came free of the man’s grip.”

What a total waste of IOPC time. Hopefully this will give the cops renewed confidence in dealing with dangerous dogs in the future, and we will see more action taken like that from the US cops.  

It’s Not ‘Unfair’ If They Committed The Crime

Survivors of domestic abuse are being criminalised and unfairly punished in the broken justice system, top lawyers, campaigners, and experts have said in a major call for government reform. Figures including Cherie Blair KC, former Victims Commissioner Dame Vera Baird KC, and campaigning lawyer Harriet Wistrich are among the signatories to a letter from the charity Women in Prison, calling for an end to “unfair criminalisation of women”.

Oh, go on. Give us an example of this 'unfairness', then.  

They say the signs of domestic abuse and its impact are not taken into proper account when a woman ends up being prosecuted for a crime.

A crime she's committed? How is that unfair? 

One survivor who went to prison said: “My boyfriend was a drug dealer who abused me financially, sexually, emotionally and physically.

“When we’d go out, he’d say ‘You’re carrying the drugs’. I was scared to say no.

“I was arrested and given a custodial sentence. I don’t ever want to see women going to prison after experiencing what I went through.”

Well, they won't if they choose better partners, and refuse to do anything illegal for them. But...you didn't, did you? You committed the crime. You are just proffering an excuse.  

At the Labour Party conference in September, Ms Mahmood said “for women, prison isn’t working” and announced the creation of a new body, the Women’s Justice Board, which aims to cut prison numbers.

“Rather than encouraging rehabilitation, prison forces women into a life of crime”, she said. “After leaving a short custodial sentence, a woman is significantly more likely to commit a further crime than one given a non-custodial sentence.”

So, the answer's obvious - give them longer sentences!  

Police Appeals & Picture Cropping

Anyone else wonder just what that hand gesture the cops have gone to such trouble to try and crop out of the image is? Yeah, me too. No wonder the police farces are stepping away from Twitter, they don't like the questions it allows people to ask.

No doubt some poor PC spent ages sweating over MS Paint. Or maybe they just got the guy they used to crop out the Black Power salute on that well-used photo of Stephen Lawrence...

DEI And Democrat Environmentalism Kills!

Despite the usual suspects pushing the 'This is climate change, NOW will you obey?' message for the LA wildfires, it doesn't seem anyone is prepared to listen, and for good reason.

The main target of their anger is LA mayor Karen Bass, who was away in Ghana when the fires began. When she did eventually show up to give a press conference, she informed her now desperate citizenry that all the help they needed could be ‘found at URL’. She had meant to give the emergency website for victims of the fire to visit, but it appears the script in front of her only said ‘URL’ – the shorthand for all web addresses. Thinking on your feet is not a Bass speciality. Ms Bass is utterly out of her depth. Everyone already knew that her last budget included $17.6 million (£14.4 million) of cuts to the fire department. Now a leaked memo has revealed that just days before the fire, the city also asked the fire department to make an extra $49 million (£40 million) of budget cuts.

Whoops! Oh, well, I'm in no doubt that once they return to rebuild, most of LA will still vote Democrat. Some people just don't learn.  

And of course, they won't even question why some come to pour fuel on their flames. 

Another major factor is the dried-out underbrush and unmanaged forests that, under the right conditions, become flammable with almost a single spark. In LA, brush and forestry needs to be regularly cleared. It wasn’t. Why? Well, according to Edward Ring, co-founder of the California Policy Centre, a conservative think tank, environmentalist lawsuits have consistently blocked the necessary logging, grazing and thinning of forests. This allowed California’s forest density to increase to about five times what it had been for the past 20 million years and turned them into tinderboxes.

And this accusation appears to be gathering pace like the wildfires that are still raging out of control.  

Then there are the water issues. Hydrants in Pacific Palisades had little to no water running out of them as the fires began. By 3am on Wednesday, Janisse Quinones, the chief executive and chief engineer of the LA Department of Water and Power, confirmed all three water storage tanks in the area – each holding about 1 million gallons – had run dry.

I wonder if there's a clause in her contract that says 'No water? No pay!' - it'd be nice to think so, wouldn't it. And this isn't something that wasn't foreseen. 

What makes all this so lamentable is that these problems were all made plain just two months ago. In November, firefighters battling a large blaze in the Santa Susana mountains, some 15 miles north of Palisades, similarly reported issues of low water pressure and outright unavailability. Ventura County Fire chief Dustin Gardner later said at a community meeting: ‘Did water run out? Yes... when those hydrants – on the west side or in the Estates – wherever they went dry, firefighters adjust to that... we’re used to that.'

The things firefighters are 'used to' seem a little...changed...from what we all fondly imagine they would be, Dustin. 

The authorities have been found wanting, the buck must stop with someone, and ultimately that someone is California governor Gavin Newsom. Hoping to douse the criticism coming his way, he has announced an investigation into why the hydrants were short of water. But a big part of any inquiry will undoubtedly be his role in the management of California’s water resources and forests.

The mismanagement of the water allegedly being to protect a species of fish. Gavin is hopefully about to find out that fish don't vote.  

The political firestorm facing the Democrat is made worse because Donald Trump is now on his case.

Good. 

In a video that has gone viral, a mother whose daughter’s school burned down ran up to Mr Newsom and asked what he was doing to solve the crisis. His grandiose reply that ‘I am literally talking to the President right now’ came unstuck when the woman asked to listen to the call, forcing him to admit that he wasn’t actually speaking to Joe Biden. ‘I’ve tried five times to get through’, he mumbled weakly. ‘Why is the President not taking your calls?’ she demanded.

Just like UK politicians, the first response is to lie, comfortable in the fact that they are rarely challenged on it by the sycophants in the media.   

Not Lovin’ It

You'd think he'd be able to spot any lurking perverts, wouldn't you?

McDonald's workers have said they are still facing sexual abuse and harassment, a year after the boss promised to clean up behaviour at the fast-food chain. One 19-year-old worker, Matt, told the BBC some of his colleagues were scared of going into work, and that managers would "touch up" other members of staff.

Maybe that's why the Stratford Westfield branch seems to hire useless hijabis who can't get my order right? 

The UK boss of McDonald's has been summoned on Tuesday to answer MPs' questions for a second time, including over claims of sexual abuse.

Does anyone ever refuse to go? I sure would. Let them fume and grandstand to an empty chair.  

Mr Macrow told MPs then that the firm was taking action to improve working conditions, after the BBC uncovered widespread concerns over the treatment of staff. However, one current and two former workers from different parts of the country, claim that the restaurant audits that were promised, were stage-managed by the branches.More than 700 current and former junior employees are now taking legal action against the firm, accusing it of failing to protect them.

The only winners are going to be the lawyers. As always.  

I Didn't Expect Matt To Weigh In...

...on the rape gang scandal, and this is pretty soft-pedal, but not wrong!

 

*Checks Calendar* Nope, Still Winter

 I got this on Friday when I checked my Tube app:

'Leaf fall'? What leaves are left that haven't already fallen? 

Sunday Funnies...

Small, but occasionally mighty....

But Those Cops And Social Workers Are Still In A Job, Gaby

And that's the real issue. They shouldn't be. 

"Sophie" was 12 years old when she walked into Oldham police station to report a sexual assault. For a vulnerable child, first befriended and then viciously exploited by much older men, that must have taken courage. But officers simply told her to come back when she wasn’t drunk. It was a terrible missed opportunity, as an independent review of so-called grooming gang allegations in Oldham commissioned by the Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham made clear in 2022. Sophie was picked up from the police station and driven to a house where she was raped by multiple men. Many years later, she learned that although a man eventually convicted of abusing her had given Greater Manchester police two other names, they had inexplicably failed to follow these leads.

Why is this - and the thousands of other instances where the authorities failed to do their job - not the main driver of the public's ire? Taxpayer money squandered on 'services' that failed miserably. 

There are thousands of Sophies out there, yet they are already slipping through the cracks of a debate that is supposedly about them: becoming pawns in an unedifying power struggle on the right of British politics, as the world’s richest man tests the limits of his influence over it.

At least he's keeping the pressure on, Gaby. I don't see anyone at the 'Guardian' stepping up to the plate.  

The BNP first tried to capitalise on rumours of Asian men exploiting white girls in Oldham a decade and a half ago, apparently distributing leaflets reading Our Children Are Not Halal Meat. Now Reform UK is demanding a new national inquiry into an already exhaustively examined scandal, the deportation of perpetrators with dual nationality – that many, not all, perpetrators were of Pakistani heritage is an awkwardly inescapable part of the story – and the jailing of anyone caught looking the other way, while Kemi Badenoch races to keep up and her rival Robert Jenrick races to outdo her.

Why is it 'awkward'? Usually, if crime is being committed by identifiable groups, that helps the police efforts, doesn't it? 

“I have a message for the legacy media,” announced the academic turned Reform cheerleader Prof Matt Goodwin. “If you’d been doing your job, we wouldn’t need Elon Musk.”

A message that should be resonating. But it isn't. 

My guess is Musk will lose this fight, because it’s Farage Reform members come to see: bounding onstage to denounce the “mass rape abomination” – his audience consider the phrase “grooming gangs” too soft – and accusing Starmer of failing to prosecute rapists, before arguing that the Conservatives were practically as bad.

The phrase IS too soft and yes, the Conservatives did fuck all for 13 years, but they are out and Labour are in! The buck stops where, Gaby? 

What may resonate, however, is the nagging sense that justice has still not entirely been done. With no police officer sacked or professional charged over arguably Britain’s worst child protection scandal, we are lacking a sense of catharsis.

So why aren't you using your pulpit to call for that, Gaby, instead of whining about Musk and Farage? 

Survivors need to know that in future such failure will have consequences, which is why Starmer is right to signal a new criminal offence of failing to report abuse, as recommended by the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse set up under Theresa May.

What good will that do, when the people they were reporting it to covered it up and ignored it!  It's just yet more useless legislation! 

Perhaps That’s The Issue – There Should Be Judgement, Just Not Of The State Of The House…

Kirstie knew it was time to ask for help, but she was scared. "I was so embarrassed," she says. The mother-of-three's house in Ipswich had got out of control after a traumatic event left her bedbound. "I had a stillborn baby girl in May 2022 and I had to carry on for my other two children but every day was a struggle and I spent months in bed," she explains.

There are pictures, and they aren't the worst I've ever seen, no dead decayed pets, rodent droppings or unwashed dishes, but still.... 

Every surface of the house was covered in clutter and one of the three bedrooms was out of bounds because it was full of broken furniture, so her six-year-old son and nine-year-old daughter had to share a room. The dining room was full of baby items like a crib and bouncer and pram that Kirstie could not bear to look at.

Is she single? No, Reader. But he's not much use either.  

"Both myself and my husband Stephen really struggled with our mental health and we couldn't keep on top of the house," she says.

So, what to do? Well, the answer's obvious isn't it? Breed again!  

The NHS worker conceived another baby but it was a high-risk pregnancy, leaving her anxiety "through the roof". She started having therapy at home, but a visiting nurse struggled to find space to sit down.

/facepalm 

When their baby son was born, Kirstie knew it was not the ideal environment for him. After a week in the neonatal unit, she worried about bringing him home. They looked into decluttering services but they were too expensive for her and her husband, who works in a supermarket.

"I took some photos of the house and I was so nervous, I was shaking, but I showed the leader of a baby group I went to, who got in touch with a health visitor who referred me to the charity Dora Brown," the 37-year-old says. The Suffolk charity has a team of 80 volunteers who transform homes, free-of-charge, for families living in crisis.

Ten volunteers pitched up at Kirstie's house in June and "got stuck in". They sorted everything into piles of items to be thrown away, kept, recycled or given to charity. They gave them more storage and took away their rubbish and even their dirty laundry, later bringing it back and putting it away.

Cleaned, one assumes... 

"When you're really depressed and really overwhelmed, these things feel like huge, insurmountable tasks. I was just trying to get through each day. "It was such a positive experience and there was absolutely no judgement," she says.

I can't help but wonder if maybe that's the heart of this issue. 

The charity, which has a waiting list of families needing help, hopes to expand across England, but that depends on funding and for now it is "small but mighty" with six part-time staff.

It does seem as if it's a genuine charity, not one of the many fake ones that are simply fronts for government propaganda or sinecures for ex-politicians, but still... 

Another Attack On Farmers?

A farmer's daughter who was almost trampled to death by a herd of cows has warned that many people remain oblivious to the dangers posed by the normally docile animals.

Libby James was airlifted to hospital after being attacked by a group of the animals while walking with her husband Ger and their dog Arti in 2014. Since then Ms James has dedicated her time to raising awareness of attacks by 'killer cows', with shocking figures showing that in the past eight years at least 38 people have died in encounters with the herbivores.

A job that once went to sadly departed blogger Mark Wadsworth, but I suppose someone's got to pick up the baton... 

Speaking to the Mail, Ms James said she was not a novice when it came to being around the animals, but that still didn't prevent them attacking her.

'My father taught me to walk through a field of cows,' she said. 'I strolled confidently through the field and when the herd approached I raised my hands and bellowed "Go back".'

That's the wisdom imparted by dear old dad? 

Ms James has set up campaign group Cows On Walkers Safety (COWS), which runs the website 'Killer Cows' and has received more than 900 reports of cattle incidents since 2017. According to the latest available figures from the Health and Safety Executive, 62 people were killed by cows in the past ten years.

Sadly, our agriculture and livestock farming, not to mention our food production, relies on livestock, so we can't ban them like the XL Bully. Maybe scientists should be DNA-tinkering to produce more docile cows, and not ones that fart less? 

Ms James is calling for footpaths to be fenced off and cattle to be separated from public rights of way if fencing is not possible.

Has she any idea how much that would cost? 

'The footpaths were there before the farmers came on board. So the farms were established over the footpath network,' she said. 'The footpath network is wonderful, it keeps us in touch with nature and keeps people fit, and being able to access the countryside without the need to for an expensive gym or anything like that.

'So we need the footpaths, but we need them to be safe. People have a right to walk on those footpaths. It is indelibly laid down in law. 'But actually, if you put cows in a field and you are no longer safe to walk through that field. You are blocking that footpath, and that is illegal.

'And that is something that people don't realise yet.'

If it's illegal, how come no-one's been arrested for it? I'm sure the police would oblige, since Starmer The Farmer Harmer has decided they are Public Enemy No 1...

Liar, Liar, (XXL) Panties On Fire!

The Louisiana Supreme Court has revived a lawsuit between a middle school librarian and furious parents who accused her of promoting pornography and 'erotic content' to children.

Amanda Jones, the school librarian at Live Oak Middle School, sued the Citizens for a New Louisiana, its leader Michael Lunsford, and parent Ryan Thames for defamation in 2022.

The lawsuit was dismissed that same year, but Jones' appeal reached the state supreme court who overruled the judgment on Friday - sending the case back to the court of appeals to reconsider.

And the usual suspects are OUTRAGED! that she should have to defend herself from the charge of being an activist for perverts, of course.... 

'Before all this, I was just a school librarian, but they wanted to silence me, so I thought I would do the exact opposite and become an activist,' Jones told The New York Times.

Sure, like that's not exactly what you were all along. Why else would you be trying to push this stuff? 

The online abuse triggered Jones to launch the legal battle - as she admitted that two years on, she still can't leave her home to buy groceries because of the alleged defamation.

 Is that the fat jowly face of someone who isn't getting regular groceries?

Jones' lawyer, Alysson Mills, told WBRZ they are looking forward to their day in court and presenting the case to a jury. 'I believe a jury of ordinary citizens, whey they hear what happened to her, they would want to hold the defendants accountable. The First Amendment does not protect falsehoods,' Mills said.

Well, you keep hoping that, Alysson. I don't think you've any more idea of what ordinary citizens want in a library than your client.  

Maybe You Shouldn't Bang On Endlessly About The 'Obesity Crisis' Then?

Weight-loss injections are being aggressively marketed to British consumers through often illegal promotions, in a practice experts have described as a “wild west” industry of drug selling. The booming market for jabs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro has triggered a price battle among online pharmacies, with even high-street chains cashing in on the soaring demand.

Well, why the surprise, when the media is full of stories like this and you can't walk into any dr's surgery or A&E without screaming posters about obesity being a 'killer'?  

...a Guardian review of reports by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has revealed many online pharmacies are flouting the rules in an attempt to attract customers looking for weight-loss treatments. The regulator has regularly written to online pharmacies who advertise cut-price and multibuy deals on jabs to censure them for their promotions, reminding the seller that the suitability of weight-loss injections “should be a professional prescribing decision based on a consultation”.

We live in a 'quick fix' society, so of course people worried about the constant pressure from the NHS aren't going to eat healthily and exercise, because that all takes too long. A jab is the ideal solution for them. 

The MHRA’s official guidance states that a failure to comply with any requirement imposed by a notice served under the regulations is a criminal offence.

“The penalty is a fine and/or imprisonment for up to two years,” it states.

And how many have been issued? Zero. So it might as well not exist. Like any legislation that isn't enforced.

A Rat Getting Out Before The Ship…What? Not ‘Sinks’, This Time...

In a post on Meta's Facebook on Thursday, Sir Nick, a former leader of the Liberal Democrats, said he was departing the company after nearly seven years. He will be replaced by his current deputy and Republican Joel Kaplan, who previously served as deputy chief of staff in the White House during President George W Bush's administration, and is known for handling the company's relations with Republicans.

Not even inaugurated yet, and he's having an effect!  

"Meta, like other tech companies, has been rushing to curry favour with the incoming Trump administration," she told the BBC. Sir Nick leaving Meta, and increased political polarisation on social platforms, suggests the company may shift how it moderates political speech, she added.

For the better, I'm sure. And that's exactly how it turned out. You know you're on the right track when you look at who you're upsetting... 

Cover Me! 'MacArthur Park'

Decided on another musical series for 2025 and thought I'd post some of my favourite cover versions. So to start us off for January, here's Donna Summer's disco-style cover of the oddity that is 'MacArthur Park'. Along with the original. 

Clearly, The Need For Segregated News Is Over

As it nears its 20th anniversary next year, PinkNews should be celebrating a period that has seen remarkable progress for some but not all LGBTQ+ people in Britain. Instead, the future of the world’s largest LGBTQ+ website looks uncertain after multiple allegations of sexual misconduct were made against Benjamin Cohen and Anthony James, the couple who run the outlet.

The website, set up in 2005 when Cohen was the Channel 4 News technology correspondent, has, at times, wielded its influence for positive change in British LGBTQ+ life.

But often, when one looks behind the scenes, one finds everything isn't as rosy as it appears. And then, the great and good begin to rethink their approbation: 

Last week, Downing Street called the claims against Cohen and James “very concerning” and James was suspended from his role at the Bedfordshire hospitals NHS foundation trust. The potential downfall of an influential title that bills itself as a safe space for LGBTQ+ journalists has caused dismay and sparked wider fears about the state of queer media in the UK.

Maybe we don't need a specifically 'queer media'? 

“It’s horrific to hear these allegations, especially for the journalists working there. There’s not many LGBTQ+ publications in the UK, especially ones with this sort of financial backing and influence,” said investigative journalist Finbarr Toesland. Last year, Toesland authored a study, commissioned by the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity (LHC) at Birmingham City University...

Ha ha ha ha! No, really? Good God!

...that found LGBTQ+ journalists face an increasingly hostile environment in the UK. Seventy-eight per cent of those surveyed agreed that it is becoming more dangerous to be an LGBTQ+ journalist in the UK.

What sort of 'hostility' are we talking about, anyway? Any examples? 

“I was quite surprised at the time to hear their experiences and how challenging they had found it. There was one example of a journalist who was working in sports media. When they walked into a press briefing, they overheard someone say: ‘That’s that gay journalist from x publication.’ There are examples of people feeling singled out because of their sexuality and facing homophobic abuse,” he said.

People whose self-image appears to rely entirely on them being recognised as 'gay journalists' consider overhearing the fact that they are being referred to as 'gay journalists' some sort of 'hostility'? 

The Dear Old Grauniad Starting 2025 Off As One Expects...

...with rampant misandry. Wonder what the stats are for men killed by other men? And by the way, it isn't even accurate (would anyone expect anything less?):

None of these incidents are linked in any way other than that a woman has been killed and a man charged in connection with her death.

So they stuck in that 'allegedly' but if he's acquitted, the number will come down, won't it? 

Looks Like Police Policy On Dangerous Dog Attacks For 2025...

...is to remain mostly utterly fucking useless, just like they did - with a handful of notable exceptions - in 2024. 

Three dogs have been seized after an attack at a playing field in Devon led to two dogs being euthanised, police said.

No, not the attacking mutts despatched at the scene, oh, dear me no. 

Devon and Cornwall Police said officers were called to Exwick Playing Fields on 21 December after reports of dogs attacking "other dogs and humans". The force said two dogs were put to sleep as a result of the attack, while a woman was taken to hospital and treated for puncture wounds. It said a woman, in her 50s, has been identified in connection to the investigation and three dogs remained in police kennels.

Then we have this farce in Nottingham (trigger warning for animal death/police gross incompetence):

It's no surprise the police were so useless, when this is the pathetic attitude of the country's dog warden. 

To the comments! 

I saw this video less than an hour after seeing this one from the States, and thanking my lucky stars we didn't have to put up with useless fat black DEIhires who can't do anything useful when they do turn up, so now, I have to eat my words! 

But Kier, That’s Not The Threat You're Facing…

...that comes from those telling the truth! And if you cannot see that, you are doomed. Actually, I think you're doomed anyway, if this is the level of competence in your communication team. 

Former home secretary James Cleverly warned that the PM’s comments risked inflaming public anger over the issue.

Perhaps he thinks it can't get any more inflamed. He's as wrong on that as everything else.

What’s Up With The Fairer Sex?

Two teenage girls have been sentenced for a series of antisemitic attacks in London, including one that left a woman unconscious. The 14- and 15-year-olds, who cannot be named because of their age, targeted members of the Jewish community in Stamford Hill in four separate incidents over half an hour in December 2023, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

The CPS said the pair appeared at Stratford magistrates court on Wednesday where they were handed a youth rehabilitation order for 18 months. They were also ordered to undertake a rehabilitation activity requirement for 30 and 45 hours, and placed under curfew with an electronic tag for three months.

In other words, they faced almost no punishment at all, despite this being a clear 'hate crime' of the sort that Two-Tier Kier and his idiot lapdog Home Office Minister seem to think deserves special punishment.  

And then we have Brighton:

A teenage girl gang who went viral on social media after they were filmed attacking train staff, passengers and police officers in an alcohol-fuelled rampage have been spared jail. The five girls, who cannot be named for legal reasons, threw punches, headbutts and ripped out hair in an incident described as 'mass hysteria'. One girl held up a clump of hair from the head of a rail passenger like a trophy during the hour-long melee, a court heard.

That's mass something all right, I'm just somewhat doubtful it's hysteria.  

None of the girls, two aged 15, two 16 and a 13-year-old at the time, can be named for legal reasons. Defending one of the girls, Paula Bristow described the incident as having an element of mass hysteria. 'She is doing well at school and this was completely out of character.

Bollocks!  

'There is an element of mass hysteria in this incident.'

No, there's an element of entitlement and lack of proper punishment, bevcause she's a 'juvenile'.  

The three youngest girls were given nine-month referral orders. The two older girls were given 12-month intensive referral orders.

In effect, they got away with it. And will probably grow up and go on to bigger assaults.  

Maybe A Child Would Be Less Credulous?

Mr Chant said the attack, involving a dog believed to be a rottweiler, happened at the Marsh playing fields behind the swimming pool when he was walking his own dog. He had approached the owner of the dog, who was in the children's play park, to ask if he could pet it and the owner, a woman, said it was fine.

Oh oh!

Speaking about the attack, he said: "I put my hand out to stroke the dog and it bit me and as she was trying to pull the dog off me it pulled my hand through the railings.

"There were children in the play park. What if it was a child? It would have been at face height."

Perhaps a child would have been more sensible than to want to pet a large unknown dog or to believe the owner when she said it was fine, though?  

Mr Chant said the woman who had the dog had been in touch with him to apologise.

And the cops? What are they doing?  

The attack took place on the afternoon of Sunday, December 15 and Dorset Police is carrying out an investigation. No arrests have been made at this stage.

Sod all, as usual. But to the comments! 

Dog racism. If I rolled my eyes and harder they'd fall out of my head. 

 

Punctuation, Punctuation, Punctuation...

Blimey, Elon, It took 6 years to build the Channel Tunnel!

Going Into 2025 Just The Same As Ever, 'Mail'?

Through the what? The doorbell? 

H/T: Stephen Brown via email

Sunday Funnies...

No. 1 would be unbelieable, if not for the target being French...

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.