But You Don’t – You Know Only What She Chooses To Tell You…

So it was a relief to hear the new home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, articulate clearly that weekend what should always have been Labour’s line on both the English and British flags: that, as the English-born daughter of Pakistani-born parents, she sees herself in them and is “all for” their use as a symbol of unity, but not as a means to exclude and divide.

Oh Gabby, What do you think now she's a proven liar..?

“I’m a patriot, not a nationalist,” she told the Sun on Sunday. And, yes, it would have been better had Keir Starmer said something like that from the start.

Perhaps he didn't want to be caught in a lie so quickly, unlike his DEI hire Home Sec?

The outlines are fuzzy, but in Liverpool there are glimmerings of a new politics of belonging: an aspiration to be what Mahmood called an “open, tolerant, generous” country, welcoming to newcomers, while acknowledging that migrants aren’t the only ones sometimes struggling to find their feet in a multi-ethnic nation.

And how do they feel in Manchester now? Probably the same, since vacuous ‘don’t look back in anger’ acceptance of insanity seems to always reign there. 

The biggest challenge Mahmood now faces, one I have not seen before in my lifetime, is the shocking rise of ethnonationalism. It’s the blood-and-soil politics of those who claim Rishi Sunak isn’t really English despite being born and raised here – a charge not levelled at his US-born, Brussels-raised, white-skinned predecessor, Boris Johnson – or that being Muslim is somehow fundamentally incompatible with living a properly “British” life.

It is, because so many of them cannot seem to. 

We are not an island of strangers, in the words Starmer now regrets using: just an island that needs reminding, sometimes, of who we really are.

Actually,we’ve been reminded of who they are too much, Gabby. And we are sick of it! 

So Do You Not Have A Description Of The ‘Men’ Either…?

Detectives are appealing for witnesses after a woman was raped by a group of men in a churchyard in an Oxfordshire town.

‘Men’ of no obvious appearance again? 

Officers said they wanted to trace a “Good Samaritan” they believe might have tried to help the woman as well as anyone else who might have information. The woman, who is in her 30s, was raped by a group of men at St Mary’s Church’s churchyard and the surrounding area of Banbury town centre, police said.

And a witness of no appearance too? 

DS Mark Personius, the investigating officer, said: “This is a horrific crime and Thames Valley police is conducting a thorough investigation to identify the offenders. “I am making a public appeal to a specific witness, a woman, who we believe may have tried to help the victim. At this stage, we don’t have a description of this Good Samaritan. However, if you believe you are the woman, please contact the police as you may have vital information that can help us piece together what happened.”

You don't appear to have anything to 'piece together', or are you simply not telling us what you do have deliberately? The police do, after all, have form for this. 

Accurate, To A Point...

 

...though the corridor's too clean, Matt. And there 's no fat nurse reading 'Heat' magazine and ignoring the patients in the corner.

Why Are We SO Worried About AI?

 It's not going to take our jobs if it can't tell a bird from a cat, is it? 

Sunday Funnies...

 Hollywood being economical with the actualité again? Say it ain't so! 

Never Forget, Never Forgive…

Lana Collie-James was 14 years old in the midst of the Covid pandemic when she was offered a stark choice: her education or her mother’s life. “My mum’s clinically vulnerable. She has a compromised immune system, along with a plethora of other illnesses that would make Covid hit very hard,” she says.

“I got given the ultimatum. My mum said: do you want to go to school, do you want to go to secondary school and risk taking this home? So as a 14-year-old I had to make the decision to either get an education and risk my mother dying, or not get an education and try to teach myself the best I could. “That’s a very difficult situation to give to a 14-year-old, but also a situation that, whichever decision I made, whichever outcome I chose, would completely change the trajectory of my life.”

The damage the overreaction to Covid has done is still not entirely understood and indeed, I fear that no matter what the conclusion on this inquiry, there'd be nothing stopping the government from doing it all again at some point in the future. 

Collie-James stayed in virtual isolation for the two years of education that culminate in GCSE exams at age 16 rather than risk her mother’s life.

With her school refusing to continue remote teaching and threatening fines for non-attendance, Collie-James took on the responsibility of teaching herself.

Which probably guaranteed her a better education than she's have got attending the propaganda-factorties we call schools, ironically rnough. 

“I got, like, maybe a couple of tests [from the school], that’s it,” she says. “I don’t know if they marked them at all or if I got any feedback. I’m pretty sure I didn’t. Maybe I got sent a PowerPoint once or twice. “But even so, I then had to essentially teach myself GCSEs, which was a little bit insane, and I didn’t see anyone for two years. I saw two friends, one of them a neighbour, with social distancing, which was nice. But in general it was an extremely isolating and lonely experience because it was just me and my mum.”

After “spending a lot of money buying textbooks”, Collie-James concentrated on core subjects and managed passes in design and English, followed by resitting and passing maths when she started at college the following year.

 Wondering if she'd actually done better than if she'd spent two years in the sausage-factory of modern comprehensive education, Reader? Yes, me too...

Kate Eisenstein, the director of policy, research and legal for the inquiry, says the four weeks of hearings will investigate how the interests of children and young people were taken into account by decision-makers, as well as evidence of the differing impact on children.

I'll save you the time, Kate. They weren't. No-one's were. 

A Lie From The Home Sec?

 Friday's morning headline in the 'Guardian':

And I snipped it out for a post this morning, planning to add 'unlike all the others who were', only for it to prove yet another lie from this wretched government :

The Yom Kippur killer was on bail for alleged rape before his synagogue attack, it emerged last night. Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, was under investigation by Greater Manchester Police over a sexual attack carried out this year and was due to appear in court.

Now, how is our taquiya-practicing new Muslim Home Sec going to get out of this one? She doresn't have many options, does she?Claim the police lied to her, in which case surely sackings must follow? Or say she only asked about terrorist knowledge, and not other crimes, which won't wash with anyone? 

The killer had criminal convictions for lesser offences not related to terror, but was not known to counter-terror agencies.

Two seconds on the Police National Computer would have shown these up, unless of course they misspelled his name, and really, is that not what you'd expect from a farce whose armed officers shoot two of the innocent people menaced by a terrorist, killing one?

The Description Of The Complainant That I Fully Expected...

A fire service worker has won an unfair dismissal case after he was sacked for 'assaulting' a female shopper at Tesco who pushed to the front of the self-checkout queue. London Fire Brigade's Ryan Shearwood was getting his lunch from Tesco when he got into a bust-up with another customer, a tribunal heard. Mr Shearwood, a mechanic with the fire service, was waiting by the self-checkout tills when he called the woman out for skipping the queue.

Good for him! But no good deed goes unpunished, I guess… 

There was an altercation and the woman claimed she was 'shoved to the ground' by Mr Shearwood, it was heard. The woman later complained to the London Fire Brigade, claiming she was 'physically assaulted' by Mr Shearwood during the lunchtime row. Mr Shearwood argued he did not shove her and said all he did was simply extend his elbow to the side to 'defend' himself from being 'barged out of the way'. Mr Shearwood, a fire hydrant technician, was fired for misconduct after the fire service investigated the incident and concluded he had assaulted her.

Wait, what skills do the Fire Brigade have to investigate anything other than arson? And why weren’t the police involved? 

There was a lack of CCTV footage because Tesco would not release it unless there was a police investigation, and it was then destroyed after 30 days.

Seems the complainant went straight to the FB and none of them said, ‘Wait, let’s see if there’s a case to answer before firing him’ As I’m reading this, I’m thinking there can only be one possible reason for this sort of overreach…

'He is an extremely unreasonable person and even the staff were saying a simple apology or acknowledgement of the misunderstanding of the situation could've rectified it, but he refused to do so. '

Calling me names and escalating the situation further by loudly saying there was something wrong with me and I have "mental health issues" which I know was a predictable attempt to paint me as angry crazy black woman, which is not something that I take lightly at all.'

Aha! I love it when I’m proved right!  

The judge added the fire brigade did not carry out a fair investigation on procedural grounds.

You’re not kidding! 

A decision on compensation will be made at a later date, with a hearing listed to take place next month.

I hope the tribunal soaks the FB for every penny they can! 

'Mum Of The Year' Award Can Be Given Early....

Amanda Shannon, from Dovecot, claims Rainhill High School has repeatedly failed to implement "reasonable adjustments" for her daughter Rebecca, who began the new term in September wearing nose and upper lip piercings - a birthday gift from her father.

One of the most unpleasant and unattractive of modern 'fashions', and of course, mum exercises no taste or control and so agrees to this. 

Rebecca, who has inattentive and hyperactive ADHD and is awaiting assessment for pathological demand avoidance (PDA), is said to have been placed in isolation and later excluded for two days for breaching the school's uniform regulations.

A grab-bag of initials that prtobably means 'perfectly healthy but disobedient and disrespectful little hellion'.... 

Amanda claims the school declined to allow Rebecca to wear transparent retainers whilst on the premises – something she believes would have represented a reasonable compromise.

You seem to be forgetting they have no readon to compromise - they laid down the rules, and you need to follow them. 

The piercings, Amanda maintains, are vital to Rebecca's sense of self and fulfil a practical function by serving as a "fidget toy" in her mouth, helping her concentrate during classes, reports the Liverpool Echo, reports the Mirror.

Strange hoe such things weren't needed when I was at school, we all concentrated or we knew what would happen! 

The 44 year old told the ECHO: "She sees it as part of who she is. Rebecca struggles with identity and confidence. She's said to me: 'This is me, this is who I am.'

"Last year, even getting her into the classroom was a struggle. This year she really wants to learn. She's told me she wants to progress sets and do well, but now it feels like she's being shut out."

She probably is, if I headed up that school I'd do anything I could to ensure she stayed out, for the sake of the kids who want to learn without disruption. 

Amanda, an NHS critical care nurse (Ed: !!!) , also claimed that Rebecca was denied access to the school canteen during her isolation period, stating: "Rebecca rang me saying, 'Mum, I'm hungry and they won't let me get any food.' I had to tell the teacher they were breaching her basic human rights. Only then did they let her get something to eat."

School says 'Didn't happen!'  

Rainhill High School has categorically refuted this, asserting: "We can confirm that we would never restrict access to food or drink for any student, regardless of the situation."

Translation: 'Chavmum is trying it on, just like her hellspawn. Who probably learned it from her in the first place. 

The concerned mother worries her daughter could face permanent exclusion unless the matter is resolved.

Again, if I were headmistress, that's what I'd be planning. 

‘Queasy Anxiety And Increasing Frustration’ Is What We All Feel , So Why Should You Be Different?

Because with this useless bitch in No 11, we're ALL screwed!

  

There are more than 1.7 million children and young people in England’s schools who are recognised as having special educational needs and disabilities (or Send). When you factor in their parents and carers, it highlights the huge number of people who anxiously watch this area of policy. All of them know that the systems those kids depend on are dysfunctional and broken. And they are also keenly aware of something else: that whereas their experiences once tended to be ignored and overlooked, they have now crossed from the online world into Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, The One Show, Good Morning Britain and all the rest, as a huge conversation about the politics of all this gets louder and louder.

Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing...nothing other than a determination to keep their hands firmly in the taxpayer’s pocket, that is! 

Late last year, whispers from the top of government began to circulate, about drastically restricting the number of EHCPs. Ministers, meanwhile, have refused to be drawn on whether or not EHCPs and the very clear rights they enshrine will survive their reforms at all.

Is no one investigating the reasons for the growth in these then? No?

Whatever the government’s answer to the Send crisis, the report says: “The solution cannot be to remove the statutory entitlements from a system which lacks accountability in many other areas and in which parents already have so little trust and confidence … The Send reforms must not be based on any withdrawal of statutory entitlements for children and young people with Send.”

Any project that rules out a conclusion from the very start before it's even looked at the issue is a waste of everyone's time... 

It feels as if there is a mounting realisation in Westminster that existing Send rights increasingly look like a precious wall of defence against the cruelty that would be let loose if Reform took national power. And I increasingly sense something else: a rising aversion to standing anywhere near anyone who believes in the modern myths of “overdiagnosis” or the idea that changes to the Send system ought to start with snatching away rights and entitlements.

Why would anyone believe that this would be a priority for a Reform government? 

The Untouchables...

The unruly Doran family made global headlines and were branded the 'holidaymakers from hell' after an anti-social rampage saw them deported in disgrace from New Zealand.

Back in Britain, patriarch Patrick Doran then sparked outrage upon settling in Worcestershire, where locals said he demanded a six-figure sum to leave or face years of threats and collapsing house prices.

Isn't that extortion? Is it even any different to what is being done to JLR or Kido Nursries, except it's less high tech? 

Now, the clan are once again being forced to pack up - after losing a bitter planning war in the heart of rural Lincolnshire. After reinventing himself under the alias 'Alan Gray', Mr Doran bought Stickney Showground, near Boston, and began illegally developing a three-acre grazing field into a gated, gravelled fortress.n February this year, East Lindsay District Council refused permission for Mr Doran to open a gypsy and traveller site with room for up to 30 static and touring caravans, a toilet and wash block and a dayroom building. An enforcement notice then followed, ordering the demolition of brick structures already put up without permission and demanding the land be restored to open fields.

Which they'll simply disobey like they disobey every law. 

The Dorans, along with the Collins family who had joined them on the site, now have 12 months to leave and 15 months to return the site to its original state.

Why? They moved in over a weekend, give them a weekend to fuck off again!  

Speaking to the Daily Mail at the site this week, one of the residents, who described herself as a family member, complained that they are 'the most hated people on earth', adding that 'they [the council] think they can sweep us under the carpet'.

I'd say they were their own worst enemies, but that's ruling out all the people they move in next to!  

Another man associated with the site, who didn’t give his name, said: ‘We want to live a peaceful life’, then threatened our reporter with ‘trouble’ if they reported on the site or returned.

Every time, they show you what they are, so when are politicians and the police going to treat them as what they are?  

Man Who Only Has A Hammer Sees Nothing But Nails

Something is happening, and we see it on both sides of the Atlantic. On the surface, it is about flags, identity and political allegiance. But to me, as an American living in Britain, recent events reveal something deeper: both our societies are normalising hate ​and othering in ways that corrode not only our politics but our souls.

Nothing better than a foreigner come to tell us where we are all going wrong, eh? Good old 'Guardian'! But maybe I shouldn't be hasty, maybe he has something valuable to s...

Oh.

The something is aggressions and micro-aggressions: a coarsening of everyday encounters. I have snapshots. Recently, at a celebrated creative hub in London, I twice endured blatant bias. My guests and I – the only all-Black table in the room – were left in the dark, literally. As night fell, every other table was given a lamp except ours. When I raised it with management, I was interrupted, dismissed and told it was an oversight. A Black staff member was sent to smooth things over​. An official later told me that while they had “a different view of what happened”, they accepted that this was “how [I] experienced it” and admitted it “fell short of [their] usual standards”. My Blackness was overlooked, diminished and dismissed – while whiteness was appreciated, affirmed and celebrated, in a space that loudly markets itself as a home of “belonging”.

The thought that there could be other reasons for this failure to supply a lamp doesn't appear to have ever crossed his tiny mind; maybe the staff were working to a rota of tables and that one was last? Maybe all the other tables were polite and appreciative, and his was loud and racous and demanding, so naturally the staff left him to last? 

These are not minor indignities. They are signs of a culture where suspicion and prejudice are no longer whispered but weaponised.

Of course they are, dearie.... 

Martin Luther King Jr warned: “Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.” Hatred, he knew, corrodes the hater as much as the hated. Love, by contrast, is the only force capable of transforming both. This is not abstract philosophy. It is lived truth.

That you can use MLK as an example, when he'd be utterly horrified at what modern day 'black culture' represents is enough evidence for anyone to immediately dismiss your chip-on-the-shoulder whinge. 

Societies cannot thrive if they are built on grievance. Empathy must become a public practice woven into our schools, workplaces and laws.

The black movement itself is built on grievance.  

Here in Britain, empathy would mean confronting racism where it hides in plain sight: in private clubs that celebrate whiteness while ignoring Blackness, and in everyday encounters where bias is excused as banter.

I've thought about this and decided: nah.  

The Left Don't Do This To 'Explain' Anything...

... they do it to try to shut up people who are raising a subject they don't want other people to find out about.

Note: The article itself is paywalled. But there's better reporting of it on Twitter anyway.