I Have Questions....

 

African animals, Schleich? Are you sure? All of them? 

Sunday Funnies...

 At least the Lord Mayor's Parade never put a woman in a coma! 

Tweet Of The Month

 

And of course, 'tis the season: 

Post Title Of The Month

 Fahrenheit211 gets his inner Henry II on:

Quote Of The Month

Christopher Snowden suspects less-than-rigourous-scientific-methods:

The authors of that paper are actually quoting some British academics who have seen which way the wind is blowing and are treating gambling like a "public health" issue. Their study is one of many that makes the apparently shocking discovery that people will use arguments favourable to their cause when seeking to persuade others (sample line: "Focus on so-called ”black markets” is part of a wider industry “playbook” whereby companies deploy strategies to resist regulation and to undermine public health initiatives." Blah, blah, blah.)

Post Of The Month

 Tim Worstall (whose blog seems to have overcome its recent electonic woes and is stable again, notes that lawyers are keen on money.

Yet More Sob Stories In The 'Guardian'...

They just can't help themselves, can they?

Afran – not his real name – hit the headlines when he became the first asylum seeker to return to the UK in a small boat after being removed to France under the controversial “one in, one out” scheme on 19 September. He was sent back to Paris for the second time on 5 November.

“France, UK, France, UK, France – it’s not my choice,” he says. “I went to UK twice because I felt I had no other option. The smugglers in northern France attacked me and threatened my life before I crossed to the UK for the first time on August 6. When the Home Office returned me here the first time I believed the smugglers were still searching for me.

And rather than risk your life trying to cross the English channel in a small boat, you didn't think to go elsewhere in Europe by land? I womnder why?

Afran is sitting with three other recent returnees from the UK, including the first woman removed under the scheme. Soon after they speak, the policy will be followed by draconian measures that the government says will deter asylum seekers from crossing the Channel in small boats. But the group’s stories – of danger, dislocation and a lack of protection even after removal – are a stark illustration of how those theories of deterrence can collide with the desperate logic of survival.

No, sorry, 'survival' is not the issue here or they would not choose the small boat route, which is insanely risky. They are determined to get to the UK and the UK only.  

Afran pushes fish fingers aimlessly around his plate and sips tea. The group, thrown together by circumstances, wear a jumble of donated tracksuits and lack weatherproof shoes and warm coats. All of them in turn laugh hysterically and weep at the hopelessness of their situation. “I know the security now in the detention centre I’ve been locked up in twice,” Afran says. “I told them I’ll be back for Christmas.” He laughs hollowly and then starts to cry.

Reader, he probablt will... 

On the other side of the Channel, another man, an Eritrean, is awaiting his fate in a detention centre. He was the second to return to the UK after being forcibly removed to France.

And he too has not been deterred, he too is still fixated on the UK to the exclusion of anything else.  

He says he came back to the UK again because he felt unsafe in France. After getting medical help for several conditions from a charity in Paris, he returned to his shelter late and was refused entry because the gates were already locked. ”I called my family and told them about the bad things that had happened to me. They arranged for me to return to the UK in a small boat because they understood that France was not safe for me.”

What about Holland? Belgium? Denmark? 

He adds: “I have suffered a lot and am terrified of being forced back to France. If the security at the Paris shelter had allowed me back inside when I returned from the medical appointment I would not have been attacked on that night – it was 23 October – and I would still be in France now. Because of the bad experience I had I no longer believe France can protect me.”

Documents seen by the Guardian, written before he was removed to France, show that a detention centre doctor judged his account – that he had been trafficked and tortured in Libya after fleeing Eritrea and before first reaching the UK – to be “consistent with torture”.

Lochlinn Parker, the acting director of the charity Detention Action, says...

Who cares? He's not exactly impartial, is he? He's making a nice living off this.  Being one of the employees in its £608k staffing costs. 

The three male asylum seekers around the table in the Paris cafe are protective of the woman who is with them. “Why did they send a woman back to France? This is really bad,” Afran says. “Even the security staff in the UK were shocked the Home Office was sending me back to France,” the woman says.

Yes, concern for females. This is believeable. 

“Before I came to the UK my mental health was normal. Now it is not. I do not know where I can go or what I can do to be safe. The Home Office is no good for humans. They have broken me. They have finished my life.”

They are still pretty good for this human, despite everything else, if they are keeping people like you out of my country. 

Racehustling Attempts To Conquer Cyberspace...

...after all, us folk here in reality have had enough of them, so they have to have new worlds to try to conquer.

A new study published in the Jama Network that looked at Black adolescents’ exposure to online racism – including traumatic videos of police violence, online racial discrimination and racial bias perpetuated by AI – can cause increased anxiety and depression.

As online hate speech increases and the federal government cracks down on diversity initiatives, which Tynes said has spurred the normalization of racism, investigations into youth’s exposure to online racism is more important than ever.

“We need studies that are documenting what’s happening,” Tynes said. “And also we need platforms to help people to manage those experiences, to critique them.”

Anf how does this 'online racist' express itself? Not, Reader, as you might have thought... 

The study began with a nationally representative sample of 1,138 white, Black, Latino and multiracial adolescents recruited by Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel, a US online research panel. Out of the larger sample, 504 participants were asked to complete a seven-day survey for a nationwide look at young people’s online behaviors in December 2020. While the study authors only focused on Black participants’ responses, they hope to compare those experiences to that of adolescents of different races in the future.

Because racehustling needs new victim narratives to survive. 

Respondents reported experiencing algorithmic bias one time per day every three days.

 Whut?

Some of the survey questions about algorithmic bias included how many times in the past year that a filter made them look more European by lightening their skin and straightening their hair, or whether their content about racial justice didn’t get likes because a platform suppressed it.

Maybe it didn't get likes because it was observably stupid. And a filter is something you apply yourself, isn't it? 

Questions about positive experiences that they had online around race included how many times they saw favorable comments or information about their race on a television show, film, a cultural website or social media.

If you aren't seeing favourable comments about your race, maybe it's a sign about your race's behaviour? 

Another question asked how many times they learned something positive online about their race’s contributions to society in the past 24 hours.

Forgetting that it's often made up bollocks anyway, or deliberate propaganda?  

Tynes wants youth to be armed with digital literacy tools that help them navigate algorithmic bias that perpetuates racism.

They'd do better witth actual literacy tools, wouldn't they?  

She hopes to analyze whether teaching Black history in schools imparts students with the knowledge and confidence needed to “help people protect themselves, critique the messages, and place them in historical context so that they don’t have the impact that they have”.

As Longrider points out, historical context has gone out the window!  

More Killer Kids...

A woman who died inside her home has been named by police after a 13-year-old girl arrested on suspicion of her murder was released on bail. The woman who died in Swindon on Friday was 55-year-old Sarah Forrester, Wiltshire Police have confirmed.

Can't name the suspect, of course. She's a 'child' and so must be protected.

The 13-year-old girl was later arrested on suspicion of murder and taken into custody for questioning. She has since been bailed while enquiries continue.

Bail for murder? Are there any clues that might show if murder by a child was a likely event in this lady's life? 

Ms Forrester worked as a counsellor at The Kelly Foundation, a Swindon charity which supports individuals with severe anxiety, depression and other mental health issues.

That's a pretty big one, eh, Reader? The police churn out the usual predictable boilerplate:  

Ch Supt Guy Elkins, from Wiltshire Police, said: "Our thoughts are with Sarah's friends and family at this awful time.

"An investigation into her death is being led by our major crime investigation team and local residents will continue to see increased policing activity in the area."

He said police are not looking for anyone else in connection with Ms Forrester's death.

And of course, that favoured phrase of the oh-so-modern copper:  

"We continue to urge people not to speculate on the incident," he added.

Urge away, Guy. Me, I'll speculate all I want. It is, after all, still a free country. Despite the best efforts of this wretched government.. 

'True Crime Podcasters' - Almost As Annoying As 'Auditors'...

Nicola Thorp, an actor, writer and broadcaster, who grew up in the town, describes Charlene’s disappearance, considered to be murder, as “a wound for Blackpool”.In a new podcast, she has set out to clear up some of the speculation, and expose how Charlene was repeatedly failed by those around her.

'Those around her' not, of course, to include those amazing immigrants without which our Northern towns would remain un-enriched, naturally. 

There were other elements of Charlene’s story that appalled her. The persistent racist narrative around the two Middle Eastern men who stood trial (they would go on to be awarded compensation for false imprisonment).

It’s racist now to not want Third Worlders to harass and groom young girls? 

That far-right antagonists continue to capitalise on the disappearance of Charlene.

Yes, the real problem with young girls mysteriously disapppearing is not the heartache for the family, but the ammunition it gives right wingers 🙄 

And worst, that there has been no justice.

That’s pretty common in the UK these days. 

Thorp, known for her role as Nicola Rubinstein on Coronation Street, has a history of campaigning for women’s rights.If she was to work on something about Charlene Downes, she thought, it had to have a campaigning edge.

Has she? One of the biggest issues of women’s rights these days is keeping deranged men in womanface out of female only spaces, yet I can’t find anything from her on this subject…

It took three years to put the eight-part podcast together. Her research would bring her into contact with Charlene’s family (with some deeply uncomfortable conversations), potential new leads, police, far-right activists and an intense Facebook group intent on uncovering the truth for Charlene, from which she would later be banned.

Yikes! That says quite a bit, doesn’t it, Reader?  

Thorp and Charlene were similar in some ways – the same age, with a shared love of the boyband Westlife – but had very different lives. How much did class play into the investigation? “[It was] everything,” says Thorp, when we speak at the Guardian’s offices. “Misogyny and class is what this entire story really is about – and race, in the case of the perpetrators of some of the grooming.”

Good old ‘Guardian’, never missing a chance to hit their single notes. 

A lot has been made, not unjustifiably, of the grooming that Charlene, among other girls in Blackpool, is said to have been a victim of by a group of takeaway workers, who are mostly of Asian heritage, but Thorp points out: “The white men who abused Charlene have not been widely reported on. They’re ignored.” This includes a man, Ray Munro, who was staying with the family at the time of Charlene’s disappearance and was about to be sentenced for child sex offences. (Charlene’s parents have said they didn’t know Munro was a sex offender at the time.)

You can see why her fellow Facebook sleuths threw her out.... 

The far right’s resurgence frightens her. Last year, just a few weeks before their Blackpool wedding, her then-fiance, the actor Nikesh Patel, with whom she has a baby daughter and who is of Indian heritage, drove Thorp to cover one of a number of riots that had broken out following the murders of three children in Southport, and the misinformation about the attacker being a Muslim asylum seeker. A protester spotted Patel in the car and yelled at him to get out; he managed to lock the doors and drive away.

Ah. 

There have been other incidents. She was picked up by a taxi recently, “and got told that I’m lucky that I live in an area where there aren’t many Asians. I said, ‘Well, there’s two in my house.’ He just came out with it. Racism has become emboldened in the UK.” She is scared, she says. “I think we should all be.”

But not of the grooming and killing of young girls, clearly. Just of people being less than welcoming of the wonderful diversity. 

What's The Ministry Of Justice Playing At?

 Remember Ike Ekweremadu? No? Surely you do, Reader?

Last week, a Nigerian government delegation, led by the foreign minister, Yusuf Tuggar, met officials at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to discuss Ekweremadu’s case. The delegation requested his deportation so he could serve his remaining sentence in Nigeria.

Hurrah! Trebles all round! The Prison service gets an empty cell to fill and the taxpayer's no longer on the hook for a foreign criminal!  

A source at the MoJ has confirmed the request was rejected.

Wait, what? 

It is understood the UK government was concerned that Nigeria could offer no guarantees that Ekweremadu would continue his prison sentence after being deported.

In other word, Nigerians - even high level government officials - are such notorious liars they can't be trusted? Then why do we even allow them an Embassy?  

Yet More Unbelievable Statistics From Pressure Groups

More than two in five sexually active under-18s in the UK have either been strangled or strangled someone during sex, research has found, despite the serious dangers of the practice.

Are you kidding me? What sort of person is making these wild claims!? 

“Choking”, as it is commonly known, has become normalised in young people’s sexual habits, the study by the Institute for Addressing Strangulation (Ifas) showed, with 43% of sexually active 16- and 17-year-olds having experienced it.

Ah. Now the penny drops!  

More than half of people under the age of 35 have experienced it, with nearly a third wrongly believing there are safe ways to strangle someone.

That's pretty believable, at least, the number of dimwits in society is clearly increasing exponentially.... 

In recent years, “choking” has become part of a dangerous drift towards increased violence in mainstream pornography, which was cited as the biggest source of information about the practice among the respondents.

Clare McGlynn, a professor of law at Durham University and the author of Exposed: The Rise of Extreme Porn and How We Fight Back, said strangulation in pornography was a recent phenomenon. “Depictions of strangulation and suffocation are brutal and graphic, often involving belts tied around necks, plastic bags over women’s heads, and two hands gripping the neck.” She called for a national campaign to raise awareness of the real risks and harms of the practice, which could occur even when there was no visible injury.

What she's calling for is a national campaign to raaise awareness of her book and her availability for talk shows... 

Are You Not Reassured?

Scotland’s most senior law officer has moved to reassure victims of sexual abuse that they will be protected after a supreme court ruling warned that Scottish laws designed to limit intrusive cross-examination could be breaching men’s right to a fair trial. In a strongly worded statement, the lord advocate, Dorothy Bain KC, said: “I would like to make clear that I understand sexual abuse inflicted upon women and children to be the single greatest challenge our justice system faces.

A justice system in a country still confused about what women actually are? WEll, good luck with that, dear!  

“It is unacceptable and victims should feel able to speak out without further fear,” she continued, before underlining: “The supreme court ruling does not alter the statutory protections for those giving evidence.”

Then why have a Supreme Court at all? if you're just going to ignore what they say because you think you know better  

Last Wednesday, the supreme court delivered its judgment in the case of two men appealing against rape convictions delivered in Scottish courts. Although both appeals were dismissed, the five judges ruled that Scotland’s courts needed to change their approach to the admission of evidence in such cases, warning its current process “is liable to result in violations of defendants’ rights to a fair trial under article 6 of the convention”.

So the lord advocate would rather not have fair trials under their jurisdiction? 

Oh, Give It A Fucking Rest, For Christ's Sake!

He is widely regarded as England’s greatest painter, but despite his extraordinary output, elements of JMW Turner’s personality have remained a mystery.

 *grinds teeth* Here we go again, a pressure group claiming a famous figure who is no longer around to challenge them...

Now, a groundbreaking BBC documentary delves into Turner’s 37,000 sketches, drawings and watercolours to build an unprecedented psychological portrait, one that raises the possibility that Turner’s singular vision was shaped by childhood trauma and neurodivergence.

And the art historians putting their names and staking their reputations to this hogwash, who are they?  

Among the figures helping to unlock the artist’s life story in Turner: the Secret Sketchbooks, are the actor Timothy Spall, who portrayed him in Mike Leigh’s film Mr Turner, the artists Tracey Emin and John Akomfrah, the Rolling Stones musician Ronnie Wood, the psychotherapist Orna Guralnik and the naturalist Chris Packham.

Oh. 

Packham said: “As with all of the people we suspect of having had neurodivergent traits, from Alan Turing to Isaac Newton, it’s impossible to provide retrospective diagnoses, so we can only offer conjecture about that. But if Turner did have significant neurodiverse traits, I imagine they would have had quite a profound impact on his art and thinking.”

Packham, an ambassador for the National Autistic Society, pointed to Turner’s “exceptional” keenness for detail and his “hyperfocus”, a state of intense, prolonged concentration on a particular task or topic, commonly seen in conditions such as ADHD and autism.

And in great artists. But correlation is not causation. 

Here's How We're Squandering Your Taxes On The Feckless, Suckers!

That might as well be the subtext of this extraordinary PR blunder by the government:

What would you do with an extra 30 minutes in your day? 🤔

Free breakfast clubs are transforming mornings for 500,000 children - that's 95 precious hours back each year while children get a nutritious start to their day.

Part of our Plan for Change ✨ pic.twitter.com/VA20pWYRKC

— Department for Education (@educationgovuk) October 1, 2025

 How do you feel about this policy, knowing your taxes are going to feed the children of women like these, and for what? So they can go to the coffee shop or have a snooze? While you scrimp and save and work overtime to feed your own children?

I think what got me was the mum who declared that she forgot to 'feed her children' while appearing to have never once forgot to feed herself - they needed a wide angle lens to get all of her in shot!

I can only assume a member og that 'vast right wing conspiracy' we are told exists infiltrated the firm that made this nonsense. 

Taking 'Representation' Too Far....

One of the most pernicious of modern concepts is that of the desirability of representation.

When she was cast in Wicked, Bode made history as the first disabled actor to play Nessarose; the character is a wheelchair user, but since the stage version premiered in 2003, only non-disabled actors had played the role. Bode is calling on casting directors to follow Wicked director Jon M Chu’s lead to use disabled actors for disabled roles, and also to cast disabled actors in other roles where the character’s physical ability is not specified.

So, we will soon see an actor with one leg playing Ethan Hunt in 'Mission Impossible', or a blind 007 in the James Bond reboot, will we?  

Bode says her experience on the set of Wicked was overwhelmingly positive thanks to the presence of a disability coordinator, Chantelle Nassari, also a wheelchair user, who was tasked with ensuring accessibility on set.

With all these 'co-ordinators' Hollywood requires, it's no wonder the roll of credits is often longer thsn the film... 

However, after the release of the first Wicked film in November 2024, Bode was targeted on social media. Bode responded on TikTok saying : “Not liking Nessa is OK, it’s totally fine because she’s fictional!” : She added: “Aggressive comments and jokes about Nessa’s disability itself is deeply uncomfortable because disability is not fictional, at the end of the day ... It’s not edgy, it’s not funny.”

Bode says she is preparing herself for similar backlash after the release of Wicked: For Good. “Unfortunately, I kind of do expect that [again].” Bode says she hopes that audiences will recognise the character’s motives, her longing for independence, and her desire to be loved. “I understand her deeply, and I wish other people also could see those nuances as well.”

But she's fictional, and so are those aspects, Bode!  

As an indication of progress, Bode points to a key change that the film version of Wicked made to a scene in the stage musical. In the original, Elphaba casts a magic spell on her sister’s ruby slippers, enabling Nessarose to stand up from her wheelchair and walk; the scene has been widely criticised for promoting the ableist narrative that disabled people need to be fixed. In Wicked: For Good, the scene underwent a minor change: instead of being able to walk again, Nessa’s shoes give her the ability to float, a feeling she has been wanting to relive since she fell in love in the previous film.

Well, they didn't have much choice (except to employ unconvincing CGI), did they, having cast an actress genuinely unable to walk, they'd rather painted themselves into a corner. 

She adds: “Disabled characters deserve to be complex and deserve to be not just one thing. It is this weird cycle of disability being portrayed as bad or society sees disability as bad, therefore it’s projected on to disabled people.”

The usual incoherence - if they aren't supposed to be 'just one thing' why the need to shoehorn them into more films? 

Despite such prizes, unawareness about disability persists in the industry. “I do my best to hold a lot of empathy for those that do get it wrong,” says Bode, “We just don’t have any education surrounding disability or the type of language that is appropriate or that we should use.”

'Appropriate language'? Fuck off!  

 

It's True!

They really do grow to be like their 'pets'; vicious, antisocial  and unsuited to life in normal society.

A Devizes woman has been convicted after an XL Bully attacked a victim in the street. Chelsea Reason appeared at Swindon Magistrates’ Court on 12 November – to stand trial accused of an offence under the Dangerous Dogs Act.

The cost of keeping Karma in police kennels following the incident totalled more than £18,500. But she won’t have to pay for this due to her lack of income.

At least they ordered the mutt's destruction to protect the public?  

A contingent destruction order was made for Karma, meaning the XL Bully could be put to sleep if the terms set by the court are breached in the future.

*sighs* 

She's an inveterate scofflaw. As they so often are.

Back in July, Reason was convicted of fly-tipping two bags full of domestic waste, PPE and nitrous oxide canisters in the village of Fyfield, near Marlborough. In that case she was fined £615 and ordered to pay £385 in court costs. It came after she failed to pay a fixed penalty notice issued by Wiltshire Council.

Is she greatful for the undeserved leniency shown to her? Reader, she is not...

A Wiltshire woman has sent a “massive F U” to the victim in an XL Bully attack case after she was found guilty and sentenced. But now, following her conviction and sentencing, Reason took to Facebook to verbally abuse the woman who was injured by Karma in the incident. In a public post with photos of her pet, she wrote: “After 600 days in the kennels and endless court adjournments, today was the day we were told you’d be allowed home. “massive F U to the b***h that reported Karma – but my babies finally get their baby back”.

What is it with chav women that couldn't be trusted with a goldfish getting these bloodport mutts? And when will the justice system wake up to the danger they present? 

H/T: Steve Abbott via email

Not Quite, 'Mail'...

 

...mauling implies teeth and claws - horned and antlered animals gore you to death. Although given it was a whitetail deer, the hooves probably did most of the damage.

According to her obituary, Proger was 'an avid animal lover' who liked to ride horses and rescue injured creatures.

A noble endeavour, but you always have to remember, they don't necessarily feel the same way about you. 

He Knows Us So Well...

 ...does Matt! 

Sunday Funnies...

 I don't watch very many documentaries on streaming, but maybe I should...

There Are Too Many Errors And Deliberate Concealing Of Evidence By Essex Police ....

 ...for the State to ever allow the conviction to be overturned:

In the millions of pages disclosed to Jeremy Bamber over the decades, in his bid to prove his innocence of one of the 20th century’s most notorious crimes, PC Nick Milbank is barely mentioned. But this week, new evidence emerged that the late police officer held an essential clue to what happened on the night of the massacre at Whitehouse Farm on 7 August 1985.

I've long believed not so much in Bamber's innocence, but in the fact that this conviction was based on such a fatally flawed investigation by the hopelessly institutionally incompetent Essex Police that the State will never permit it to be exposed.

Writing from Wakefield Prison, Jeremy Bamber says: “We asked that the CCRC appoint an independent investigator to go and speak to Mr Milbank about what he’d told the New Yorker magazine. The CCRC refused our request, thereby losing the opportunity to hear Mr Milbank’s evidence. “Not only do I have a rock solid alibi now, but proof that Essex police covered up Milbank’s evidence by faking a witness statement to mislead the courts. The fact that Mr Milbank has sadly died quite recently has further compounded the failures of the CCRC and Essex police.” Well, he would have a rock solid alibi if Essex police had not taken that final statement from Milbank. And now Milbank is no longer here to say which version is true. Bamber believes charges for perverting the course of justice should be brought in relation to the 2002 statement. “The CCRC has no choice but to refer my case to the court of appeal.” The Metropolitan police, which carried out Operation Stokenchurch, declined to comment.

Of course they did. If they truly carried out a full and proper investigation, they know what Essex Police did and did not doon that night, and they cannot be trusted to bring it to light.  

Bamber believes that Essex police should have an audio record of the 999 call. “Where is the audio recording of that telephone call now?” he writes. “One wonders where it might be.”

Who believes Essex Police still has it, more like... 

Maybe The Party Leadership Never Had Any Senses To Lose?

Oh dear, Labour has lost Owen Jones! What a calamity!

It’s rare to watch a political calamity advance with such gruesome inevitability. Rachel Reeves’s reported plan to shred Labour’s flagship tax pledge in the upcoming budget is so plainly disastrous that it invites the suspicion that the party leadership has completely lost its senses. But madness would be too generous an alibi for a faction that long ago abandoned any purpose beyond wielding icepicks against its own left.

As they always do! Rats fighting in a sack pause to watch with admiration as Labour party members show them how it's done... 

Labour’s 2024 election campaign offered no story, no clear moral argument, no real sense of direction. That vacuum explains why, even after being handed power, thanks to the most shambolic government in modern British history, Labour mustered only a third of the vote. The tax pledge was one of the few recognisable threads of coherence. For example: “Labour will not put up your income tax, national insurance or VAT,” tweeted Reeves on 4 June 2024, denouncing the Conservatives as “the party of high tax”. A week later, Keir Starmer told Sky News in Grimsby: “We will not raise tax on working people.” The manifesto couldn’t be clearer: “Labour will not increase taxes on working people”, specifically citing national insurance, income tax and VAT.

Reeves is now considering a 2p increase in income tax... 

 It is panto season, Owen, remember? So 'Oh no, she isn't!'

....believing a simultaneous cut in employee national insurance contributions will shield the government. It will do no such thing.

Nothing now will shield the excuse for a government. 

Another Day, Another Murderous 'Child'...

Referring to what might have led to the death of Ms Bednarczyk, Mr Skinner added: 'The sad truth is we may never know - but we don't need to know - what brought about this situation.

'Difficult as it may be to accept, this killing is nothing to do with her (the girl's) mental health - as much as we all might want the comfort of seeking to say to ourselves that mental health and diminished responsibility explains what she did. 'Why do I say this? Because of the evidence of her premeditation – I have told you about the research she was doing - because of the evidence of her lies, and because of the evidence of respected and experienced medical professionals who say she did not have an abnormality of mental function which gives rise to the defence of diminished responsibility.

And yet, despite all this, she is still accorded accommodations due to her status as a 'child' by the justice system: 

Because of the girl's age, she is sat on the back row of the court benches accompanied by an intermediary and her social worker instead of in the glass-panelled dock. Neither judge Mrs Justice Tipples nor any of the barristers in the case are wearing gowns or wigs, and jurors have been told the sitting hours will mirror those of a school day.

But the odd part about this story is what happened after she was picked up by the police close to the ctime scene:

The teenager was taken to hospital, where she was seen smiling by a police officer and a nurse and did not appear to be 'confused or responding to voices telling her what to do', the court heard. Mr Skinner added that the girl asked for her mobile phone to be returned to her, and started sending text messages to her friends 'about what she said had happened'.

Isn't securing a suspect's phone SOP for police these days? Frankly this is the sole astounding thing about this story!  

Now Do 'Men Becoming Women', Teachers...

 It's become a pre-Christmas tradition, someone telling small children there's no Father Christmas and outrage ensuing. And this year is no different....

A city school is under investigation after a teacher allegedly ruined Christmas by telling pupils 'Santa is not real'. The remark was said to have been made at Greenbrae Primary School in Aberdeen during a lesson on All Saints' Day.

'Under investigation'? Serioiusly? By whom?  

It caused upset among nine and 10-year-old students who had asked a series of questions about saints, including St Nicholas - also known as Father Christmas.

Sorry, but at that age, they should be well aware that there's no Father Bloody Christmas!  

A spokesman for Aberdeen City Council said: 'We are aware that a group of primary six pupils engaged in a conversation about All Saints' Day, which led to some children posing questions about other saints, including St Nicholas. 

'Families can be assured that investigation learnings have been shared to support our staff to help navigate sensitive discussions.

Guess you forgot to add that one into the list, along with 'Why does daddy wear a dress?' and 'Why does Mummy have a special lady friend she drinks gin in the aftetnoon with' eh?   

'The council values the magic and joy of the festive season (Ed: clearly not enough to call it what it is!) and appreciates the small number of parents and carers who brought their concerns to us.'

Bet that was typed reluctantly and with gritted teeth!  

If It Bothers You So Much, Perhaps The Sculpture Should Be Removed

The artist Anish Kapoor is considering taking legal action after border patrol agents posed for a photo in front of his Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago, saying the scene represented “fascist America”.

He is a famously fragile little snowflake, buut this nonsense is off the scale!

“Abducting street vendors, breaking doors, pulling people from cars, using teargas on residential streets,” he said about the agents, who were reportedly celebrating after “military style” immigration enforcement raids.

“I mean, this is fascist America and just beyond belief.” There have been reports that more than 1,000 people have been arrested by the federal agents since the crackdown began in September. When asked if he was considering legal options, Kapoor said: “Of course, I’m going to do everything I can.”

And having tried crying and stamping his feet without effect, it's time for the lawyers! Though even in the famously litigious US, they may struggle with this one... 

Kapoor took legal action against the National Rifle Association (NRA) after they used an image of Cloud Gate, which was installed in 2006 and is known locally as “the Bean”, in an advert. He settled out of court with the NRA in 2018. “It’s a bit more complicated with this,” Kapoor said of the more recent incident, “because they’re a full, if you like, national army unit.”

And because they simply took a photo and didn't use it for commercial purposes, you complete spanner!  

Perhapd the answer is to remove the sculpture so people you don't approve of can't take pictures of it? How'd that suit? 

If The 'Mail' Can Trace The Mutt, Why Can't The Met Police? ...

The 'Mail' does some detective work:

The Cane Corso that savaged a Jack Russell belonging to the Queen's son guards a £30 million mansion owned by the glamorous ex-wife of a controversial Chinese mining tycoon, the Daily Mail can reveal. Maud, a two-year-old terrier owned by Tom Parker Bowles, was left fighting for life after the 10-stone mastiff tore into her on Kensington High Street last Thursday. 

...a Daily Mail investigation has traced the brute to a luxury mansion on one of Britain's most expensive streets - where Chinese businesswoman Maria Leung keeps two Cane Corsos as protection animals.

Strange that the Met Police couldn't track down a dangerous dog right under their noses, isn't it? Especially since if the mutts are registerd guard dogs, these are covered by strict regulations which have clearly been broken here, 

Local walkers say the hound is well-known in the area as guard dogs kept within the property's walled garden. The handler who was seen with the animal during the mauling was again observed taking the Corso out this week, often accompanied by another member of staff.

And yet they are clearly unable to control the four legged buglar deterrants. Shouldn't police be concerned? 

It's not helpful that the victim is such a limp rag, spouting dog nonsense usually spouted by the enthusiasts for these violent breeds, despite his ordeal and the almost-loss of his pet: 

Parker Bowles said he was 'a firm believer that there's no such thing as a bad dog, rather a bad owner' and did not want the dog responsible to be put down 

But he called for restrictions on Cane Corso-style dogs, saying: 'What I do want, though, is these big, powerful and often beautiful dogs to be muzzled when out in public. Is that too much to ask?''I'm certainly not a fan of knee-jerk legislation, of banning certain breeds, or having them destroyed. I'd much rather put the responsibility on the owner. 

'If you cannot control your dogs, or train, walk and look after them properly, then you have no right to own a dog. It's as simple as that.'

Well, Tom, now you know the mutt is owned by a citizen of a country that's an enemy of the UK, instead of the usual brain-dead chav,  perhaps you'll show a bit more backbone. 

Cane Corsos have increasingly become known as 'status dogs' since it was made illegal to own the XL Bully breed in 2023 without an exemption certificate.

As was predicted here. 

In September, Conservative MP Gregory Stafford asked whether the breed should be prohibited under the Dangerous Dogs Act, but the Government said it had no plans to do so.

No, it's far too busy regulating those far more dangerous things than 7 stone killer dogs - wetwipes and milkshakes. 

They Think They Are Above The Law...

A police chief constable has been found guilty of contempt of court with judges set to consider whether he should be punished by imprisonment or a fine.

How about both?

The court of appeal ruled on Tuesday that Northamptonshire police were in contempt and had been “willfully disobedient” for repeatedly failing to obey rulings to hand over video to a woman who complained she had been wrongly arrested by three officers.

Dumb, really dumb, since the one thing guaranteed to provoke today's oh-so-sympathetic-to-the-criminal-classes bewigged social workers to get their Judge Dredd on is people cocking a snook at the might apparatus of the law.... 

Nadine Buzzard-Quashie was arrested by Northamptonshire police in September 2021, triggering a four-year saga. She was taken into custody but prosecutors soon dropped the case. The judgment said: “Her account of her arrest … was that she was physically assaulted by the officers who arrested her, she was physically thrown to the ground and had her face pushed into stinging nettles.”

I'm guessing by the name, she wasn't one of the favoured classes, and so assaulting her was of course not considered a problem?  

She wanted video footage of her arrest, including from police body-worn cameras, which the force did not provide. She complained to the Information Commissioner’s Office which made an order that all video should be handed over, which the force ignored, then a county court judge made another order, which the force failed to obey again. The force told courts it did not have any more video to hand over, then reversed its position at a hearing in October. The court of appeal judgment said: “This means that all the statements made to the court on behalf of the police force prior to mid-October 2025 were false.”

Ooops!  

On Tuesday three appeal court judges issued a blistering and unanimous ruling. Lady Justice Asplin, Lord Justice Coulson, and Lord Justice Fraser said “misleading and untrue statements … have been made to the court on behalf of the chief constable, both to the county court … and also to the court of appeal in relation to the application for permission to appeal and the appeal itself. To list every single statement made on behalf of the chief constable that has proved to be inaccurate over this lengthy period would lengthen this judgment considerably.”

Ouch!  

Ivan Balhatchet has been Northamptonshire’s chief constable since October 2023 and could face up to two years’ imprisonment or a fine. The previous chief constable was Nick Adderley, who now faces wholly separate criminal charges.

The whole force is clearly rotten from the very top - maybe disbandment should be considered?  

Titans Of Twitter Clash!

TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp has become embroiled in a social media row with children's author Michael Rosen after accusing some users of a free London public transport travel pass for pensioners of 'bankrupting our country'.

The 54-year-old Location, Location, Location presenter hit out at 79-year-old We're Going On A Bear Hunt author Mr Rosen on X, after he took to the social media platform to say that his Transport for London (TfL) Freedom Pass was not working and that he could not get a replacement.

Gosh.... 

I don't know about you, Reader, but I couldn't be less interested in this if I tried....

'Journalistic Ethics? Never Heard Of Them' Says 'Guardian' Columnist...

 

An extraordinary thing to have published in a major newspaper, even one as blatently biased as the 'Guardian':

The resignation of the BBC’s director general, Tim Davie, over accusations of bias comes as a shock...

Only in the sense that the ones at the top of any corporate shit heap usually cling on by their fingernails, Jane…

...and leaves a gulf at the top of the corporation when it needs leadership most. Davie stressed that the decision was his alone – neither the board, nor even many of those who led the coordinated attack among rightwing press and politicians expected it.

’We’d have got away with it if not for you pesky kids rightwingers’ eh? 

Leave to one side for now the direct allegations about specific failures of BBC coverage, and the BBC’s own baffling inability or unwillingness to defend itself over the past week.

 How exactly can it defend itself when the evidence is there for all to see?

But the row obscures the context that explains what is, at the heart of the matter, a political campaign against the BBC that could act as a textbook example of how to confuse and undermine the kind of journalism that is, at the very least, aiming for impartiality in a sea of spin and distortion.

Aiming...yet missing the target by a country mile. That's not incompetence, that's deliberate. 

None of this is to say that the BBC has not made mistakes. At the very least, the Panorama documentary appears to have included a bad and misleading edit of an hour-long Trump speech, which is unacceptable even if that speech was subsequently found to have encouraged insurrection. The BBC is expected to apologise on Monday over the Trump edit. That should have been enough.

For The Donald? No. And it wouldn't be enough for me either. 

Given the sheer volume of the content it airs and criticism it receives, the BBC can sometimes be forgiven for not wanting to stir passions further. But by spending days insisting that it did not comment on “leaked documents”, the corporation has simply looked weak and cowardly, just when it needs to be robust and brave.

Because it is, like all bullies, weak and cowardly when it faces stiff opposition. 

These are difficult times for the BBC. About to enter into negotiations to renew its charter after more than a decade of licence-fee cuts, it is also caught in political and economic headwinds. Johnson’s threat to cancel his licence fee comes after 300,000 more households did so over the past year.

And this is merely going to increase the rate of withdrawal.

This article is so extraordinarily bad that the 'Guardian has seen fit to add a disclaimer: 

Jane Martinson is professor of financial journalism at City St George’s and a member of the board of the Scott Trust, which owns the Guardian Media Group. She writes in a personal capacity

Translation: 'Please don't sue us too Mr President!' 

Pull The Other One!

While it no doubt feels like a golden age for Trump and the super-rich, it doesn’t feel that way for 42 million Americans who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) food benefits. 

They just suffered through an alarming 10 days, with many saying they didn’t have enough money to feed their families because the Trump administration moved to halt Snap benefits for millions of Americans on 1 November.

Yes, we all saw the parade of grossly obese landwhales crying on Twitter that they were destined to starve (sometime in 2030...) if their benefits were cut. Strangely, that didn't sway many ordinary Americans whose taxes were paying for this sloth, dependency and laziness. 

Just as it rings hollow over here with British taxpayers, when they see what the benefit classes are getting away with. 

Fledgling Karen Is Paraded As Mouthpiece By Cynical Pressure Group...

A 17-year-old girl who says she was exposed to horrific images and videos including porn, a shooting and a beheading on a smartphones during the school day has joined a legal action against the education secretary.

Did she come into her school and show them to her then? No, Reader, she's simply failed to ban them, preferring to let heads take the decision they think fit.

Flossie McShea, from Devon, says she also received threatening messages while at school, as she put her name to a judicial review in an attempt to get smartphones banned in schools in England.

Did she do this entirely off her own bat, I wonder, or was she coerced into it? Sounds a bit like grooming to me. 

Will Orr-Ewing and Pete Montgomery first notified the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, in July that they would pursue legal action, arguing that current guidance, which allows headteachers to decide how smartphones are used, is unlawful and unsafe for children.

Mainly because of the children themselves: 

“Videos were going around all the time,” McShea recalls of her time at secondary school from year 7 onwards. “My parents were strict at home but at school people can airdrop you videos or show you their screen without invitation, to see your reaction. “My school had a ‘see it, hear it, lose it’ policy, but in reality we just used them under the desk, in the toilets, during lunch break, in the playground, on the bus, even in the corridors. It was impossible for the teachers to stop us.

Just as it'll be impossible for this legislation to ever stop them - they'll just do it outside of school. After all, if they have someone's phone number, they can reach them from anywhere in the world.

“The thing that affected me the most was a video of two young children playing with a gun. One shot the other accidentally and she died. We were getting off the bus and a friend came over to me with it on her phone. I had to go home early that day. I was so shocked I couldn’t sleep. I still think about that video three years later.”

Sounds to me as if your main beef is with your so-called friend. Maybe choose better friends?  

James Gardner of Conrathe Gardner LLP, acting for the claimants, said: “The government is well aware of the serious harms caused to children as a result of smartphones in school settings. They had a golden opportunity to put it right with a national ban when they issued safeguarding guidance this autumn – but they decided to ignore the problem once again. Bridget Phillipson is putting the nation’s children in harm’s way.”

Translation: 'Money and fame, give it to me!' 

A Pantechnicon Of Popcorn Will Be Needed!

Yesterday, BBC chairman Samir Shah admitted to an 'error of judgment' over the editing but rejected claims of systemic bias and stopped short of issuing a direct apology to Mr Trump. He confirmed that he had received communication from the President's legal team and was considering making a formal apology. 'But he's a litigious fellow. So we should be prepared for all outcomes,' he added. A BBC spokesman said it 'will review the letter and respond directly in due course'.

It has responded. And now it can face the consequences. 

In other developments yesterday:

• A civil war broke out between the BBC board and its news operation over the impartiality row, with fingers being pointed from both sides;
•  There were suggestions it may take as long as nine months to find a replacement for Mr Davie, but he is said to have 'had enough' and will look to relinquish the role sooner;
•  The BBC was on alert for more possible resignations as critics called for a clear-out of executives;
•  Downing Street acknowledged mistakes had been made but backed the corporation, despite growing calls to scrap the licence fee.

Could The Donald finally finish the hated telly tax for us? We can but hope! 

A BBC Reality Show I Might Actually Want To Watch!

 

Nice one, as always, Matt! 

Don't Forget The Batteries This Christmas...

 It's that time of year...when the 'Guardian' starts to publish lists of gift suggestions that no-one in their right mind would give anyone. This one in particular caught my eye for all the wrong reasons...

'Vegan'!! Are you too wondering if the 'Guardian folk' are a little confused about which orifice this thing is designed for, Reader? 

Sunday Funnies...

 For me, of course, it's any animal scene, but if I confine it to human scenes, then it's the one in 'Raise The Titanic' when Alec Guiness's old seadog gives the team the flag to put back on if they do manage to raise it...

So, They DO Believe In Something At Our Top Christian Site After All!

No, of course it isn't God. It's the other fella:

The Wind in the Willows is one of the most beloved books of British children’s literature, but while most people think of the jolly adventures of Toad, Mole and Rat, Kenneth Grahame’s 1908 story has a darker side. And it was a step too far for the Beadle security guards at Westminster Abbey, who told a visitor wearing a sweatshirt with an illustration from the book that she had to take it off because it was “an image of the devil”.

Reader, it wasn't any such thing!  

Chapter seven of the book is entitled Piper at the Gates of Dawn – borrowed by Pink Floyd for the title of their debut album in 1967 – in which the doughty animals encounter a variation of the Greek satyr-like god Pan while searching for Otter’s missing son. It was this image as envisaged by the artist W Graham Robertson for the cover of the first edition of the book that was used by folklore magazine Hellebore on its clothing and merchandise, and which Linsey Teggert – a self-confessed folklore fan and “history nerd” – was wearing on a visit to the abbey on Monday morning.

“We walked through the security scanner at the entrance but then one of the security guards called me back. I just thought he wanted to check my bag or something. “Then he said I’d have to take off the top or cover it up because it was an image of the devil and it might offend people in the abbey.”

If she had nothing but a bra undernreath would that not offend more people? 

Linsey argued that it wasn’t the devil, but a representation of Pan.

Foolish to try to argue theology with some minimum wage security drone - he doesn't have any autonomy, and probably comes from a culture alien to British folklore or Greek mythology - he likely has a list of 'offensive things' spelled out for him he can't - nd won't -  deviate from.

She said: “I started to tell him, because I’m a total history nerd, that there are loads of folklore and mythology-related carvings inside the abbey, and I was talking about the Green Man, but he wasn’t having it. He said: ‘Well, it’s got horns and it’s demonic.’

See? 

A spokesperson for Westminster Abbey said the abbey has a dress code that says: “As Westminster Abbey is a church and place of daily worship, we ask you to show respect and sensitivity in the way you dress.”

She added: “I think it’s possible that the message on the clothing was misinterpreted. We will share this feedback with our security colleagues.”

Might I suggest a new T-Shirt for your next visir, Linsey? Probably get a smile and a thumb's up from security wearing this.... 

'A tragic accident occured with a set of circumstances I had no control over.'

Mr Harrison, who joined the Met in 1982 but has been on restricted duties since the crash, denied suggestions by prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC that he 'made a mistake' that day.

But as usual, it's not one he's going to be made to pay for.

Ms Heeley replied: 'You did have control, you could have chosen to stop your bike and properly control that crossing.'

Mr Harrison replied: 'Yes.'

The prosecutor said: 'And you didn't.'

Mr Harrison replied: 'No.' 

But he denied he had been complacent.

 Perhaps she should have used a different word? Or asked about his training, maybe the Met sent him to China for it?

Mr Harrison said he did not believe his driving fell below standards or strayed from his training.

That's probably true, since their training seems to dictate they ride like bats out of hell and screw anybody that gets in their way! The State must be saddened that in this particular case, they can't charge anyone else with the death....

Nothing...!

It’s five years since the TV presenter killed herself after being charged with assaulting her partner. Her mother Christine wants the world to know what the police, crown prosecution service and media got wrong.

So says the blurb of a subheading to this article by her mother. Prompting my response. 

Caroline Flack was one of Britain’s most successful presenters – and also one of the most talked about – when she was arrested in December 2019 and charged with assaulting her partner, Lewis Burton.

She lost her job as the host of Love Island ....

 She was sacked? 

-....– she stepped down in order to not detract attention from the show.

 Oh.

She lost her home ...

What? Who evicted her, and how?

....– it was so besieged by the press that she never went back there after her arrest.

  Oh.

She felt she lost the public, too, especially with the drip-drip of damning (crucially, incorrect) detail in tabloids and across social media.

Ah, I see where we are going with this. It was social media that dunnit, folks!  The TwitterBeasts killed Beauty! 

When she took her life nine weeks later, in February 2020, the narrative shifted. Now there were tributes to her talent as well as stories of her struggle with mental illness. The criminal case was awkwardly glossed over and grouped in with this, as sad evidence of her troubled mind. The correctness of her prosecution, though, was barely questioned.

Even Nazir Afzal, a former prosecutor with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), appeared on breakfast TV to stress that “We as a country have said we need to take domestic abuse seriously”. The CPS, he insisted, could only “follow the evidence”.

We'll gloss over quoting establishment-stooge Afzal, a DEI hire busted flush if ever there was one. But wasn't he quite right? Domestic violence is domestic violence. 

In Caroline Flack: Search for the Truth, Christine Flack attempts to do just this, to follow the evidence. For years, she has been haunted by the possibility that Caroline did, in fact, receive “special treatment” and was prosecuted only because the police and CPS feared the scrutiny that came with a celebrity like Caroline. They couldn’t be seen to do nothing.

Thay can't win, can they? If they do or if they don't... 

The previous night, Caroline and Burton had been out separately, returning late to Caroline’s flat in north London. They had both been drinking, and went to bed. Burton was sleeping when a woman messaged him. Caroline read it. She was drunk, angry and upset when she went to wake him. The inquest heard that she later told police: “I had his phone in one hand and mine in the other. I whacked him round the head. There was no excuse for it. I was just upset. I admit I did it. He was cheating on me.”

As blatent a confession as any copper has probably ever heard. 

The inquest heard that a huge row ensued where Caroline became hysterical. When Burton threatened to call the police, Caroline begged him not to. (“If you call the police, I’m done.”) When he did, she harmed herself and by the time police arrived, she was seriously injured, frenzied and half-naked.

No different to many a domestic violence scene cops have to roll up to, no doubt. 

“While Jody (her sister) was outside the police station, a police officer went out and told her: ‘It’s all right – the CPS has thrown it out. Just wait here for her,’” says Christine. That initial CPS document judged that prosecuting wasn’t in the public interest because there was no history of domestic violence and Caroline was 40 with no previous convictions. It noted that Caroline had repeatedly admitted the assault and that the injured party, Burton, did not support a prosecution.

And there it would have ended and she'd have got away with it, if not for one honest copper. 

Shortly after, though, a detective inspector came on duty and intervened. She had a shooting to deal with that night, as well as a vulnerable missing person and, according to the documentary, this DI had no history of challenging CPS decisions. But she chose to appeal against this one, arguing that there had been no clear admission of guilt (the coroner found that Caroline had admitted to hitting Burton) and that “she has caused significant injury” to Burton. As a result, Caroline was charged with assault by beating.

As she should have been. 

She knows she is treading a very fine line here. Christine is adamant that she doesn’t want to minimise the harms caused by domestic abuse.

No, just the ones caused by her daughter.  

Wales. AGAIN!

And the fanatical bloodsport dog lovers have a ready excuse - this time 'it was the fireworks that did it!'

Officers and paramedics attended a property on Crossway in Rogiet, near Caldicot, Monmouthshire, at about 18:00 GMT on Sunday. The dog was seized and removed from the address, according to Gwent Police, with officers working to establish the breed of the animal. Ch Supt John Davies said: "Officers are on scene and will be making further inquiries as the investigation progresses." No arrests have been made.

WHY NOT! Even if not a banned breed (and it did indeed turn out to be another killer bully), as is quite likely given Wales seems to have a predilection for the things, leaving a child unattended with a dog is clearly child endangerment, isn’t it?

But the Miss Marples and Hercules Poirots of the canine fancy are on the case, ready to exonerate poor Fido:

A “panicked” dog killed a baby after being spooked by fireworks in a Welsh town, it has been claimed.The dog reportedly became agitated by fireworks in a nearby field and went for the baby, Rogiet residents explained to The Sun.Caroline Knight told the newspaper: “Someone was letting fireworks off near the house and the dog was agitated by them and must have panicked and gone for the baby.Another neighbour recalled how there had been “horrendous” fireworks on Sunday evening. They added: “You could hear dogs bark as well as the bangs - they could have set a dog off.”

Fireworks are going off all over the country, thanks to bloody Diwali, yet dogs aren’t savaging people willy nilly, are they? 

A family affected by tragedy has thanked the public for donating to a fundraising appeal - and urged people to show ‘respect’ during their heartbreak.“People need to be respectful," they said. "Comments online aren’t helping the situation there is a big loss in the family and everybody is trying to process what’s happening."

A fundraising appeal? 🙄 

Caldicot Town Team CIC’s Aaron Reeks said: “People should show more respect and dignity when they absolutely don’t know the full facts," he said. "I’ve been in touch with the family, and I don’t want to intrude on them at this time.

“Speculation online concerning the breed of the dog is inappropriate and unnecessary."

Ah, those modern terms that mean ‘Stop pointing out inconvenient facts’, like the sudden prevalence of bloodsport breed dogs in society, or the fact that the authorities go all softly-softly with death by dog teeth because they are as terrified of the animal lobby as a bull breed is of a Catherine Wheel… 

Update: the owners have now been arrested.

'Humankind Cannot Bear Very Much Reality'

Gaby Hinsliff is a case in point:

A few days ago I was in Aldi, making the usual small talk at the checkout (Ed: a sign the rest is bullshit. Who has time for small talk with the speed demons on German supermarket checkouts?). When the cashier said she was exhausted from working extra shifts to make some money for Christmas, the man behind me chipped in that it would be worse once “she takes all our money” (in case Rachel Reeves was wondering, her budget pitch-rolling is definitely cutting through). 

Stick with me, Reader, it gets even more unbelievable....

Routine enough, if he hadn’t gone on to add that she and the rest of the government needed taking out, and that there were plenty of ex-military men around who should know what to do, before continuing in more graphic fashion until the queue fell quiet and feet began shuffling. But the strangest thing was that he said it all quite calmly, as if political assassination was just another acceptable subject for casual conversation with strangers, such as football or how long the roadworks have gone on. It wasn’t until later that it clicked: this was a Facebook conversation come to life. He was saying out loud, and in public, the kind of thing people say casually all the time on the internet, apparently without recognising that in the real world it’s still shocking – at least for now.

To whom is it 'shocking'? Not to me, and probably not to anyone reading this. Secure in her 'Guardian' bubble, Gaby probably only hears support for the shower of shite in the HoC, but out on the streets and in pubs and offices and bus queues all over the UK, it's quite normal. 

I thought about him when the health secretary, Wes Streeting, voiced alarm this week that it was becoming “socially acceptable to be racist” again, with ethnic minority NHS staff fighting a demoralising tide of things people now apparently feel emboldened to say to them.

Streeting mentions a patient saying he only wanted to be treated by white staff, which he cites as racism, despite the fact I don't recall him having such qualms over Diane Abbot's whinge about 'blonde, blue eyed Scandinavian nurses.

You can feel it at bus stops, where polite inquiries about why the 44 doesn’t stop here any more end up wheeling off at sudden wild tangents about chemtrails or the government spying on you; or in casual school-gate chats, where otherwise perfectly ordinary-seeming parents turn out to have some very odd ideas about vaccines.

After the Covid fiasco. it'd be surprising if they didn't!  

A friend calls it “sauna politics”, after the surreally conspiracy-laden conversations she overhears in her local leisure centre sauna. But whatever you want to call it, it’s as if people are suddenly voicing their interior monologues – things that until recently they’d have been embarrassed to say in public, or sometimes even to admit to themselves that they thought – out loud. After all, they can say this stuff online and nobody bats an eyelid. Why not in a hospital waiting room?

A hospital waiting room is the most likely place you'll hear it, as the parlous state of the NHS becomes fully apparent, even to those who fondly believd in 'the wonder of the world'. 

Middle-aged radicalisation sounds almost like a contradiction in terms, a reaction to all the stereotypes about settling comfortably into your rut. Besides, in our own heads, if nowhere else, gen X were always the mild-mannered peacekeepers of the culture wars: not old enough to be deemed reactionary or young enough to be woke, and instead occupying a kind of cheerfully moderate Goldilocks zone in-between. But something seems to have happened to us as we hit the midlife crisis years.

The Royal 'Us', Gaby? I thought you were above such things?  

It’s gen Xers, not grumpy pensioners or teenage boys beguiled by rightwing influencers, who are powering the populist insurgency now.

Well, Gaby, sometimes it's grumpy pensioners too... 

Going Too Far...

A Tweet about the restrictions placed on schoolchildren going on a field trip went viral this week, for good reason:

The demand for children to hand their vital life-saving medication to the teacher, rather than keeping it on them, was not the reason, Reader. 

And predictably, the Tweeter faced claims of 'Fake!' snd 'Rabble rousing by the Right Wing' in response. 

But why is no one questioning the overweening arrogance of any school behaving as if they have the right to demand what type of sandwiches children can take in their packed lunch, not even under the banner of ‘healthy eating’ this time, but to comply with the demands of a religious minority? Or, as is often the way, not due to any actusl demsands, but out of an assumption that this shows them to be respectable people who are 'protecting'minorities..

The school itself - Mere Green Primary School in Sutton Coldfield -  hit the brakes and reversed as soon as the Tweet went viral, blaming 'human error', otherwise known as 'Ooops, we said the quiet part out loud'...

H/T:Carrie via Twitter

Cover Me! 'The Man Who Sold The World'

Hadn't heard this old David Bowie song in ages, so was surprised to hear it on Radio Two last year, then thought 'Hang on, that's not the original!'...but it's a great cover, so well done, Nirvana, for breathing new life into it.

The 'Guardian' Always Knows Who Is Most Affected

Police are being forced to disclose the ethnicity of suspects in response to a rise in far-right speculation on social media, a former senior officer in the Metropolitan police force has warned.

And it is, of course, the usual suspects. 

Dal Babu, a former chief superintendent (Ed:and inveterate race-baiter) in the UK’s biggest force, said police having to disclose the race of suspects in incidents involving people of colour was an “unintended consequence”. “When the new guidance was issued, I warned that there was a danger that there will be an expectation for police to release information on every single occasion,” he said. “I have sympathy for my former colleagues in the police. They are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. They are under pressure because there is such intense speculation from the far right on social media after every major incident about the background of suspects.

I think the intense speculation comes from everyone, not just the tiny amount of genuinely right wing accounts! 

“You will not find pressure on social media to name the ethnicity of suspects when black players are being racially abused on social media, for example. We are in a position in our country where race is being amplified by far-right racist groups and the police are being forced to respond. It is a worry.”

Strange to put a train rampage by a knife wielding maniac injuring 11 people, some critically, on the same level of public interest as someone making monkey chants at a football game, but you do you, Dal… 

Even after police revealed that the two arrested suspects were British nationals, attempts were made to suggest that information was being withheld.

Gosh, I wonder why people just don’t trust police statements any more? 

Habib compared the statement on Sunday morning by a senior police officer, who had described both suspects as British, to official statements identifying the Southport murderer as a Welshman. It was “possible” that the suspects were British but, he said, adding that the police had not released their names, “I will remain extremely suspicious until we get chapter and verse.”

Oh, right. I remember why, now! 

Strange, I Bet Uber And Deliveroo Don't Have Problems..

...despite mainly being black and Asian, I bet they just get on with earning a living, unlike the pampered, lazy public sector mob.

NHS staff who care for patients in their own homes fear some areas have become “no-go zones” for them because of the presence of St George’s flags, health leaders have said.Black and Asian staff have been left feeling “deliberately intimidated” as a result of the flags that were put up in many parts of England during the summer, according to the chief executive of one NHS trust in England, who asked to remain anonymous.

So would I, if I spouted such absolute bollocks in public. Others were happy to put their name to this nonsense.

The Royal College of Nursing said the fear created by the flags was part of an alarming wider picture. Prof Nicola Ranger, the union’s general secretary, said: “A sustained campaign of anti-migrant rhetoric is fuelling a growing cesspool of racism, including against international and ethnic minority nursing staff, without whom our health and care system would simply cease to function.

“Those working in the community feel especially vulnerable and employers have a duty to ensure they are protected.

“Following a summer of further racist disorder, it is little wonder a growing number of nursing staff report feeling unsafe, particularly when having to work on their own and often at night.”

Perhaps the NHS would like to review the hiring standards for their staff then.