Tweet Of The Month

 A bumper crop this month! 

Blog Comment Of The Month

 A new semi-regular category for this month, one which has been suggested before, but I felt this comment deserved more than just a recommendation on Tim Worstall's blog. the subject was 'modenising James Bond'

Post Title Of The Month

 And this month the honour goes to Bucko, for this one on passport woes in Corfu.

Quote Of The Month

 Fahrenheit 211 on the peculiar cowardice of the establishment when it comes to ascribing blame for the German Pride terrorist:

But what could be the cause of the need for armed police to be required to guard a massive festival of LGB people? What is the nature of this ‘hate’ and the ideology behind it and where is the ‘division’ coming from? Is the generic and un-explainable ‘hate’ that is the cause? Is the threat coming from a few mentalist Methodists or murderous Mennonites? No it’s coming from Islamic extremism and our cowardly media and political classes and the Establishment LGBT wallahs really do not want to mention that. This is because to mention this specific threat to LGB people and their allies would pull out a keystone of the whole ‘identity’ and ‘diversity’ ideologies.

Post Of The Month

 My co-blogger James on the fall of another once mighty feat of British engineering.

Time To Make Women Dog Owners As Despised As Women Drivers...

Two school age children had to be rushed to hospital after being mauled by a dog at a playground. The youngsters, aged six and 11, were attacked near Newfoundpool in Leicester on April 19 and were bitten on their legs and thighs.

West Leicester Police now wishes to speak to a woman who was pictured on CCTV with a hound in the wake of the attack. They are looking to identify and speak to the owner.

 Yet another woman owner with a powerful breed she cannot physically control

Anyone with any information is asked to contact PC 4630 Samuel Senior on 101, quoting number 26*224111.

Why do women get these dogs? Just get cats instead - much safer.

How Naive Are These Magistrates?

A mum-of-five was forced to spend a night in a police cell after she was caught shoplifting in a Birmingham Iceland store, a court heard.

Yes, those are consequences of being caught stealing though not often enough these days for our diverse enrichers…

Daniella Costea felt she 'had no other option' when she hid £150 worth of items, such as medicines and food, in her skirt to steal on Monday, June 29.

That must be some skirt! 

The 34-year-old mum 'suffered a loss of liberty' as she was arrested and spent 16 hours in police custody, Birmingham Magistrates' Court heard this week.

Costea pleaded guilty to theft on Tuesday (July 21) and was issued a fine by the court - which heard "money was extremely tight" for the family.

And she’ll no doubt steal again to pay the fine! Hmm, it’s almost like the magistrates hadn’t thought of that, eh, Reader? 

The chair of the Magistrates' told her: "It turns out this wasn't your finest hour. We recognise that you spent a night in a police station which must have been quite an unpleasant experience for you." She must now pay £197 to the court - including the £80 fine.

No, chairman, it’d be an unpleasant experience for you and your fellow middle class compatriots on the bench, but for her, it’s a work-related accident.  

Yes, It's The 'New XL Bully' Again

A Fife mum has described the heartache of losing her “first baby” during a vicious dog attack.

No, thankfully not an actual baby. You have to appreciate how modern middle class ‘dog people’ see things.

Kaitlyn Christine’s dog, Bonnie, was euthanised in the early hours of Saturday due to the extent of her injuries.

The five-year-old basset hound was being walked in Cardenden on Friday afternoon when the attack happened.Kaitlyn is worried the attacking dog will strike again if the owner is not traced.

It is believed the animal is a black cane corso or mastiff-style breed. The owner of the animal has not been identified.

Kaitlyn said she is determined to find the attacking dog’s owner and has contacted the police.

Meanwhile, in Glasgow, evidence that relying on the police is a futile hope:

A devastated family are reeling from the loss of their little dog after a "brutal" street attack that "torn her to shreds".

And the culprit? Yes, Reader, you guessed it: 

Andrew Little was walking his two beagles Treacle and Bonnie around their housing estate in Robroyston on Saturday evening when an off-lead dog bolted towards them. During the 16-second attack, the bullmastiff inflicted fatal injuries to Treacle whilst also leaving Andrew with a broken hand as he tried protect his beloved pets.

"All of this has happened within 20 seconds, it's absolutely torn our little dog to shreds."

And the culprir has been identified and traced, but little has been done: 

When the devastated pair returned to their home in the estate, which they only moved into three weeks ago with their 2-year-old daughter, they reported the incident to police.To date, they say the bullmastiff has not been removed from its home and they are now calling for more action to be taken to ensure the neighbourhood is safe.

I bet at least the cops have identified the locatiion on the PNC so they aren't caught out again should they rock up at the house to make an arrest. 

Police Scotland say they are continuing to investigate the incident.

"I appreciate they would originally have potentially just logged it as a dog on dog, but we've also now updated them that there is human injury here as well, and they've still not given us any contact whatsoever."

They are as useless as their colleagues down south. 

 

Good! At Last The Justice System Is Putting Protection Foremost...

A double killer who has been in jail for a quarter of a century has claimed he is standing trial over new charges of sexual offences as a tactic to stop him from being freed on parole.

At last, the justice system is doing its job, then. Although it would be preferable if parole wasn’t on the cards at all. 

The former Royal Navy petty officer Allan Grimson was jailed in 2001 for sexually assaulting and battering to death two young men in the late 1990s. At the time, he also spoke to police about sexual contact with four other young males but was told no further action would be taken over them. 

But that was then, and this is now. 

Six years ago, the Parole Board recommended Grimson be moved to an open prison as a first step towards being freed on licence.But his barrister, John Femi-Ola KC, said in court on Thursday that Grimson’s chance of parole had been deliberately “stymied” when police began reinvestigating his contacts with the four men and the Crown Prosecution Service gave the go-ahead for him to be charged.

His hired DEI mouthpiece can whine all he wants, it’s not sport and no 'fair play' is to be expected.

What Are The Police Playing At?

The saga of the chav dog attack has a new wrinkle:

The canine – a pocket bully breed – is now in police custody, and Freddy has been given seven days, up until Tuesday, to find a suitable home for him; otherwise, he will be put down.

Indicating they haven’t charged anyone under the DDA, but why not, and more to the point, since when do the police run a ‘cooling off period’ for idiot chavs and their vicious mutts? 

Now, ex-Holly, whom he shares daughter Isla with, has spoken out and begged anyone who can take the dog in to do so before it is too late.

And there will be plenty of idiots happy to do so! The celebrity-worshippers will be vying with the pitnutters to take on this liability!

'He's the nicest dog and this is totally out of character for him. He wouldn't hurt a fly.'

Bur will maul your granny! 

UPDATE:

Freddy Brazier's pet dog Pablo won't be put down despite leaving him with a hole in his arm and attacking his nan Jackiey Budden - as vets believe 'urine infection affected his behaviour'.

They are taking the piss, arent they?

Bail? For This?!

A trainee barrister who was allegedly caught driving a car bomb towards Northern Ireland in a suspected New IRA operation spent time in Syria, her lawyer said.

So? It's not like she couldn't have acquired terrorist sympathies at home, is it? 

Isobella Perrie Sullivan, 25, was arrested after Irish police said they made an 'extremely significant seizure' of a device on Wednesday. The force said the device, which was made from military-grade plastic, could have caused significant damage.

Sullivan, from Clane in Co Kildare, was granted bail on Friday after appearing before a special sitting of Trim District Court in Co Meath charged with possession of explosives.

 How on earth do you get bail for a charge of this seriousness?!?

It has now emerged her solicitor Mr Gavin Booth told the court she was a previous member of a 'political group' and had spent some time in Syria.Mr Booth, however, said Sullivan had stepped away from politics as she focused on her studies as a barrister. Her notes were reportedly in the back of the car she was driving when arrested.Mr Booth, from Phoenix Law, said his client had been asked to take a bag to the north and was not aware of its contents. He added Sullivan, who lives with her father, had been 'manipulated'.

A person who aspires to be a barrister shouldn’t want to be seen as naive and gullible, should she? Unless she aspires to a job working for the state, of course…

He said her parents are 'devastated' and can't comprehend this week's events. He added, if she was granted bail, they would keep her on a 'tight rein and ensure she abides by all conditions'.

 Only someone employed by the State could believe this! And, sure enough:

Judge Raymond Finnegan (Ed: I googled him!) granted Sullivan bail on Friday provided she obtained a €15,000 (£12,800) independent surety. She, who was wearing a pink White Fox Boutique hoodie at the time, was also ordered to surrender her passport and keep to a strict curfew.

Well, it’s not like she’s been mixing with people who know their way around the passport system, is it? 

When You Gotta Go..?

An Essex library has temporarily closed due to a "significant sanitation issue" within the building. Brentwood Library has been closed since Thursday (July 23) due to the issue.

And was due to reopen Saturday - what took so long? And it's not just a library, either, because of course not, this is 2026!

The library serves as a base for appointment registration services, such as births, deaths and marriages. There is also a Barclays Local hub within the bank.

So quite a loss to the community of Brentwood. 

A notice on the door, shared by Cllr Russell Quirk (Reform UK) on social media said: "Unfortunately the library is temporarily closed due to a significant issue within the building. We apologise for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience and understanding. Please check our website or contact the library for updates regarding reopening."

Why so coy about what the issue was?  

The deputy leader of Essex County Council added: "Lots of people are asking why it closed. I’m informed that a person defecated in several places around the library and it’s had to be thoroughly cleaned throughout. Unbelievable."

If only it was 'unbeliveable'. And there's no mention of an arrest, so the Phantom  Defecator of Brentwood is presumably roaming the streets looking for his next target.

Coming Soon To An Asylum Hotel Near You?

A search is under way to find a group of migrants after a man in his 20s was stabbed to death on a French beach. 

French police launched an investigation after a body was found on Terminus Beach, in the popular seaside resort of Berck-sur-Mer (Ed: popular with whom? Surely not French tourists!) on Thursday. 

It is feared that the suspected murderers fled across the Channel to the UK by small boat soon after.

And indeed, they have good reason to suspect this: 

That same day, at 6am, a small boat set sail from the same beach carrying 165 migrants. The vessel was later escorted into Dover for its occupants to be processed.

It's ok, I'm sure Border Farce and Immigration have vetted them all carefully, eh? 

Another Good Reason to Euthanise at the Scene - H&S

The death of a kennel owner who died after being attacked by a dog is to be investigated. Adam Watts was the owner and operator of Juniper Kennels and Cattery in Angus when he was attacked on December 22, 2021.

Scotland again. And it's not like similar hasn't happened this side of the Border.  

A Fatal Accident Inquiry is to be held into the death and is expected to focus on the management of potentially dangerous dogs in temporary kennels and how Police Scotland shares dogs’ histories and behaviours with kennel operators.

When they have actually seized a snarling ball of muscle and teeth instead of ignoring it and leaving it in the community , do you really need details? Can't you tell for yourself that it's dangerous? 

Save Our Siezed Dogs and Salt’s Helping Hounds Rescue said Mr Watts had died while “working with the dogs he loved and was so passionate about”.

Perhaps if he hadn't been so 'passionate' he'd have been more careful? Perhaps the inquiry should recommend that being an 'animal lover' isn't sufficient qualification to run kennels like these, and is in fact contra-indicated. 

Debbie Carroll of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, Scotland’s death investigation authority, said:  “The death of Adam Watts occurred while in the course of his employment and as such a Fatal Accident Inquiry is mandatory.        

“The lodging of the First Notice enables FAI proceedings to commence under the direction of the Sheriff.            

“Mr Watts’ family will continue to be kept informed of significant developments as court proceedings progress.” 

Mr Watts family woulf be best advised to secure a lawyer as feral and vicious as the mutt that killed him, who can point out that if police standing orders were to shoot such beasts at the scene, he'd still be alive. 

Only The Frauds And Crooks?

 

...I mean, it's already housed plenty, eh, Matt?

Sunday Funnies…

I guass Christopher Nolan was on to something, choosing Greek myth as a subject!

Will It Address The Elephant In The Room?

A national strategy to address the “public health disaster” of drowning has been launched in England – hours after two women died at an Essex beach, the latest in a surge of water-related tragedies.

The initial police reports of this one were shielded in secrecy and refusal to elaborate rather like the Brighton case earlier, but my Spidey Sense immediately leapt to a drowning, and of someone not white, just as in that case. And so it proved to be.

Among the measures being considered are: providing every child in England with water safety education and swimming lessons; establishing how climate change can increase risks; and media campaigns to inform bystanders how to respond to a potential drowning.

Pointless unless you are also going to look at who is drowning in such numbers. It happens every hot summer, after all. And often not to people called Mary or George. Even the esteeemed 'Guardian' has noticed this phenomenon.

Drowning prevention strategies for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are also being launched this week. Speaking at the announcement of the strategy in Canary Wharf, east London, on Thursday, Prof Mike Tipton, the chair of Water Safety England, said the measures would “eradicate the scourge of drowning”.

Unless you are going to eradicate human nature, how are you going to do that? Even the token white Brit they rolled out to speak knows that's a hope based on nothing:

Vanessa Abbess, whose 17-year-old son, Joe, died after getting into difficulty in the water off Bournemouth beach in 2023, warned the public against being “naive and complacent”. Sunnah Khan, a 12-year-old girl, died alongside Joe after being caught in a rip current. 

Abbess said: “As a society, there’s an element of naivety and complacency regarding the dangers of open water swimming. 

“It’s not enough to know how to swim in a warm pool if you don’t know what to do to help your chances of survival if conditions change or you find yourself in difficulty in open water. 

The risk needs to be assessed. You need to stop and think. You wouldn’t cross a road without thinking.”

I'll assume Ms Abbess doesnt get out much, because the young of all races tend to do that as well. 

This Must Be Why They Call Each Other 'Brother'

,,,and I just thought it was the uncertainty principle.

A man has been found guilty of assisting Daniel Khalife after his high-profile escape from HMP Wandsworth.

 And who would do such a thing? No doubt you too will be shocked at the name, Reader...

Adeel Khan, 32, from Waltham Forest, helped supply Khalife with money following his escape in September 2023.

And in a nice touch of irony: 

Khan will be sentenced at the same court on September 4.

Can they both be put on the same depportation flight too? 

It's Just The 'New Scots' Trying To Fit In....

It’s not exactly the Campbells and the McDonalds, is it?

Three senseless killings in the space of six months, all involving teenagers and bladed weapons, have raised concern over youth-related knife crime in Scotland to a level not seen for many years. The deaths of Amen Teklay, Kayden Moy and John McNab last year left many wondering whether the country was going backwards to the shameful time when Scotland endured one of the worst homicide rates in western Europe.

Probably, but it’s not going to stick out too much, as every part of the country is afflicted with knife crime and youth culture now. And the stories of the murders will be familiar reading to Londoners.

 A jury at the High Court in Glasgow found them both not guilty. The boys are now aged 16 and 17 but cannot be named because of their age. The 16-year-old said both he and Amen had swords and claimed that he stabbed him in self-defence. The older teenager said he had been standing a distance away and did not attack Amen. There were emotional scenes in court as Amen's family and friends heard the verdict.

Perhaps if the families had spend more time knowing what they were up to, there'd be less surprise at consequences catching up with them? 

On the day of the attack the teenagers took a train to Irvine after discovering through social media that Kayden and his friends were among a large group of teenagers who had congregated there. Cole Turley, 18, admitted the killing, while Jay Stewart, 19 and a 15-year-old boy who cannot be named for legal reasons, were found guilty of murder following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow. At the same court on Tuesday morning, the judge Lord Scott sentenced both Stewart and Turley to a minimum of 16 years in detention, and the 15-year-old to a minimum of 14 years.

So Scotland is noy alone in this, sad to say. 

We Know You're A Bird-Brain, Stella, No Need To Prove It...

The lefty Labour MP posted a video on X showcasing what she believed to be an escaped pet parrot in a Walthamstow park.

And the internet responded with its usual magnificence posting pictures of badgers with 'lost dog found' captions, until the relentless mocking meant she deleted her Tweet. But of course, she’s equally ignorant of the fact that screenshots exist as she is the existence of feral parakeets.

You Can Never Close 'The Disadvantage Gap'

The gap between how well pupils from better-off backgrounds perform at school compared with their classmates from lower-income households has widened, according to a new report. Despite some improvements in the years since Covid, the Education Policy Institute (EPI) said the disadvantage gap had widened again in England and was still bigger "at every phase" of school than it was before the pandemic.

Ah, ‘before the pandemic’. Nicely slipped in there, that mad time when all plans were derailed, even socialist ones. 

The Department for Education said it was working to close the disadvantage gap by delivering opportunities for every child, including expanding government-funded childcare and extending eligibility for free school meals.

Working to close the disadvantage gap by funnelling money, taxpayer money at that, towards a hopeless cause. Typical socialist trick.

The EPI said the overall difference in academic achievement between low-income students and their wealthier peers was now 17% greater for children in early years than it was before Covid.

Hardly a crisis that requires government intervention, is it? 

"The size of the gap between the educational outcomes of children from more and less advantaged backgrounds is a scourge on our society," Julie McCulloch, chief executive of the EPI said.

Really? I can think of many things which could truly be considered a scourge on society, but this is not one of then. 

The EPI made a number of recommendations in its report for how to achieve it, including widening access to free funded childcare to all children, and increasing the amount of money schools can receive for the number of children they teach who are eligible for free school meals.

The Local Government Association called for more investment in the SEND workforce, and for a review into which children qualify for funded childcare hours, to make sure "those on lower incomes do not miss out".

The Department for Education said the government would do "whatever it takes" to ensure every child had access to opportunity, regardless of their background.

If some children don't take advantage of the access that already exists what more should be done is up to their parents, not the governement.

What Fresh Hell Is This?

A police press release:

A 22-year-old man has been charged in connection with an incident in Bristol in which a teenage girl was raped and a second teenage girl was sexually assaulted. 

Javed Orykhel, of Bedminster, an Afghan national whose self-defined ethnicity is Arab, has been charged with one count of rape, two counts of sexual assault, and one count of possession of a class B drug.

I suppose it's no great leap from accepting that a man can self-describe as a woman to having to accept that he can self-describe as a particular ethnic group. If you've already drunk the 'identity' Kool-Aide, and the police farces certain have.

 H/T: Jenn via Twitter

You're Holding The Store Responsible?

When the Dollar Tree lawyer asked her what she wanted out of the lawsuit, she replied: “You [have] to take accountability of what is happening in your stores. You’re causing pain to people. I don’t know if it’s because of the bottom line, or what, but it’s happening and you guys need to stop it.”

What does she want the store to stop, (and to pay her money for what has happened in it, of course)? 

Over the following months, the term “dollar store gooner” became a meme on the internet that spread far beyond the closed world of the gooners themselves. A “Dollar Tree gooner” crypto coin launched in January 2025, followed by an unofficial Pokémon card and a song released on SoundCloud by an underground noise band from Tennessee named Mukus.

I know you'll be as baffled as I, Reader, at least, I hope so!  

Long before it developed an association with criminal acts, “gooning” was understood as a pornography-fueled compulsion, sometimes involving multiple screens at once, that can become a substitute for intimate relationships with others. It also tends to come with a heavy dose of self-loathing. Experts say that online forums and video content aimed at gooners often send the message that obsessive masturbation – whether alone or in public – is as much as men like them can aspire to in life. Webster described it as a “disavowed manic state of triumph over something hideous”. One common trope of the pornography that these gooners consume has men ejaculating over women’s bodies, faces and hair – acts that, Lankford said, have no basis in evolutionary biology and are difficult to interpret as anything other than demeaning to the women.

When I shop at a store, i would expect the store to be responsible for non-slip flooring, electrical-safe freexer units and escalatots and lifts in working order. I wouldn't expect them to be financially responsible for the behaviour of other customers.

But this is America, and I guess Dollar Tree has deep pockets, while the disgusting 'men' who do this aren't worth suing.

These Are Apparantly 'Celebrities'?

If only they had been real ones maybe something would finally be done about these wretched dogs...

Freddy Brazier's nan Jackiey Budden was attacked by his bulldog Pablo and her neighbours called the police days before he was mauled by the animal.The son of Jeff Brazier and the late Jade Goody, 21, spent eight hours in hospital getting stitches on Monday after his dog savagely bit him at his nan's London home.

No Reader, I've no idea either... 

Jackiey was injured while attempting to pull Pablo off of him. Freddy was shocked when it happened and was left in a lot of pain,' reported The Sun.

He shouldn't have been that shocked, it wasn't the vicious brute's first attempt at biting the hand that feeds it!

Now it has been revealed that it is not the first time the bulldog has attacked with emergency services attending the scene to help last week.

Police and the fire brigade were called on July 16 by a concerned neighbour who heard screams of agony as the dog gripped onto Jackiey, which left her needing medical treatment. Four days later Pablo attacked again leaving both Freddy and Jackiey injured and requiring hospital treatment.

'Both the police and the fire brigade attended, but fortunately it wasn't too serious – and they agreed not to pursue criminal charges.

Bet that decision's being reviewed now!  It's classed as a 'pocket bully' so noy included on the DDA but probably should have been from the get-go if only the Tories had done a proper job.

'It's been an awful few days and Freddy is devastated as he absolutely adores that dog and Pablo is a huge part of the family.'

Nornally I'd take the piss out of such a statement, but with this sort of 'family' it's ptobably not so unusual. 

Clearly. Andy Burnham Reads Tim Worstall's Blog...

 ...he's said 'No to digital ID' after all! 

Andy Burnham will scrap plans for a government-issued digital ID for all British adults when he becomes prime minister on Monday. The move, which follows plans for new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, will shift focus to "the daily priorities facing people across the country", Burnham's office said.

Most suspect it'll be back later in a new guise, and they are probably right. 

"This reprioritisation of public resource shows a change in direction towards improving everyday life and strengthening local economies over expensive national government schemes."

He's made a good start on that already by purging the Starmerites; we won't have Reeves, Lammy or Hermer to kick around any more,

Reacting for the Conservatives, shadow technology secretary Julia Lopez accused Burnham of "trying to pretend he's riding to the rescue" after Labour "wasted millions of pounds on this project". "After pressure from the Conservatives, mandatory ID was already apparently off the table. Andy Burnham now needs to explain whether that was untrue, or whether he is simply claiming credit for a decision that had already been taken", she said.

Probably the latter, and we'll see whan the honeymoon phase is over, won't we. 

Usual Suspects...

Elijah Seriki, 23, was found with stab wounds on Andre Street, Hackney at around 1.40pm on Monday July 13, and died a short time later.

Police have been surprisingly quick to generate a theory about who killed him too. 

Police have named and pictured two men they want to speak to.The Met have confirmed that they would like to speak to Cavalli Harriott, 22, and Jayqwan Stevens-Burke, 23, as part of their enquiries.

Isn't that handy - they both have official mugshots

 Ah, wonderful enriching diversity! 

The Key Word Here Is 'Fiction'

Nine of the 10 bestselling fiction paperbacks in the UK this week have one thing in common: a woman is murdered.

So? The big seller is crime novels, someone has to be murdered. I don't want to read a novel about bank fraud, my maths isn't up to it!

While the titles range from historical fiction to domestic noir and police procedurals, each centres on the death of at least one female character.

The key word there being 'fiction', of course, and literature is hardly the main culprit here, movies, tv shoes and even computer games also feature murders of women. 

Only The Correspondent, a novel about the art of letter writing, breaks the pattern.

Wow, that must be a rivetting read! 

The trend was highlighted on Instagram by the author Wendy Jones, who wrote: “So 84% [sic] of the books people bought and read in the UK this week involved a woman being murdered for entertainment. What is going on here?”

But why does commercial fiction keep returning to the same story? Critics argue that repeatedly turning women into victims risks normalising violence against them. Yet the genre’s paradox is that women are also its biggest consumers, with some arguing its appeal may be a way of processing real-world fears.

Longrider weighs in on this 'paradox' too. 

The crime writer Mel McGrath wrote that the genre has, in some ways, moved on from the time of male authors such as Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane killing off women chiefly so the men investigating their deaths could be heroes. “Reading crime fiction written by women remains a powerfully feminist act,” she said. The crime writer and critic Laura Wilson explained that domestic noir is popular at the moment because it reflects “some very real fears”.

No, it's mostly that mystery is the hook here, not the act of murder. 

The novelist Denise Mina traced the appetite back to the broadsheet sellers of 18th-century London, who found that manufactured crimes sold copies so long as the victim fitted a particular profile.

A traditional crime novel, Rader-Day said, wraps up in under 400 pages with the mystery solved and order restored, “not at all like what actual death is like”, which is precisely why it’s so comforting. She said both craft and culture explained why the victim is so often a woman.“Most readers, most consumers, are women too, so if a writer wants to showcase anyone’s anxieties, a woman’s is a good choice – the anxiety that they themselves could become a victim,” she said.

That would imply that horror is popular because people can imagine themselves summoning demons, wouldn't it? And what about sci-fi? 

C'Mon Internet, Do Your Stuff, And Make Him Infamous

A postman wearing an England shirt has been caught on camera kicking a blind shih tzu ‘like a football’ - with it later dying from organ failure. Owner Eve Lewis, 40, said the man denied attacking her dog Ethel, but Ring doorbell footage showed that he had, just seconds after he handed over a parcel. The 11-year-old pet was partially blind and had only one tooth, so posed no threat, Ms Lewis said.

Utter bastard, and if not for video doorbells, he'd have got away with it. He still might, thanks to the uselesness of the authorities:

It is understood the postman has been suspended by Royal Mail.

Sadly, not from a tree, which is what he deserves! 

A Thames Valley police spokesman said: 'No arrests have been made but there are ongoing enquiries regarding animal welfare and criminal damage incidents.'

They shouldn't take this long, should they, since it's on camera and the Post Office knows who he is? 

Are The BBC Getting Their Reporters From The ‘Daily Mail’ Now?

An escaped big cat believed to have been roaming the countryside for two months has been captured after being found with injuries in a plant pot in a back garden

They didn't learn a thing last time , did they? The fact a 'big cat' fits into a plant pot should give them pause, surely?

Kevin Murphy, of Norfolk Wildlife Rescue, has been trying to track down the Savannah cat since it was spotted three weeks ago near Bramerton, south of Norwich. The feline is native to sub-Saharan Africa and it had been on the loose since escaping from its home in May.

No, one of the species that makes up this hybrid animal is native to Africa... 

Sunday Funnies...

 Any day now, HS2 will surely make the cut. 

They Always Turn On You In The End

No, not another dangerous dog post:

Actor and director Andy Serkis, famously the motion capture artist and voice behind Gollum in the original Lord of the Rings film trilogy, always seemed like a fine dude. And he has done a lot of charity work in his life. Yet in the last few years, he’s seemingly turned into an anti-cancel culture, AI-apologizing doofus who recently responded to criticism about his upcoming Lord of the Rings movie having an all-white cast by saying he isn’t concerned about “politically correct” casting.

The absolute monster! How dare he not genuflect at the altar of woke! 

People had criticized the original Peter Jackson-directed films for similar reasons, so some were surprised to see such a white cast for the new movie. Serkis is aware of the criticism of the past films and his new project, but seemed oddly indignant about it all.

As well he might, says anyone of a normal outlook. But this is Kotaku, which like most of the US based scifi review sites has been swallowed by the woke movement and is hopelessly in thrall to it.

“Yes, there have been criticisms,” said Serkis. “This particular film is somewhat acknowledging that. But I don’t think we will be doing a politically correct just-casting-for-the sake-of-casting-and-ticking-boxes version of the film. So, it’s where relevant basically.”He also suggested that the Hobbits’ home, The Shire, feels “very, very white” and added: “They’re not very concerned about what goes on beyond the borders of The Shire, but they know they don’t want people coming in.”

Sounds familiar... 

This is an especially odd thing to say considering some of the people of color cast in Amazon’s The Rings of Power were harassed so brutally online that Elijah Wood, Billy Boyd, and Dominic Monaghan (who played Hobbits in the Jackson films) made an effort to defend the cast and calm people down. So Serkis using some of the same language that angry people online used about Rings of Power‘s non-white casting seems gross.

But in recent years, Serkis has repeatedly done and said stuff that has made me go, “When did you turn into a dick?”

Perhaps he hasn't turned into anything? 

Serkis’ 2018 comments about Scarlett Johansson planning to play a trans man (before she dropped out of the project) were resurfaced. And instead of sharing that he had listened to people and learned that, hey, maybe we should try to have better representation, he doubled down on his stance.

I'm guessing the reviewer, one Zack Zwiezen and yes, he looks exactly how I'd pictured him, can't see the trap in that sentence.

“Regardless of the color of your skin, regardless of how tall you are or short you are or what sex you are, regardless of how you identify, you should have the ability to play anything,” said Serkis in that interview.

C'mon, Andy, we all know what would happen if a studio was to cast a white actor (or a woman!) to play Martin Luther King. We all know this only goes one way. 

Serkis also made it clear that he would love to play Voldemort in the upcoming HBO Harry Potter series, joking that he would cut his nose off to play the villain.

HE'S IN LEAGUE WITH THE EVIL ONE*!  And he supports stuff we (the Royal 'we' of course) hate:

But it’s clear he is fine with AI becoming a part of filmmaking. He even recently starred in Young Washington, a movie that features scenes touched up and modified with genAI.

Odly enough, the commenters don't agree, he's getting absolutely bodied in the comment section, so maybe there's hope after all. 

 *JK Rowling of course

Yet Another....

It seems they come more frequently than buses these days...

A man has been arrested after a dog caused serious injuries to two people on Saturday. Sussex Police said officers were called to Sunningdale Court in the Southgate area of Crawley, West Sussex, at about 13:00 BST, following reports of a dog dangerously out of control.

Another XL bully? No, Reader, its successor as the four-legged weapon/penis substitute for social inadequates on the streets of Britain. 

Armed and neighbourhood policing officers were sent to the scene and the Cane Corso breed dog was secured and assessed before being "humanely put to sleep in the interest of public safety and animal welfare", said the force.

And the mutt's owner? 

A 27-year-old man, believed to be the animal's owner, was arrested in connection with the incident and remains in custody, police confirmed.

Sussex Police said it was investigating the circumstances and urged anyone with relevant information to get in touch.

One hopes the CPS won't drop the ball this time. The antisocial owners of these things need to be brought to heel. 

No Consequences Britain...

Daniel Dickons knocked the victim off her bike 'for no reason' - causing her to suffer multiple injuries, including a gash to her chin and an exposed kneecap. The 39-year-old was detained at Culver Parade in the Isle of Wight following the attack, while the woman - who had fallen onto the beach below - was taken to hospital.

Just another day in lawless Britain, where no-one is allowed to carry the means to defend oneself, because that is the purview of  the State.

The Isle of Wight Magistrates' Court heard the assault was unprovoked and happened ‘for no reason.’ The woman’s bike landed on top of her, and she was initially unable to move one of her legs. Emergency services attended the scene, including an air ambulance crew. The victim was taken to the hospital and discharged later that night.

Dickons, from the Isle of Wight, was detained at the scene by a member of the public before being arrested by police. The prosecutor told the court it remains unclear why Dickons carried out the attack, although he told officers he ‘thought it would be funny, so he did it.’

Just another Morlock wandering the streets of Britain… 

Dickons pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He was handed a 52-week jail term, suspended for 24 months, to include a six-month alcohol treatment requirement and 35 rehabilitation days. Dickons was also ordered to pay £1,000 compensation.

That would be a pathetic sentence for a first time offender. 

Dickons has six previous convictions for six offences dating back to 2008.

Details aren’t given, but I suspect are all the same low impulse control offences which the justice system has so far failed to correct him of, and doesn’t see fit to even try this time. 

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Rosie said she had approached a woman in a car who looked to be struggling with a dog, but the dog turned and lunged for her, and bit her on her left hand. 

"It just went from bad to worse after that," she said.

Except for the arrival of a man, it would have been potentially fatal… 

As Rosie turned to run away, the dog, which had no collar or lead, got hold of the backs of her legs, resulting in puncture wounds to her legs, shins, ankles, torso, and knees. 

"I smashed my head on the road because the dog dragged me down to the floor and I've got extensive bruising everywhere. It's pretty horrific," said Rosie. 

A passing lorry driver stopped to save the screaming victim, hitting the dog, which was on top of Rosie, with a makeshift weapon.

"That lorry driver saved my life without question," she said.

 Yes, he did.

A young man and a woman were attacked earlier in the day.

Oh. No lorry driver around for them, then. Where were the cops?

Lancashire Police said it had received numerous reports of a dog attacking people, but no arrests had been made and no animal has been seized.

Why not? 

Melanie says the dog should be "seized and destroyed" to stop it from attacking others. 

"You're supposed to be protected in this country. You can't just leave it to be a dog that's free to do it again. It's shocking."

It is, undoubedly. It's nonetheless unsurprising.

And I Bet You Don't Feel As If You Played Any Part In Breaking It?

To call this Saturday the nation’s 250th birthday is to indulge a comfortable fiction. 1776 was a declaration, not a birth certificate – and the founders wrote its claims of human equality while this nation enslaved human beings

Says who? well, 'Jamil Smith is a Guardian US columnist' So you know what you’re in for.

So I’m not in the mood to celebrate “America 250”, and I’m not alone.

The affection is thin this summer: the Pew Research Center found that 69% of Americans were dissatisfied with the country’s direction early this year. That is not ingratitude. Sometimes a sour mood is simply clear vision.

Without the context, this statement is worthless. There's no definition of 'the country's direction' to say exactlt what they were dissatified with - it might as well have been the march of progressive ideas as the return of conservative ones.

Nearly 250 years later, the US is not a finished monument, but a structure still under repair, still contested – and in places being quietly stripped for parts.

Wait for it, wait for it… 

The president tried, by executive order, to read the children of undocumented and temporary residents out of the 14th amendment. The court blocked him, six to three – though only five justices joined the chief justice’s full constitutional reasoning. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, concurring, called the Reconstruction amendments “an anticaste, antisubordination reset”, not “a mere spot treatment for the dark stain of slavery”. The citizenship clause was not a gift the founders left us; it was a repair, built after Dred Scott, slavery and war to overrule a court that had made blood the measure of belonging.

Birthright citizenship is proof that the founding promise did not preserve itself; it had to be rebuilt into the constitution after the country’s own highest court exposed the lie beneath the celebration.

Does this man realise that the Founding Fathers were facing a much different world when they wrote that into the Constitution? 

The victory did not last the afternoon. Within hours, the president called the ruling “too bad for our Country” and told Congress to “start TODAY” on ending birthright citizenship, insisting no amendment was needed. That is not how the constitution works – ordinary legislation cannot rewrite a constitutional guarantee. But he is reaching for a door a sixth justice left ajar: Brett Kavanaugh wrote that Congress could carve out exceptions by statute. A repair can be upheld in the morning and marked for demolition by nightfall.

Repair also means seeing people as people. The court upheld state laws barring transgender girls from girls’ sports, and in the West Virginia case it let the category decide without asking whether excluding one child – who socially transitioned in grade school and took puberty blockers before she ever competed – actually served the state’s stated interests. That isn’t equal protection. It’s permission to discriminate.

The court upheld state laws banning BOYS from girls sport as the voters in that State evidently wanted...but discrimination is a 'bad' word, even when it's the right thing to do to protect the integrity and safety of female sport. 

Celebration will not house people, protect voters or repair what power is trying to break. A country can be taken apart slowly, lawfully, one ruling at a time – and the people taking it apart are not vandals but officials: a president who cancels a housing signing by lunchtime, a court that clears the way for the largest checks, all of it done in the name of patriotism. The answer is not fireworks, and it is not despair. It is to name plainly what is being damaged, and by whom – then to get busy fixing it.

Trump has named it - it's people like you, with an extreme progressive agenda - and he's getting busy fixing it.

White Woman 'Savior Syndrome ' Goes Wrong

A woman was left needing surgery after being mauled by her dog - which she had adopted on Facebook three weeks earlier. Charlotte Potts, 32, adopted the one-year-old Cane Corso cross American Bulldog from a breeder on Facebook.

Adopting a powerful breed from Facebook, what could possibly go wrong?  

Initially, the dog - called Blue - settled in well and Charlotte says he didn't "show any aggression" towards her and her family. But on her routine walk on Saturday morning, July 4, Blue turned on Charlotte and attacked her, sinking his jaws into her legs after ripping through her trousers.She called for her younger brother, eight, to run and leave the enclosed dog park and call for help whilst Blue continued to attack her. The dog then went for Charlotte's right arm which she allowed him to do whilst she used her left arm to tie his lead to a fence.

The kid is lucky it didn’t turn on him. She would never have fought it off. 

The whole ordeal lasted around eight minutes, and Charlotte was taken to hospital by ambulance whilst the dog was euthanised by the police.

With extreme prejudice, I hope!

"It felt like a really long time - I didn't think I was going to get out of there. There's six levels of dog bites, and six is fatal - this one was level five. I love dogs, but I want to raise awareness around making sure dogs are fully assessed before being rehomed."

Thanks a lot, sweetie but most of us are sensible enough not to acquire a misbegotten mutt of unknown background from social media in the first place! Certainly not one of a bloodsport heritage that probably outweighs us.

"I'd still be in hospital if it wasn't for my partner Rachel, and without my kick boxing background I don't think I'd have been strong enough to fight him off."

*bites tongue* 

In the weeks before the attack, police visited Charlotte after receiving an anonymous tip off that she owned an XL Bully. They determined that Blue was an American Bulldog by Vegetable taking a photo of his head and as a result, did not take him away.

Isn't it about time there were restrictions on dog ownership no matter the breed? Didn’t any of the cops take a look at the hulking brute and suggest to her she wouldn’t be able to control it if it went berserk?

Niche Interests

“We left Warrington at 5.15am this morning to get here,” Emma tells me, standing in a queue that stretches down Walton Street. It is just after 9am on a Saturday in Oxford, the students are still in bed and the tourists have yet to descend on the city, but this corner of Jericho is already buzzing.

It’s a queue for a new bookshop. That’s a good thing right? 

Oxford is rarely short of literary pilgrims. Every year, visitors flock to the colleges and libraries that shaped writers including JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis and Iris Murdoch. But this crowd is here for something a little different. Instead of queueing for the Bodleian, they’re swapping recommendations for dragon riders and faerie kingdoms.  

Oh dear. 

The bright pink doors they’re waiting outside belong to Bad Girl Books, the UK’s first romantasy bookshop. The subgenre, blending fantasy and romance, has gone from niche online obsession to one of publishing’s biggest commercial success stories.

Yes my Kindle offers are usually stuffed with these, poorly written barely illiterate smut, but dragons are popular now so slapping a dragon on everything ensures it sells. 

Readers are immersing themselves in sprawling fantasy worlds of “enemies-to-lovers” storylines, where “fated mates” discover they were destined for each other all along, and brooding “shadow daddies” – dark, morally ambiguous male protagonists with supernatural powers – inspire devoted online fandoms.

Well, I have a taste for Laurel K Hamilton myself, but that tends to be rather better written than most of these. But at least it’s getting people reading.

“Last year I read about 100 romantasy books, and I’ve already read 60 this year,” says 22-year-old Izzy, who has been waiting in the queue with her friend since 7.30am. “I used to hate reading when I was in school, but then I discovered romantasy, and realised that there is a whole world of books out there that I really enjoy. It’s an escape from reality.”

And that's got to be a good thing, right? 

Inside, shelves are divided into categories including “Monster Smut”, “Unhinged” and “LGBTQ+”. T-shirts and caps proclaim “I Heart Fictional Men” and “Dibs on the Villain”; tote bags read: “I Like My Books Like I Like My Margaritas – Spicy”, and “My Favourite Colour Is Morally Grey.”

Oh, well, maybe not! 

More Undue Leniency

Charles Wood, Head of the Bench, said the CCTV footage placed the offence in the most serious category under sentencing guidelines. 

He said: 'The CCTV footage is very clear, and having seen it we determine this is a category A1 offence, the most serious offence. 

'The traffic light you went through was red for a significant period of time, as much as eight seconds. 

'Nine times out of ten this wouldn't happen, but it's precisely because of the possible consequences that we have such things in place. 

'The fact is: it did happen.'

And despite that, and the fact the crash she caused involved a police car on an emergency call, the courts merely patted her on the head and said 'there, there..' 

As well as the suspended eight-month jail term, Wright was banned from driving for 12 months and ordered to pay £272 in costs.

So much for keeping death off the roads, we'll just have to hope she'll never be able to get insurance in the future. 

No compensation was ordered for Merseyside Police or Constable Thompson as those are covered by insurance and would constitute a civil matter.

🤬 

What The State Did To These Women Was Far Worse Than Anything The Father Did..

Mark walked away with no criminal record or any form of monitoring. He was not placed on the sex offender register and there is nothing he has to disclose to an employer or a partner.

Because he hadn't broken any law, he's written some fiction. That this fiction involved the sexual abuse of his daughter is neither here nor there.

All images of children being abused are grounds for arrest, even when the men are not physically abusing anyone. Yet Emily’s case turned out to be not so clearcut in the eyes of the police. Were written fantasies about child abuse, shared on a legal site, against the law?

In short, no. Not even when an undercover police officer is watching.

This question would lead Emily all the way to parliament to try to toughen the law on sex chat sites.

Of course it did. 

The sexual assault charges against Mark were dropped and changed to the sending by public electronic communication messages of an indecent, obscene or menacing character under the Communications Act 2003. A court date was set and Emily and Fiona expected Mark to plead guilty as he had never denied the horrendous way he had described abusing Emily online.

But that was before he sort legal advice clearly. 

Within days of the arrest, Fiona took radical steps to completely reshape the life that Mark had blown to pieces. “I had a job interview a couple of days later and I just went to it in a daze. I barely remember it but I got the job, and at that moment I decided I would move house and start the new job as soon as I could.”

While Fiona was preparing to move, Emily was going down a rabbit hole into the darkest recesses of the internet. She began to read all she could about sex chat sites and was horrified to learn how easy it is to step straight into sexual chats about children.She wanted the police to know Mark hadn’t touched her, but she wanted him to be prosecuted for sharing his child abuse fantasies online. And she wanted to be recognised as a victim, something the police didn’t seem to understand.

Of course, victim status, what every teenager desires most these days. 

But one day in the run-up to the court hearing, Fiona got a text from Mark saying he was not going to plead guilty. “He said, ‘I’ve found a loophole.’ With help from his lawyer, he had found a way to plead not guilty.”

Just days before the court hearing, the police got in touch. They were dropping the case. “They told us that, after discussions with the Crown Prosecution Service, they didn’t think there was a realistic chance of conviction. The officer I spoke to told me that in the eyes of the law, Emily was not a victim and therefore no crime had been committed. He actually said that in this situation the ‘victim’ was the undercover officer as they were the ones who read the messages.”

Once again the CPS dropped the ball, but shouldn’t they have realised that there was no law broken here before it got this far? 

Fiona has seen Mark only once since the case was dropped: when she met him to get his signature on divorce papers. She saw then how happy he was to have escaped prosecution. “He made it clear that he considered it a prudish response, the public disapproval of a private fetish. We were prudes, the police were as well. It might have been embarrassing to have the messages revealed, but it wasn’t anything that should involve the law.”

Nor should it be. We don't criminalise people for writing fiction. Even if it's distasteful fiction.

For both Fiona and Emily, there is a feeling that people looking in at their situation might be judging them, questioning why they didn’t spot the signs.

They might well ask... 

She and Mark had had their ups and downs. “He was controlling of me. I had discovered in the past he had been chatting to women online. We went to therapy to work on our relationship and I thought we were both putting in effort. Just before this happened I had been feeling he had a swagger to him. Now I know it is because he was still getting fulfilled by a secret online life.”

And like vengeful women everywhere, she cannot tolerate the thought. And is being used by people who do not have her or her daughter's wellbeing ay heart to push their own agenda.. 

McGlynn wants to see “a specific criminal offence to advocate, counsel or glorify child sexual abuse in text”, which would cover discussions in chatrooms and beneath videos on porn sites.

The State should not be encouaging women or men to believe that something they find distateful falls within its purview for the dead hand of the State to resolve. 

Tough! Live With It....

 

...especially if you are going to tell us a nobody from Rotherham drove 300 miles to kill her, but you have 'no information' that it was a politically motivated killing. Well, you have it now, don't you, and counter-terror has the investigation as a result.

CCTV shared with police from the day of Widdecombe’s death showed a man leaving a Rotherham address linked to the suspect at 7am and driving off in a Vauxhall Corsa, the Times reported.

Who shared it with them, and why?

Sir Peter Fahy, the former chief constable of Greater Manchester police, said there had been a “very noticeable trend” for politicians, including government ministers, to comment on police incidents and murder investigations while they were still unfolding.

They no longer trust you either! And they are right to...giving you access to the media is like giving alcopops and matches to a ADHD toddler and expecting the house not to burn down.

'But Since That's The Plot Of Every James Bond Film, They Didn't Think It Mattered'

A secret inquiry by MI5's watchdog concluded the security service knew an abusive agent it defended in court was a misogynist who was "obsessed" with violence, the BBC can reveal.

Hard to see why they’d feel they had to care about that… 

The inquiry took place after BBC News originally exposed how MI5 had covered up for the man - a neo-Nazi informant known publicly as agent X. The government took the BBC to court in 2022 in a failed attempt to block our investigation, but it won agent X legal anonymity.

Useful in a spy, but didn’t he already have it? 

Following the BBC story, the office of the investigatory powers commissioner (IPCO) Sir Brian Leveson launched an inquiry, which - like much of IPCO's work - was secret. Details of the inquiry can now be reported for the first time.

• IPCO - which oversees the use of covert investigatory powers, including the UK's intelligence agencies - concluded: "Strong indications" of agent X's interest in violence, including video footage of him threatening his girlfriend with a machete, did not lead to an MI5 review of his suitability of as an agent.

•  IPCO said it "should have done" (sic) agent X was "openly misogynistic" with his MI5 handlers, who knew he was involved with a "pick up artistry" movement that seeks to exploit women for sex, but "none of this attracted much attention" from the handlers MI5 knew agent X was "obsessed" with violence, because he told them, and there were indications he might be a threat to others "arising from his general interest in extreme violence". 
• But IPCO said there was a "lack of sufficient professional curiosity" about him by MI5.

Frankly, if he was a good agent, should it have mattered at all?

I Must Have Missed The News That Hungary Was A War-Torn Nation

A Hungarian teenager broke into the bungalow of an elderly couple in a terrifying raid that left their beloved dog dead.The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted charges of robbery and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Is he a refugee? There's no war in Hungary, is there? Why is he here?

The boy was not charged with any animal cruelty offence and police treated the dog's death as unexplained.

More lazy policing. 

The teenager fled with Mrs Thompson's mobile phone and purse but was soon arrested in a park.

In a statement issued at the time, South Yorkshire Police said: 'Violence and abhorrent acts of this kind have no place in our communities and will not be tolerated. 'An elderly couple has been physically and mentally affected by this incident, and we will do all we can to ensure justice is served.'

Well, you didn't in this case, dis you? And the rest of the so-called 'justice system' didn't do any better. 

The boy was handed a two-year detention and training order at Sheffield Magistrates' Court on July 1.

Pathetic, but surely to be followed up by a deportation order? 

Oh, and that police promise? A lie, like every statement they make these days:

Police refused to disclose his nationality, claiming doing so was not in the public interest.

What would they know of the public interest, since it's clear they no longer serve it? 

Cruel, Maybe...

 

...but apposite! Matt always has his finger on the pulse

Sunday Funnies...

 "House of the Dragon" costumiers had to get inspiration from somewhere...

Well, Yes, 'Trying To Wipe Away The Evidence Of Their Mistakes' Is What They Always Do!

Children who were groomed, sexually abused and then prosecuted for crimes, including prostitution, are still being failed, the author of a landmark report has said. Baroness Louise Casey, who led the national investigation into grooming gangs, called on the government last year to quash any convictions of victims who were criminalised when they should have been protected.

We really shouldn't have expected anything else of this failing government, should we? 

"Everybody told me that I was this problem - that I was guilty and I had committed a crime," she said. Her criminal record of more than 40 prostitution convictions has prevented her from applying for jobs, going to college, travelling abroad and even volunteering at her children's school. Joanne and thousands of people like her are due to be pardoned for loitering or soliciting, following the new legislation. However, she said the law change does not go far enough.

She has soliciting convictions from when she was aged 18 and was still being trafficked. However, the change in the law does not recognise adult convictions, so those will remain.

They had to draw a line somewhere. And they chose to draw it here.

Baroness Casey said, one year on, the government had made "huge progress in many areas" but on the issue of quashing the convictions of child sexual exploitation victims, "they haven't gone far enough, quickly enough". She said she wanted to hold the government to account.

That's our job, the voters, and we do it by kicking the bastards out. Why don't you concentrate your fire on the people we have no recourse for, the unelected civil serpents who made the decisions?

Fiona said the government's decision to only remove convictions for child prostitution offences feels "like they're trying to wipe away the evidence of their mistakes and their incorrect labelling rather than actually trying to fix an issue".

It feels like it because that's always what they try to do. 

Not With Any More Taxpayer's Money, You've Had Quite Enough

The Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak now being fought across the region shows again what Africa already knows. When an emergency arrives, the continent cannot wait on distant supply chains or other people’s goodwill. It must make and move the things that keep its people alive. The fight to end Aids by 2030 runs on the same truth.

When is it going to start standing on its own two feet then? Instead of whining about people expecting them to do just that?

Africa has earned the right to set the terms of that fight. Over two decades the continent helped turn the epidemic around. Aids-related deaths have fallen by 59% since 2010 and new infections by 68%. Nearly 22 million Africans are alive today on daily treatment. Keeping them alive is a permanent commitment.

Only because the Western taxpayer was paying, and not voluntarily either!

That obligation now meets a hard fact. External health aid to Africa was estimated to have fallen by 70% between 2021 and 2025. The model that brought the response this far, in which Africa delivered while others financed and directed, is ending whether or not anyone plans for it.

And not a moment too soon. 

The Common Africa Position for this week’s 2026 High-Level Meeting at the UN in New York on HIV/Aids is Africa’s answer. Agreed across member states, experts and institutions, it speaks with one voice. It is built on the Africa Health Security and Sovereignty agenda, which heads of state adopted to treat health as a matter of sovereignty rather than charity.

It’s bad news for Mercedes & BMW, but every silver lining has a cloud… 

Really? In A Female Dominated Workplace?

Gender-based prejudices carry disturbing echoes of historical patriarchal assumptions and myths about the mysteries of female bodies. They lead to women being perceived as anxious, hysterical or irrational, and can result in their symptoms being dismissed as psychological rather than physical, if they are taken account of at all.

And that’s not all… 

This gender bias is compounded for Black and other ethnically non-white women by racial stereotypes. One of these, the belief that women from particular ethnic groups have higher or lower levels of pain tolerance, has the same outcome – inaccurate, mistimed or missing pain relief in labour.

People who have recently used maternity services, or visited an NHS hospital, may find this surprising, because the make-up of staff is invariably nearly 100% ethnic minorities. As well as usually overwhelmingly female!

It is vital now to implement ways to regulate for safer care in a learning healthcare system which recognises the valuable contribution to safe and compassionate care that women’s voices can make.

Better start recognising some home truths instead! 

So Shame Does Still Exist...

Four councillors who voted to allow a rapist taxi driver to keep his operator's licence have quit Highland Council's licensing committee.

Good!  

David Brown, 50, was jailed for six years and nine months in May after attacking an 18-year-old female passenger in December 2023. Last month, following a request from Brown's family, the committee's six male councillors voted to allow his operator's licence to continue, while its four female councillors voted against it.

 What were they thinking?

After criticism of the decision, the chairman Sean Kennedy along with John Grafton, Duncan Macpherson and Willie MacKay have resigned from the committee. Independent councillor MacKay has also resigned as a councillor, while Grafton has been suspended by the Scottish Liberal Democrat group on Highland Council.

SNP councillor Chris Birt, another one of the six male councillors, has been asked by his party's leader on the council, Raymond Bremner, to resign from the committee.

Asked? He should have been fired! 

Visceral Loathing Sums It Up Nicely

On a bone-chillingly cold morning in January, it felt as if I had suddenly found at least part of the reason for Keir Starmer’s chronic unpopularity. I was in the Mancunian constituency of Gorton and Denton, where the prime minister and his people’s decision to block Andy Burnham from standing was about to hand victory to the Green party. More specifically, I was in a forlorn covered market about to be regenerated into a “food and drink cluster”, talking to a sixtysomething man nursing a mug of tea.

What a strange thing to go looking for, but that’s the Guardian for you! 

What, I wondered, did he think of the man at the top? He gave me roughly the same answer that I’d heard from a lot of my other interviewees: “I really don’t like him at all.” But like most other people I met that day, he couldn’t quite explain what fired his antipathy, which seemed to make it worse. His face scrunched into a mixture of scepticism and exasperation. “I don’t know why – I just don’t,” he said.

It’s visceral. It defies description.

The most specific answer I got from anyone else was: “He hasn’t done what he said he’d do.” So there it was: as well as a modern tendency to loathe politicians that regularly seems arbitrary, whipped-up and way over the top, a sense that Starmer’s sheer blankness – his painful lack of clarity and the absence of a halfway coherent story about his own government – was making a lot of people dislike and mistrust him all the more.

It is not unreasonable, I think, to see the entire Starmer project as one gigantic volte-face, given what he promised to the 275,000 Labour members who gave him the job of leader: a 10-point leftwing shopping list that included everything from multiple nationalisations to the defence of migrants’ rights.

And in the end, how many of them did he actually provide? 

When Starmer was the leader of the opposition, moreover, the public got a sharp flavour of his seemingly limitless flexibility. In June 2020, he and Angela Rayner were photographed taking the knee in support of Black Lives Matter; by 2022, Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum jubilee had begun Starmer’s passage into an increasingly bizarre world of flags and zealous patriotism. By that point, I could not help but think of a pearl of wisdom beloved of the market traders of the West Midlands: “Never make a mug of your punter.”

He stood for nothing, so he fell for everything. 

His government – and yes, it did quite a few good things, from gradual rail nationalisation to the Renters’ Rights Act, improved rights at work, more NHS funding and finally taking a step back towards Europe – was seemingly locked into regular bursts of confusion and absurdity: witness a reference on the Labour List website to “six milestones, five missions, [and] three foundations”.

And of course to the average Guardian reader, those do look like positive things. Back to the rest of us, and they don’t.

From such murk emerged the endlessly unfolding Peter Mandelson affair, and that was pretty much that. “No 10 symbolises the principles of public life in this country: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership,” Starmer said in 2022. If you were now to read those words out to the average member of the public, they would surely collapse in contemptuous mirth.

Such qualities, of course, are more important than ever. But in the era of TikTok, Instagram and all the rest (if you are old enough), people now favour leaders who are flamboyant, outspoken, capable of delivering surprises and able to look as if they enjoy what they do. Surreal modern levels of scrutiny also mean that basic consistency – or a talent for faking it – is usually an absolute must.

We’ll see how good bodybags Burnham does in the popularity stakes soon.

How Many More Of These Do We Have To Tolerate?

Two people have been arrested after a pit bull-type dog attacked a woman and seriously injured her pet.The unaccompanied dog attacked the victim's pet, near Hemlington Lake in Middlesbrough on Sunday, leaving it requiring emergency veterinary treatment.

The puppy, a German Shepherd, did not survive. 

Cleveland Police said the woman received hospital treatment after being bitten and due to the "potential risk to other people in the immediate area" a specially trained officer had to put the pit bull-type dog down near the scene.

And by ‘specially trained officer’ they been an ARV occupant, who shot the vicious mutt dead, causing howls of anguish from the usual suspects… 

The force said a man and a woman in their 30s were arrested in connection with the incident and have since been bailed.

Assistant Chief Constable Dave Sutherland said: "We understand anyone who witnessed the initial attack or the aftermath may have experienced shock or distress, however, the safety of the public is always paramount." The force has launched an appeal for information and is in contact with experts who will carry out tests to establish the breed of the dog which carried out the attack.

Tests that can be carried out on a dead animal, so why the need to take others alive? 

How Dare You Tell Me I Have To Change My Behaviour!

'We would like to see more emphasis on suitable calming measures to alert cyclists of the need for a change in behaviour, to slow down and give way to pedestrians. 'There are points in the guidance where it almost seems that cyclists should not be inconvenienced by such measures.'

This is the revelation that the government tried to squash a review into 'floating' bus stops by their own disabled persons transport advisory committee (DPTAC).

The DPTAC's report from 2025, which was marked as 'official - sensitive', was the group's response to draft government guidance on floating bus stops. However, it was uncovered last month through a Freedom of Information request - and has been seen by the Daily Mail.

Last November, the Government ordered a pause on the installation of stops, where people getting off a bus have to step onto a live cycle lane. However, Sarah Gayton, of the National Federation of the Blind of the UK, which uncovered the report, has called for an immediate halt to all floating bus stops. 'This is supposed to be the Labour party but they treat disabled people with contempt.'

Oh Sarah, you're not special, they treat everone with contempt. 

The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association has called for the roll-out of all forms of floating bus stop to be halted until they can be proven safe. It previously found through testing that trained guide dogs are naturally predisposed to avoid floating bus stops because they don't think they are safe for their handler.

The dogs figured it out, why can't the people with all the qualifications in government? 

Translating Modern Plod Statements

Allow me to read between the lines to discover the real story behind what seems to have been, at first glance, a tragic car crash.

The driver of the Vauxhall, a man aged 43, was taken to hospital for treatment following the collision and was initially arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving while unfit through drink or drugs. However he has now been held by police on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.

Detective Chief Inspector Phil Walker, who is leading the investigation, said: 'Following initial enquiries, I can confirm this collision is now being treated as a murder investigation and the suspect has been re-arrested on suspicion of murder.

 'We treated this as a simple collision, because jumping to conclusions is what we do now, but then it turned out we'd been aware of trouble with this man before, so now the IPCC is startuing to turn up the heat'

'My thoughts continue to be with the victim's family and all that knew her. Her next of kin have been informed of this latest development in the investigation and they continue to be supported by specially trained officers.

 'And their main task is to prevent anyone raiding concerns and tipping off the press that we might have dropped a bollock here.'

'I appreciate this update may increase community concern, however please be reassured that there is no risk to the wider public and we are working to piece together the events which led to this tragic incident.

 'We are sweating cobs that nothing surfaces to get us criticised for failing to do anything before this man murdered someone'

'We remain keen to hear from any witnesses or anyone who might have dash cam footage from the area of the collision at the time.

 'Please help us do our jobs even though we won't thank you for it' 

'In addition, any witnesses who have dash cam footage of a black Vauxhall Astra from Cricklade High Street, Purton High Street, and surrounding areas on Tuesday June 30th.'

'Yes, I know every tiny high street in the land is bristling with CCTV but going through them all is boring and we'd rathere you did it for us'