It's Not Just The Muslims!

Campaigners are calling on theatre bosses to stop serving bacon, sausages and ham in their cafes...

Whut?  The usual suspects? No, Reader, and yes.

...at least while Peppa Pig and her family are performing in the same building.

Oh, for god's sake! What happened to people who once did this in response to stupid demands from lunatics? 

 This is how you should have dealt with PETA! 

Grimsby Auditorium in Lincolnshire said this week it would remove pork from the menu when Peppa Pig’s Big Family Show opens next month, after a request from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta UK). The campaign group is sending the venue vegan ham as an alternative. Jennifer White, an associate director at Peta, welcomed the decision, saying she hoped it would remind people “that all pigs are individuals with personalities and not body parts to be chopped up”.

They are both, actually. 

The auditorium told Peta it would remove pork products from the Stage Door cafe menu as a “considerate gesture” during the show’s run on 3-4 March.

Why? Why not tell these charlatans - who kill more animals than anyone - to sit and spin if they don't like it?  

In November, Peta said it had persuaded Chichester Festival theatre to drop pork products from its menus during a run of The Three Little Pigs.

Ah. Because yet more spineless arty types encouraged them... 

So Many Long Names..

Police have charged four people with the murder of a 17-year-old boy in a village in south Wales. Officers were called to Lower Francis Street in Abertridwr, Caerphilly, at about 17:45 GMT on Thursday after reports a teenage boy from the village had sustained a serious injury. He was declared dead at the scene and later named as Tristan Shae Kerr.

What a good old fashioned small Welsh village name, eh, Reader? As for the 'serious injury' it was caused by a zombie knife.

Three men, aged 18, 24 and 26, and one woman, 24, are being held in custody and will appear at Newport Magistrates' Court on Monday, Gwent Police said.

Are any of those called Jones or Evans, I wonder?  (Ed: no,Ricardo Elliot, 26, Connor Palfrey, 24, Elexi Manny, 24, and 18-year-old Georgie Mears). And neither are the authorities:

"We understand that there has been a great deal of interest in this investigation," senior investigating officer Det Ch Insp Jitka Tomkova-Griffiths said. "However we would ask people not to speculate about the identities of those involved," she continued.

It seems Wales is in danger of a severe hyphen shortage.  

It seems feelings are running high, judging by this rather cryptic comment. 

Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke (Ed: !!) told the court that it was "vital" for court proceedings not to be interrupted. "I am well aware that feelings ran high when this case went before magistrates' court [on Monday]," she said.

Another one to watch.  

I Love Modern Twists On Old Fairy Tales...

...and so, it seems, does Matt! 

I Beg Your Pardon?

                                 

The term is 'hangdog'....

Sunday Funnies...

 No 9 is just applying the same rules as Narnia....

Happy 30th Birthday, Little Japanese Time Sink!

During the first wave of Pokémania in the late 90s, Pokémon was viewed with suspicion by most adults. Now that the first generation of Pokémaniacs have grown up, even becoming parents ourselves, we see it for what it is: an imaginative, challenging and really rather wholesome series of games that rewards every hour that children devote to it.

And even those who didn't grow up with it (as I was never a console kid, but rather a PC gamer), now feel the call and like me, take a day off work and travel to the Excel Centre in London to take part in mega-events like The 2026 EUIC.

Over the three decades since the original Red and Blue (or Green, in Asia) versions of the video game were released in Japan in 1996, Pokémon has earned a place among the greats of children’s fiction. Like Harry Potter, the Famous Five and Narnia, it offers a powerful fantasy of self-determination, set in a world almost totally free of adult supervision. In every game, your mother sends you out into the world with a rucksack and a kiss goodbye; after that, it’s all on you.

 No kidding! 

It was designed from the beginning to be a social game, encouraging (and indeed necessitating) that players traded and battled with each other to complete their collection of virtual creatures and train their teams up into super-squads. Today, the internet has entirely normalised the idea of video games as social activities, but in the late 90s this was a novel idea.

Not for us PC gamers, of course, we had MMORPGs like Ultima Online and Everquest...but for the console kids, hooking up to a fellow player's machine - via physical cable! - to play co-op or evolve a 'mon was revolutionary!

But it hasn't all been smooth sailing... 

Today, Tajiri is a reclusive figure. Almost everything we know about him comes from a single 1999 interview with Time magazine. The tone of Time’s piece is shockingly dismissive. Declaring the series “a pestilential Ponzi scheme” it describes the “delinquent” and “criminal” behaviour of young Pokémon fans, and the moral bankruptcy of the whole craze – which, it comforts, is likely to peter out soon, like it did for the Power Rangers. Now that Pokémon has become one of the most enduring and successful entertainment properties of all time, this alarmist attitude seems ridiculous. But the scaremongering was very real.

Thankfully I missed all that, as it was 2016's smartphone accessible 'Pokemon Go' that hooked me in, followed by my first ever console (barring a Playstation 2 I bought to play Cabelas's Hunting games and soon ended up using as a DVD player), the Switch, and recently the much more powerful Switch 2. 

Perhaps understandably, given the disrespectful and, presumably, hurtful tone of that Time interview, and the moral panic that Pokémania unwittingly ignited, Satoshi Tajiri has shunned the limelight ever since. Now 60, he remains at Game Freak and is still involved in the creation of each new Pokémon game (as of 2025, there are 38 in total), though he reportedly stepped back from day-to-day development in 2012.

They haven't all been winners, the most recent, 'Pokemon ZA' changing the combat to real time rather than turn based didn't sit too well with older less nimble-fingered players like me, but the upcoming 'Pokopia' (which I got a chance to play a demo of yesterday at EUIC) looks far more my idea of a cosy and relaxing game to pick up after work.

Pokémon’s story speaks to an important truth about video games: they are a powerful vector for connection between people. Millions are united by these imaginary creatures, born from one boy’s love of the natural world.

Indeed so. If any of those 'Time' writers are still around I hope they now realise just how wrong they were. 

FULL SPEED AHEAD....

 ...AND DAMN THE TORPEDOES*! 

* Sadly, Reader, there are no torpedoes. Nothing can seemingly prevent this dead-on-its-feet government from fatally wounding the country as it thrashes around in its death throes...

The Judicial System Of Great Britain - Protecting The Rights Of UK Citizens?

No, not really.

Pakistani national Sheraz Malik, 28, was found guilty of raping a 'vulnerable' teenage girl whom he and a friend pounced on in a park in the constituency of Reform MP Lee Anderson. Mr Anderson first exposed Malik as an asylum seeker last year after he was arrested for targeting the 18-year-old woman when she was alone in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire.

But a judge stopped the public from being told about the rapist's asylum status by gagging the Press from reporting it until the end of his trial, it can now be revealed.

A jury on Monday convicted Malik of two counts of rape after just a few hours of deliberation at Birmingham Crown Court.

Who imposed the order? One of those 'diverse' judges we were told we desperately needed to 'improve' our justice system, of course: 

At a hearing at Nottingham Crown Court in September, Judge Nirmal Shant imposed a reporting restriction postponing publication of Malik's immigration status until the end of the trial, to avoid a 'substantial risk of prejudice to the administration of justice'.

But don’t focus all your opprobium on her, Reader, the old white male judges are really no better:  

In court Malik was asked why he took advantage of the victim, and replied: 'What else was I supposed to do?' Asked how he arrived in Europe, Malik protested that the question was not relevant – prompting Judge Simon Ash to intervene and side with the defendant.

Malik will be sentenced at a later date.

The entire edifice needs sweeping out like the Augean Stables. For the same reason.

Boy, Was Joe Jackson Right...!

"Don't you know that it's different for girls?"

Harry Potter being a work for children, about children, starring children. Good grief, If a male star had reported that he employed a Hermoine Granger stripper at his stag do, we'd all be looking for his name to pop up in the Epstein Files.

Margot said: 'So we all had a weekend in London when the job was done. And of course, we went to Infernos, and within about 15 minutes, we got kicked out. 

'And while we're getting dragged out by security, I was screaming, “but this is Infernos, you can’t get kicked out of Infernos.” 

'And the bouncer was like, “Look, we allow most things, but when your friend does [redacted], then we kick you out”. 

And I was like, “okay, fair enough!”' Margot did not reveal what her friend had done to alert security, but went on to admit: 'Most of the clubs in Clapham, I'd say, have kicked us out.

Ugh. Am I the only one that wishes we could go back to the times when movie studios employed people to ensure the public didn't find out their stars were degenerates? 

Bet You Won't See The Elites Eating It Though...

“If we’re going to address the world’s insatiable craving for animal meat, we’re going to have to replace like for like.” That means cultivating meat from cells in brewery-like factories or making taste-identical plant-based meats. In both cases, for people to buy them, the products must also cost the same or less than conventional meat.

In most cases, for people to buy them, you'd have to hold a gun to their head. Or maybe that's just me?  

These alternative proteins are the electric vehicles (EVs) of food, Friedrich says; the same experience, but better: “Just like a car doesn’t now need a combustion engine, a phone doesn’t need a cord, and you can take pictures without film, you can make meat without the need for live animals.”

It's Frankenfood. I suppose it's a natural progression from the 'science' that seems to believe it's possible to change women into men and vice versa. 

But such progress will require governments to ramp up their support for the scientists overcoming the obstacles in this still-embryonic field. They have done it before for previous transformative technologies, from penicillin to the internet to renewable energy, Friedrich says.

All vastly useful inventions, that had no viable alternative at the time, or like this, did but it suited governments and lobbyists to pretend the viable alternative had become problematic.  

If China went all-in for example, he says, conventional meat could be all but history by mid-century: “They took EV sales [at home] from 1% to more than 50% in the 10 years to 2025, and that’s a tougher tech challenge and scaling challenge than alternative meats.”

China? You're pinning your hopes on China?! The population of which eats everything with wings that isn't a airplane, and everything that with four legs that isn't a table? Well, good luck with that!

Friedrich is a compelling advocate for his goal of ending industrial agriculture, with answers for the many criticisms: “It’s just a shockingly inefficient way of producing food. It takes nine calories of crops to get one calorie of chicken, 10 or 11 calories of crops to get one calorie of pig meat or farmed fish and 40 to 100 calories of crops to get one calorie of beef.”

That's industrial factory farming. But - for example -  lamb and goat can be produced on land that is useless for any other type of food production.

Frequently raised is the “yuck factor” of cultivated meat. This is overblown, Friedrich says. “People are not eating meat because of how it’s produced,” he says. “They’re eating meat because it’s delicious and affordable. All of the polling indicates significant enthusiasm for cultivated meat, especially among people who eat the most meat.”

Who are you polling, Friedrich ? Is it the people who are expected to eat this? Because, let's face it, this stuff isn't going to be on the menu at Davos or the Oscars, is it? 

I Find It A Perfectly Acceptable Risk...

 ...and so, I suspect, would most people: 

Requiring transgender prisoners to be held in jails matching their sex at birth would breach their human rights and create an unacceptable risk of suicide, a court has been told.

Oh, well...the suicide risk for those not in prison is pretty high too, due to their mental condition,  so *shrug* 

The case follows a Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman in equalities law in April last year. The Scottish government insists it respects that judgement - but said it did not override the need to uphold the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The sooner we elect Reform and junk this bloody thing, the better!  

The Scottish government's KC, Gerry Moynihan, said the ECHR meant transgender people had the right to live their lives in their acquired gender. He added there had long been recognition in the UK that this included the right to be held in prisons aligning with that.

He said trans women also had vulnerabilities and needs, and the government's judgement was they were best dealt with in the female estate "assuming they don't pose risks to others". He said this offered them "protection against mental health difficulties and the route to rehabilitation," noting that a "trans woman will return to the community as a trans woman".

They will return to the community a man, because that's what they are and what they always will be... 

O'Neill told the court on Tuesday that there was "incredible sensitivity" to the rights, dignity and privacy of trans people, while the rights of "incredibly vulnerable" female prisoners were not factored in. He said the government wanted to retain the flexibility to put "a totally non-violent trans-identifying man" in the women's estate but questioned why female prisoners had to "bear the risk" of this and act as "human shields". O'Neill continued: "What is required is the preservation of women's only spaces. 

"All I am interested in, because of the situation of women, is the preservation of women's dignity, security and sense of safety vis a vis men - that's all."

Spot on. How have we come to this as a nation? Still, we are at least marginally ahead of the open air asylum that is Canada: 

Van Rootselaar was understood to have used his mother's name, Strang, socially and at school. He was named by Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Wednesday and described as a woman.

But he wasn't.  

Amid questions over how Van Rootselaar was described in alerts, McDonald said police “identified the suspect as they chose to be identified” in public and in social media.

The Trans 'community'  is reacting with all the decorum you would expect from a crowd of narcissitic men in frocks, of course:

                            

 

Perhaps French Children Have Changed..?

In French culture, seven is known as “l’âge de raison”, the age at which children know right from wrong and can take some moral responsibility. France’s national rail operator, it seems, puts the age at which a child can be trusted to behave in a non-annoying way onboard a train a bit higher.

Well, yes. 

In launching its new Optimum plus tariff earlier this month, offering spaces onboard its weekday TGV trains between Paris and Lyon with bigger, more comfortable seats, fancy food and no under-12s, SNCF was trying to appeal to the many business travellers who make that journey.

Perish the thought! Unusually for the 'Guardian', who usually feels there's no desire so niche that it shouldn't be satisfied, the desire to not have your work commute enlivened by unruly brats is considered beyond the pale, and they found a columnist who agrees. 

But the move has sparked a backlash and a philosophical debate about the place of children in society, against the backdrop of a worrying decline in French birthrates. “We can’t on one hand say that we are not having enough children and on the other hand try to exclude them from everywhere,” argues Sarah El Haïry, France’s high commissioner for childhood.

And the name of the high commissioner is itself a clue to the social change, I suspect...

SNCF’s move was certainly a surprising one in a country that has a reputation for being family-friendly and respecting children’s right to take part in the rituals of everyday life, starting with the elaborate three-course meals they are served in school canteens. My own half-French children, growing up in Paris, have had customs such as politely greeting neighbours and shop workers drilled into them from babyhood, not to mention sitting patiently in a restaurant and chacun son tour (taking turns) on the swings in the park.

Perhaps the influx of 'new French' don't feel the same obligation that you felt to adapt to the social mores of their new homeland. 

A society that cannot bear the presence of children is “worrying”, El Haïry argues. The former minister has spoken out before about the “no kids” trend, whereby restaurants and hotels are increasingly targeting child-free grownups who are seeking peace and quiet and have deep pockets.

Is it because they have acquired a loathing of well-behaved children with their fortunes? Or is it because well behaved children are no longer the norm? 

One To Watch...

Police have seized two dogs in Havering following a distressing incident in Raphael Park where a two-year-old girl was injured and required hospital treatment. The incident has caused significant concern among local families and park users, with officers confirming that enquiries are ongoing.

The mutts were initially identified as Cane Corsos, but they turned out to be rottweilers...with a reputation in the area for past attacks. As always, social media fills in the blanks:

Not the usual chav with a vicious dog if he gave his details, though of course he didn't wait around for the police.

Well, well, well. Wonder why the police haven't acted before? 

Oh. Never mind. 

Then Make Them Personally Accountable

The family of a 15-year-old boy who was stabbed to death at school by another pupil has said her son’s murder was “senseless and avoidable” and that a report ordered by the school showed too many “red flags” were missed.

Thisis, of course, the family of Harvey Willgoose, stabbed to death by an enricher at his school. One with the now-expected history of poor behaviour that was no doubt excused by well meaning liberal teaching stagg on account of his race.

“I’m determined that no other family should be sitting in court listening to how their child was killed, have to read a report that lays bare how their child could have been protected. I want to use my voice for Harvey’s memory to push for real change.”

Such as? 

There needed, she said, to be better record-keeping and training in schools nationally. The family have called the report “damning” and said it should be published in full so other schools can learn from mistakes that were made.

You don’t think enough mistakes have been made that they should have already learned from, then? I certainly do. 

Yogi Amin, the head of public law and human rights at Irwin Mitchell, which represents Harvey’s family, said the review had identified “weaknesses in leadership”, failure to implement national policy and “serious shortcomings in record-keeping that meant weapons-related concerns and escalating behaviours were not acted upon effectively”.

Maybe start asking why they weren’t? 

Maria Turner, Harvey’s grandmother, said “all the red flags were missed” including one, she said, that identified 130 incidents in Khan’s records which included “violence, weapons, gangs and anger … and the school did not seem to pick up on this”.

Caroline Willgoose and her family are now campaigning for all schools to install knife arches to help prevent another stabbing.

Yes, by all means, let’s start installing elephant proof gates on our schools but never, ever address the elephant in the room, oh dear me no. 

Another Choirboy, I Presume..?

A 15-year-old boy has been accused of attacking a female teacher with a kitchen knife after asking for help with work, a court heard. A schoolboy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, allegedly launched the assault on the teacher at Milford Haven Comprehensive School on Thursday afternoon.

And if the court refuses MSM applications to name him after conviction, we'll never know..

He was charged with attempted murder, grievous bodily harm, and possession of a bladed article on education premises. He was remanded into youth detention over the weekend and will appear at Swansea Crown Court on February 9.

What the hell is going on in our schools? And our country?  

Once Again, The Scottish Government Is Preferable To Westminster's Lack Of Foresight...

Swift bricks will be installed in all new buildings in Scotland after the Scottish parliament voted in favour of a law to help endangered cavity-nesting birds.The Scottish government and MSPs across the parties backed an amendment by Scottish Green Mark Ruskell to make swift bricks mandatory for all new dwellings “where reasonably practical and appropriate”.

Fot once, a sensible and unobtrusive policy from the Greens, one that will benefit the environment with little to no drawbacks. Why can't we have it here? 

Because, Reader, our government is once again proven utterly useless:  

The swift move contrasts with the four-year battle to bring the hollow £35 bricks into law in England. The Labour government last year rejected an amendment to make the bricks mandatory for new buildings, instead introducing them into planning guidance, meaning there is no legal obligation on developers or planning authorities to provide them.

And Wales too, another Labour stronghold, followed suit. 

The Welsh government rejected swift bricks last year, arguing that developers could use the bricks to argue they were meeting “net benefit for biodiversity” requirements without providing other nature-positive measures.

So rather than applaud the nature-positive thing they were doing, the dog-in-a-manger morons in Wales chose to focus on the things they weren't doing? Sounds about right.

In Gibraltar, an important point on the swifts’ seasonal flyway between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, swift bricks have helped populations recover. Prof John Cortes, the environment minister of Gibraltar, said: “Scotland’s decision on swift bricks is a significant step in ensuring the survival of this species, which has come to depend so much on us. On the ‘Rock’ we have had this policy for several decades and we have seen a declining population of swifts first stabilise and then increase.”

Shortsightedness from Westminster is clearly to be expected.  

We Found A Real One!

A 'talented footballer', that is...

'One of his main passions was football, and he had played since the age of four. He was an Arsenal supporter, and we believe he was on his way home to watch the game later that night when he was stabbed and killed.

So typically 2026. As was the unnecessary coyness from the authorities about the reason for the overwhelming police presence and road closures.

And of course, while the MSM was still in bed, Twitter was making the predictions and getting them right:

A post-mortem examination showed that Oladipo died from a stab wound to his chest. Harper Dennis, 18, of North Road, West Drayton, London, has been charged with Oladipo's murder and with the possession of an offensive weapon in a public place, Leicestershire Police confirmed.

Let's hope he didn't source his weapon from the university canteen. 

Always On Point And Topical...

 ...that's Matt! 

 

Sunday Funnies...

 It's a tactic that works, so of course they over-use it. 

How Is It A ‘Superpower’ If It needs This Level Of Encouragement?

Stormzy called reading a “superpower” as he backed an initiative aimed at encouraging people who don’t see themselves as readers to pick up a book.

What sort of people ‘don’t see themselves as readers?’ you might ask, Reader? Is it once again the demographic that dare not speak its name? 

“Reading helped me when I was young and it still does today,” said Stormzy. “Books have the power to carry you through life.” 

Not as much as being a DEI media darling who can do no wrong in the eyes of the MSM…

“I encourage anyone who doesn’t usually read to pick up a Quick Read – because reading really is a superpower,” he added. “Music and books are both about finding your voice. We are all made of stories – they define who we are.”

If it really was a ‘superpower’ would you have to plug it so hard, or water it down to suit the audience you are aiming at, though? 

“Having never read a book until the age of 24, I wish I had come across Quick Reads sooner,” said Owusu. “They’re accessible, affordable and gentle in their approach, allowing new or lapsed readers to find their way into the pleasure and fulfilment of reading fiction and nonfiction. “I’m excited to be part of their legacy and to add my voice to something that helps people feel confident enough to pick up a book and look forward to spending time with it,” he added.

So what sort of literary masterpieces are you creating? 

Owusu is also the author of That Reminds Me, Losing the Plot, Borderline Fiction and the editor of Safe: 20 Ways to be a Black Man in Britain Today.

 Gosh, I’ll leave you to it…

Expecting People To Exercise A Little Self-Control In 2026 - Is That Futile?

'I have a thing with the broadcast,' she said in her press conference shortly after the loss. 'I feel like certain moments - the same thing happened to Aryna (Sabalenka) after I played her in the final of the US Open - they don't need to be broadcast.

 Well, don't do them then. Is that so hard? 

'I tried to go somewhere where I thought there wasn't a camera, because I don't like breaking rackets. I broke one racket at the French Open and I said I would never do it again on court, because I don't feel like that's a good representation. 

Well, you’re right, it isn’t. This isn’t the 70s anymore, we got over the John McEnroe era, and decided to push good sportsmanship instead. 

'I went somewhere where I thought they wouldn't broadcast it, but obviously they did. Maybe some conversations can be had, because I feel like at this tournament the only private place we have is the locker room.'

 So you're fully aware of how it looks, yet you can't possibly control yourself?

She was then asked about the benefits of letting her frustrations out on the racket, revealing it calmed down her emotions ahead of speaking to her team. 

'Yeah, definitely,' she said. 'I think for me, I know myself. I don’t want to lash out on my team. They’re good people. They don’t deserve that. I know I’m emotional. 

'I just took the minute to go and do that. I don’t think it’s a bad thing.'

Well, if you don't want people to see you do it, you clearly realise that it is.  Are you a moron?

She is world No 3 and despite her young age, has spoken confidently and passionately about various cultural and political controversies, always handling them delicately and professionally. Therefore, it came as a shock to see her red mist descend after the quarterfinal loss, which saw her dumped out at the hands of the 12th seed Svitolina.

Did it really? 

Unforseen Consequences

A horror about mythical Welsh fairies had filming relocated to north Yorkshire after crew found out about strict non-smoking rules on sets in Wales.

Does it matter these days, when so much film scenery doesn't exist outside of a hard disc anyway? 

The ban made it impossible to make key scenes look authentic, according to Rabbit Trap, external director Bryn Chainey, as the main characters Darcy and Daphne Davenport - played by Dev Patel and Rosy McEwen - are chain smokers.

It's a film, an original script - if the filming in Wales was felt to be so necessary, just write them differently to please the prodnoses, surely?  

In England, there is an exemption if someone is required to smoke as part of a role, according to the British Film Commission, external.

Relaxing the rules around film sets in Wales was discussed in detail more than a decade ago in the Senedd, with the BBC warning it could move filming of prestigious dramas over the border, but proposals were dropped after opposition from campaign groups.

Well, that's about the level of decision making we've come to expect from the Labour fiefdom in Wales, after all. 

While the Rabbit Trap team had encountered other issues around filming in the country, the director called the smoking ban "the nail in the coffin" for its original plans in Wales.

"It gives the audience a visual hint at the anxiety they're not talking about."

You're hiring these people to act, surely they can convey that some other way? 

"The only workaround would have been using CGI (computer-generated imagery) to make the cigarettes appear to burn and produce smoke," Chainey said. "That would have looked fake and was out of our budget."

As he is half-Welsh, the project was inspired by Chainey's desire to connect with his roots, with the film set entirely in a remote cottage. Welsh actor Jade Croot, from Merthyr Tydfil, whose character is bilingual, was cast in a main role. The production team then spent months searching Wales for the ideal location for filming.

And flouncing off to Yorkshire when he came up against the nonsense that has overtaken the land of his roots, rather than change his script. 

The Usual Contrast...

The killer:

The benefit claimant, whose only child is in foster care, has amassed a record of criminal offending for repeated shoplifting, theft, drugs and assault in both Scotland and England but has never previously served a jail sentence, the court heard.

The victim:

ex-Royal Marine Alun Harris-Richards...who had an undiagnosed heart disease, 'suffered such physical and emotional stress that he then and there sustained a heart attack, fell to the ground, struck his head and died'.

The punishment...perhaps

A judge told Smith, formerly of North Grimsby, Arbroath, that the only possible punishment for her offending was 'a significant custodial sentence'. The hearing was adjourned for sentencing at a later date and Smith was remanded in prison.

Adjourned so reports can be written, no doubt, reports that will outline how leniency is expected for the killer. They certainly won’t mention the gulf between the victim with his decent life and worthwhile job and the worthless waste of skin who killed him, will they? 

OK, Kenneth, Let's Expand This, Shall We?

Trump didn’t pull the triggers that killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, but he bears political responsibility for having greenlighted the agents’ regularly lawless conduct.

Say I accept your reading of the current sitauation, Kenneth. Who, then, is responsible for the killings of Iryna Zarutska, Ashli Babbitt, Laken Riley, Decara Thompson, Lizbeth Medina? 

Could it be the politicians who let their killers into the country or who argued that their killers shouldn't be judged too harshly because of years of 'racism'?

Or could it be, Kenneth, that you don’t think about Iryna Zarutska, Ashli Babbitt, Laken Riley, Decara Thompson and  Lizbeth Medina at all? Are they not even worth remembering to you, simply offerings to your god of Diversity?

What's Another Barmy Idea From The World Of Education, After All?

Pupils should not automatically be sent home if they are suspended from school in England and could instead remain on site, the government has said. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said being sent home could mean children "retreating to social media". She said on-site suspensions should be used for pupils who had not been violent.

Starmer is getting pretty deseperate to avoid pupils reading that he's a wanker on Twitter and Snapchat I guess. Everyone already knows, Kwier... 

And why is there such a desperate need to suspend pupils anyway?

The number and rate of suspensions had been increasing before Covid, but the rise has accelerated ever since.

Ah, Covid panic - the gift that really does go on giving. 

What About The Harms Done To Them By Parents Like You?

Esther Ghey has called on MPs to vote for an age restriction on social media in the coming weeks, as she accused the government of “kicking the can down the road” with its planned consultation.

Who she? How quickly one forgets, eh, Reader? 

She has previously detailed how she believes her daughter’s social media addiction contributed to her mental health issues, leading her to take risks with her personal safety.

Except she didn’t have a daughter, she had a son. A mentally ill son who believed he was a girl, and who she supported and encouraged in that belief, instead of getting him the help he needed. And now she has the gall to believe anyone should listen to her on this subject:

“Brianna wasn’t alone. We know that there are each day, in England alone, 500 mental health referrals for children and we need to really think what is impacting this, why is there such an increase in mental health issues, why is there an increase in peer and peer violence in schools, why is there a difficulty retaining teachers in schools. 

“We need to move now because as we’re waiting, more and more children are being harmed.”

They are. But not all of them by social media. 

Another Of Those Things That 'Never Happens' Has Happened...

...and produced this surreal situation for the judge:

The jury was told they will be taken to the scene of the incident in a site visit. Judge Daniel Sawyer said: 'Ordinarily I would tell you not to go to the location but in this case it's just out the back of the building and it would be utterly pointless, you can see most of it from your jury retiring room.'

I'm surprised he didn't just tell them anyway, since the justice system loves futile gestures. 

Feels As If The Muzzle Was Serving A Useful Purpose, Kristen

Stopping you from embarrasing utterances like these ones, for a start:

Stewart first read the book in 2018, while on the set of the movie JT LeRoy. She saw the visual potential in this mass of chaotic images and quickly decided it would be her first feature-length film as director. “Forty pages in, I was so rallied and so viciously adamant that nobody else could make the movie but me,” she says.

Really? Yet you've never made one in your life. 

“It was so physical. So vital. Such a permeating secret. There’s an unearthing quality to the way that [Yuknavitch] talked about trespass, and how your desires are carved into your body. As a woman, we have these seeping birthplaces that are our orifices, and it’s where we hold our power, but it’s also where we’re taken advantage of.”

This particular line generated much amusement over at Tim's place... 

At this point, less than two minutes in, it’s fair to say that it isn’t quite turning out to be your run-of-the-mill movie-star promotional chat. “We’re all so muzzled,” Stewart says. “And it just felt like the muzzle was off. That’s the fun part. It’s got a loud mouth. A big, wide-open mouth.” So she sent Yuknavitch an email.

Didn't pick up the telephone and use your loud mouth, then? Luckily for her, the auther appears to be cut from the same cloth: 

“A wildly exciting email,” the author says, from her home in Portland, Oregon. “She was explaining to me why I could never let this book be a regular biopic movie, and how I had to let her make a piece of art out of it. The language she used went under my skin immediately, because it wasn’t regular-person language.”

No, you're not kidding!  

Yuknavitch, obsessed with films since she was five, was, of course, familiar with Stewart’s work. “I even wrote a novel with her in mind, a while ago. She was younger. She had just punched through the Twilight experiences, and she was moving toward independent art films, and I pictured her in my brain when I wrote this novel.” It is called Dora: A Headcase. It sounds like a spooky connection, if she believes in that kind of thing? Artists, Yuknavitch replies, have a tendency to find each other.

Words fail me... 

Is The Clue In The Name?

The Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) released a report on Thursday into the actions of the former orthopaedic surgeon who treated hundreds of children over five years. The review found that 98 patients (12.4%) experienced some level of harm, and 94 of these cases were linked specifically to the care provided by (him.).

Why was he allowed to continue for so long? Could it be because he wasn't British?

Well, Who? Apart, Of Course, From The Usual Suspects...

The mother of a man who was mauled to death by an XL Bully he was dog-sitting is demanding someone take accountability.

Scott Samson's remains were discovered alongside the dog in the blood-soaked living room of his home in Rutherglen in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, on March 15 last year. The XL Bully, named Mitch, belongs to Neal Stark, 37, who had given it to a friend when he was jailed for drug offences in February 2025.The friend then asked Mr Samson to look after the dog while he went on holiday.

I guess having criminal-adjacent friends who palm off unregistered dangerous dogs on you in Scotland is a risk factor akin to going out to attend a protest while armed in Minnesota albeit with a far more grueome outcome...

Mr Samson's mother Morag said police did not tell her he had been attacked by the dog when his body was discovered, and instead said he died from an accidental drug overdose - leaving her confused when an undertaker said she would not be able to see his body and he would need a closed coffin.

So they lied. Is anyone surprised? Think they've sunk about as low as they could go? Reader, you ain't heard nothin' yet:  

Morag said dog catchers were unable to remove the aggressive XL Bully from the house, meaning it was left in the room with Mr Samson's body for another 13 hours during which time she believes it continued to attack him, targeting his 'private parts'.

The cause of Mr Samson's death was inconclusive due to the extent of the damage done to his body.

Yes, Police Scotland let this monster mutt eat the victim rather than risk the emails from the 'aww poor puppy' lunatics by sending in an ARV to riddle the thing with bullets. 

Morag was reeling with anger when she learnt no one will be prosecuted over her son's death and police have spent thousands of pounds keeping the XL Bully in kennels since the attack.

It's only taxpayer's money, Morag... 

The grieving mother said the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) told her there isn't enough evidence to prosecute the dog's owner, despite the animal being confirmed by experts as an XL Bully and found to be unregistered - a legal requirement for the banned breed.

Once again, the CPS living down to their nickname. 

Scottish Conservative shadow minister for community safety Sharon Dowey MSP said: 'This deeply troubling case exposes serious failures in how dangerous dogs are dealt with in Scotland, leaving families devastated and police tied up with costly, drawn-out processes. 'SNP ministers were far too slow to act on XL Bullies, and this failure has left communities less safe while taxpayers foot the bill. 'Police and prosecutors need the powers, clarity and resources to act decisively, and SNP ministers must urgently explain why that is still not happening.'

But they won't and they won't face any genuine consequences for this either, and you know it... 

Inventions Often Turn On Their Creators...

Didn't anyone at the Home Office ever read Mary Shelley or H G Wells? 

The origins of the character are ironic, to say they least. An early iteration of Amelia began life in a counter-extremism video game funded by the UK Home Office and created to deter young people aged 13-18 from being attracted to far right extremism in Yorkshire.

Why would they be? What's been happening in Yorkshire, I wonder?  

Pathways: Navigating the Internet and Extremism is a simple multiple choice format game with basic animation. Its players are taken on a journey as characters at a college. They are invited to make decisions in scenarios including whether or download potentially extremist content or join an Amelia character on a rally organised by “a small political group” protesting against changes in society and the “erosion in British values”.

You released a virtuesignalling hectoring game, one that you really should have known would be subverted by gamers post-Gamergate... 

Certain choices result in a referral under the British government’s Prevent counter-terrorism programme.

And of course, that's exactly what happened!  

However, it is a subversion of the Amelia character that has exploded across social media channels in a way that has astonished even the creators of the original game. Among the plethora of increasingly sophisticated AI-generated iterations are a Manga-style Amelia, a Wallace and Gromit version and AI-generated “real life” encounters between her and the characters of Father Ted or Harry Potter, accompanied by racist language and far-right messaging.

 We live in ....interesting times, don't we? 

That Tune's Familiar: Parody Songs

Popular movies and musicals are often a rich seam for musical parody creators, and Disney's 'Frozen' has launched a thousand of them, but this is without question the best of them all:

Maybe Stick To Tesla After All...

 

...it's got to be safer, eh, Matt?

Sunday Funnies...

 The old ways are often the best....

It's Who They Are, It's What They Do....

Three years ago, Dr Eithan Haim exposed Texas Children's Hospital for secretly performing illegal sex change procedures are being on minors as young as 11. 

And was he thanked fot bringing such actions to the attention of the authorities, while the criminals carrying them out went into hiding and tried to cover up what they had been doing? Reader, no. That's what happens in a sane world, and we aren't living in one. 

Dr Kristy Rialon tried to 'destroy' his career by spreading 'malicious' lies about him after he blew the whistle on their program, according to a lawsuit obtained by the Daily Mail. Rialon, 43, posted several 'anonymous defamatory reviews' on Haim's WebMD profile, alleging that he was 'mutilating and raping his patients', the complaint said. In one post, she even pretended to be a patient and detailed how he allegedly raped her, the filing stated.

Strange how what the Left accuse others of doing is always what they turn out to have been doing themselves, isn't it? 

The DOJ, FBI and Health and Human Services department launched an investigation into the allegations in 2024, but the Trump Administration has since dismissed the case with prejudice because it was 'founded on lies, not facts or law.'

Haim's complaint is backed by billionaire Elon Musk and his social media platform X, which the doctor alleged enabled him to 'fight back against an unjust prosecution.'

One to watch, and don't forget the popcorn. 

 

But She Wasn't 'Standing Up For Her Neighbours', Was She?

The mischaracterisation of the Minnesota shooting continues apace:

That a white woman can be killed on camera, with impunity, and be demeaned and ridiculed in her death for standing up for her neighbors shows just how far down the road of violence the nation has gone.

She wasn't standing up for het neighbours, she was standing up fot illegal immigrants that ICE were looking for in order to boot out of the country, a policy many of her neighbours would have voted for after years of Democrat tolerance of them.

It is a road most Americans do not want to continue on – recent polling shows the majority disapprove of how ICE operates.

I'd like to see the questions that poll was actually asking!  

But to truly stop the damage requires going further – it means eradicating the security logic that ever made people think that arming a secret police on an ethnic cleansing mission could ever make them safe.

Gosh, whatever could have given them that idea? Could it possibly have been all the rapes and murders committed by illegals, perchance? Not to mention the terrorism that was the basis for the very creation of ICE:

Formed in 2003, during the embarrassing and disastrous national excesses of the post-9/11 era – when the nation launched two ill-fated forever wars, and demonized Muslim immigrants – ICE’s mandate was overwrought and ill-considered. Its formation was part of the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) which – as illustrated by its name – formally adopted the idea that immigrants were an inherent security threat to Americans.

Well, having launched the biggest ever terrorist attack on US soil it's really no surprise.... And it's not just one political party with that view, either:

In 1986, Ronald Reagan coupled the country’s only amnesty program with a seven-fold increase in border enforcement – beginning an arms race that would shape border violence for decades. But it was Bill Clinton’s 1996 signing of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) set the stage for our current mass deportation system, by making deportation easier, and making more people deportable, even for nonviolent crimes.

Immigrants - even legal ones - are guests in your country and you have the absolute right to set the rules by which they come to rhe country and live there. Who on earth would ever think you didn't?  

Heba Gowayed is an associate professor of sociology at Cuny Hunter College and Cuny Graduate Center and author of the book Refuge: How the State Shapes Human Potential Victor Ray is the F Wendell Miller associate professor of sociology at the University of Iowa and author of the book On Critical Race Theory: Why It Matters & Why You Should Care

Ah. I see. 

Tweet Of The Month

 January proved an exceptionally rich month.

And the Venezuela adventure was a rich source:

As was the ICE issue in the States...

And then there was The Jenrick Miscalculation (No, not a Robert Ludlum novel, sadly)

Things weren't going much better for Labour...

Post Title Of The Month

 Longrider on a more annoying Tube phenomenon than people who play rap music sans earphones: 

Quote Of The Month

 David Thompson is puzzled once more by the US University contingent: 

"The question “what is queer food?” is, we’re told by Professor Elias, “a question that’s coming up a lot lately.” If only among academics desperate for an angle, an excuse for claiming a salary and wasting other people’s time. Academics much like Professor Elias.

Elias said she does not have a definition for what “queer food” is, but wants “recognition” it exists.

Welcome to the bleeding edge of human mental activity."

 

Post Of The Month

Jonathan Pearce at Samizdata solicits the commentariat's view on the ICE incident in Minnesota.

Oh, Posters, They Make Everything Work Better, Right?

From Monday, GP practices across the country will use posters to promote Jess’s rule, a new system aimed at preventing serious illnesses from being missed and needless deaths. It is named after Jessica Brady, a 27-year-old who contacted her surgery 20 times before dying of cancer in 2020. Jess’s rule urges family doctors to consider a second opinion, conduct a face-to-face physical examination or order more tests if a patient has had three appointments for their symptoms but no diagnosis.

Another piece of legislation named after a victim, and we all know how useful they often turn out to be, don't we, Reader?  

Posters advertising Jess’s rule have been sent to all 6,170 GP practices in England. The system was launched in September but the new posters will boost patient safety by reminding GPs to rethink initial assumptions, ministers said.

Will they? There are posters up in every single place of work, and public areas like train stations, and after the first day, how much notice is taken of them? 

The posters were co-designed by Brady’s parents, Andrea and Simon Brady, NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care. GP surgeries will also receive a letter from Streeting and NHS England’s national medical director, Dr Claire Fuller, stressing the importance of Jess’s rule.

Which will go straight in the bin, because if something isn't backed up by consequences for failure, it's not worth the paper you'e printing these posters on. 

But it seems the case that brought about this entire policy is yet another 'gift' from the Covid hysteria:

Jessica, an engineer for Airbus, contacted her GP surgery about 20 times in six months before her death in 2020, reporting symptoms including abdominal pain, coughing, vomiting and weight loss. Owing to restrictions during the pandemic, she was offered virtual appointments and prescribed medications including antibiotics and steroids. She was also told she may have long Covid. She was finally diagnosed with cancer that had spread throughout her body, but only after her mother paid for her to see a doctor privately.

You gave the NHS the chance to slack off and not treat patients while still getting paid using a bad bout of the flu as an excuse, and this happened. You're not fixing this with posters. 

"Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent"

Never was that quote by Adam Smith more encapsulated in a modern context than in this revolting case which shows us all how low the justice system has sunk.

A transgender woman who groomed and raped a young girl in Wirral before transitioning has been jailed for 15 years

So a man when he committed the offence, and of course, still a man now.Always a man in fact. Yet described as a woman in every report of this nighmare case, apart from one no doubt accidental slip in the Wirral Globe.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that the victim has been badly affected by his appalling behaviour and her former outgoing personality has changed. Jailing the defendant, who appeared in the dock sporting a moustache, Judge Katherine Pierpoint, said, “You groomed her so you could start to abuse her to fulfil your own sexual desires.”

Yes, Reader, a white liberal female judge. You know what to expect from such now, don't you?  

Anthony O’Donohoe, defending, said that a custodial sentence was likely to be difficult for Peers.

He's the defence brief, considering this pervert to be the real victim is his job. It's certainly not, however, the job of the judge: 

The judge said she accepted Peers had struggled with gender identification issues throughout her life. “I appreciate as a transgender prisoner there are issues you will have to navigate during a lengthy prison sentence.”

Those are consequences, Judge.  

This Is What Our 'Justice System' Has Come To...

Mahamad, of Browns Green, denies charges of attempted murder and an alternative of wounding with intent.

Why is an alternative even offered by the useless CPS (here living fully up to their nickname of 'Couldn't Prosecute Satan') when this enricher stabbed the other enricher - who at least had an actual job - twenty-nine times..?

He answered no comment after being arrested by police, the court heard 

Mr Wallace spoke on his alternative of wounding with his intent charge, saying: 'The defendant denies even this was what he intended. 

'It goes with the territory when you are a robber. It was bad luck he got injured while he was intending to rob him. 

'That's what the defendant was saying.'

The defence is actually proffering the argument that this Third World savage considers armed robbery his profession. That he's allowed to do this makes even more of a mockery of our justice system.

If We Haven't Needed It For 10 Years, Why Do We Need It Now?

Ministers will bring in a new “school of government” for senior civil servants to train them in AI and other skills – more than a decade after David Cameron axed the previous college for Whitehall.

Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, will announce the new body in a speech on Tuesday setting out the government’s plans to “rewire” the civil service for modern times. Cameron’s decision to close the previous national school of government at Sunningdale has been widely considered a mistake, with growing fees for external providers.

Considered a 'mistake' by whom? Anyone we should take any notice of?  

Ahead of the speech, Jones said he was determined to “work with the civil service to change the system, promote innovation and build in-house state capacity to get things done”.

Aimed at improving the training of senior civil servants, its programme will include knowledge on economics, finance, policy, leadership and management, commercial, AI, data and digital, programme and project management and delivery.

Maybe it's just me, but shouldn't they have all that already, in order to get to be senior civil servants in the first place? 

His speech, due on Tuesday with a promise to “move fast, fix things”, will build on existing plans to halve government spending on external consultants and reduce departmental administration costs by 16% over the next five years, delivering savings of £2bn a year by 2030.

Aha! That's who consider this a mistake then - the consultants who were suckling at the teat of government! 

In an interview with the Times last week, Jones also suggested he would increase performance-related pay and more civil servants would be “shown the door” if not meeting standards.

Oh, when have I heard that one before?  

Slippery Slope Gets Even More Slippery...

An elderly woman was euthanized within hours of her husband claiming she changed her mind after insisting she wanted to live. 

Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying laws allow patients to request a painless death if an assessor agrees their terminal condition meets certain requirements. 

Patients often wait weeks, but it can happen the same day the application is lodged if judged to be medically urgent by a MAiD provider.

Yet another time when what those pushing a proposal say will never happen happens...

'Many members brought forward concerns of possible external coercion arising from the caregiver's experience of burnout and lack of access to palliative care in an in-patient or hospice setting,' the report noted. Members were also concerned that Mrs B's spouse was the main person advocating and navigating access to MAiD, and there was little documentation that she actually asked for it herself.

In a just world, cases like these would bring to a screeching halt any other such schemes being pushed around the world. But ithey won't, will they, Reader?  

But People With Hammers, Zoe...

...you just cannot tell them something isn't a nail. They just want to use the hammer.

Kemi Badenoch is evolving into one of those politicians who, whatever she says, is not just likely to be wrong, but is likely to say the opposite of what’s right. She says Greenland is not a big deal (a “second-order issue” is how she described it to the BBC) – it is a big deal. She says net zero is too expensive – the opposite is true: net-anything-but-zero is a cost we can’t afford. But her promise to ban under-16s from using social media, echoing Australia’s recent move, is hard to write off completely; people across the spectrum, including Andy Burnham, agree with it.

Which should, for any functional human with two brain cells to rub together, be a sign that it's not something to endorse. 

Nobody who has ever met a teenager, or read the news, will be completely at ease with the role of social media in young lives. There are horrific effects, which have been well documented and inadequately addressed ever since the death of 14-year-old Molly Russell, who took her own life in 2017 after viewing suicide and self-harm content online.

We are seriously considering this because one obviously mentally unwell teenager died? No, because people like Zoe's colleagues have realised what an invention that allows worldwide instant communication means for their progressive agenda.

Many platforms, even those that seem anodyne, are purpose-built to spur anxiety, self-doubt, self-harm, anything that delivers attention. We have this completely contradictory environment in which a nine-year-old can’t walk to school alone without turning into grist for a radio phone-in about parental neglect, and yet tech companies with a record of generating emotional distress for profit are allowed access to children’s bedrooms.

 And after all, it's not just young people who are using it, is it..?

Between Gen X miscreants and hyper-credulous boomers, there are generations that pose a greater risk to, and are themselves at risk from, the informational ecosystem. Any thinking politician needs to work out how to deal with them.

Shame we don't have any of those. 

Sympathy Evaporating....

A grieving mother says action should be taken to tackle Britain's e-scooter 'scourge', as she shared photos following her 14-year-old son's death in a crash. Carly Calland posted pictures, including some of paramedics treating her son Jacob, in an effort to 'bring home the reality and seriousness of what happened'.

Well, she's not wrong, these things are indeed a total menace. 

Campaign calls have been backed by Ms Calland, whose son Jacob died in an e-scooter accident in March last year - and she has now shared photos of the clothes he was wearing at the time, after finally having them returned last week. She wrote: 'After a lot of thought, I feel it is right that I share these photos with the public. As is normal in this day and age, members of the public started taking photographs of the scene and started posting on social media straight away.'

Well, you're in good company, because this is the subject of yet another demand for legislation to regulated human nature. So what happenerd to the illegal rider who mowed down your young son while he was walking innocently on the pavement? I mean, that was what happened, right?

Jacob was riding on the back of an e-scooter without a helmet through a busy junction in Wythenshawe, Manchester, on March 19 2025, when the crash happened.

Oh... 

She told the Daily Mail how she wants e-scooters to be legalised, as a step towards better regulating their use - as well as mandatory wearing of helmets and a ban on carrying people as passengers.

Not quite as breathtakingly awful as killing your parents and having the audacity to then plead clemency on the grounds you're an orphan, but certainly in the ballpark. 

Ms Calland added: 'I'm not going to stop campaigning. The government say they'll make changes - I won't allow them not to. It won't be worth their while ignoring me.'

They'll file you in the same box they file all demands from people who want governmemt to save them from the consequences of their own failures, unless they think there are votes in it for them. And I really don't think there are.. 

Yes, They Actually Let A Fox Guard The Henhouse...

The head of a primary school who discussed sexually abusing a child with a mother he met on a fetish website has been banned from teaching for life.

Gosh! I wonder what the school safeguarding team thought about this? 

Paul Brown, the safeguarding lead at Bransgore Church of England school in Christchurch, Hampshire, left in April 2024 due to 'personal reasons'.

Oh.... 

But it has now emerged that he was arrested in July 2023 as a suspected paedophile - although he was not charged.

Why not? Another CPS lazy day, I guess. Or the police failed to secure enough evidence to charge him. 

Brown used a bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism (BDSM) website Fetlife between June and July 2023, sometimes during school hours.

Gotta have a little something to while away the long boring hours, I guess... 

After police arrested him, Brown claimed he thought it was 'all fantasy' and that Person A's children did not exist.

As likely an excuse as 'the dog ate my homework'... 

Despite the accusations against him, the misconduct panel heard character witness statements. One person wrote to the panel: 'I agree that he acted unwisely and without rational perspective but I don't believe he has ever, or would ever, harm another human being, including a child.' Another wrote: 'I believe that Paul is safe to work with children,' adding that 'Paul has spent his life helping children' and is a 'good man who has had his life's work taken away by this very sad affair'.

Luckily, the panel didn't go along with this. And he showed his utter contempt for the system by his behavior at the hearing. 

The conduct panel heard how, despite the nature of the conversation Brown had with Person A, he did not report the profile to the website or contact the police despite being aware that children were at 'risk of sexual abuse'. Brown did not attend the hearing. In a letter and a statement to the panel dated October 2025 he admitted to 'large parts of the allegations facing him'.

It should come as no surprise that these people seek to put themselves in these positions of access to prey but when caught, they really should face more consequences than this.