It's Not Even November Yet...

..and the Poppy Wars have started:

A spokesman from Swale Borough Council said: "Our licencing team has been allowing the use of the oppy and the Royal British Legion sticker on iCars’ taxis. 

"However, following a complaint, we checked the use against our policy, and it is not permitted under our Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy 

"The policy was most recently updated and agreed in 2025 by our Licensing Committee and Policy and Resources Committee, following a public consultation which included feedback from the taxi industry.  

“The issue is not about the poppy or the Royal British Legion, which the council supports, but the fact that we received a complaint that the vehicle was not complying with our policy.

The decision sparked so much fury that the council acknowleded the 'oops' moment and is trying to row back now that the possibility of telling the single complainant to fuck off has passed by... 

“We are aware that iCars has removed the sticker and poppy and we are scheduling a Licensing Sub-Committee meeting to discuss iCars’ request for an exemption from policy. 

“The next Licensing Committee meeting will look at the policy to make sure that there is clarity on this issue."

It should be pretty easy to allow an exemption for this sole issue without allowing all and sundry to customise their taxis, shouldn't it? 

Just Euthanise The Dangerous Bitch...

 ...and put the owner in jail. Or vice versa, I'm sure the NHS will assist...

A dog owner will appear in court next week after her Staffie attacked a number of dogs at Withy Grove Park in Bamber Bridge. Kimberley Bond, 51, of Grove Street, Bamber Bridge, was arrested in July and charged with being in charge of ‘a dog dangerously out of control’.

And of course, instead of ending the wothless mutt then and there, it was seized alive to soak up taxpayer cash until the trial, as if it were a vital piece of evidence.... 

The silver female Staffie was seized by Lancashire Police and remains in kennels pending the outcome of its owner’s court case.

And as usual in these cases, the owner had been given a chance to retain her mauler, and didn't: 

The 51-year-old is further charged with failing to comply with a community protection notice in relation to the dog. 

Prior to her arrest, Bond was told she must comply with a number of conditions, including ensuring that her back garden was secure, that the dog was only walked by an adult and that it remained on a 1m lead at all times, whilst wearing a Baskerville muzzle. But according to local reports, the dog continued to escape and menace other dogs in Withy Grove Park - the largest green space in Bamber Bridge and a popular children’s play area.

And so it goes on and on... 

An HGV Will Be Along One Day To Pass Sentence...

I plead guilty.

 Oh good...

I have loved and used the streets of London all my life, as a cyclist, driver and pedestrian. Touch wood, I have done so without accident, blemish or insurance claim. Yet now I find myself perpetually on the wrong side of the law. Regulation has become bureaucratic and chaotic.

That's not unusual for a cyclist, is it? But they usually aren't so remorseful and just why do you feel you cannot obey the laws around driving? 

When I try to drive at the authorised speed of 20mph on many through roads, I am hooted at and overtaken by vans, cars, coaches and buses. And when I sit dutifully on my bike at a traffic light, I am jostled by swarms of cyclists riding through on red, furious at being treated as if they were car drivers.

So? As my mum was wont to say 'If all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you do it?' In fact, I bet it's something everyone's mum said, except apparently Simon's.

As for pedestrians, walking on many pavements is like taking a ride on the dodgems. Riders of ebikes and e-scooters ignore bans and expect everyone to move out of the way.

Bans which aren't enfoced might as well not exist, we all know this... 

I normally approve of anarchy. There is too much regulation everywhere. The great Dutch traffic engineer Hans Monderman boldly advocated “shared space” in cities. He wanted kerbs, road markings and traffic signals minimised and replaced by “human discipline”. All road users should navigate urban space by watching out for each other all the time.

In a cohesive and monocultural society such a thing is possible, but we no longer have one of those, do we? 

As a lifelong cyclist I admit to finding a certain exhilaration in riding a bike. I avoid main thoroughfares but like snaking through streets crammed with traffic, finding shortcuts through alleys and mews. But the essence of cycling is to keep moving. Hence I have to admit to sometimes doing what many London cyclists do at red lights. That is, look carefully, follow Monderman and “share” any unoccupied road space ahead by riding on.

And one day, you'll come a cropper. What a loss to journalism that will be! 

Ebikes now come in all shapes and speeds. It is astonishing that the sleek Freesky Alaska, with its 250W engine, can be treated as if it was just another manual pedal bike. To my mind, it is blatantly a motorbike. When a delivery driver on one careers past me in Hyde Park, I wonder if I took a wrong turning. These machines must be put on the roadway where they belong.

Since we can't uninvent them, I suppose that's the next best thing. 

Now, Now, You Know That's Not The Purpose Of These Investigations...

This month, the university announced it would open a fresh investigation after it said it received “new information” about Arday’s qualifications and career.Other elements of Arday’s life story were increasingly questioned, including claims of prodigious money-raising for charity and feats of long-distance running. He was also challenged about whether he was nonverbal until the age of 11, as well as being illiterate until 18. It is understood Cambridge has paused the investigation while Arday’s family are grieving, and will consider whether to reopen it in due course.

Is there much point now?  

Prof Simon Baron-Cohen, Arday’s friend and former colleague, told Times Radio he thought the university should proceed with the investigation. “We should see what we learn from it. This is the whole purpose of investigations,” he said.

Oh Simon, how naive! The purpose of them is to exonerate the people who made the errors in the first place.  The people who employed and lauded this liar and fantascist and published his every utterance when a moment's reflection should have had them scratching their head at the implausibility of it.

Andy Burnham, the prime minister, described Arday’s death as a “tragedy on so many levels” and urged a “moment of reflection”.

Yes, that's needed, a moment to reflect on the cancer of identity politics and the ruin they have made of all aspects of life, but particularly further education and the arts. But I doubt that's what he meant.

The vigil was organised by Arday's postdoctoral students and was held on Sunday afternoon. Kahn added: "Hold your friends close and know that we stand strong because we stand together. "Now, there is a time for anger, of justifiable anger, and that time will come - but today is not that day. "Today is about celebrating the life of a brilliant man, Professor Jason Arday. "Today we share the ways Jason made a difference in our lives and in the lives of those around us."

It seems it would suit some people to declare this man Britain's George Floyd, for racial reasons. 

She said there would be a "promise to seek justice" for him. Another student told the crowd: "Racism did this."

Is there no one who will stand up to the racial grievance industry that's being incubated in our halls of learning?  

More Accurate Headlone: The Definitions Of Each Have Been Stretched Too Far...

Racism and sexism have become normalised in Britain, the equalities minister has said, as she warned that young men were being sucked into violent misogyny by the “cesspit” of social media.

It takes extraordinady chutzpah to make a statement like this the day after the Home Office has had to publish pamphlets exhorting Third World invaders not to behave as if they were still in their foreign shitholes. Or just the typical lack of smarts that we can expect from this dead-on-its-feet Labour government under bodybags Burnham.

Bridget Phillipson said she was increasingly worried about how commonplace misogyny and racism had become, fuelled by online interactions and statements by politicians she said would not have been acceptable a few years ago.

Yes, obviously the real threat is in cyberspacee, not the real world, because you want to control it.  

Speaking to the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast, she said: “I worry that we are at kind of a ground zero in terms of attitudes around violence against women and girls. Things that not very long ago felt totally unacceptable are becoming normal. I think we’re seeing that in terms of attitudes towards women, and I think we see that in terms of attitudes around racism.”

Well, you're certaainly right that some people's attitudes to women stink but they're not always men, are they? Proving this cartoon right: 

She accused the shadow justice secretary, Nick Timothy, and Reform’s economic spokesperson, Robert Jenrick, of having made racist statements in recent years. Earlier this year, Timothy called Muslims praying in Trafalgar Square an “act of domination”, while Jenrick came under fire in October after the Guardian revealed he had complained he “didn’t see another white face” on a trip to an area of Birmingham.

“We had Nick Timothy, who said some appalling things about Muslim prayer. “Apparently I’m calling him names when I say that’s racist. I think it is fundamentally racist because I don’t think he would say that about any other group.”

Does any other group practise this arrogant seizure of public space for their religious devotions? No? Maybe thats why he doesn't say it.

The women and equalities minister also criticised the police for not taking violence against women and girls seriously enough.

Perhaps they are too busy with internal matters.  

All The News That's Fit To Print....

...and some things that have to be left out:

A Newquay man has been charged after a woman was allegedly struck down by a van and grabbed by its driver. Police investigating reports of an attempted kidnap in Andover in Hampshire, almost 200 miles away from the Cornwall town, shared a public statement yesterday (Friday, March 6).

The statement said 28-year-old Sean Haverty has been charged in connection with the investigation. He has been remanded in custody and was due to appear before Basingstoke Magistrates' Court yesterday.

But not under the name 'Sean Haverty' though: 

                    

 Isn't 'Safiya' a woman's name? Google confirms it. And 'Anna' leaves little doubt. So why is this not worthy of mention? 

H/T: Jenn via Twitter



Update:

When Haverty was first charged in March, police and local media explicitly identified him as a man and referred to him using his birth name. However, shortly after the trial began Judge Rufus Taylor informed jurors that Haverty had changed his name and was biologically male but that he was “presenting as a woman” in court. It is unclear when Haverty began identifying as a woman or formalized his new name, but it appears to have been following his arrest When Haverty was first charged in March, police and local media explicitly identified him as a man and referred to him using his birth name. However, shortly after the trial began Judge Rufus Taylor informed jurors that Haverty had changed his name and was biologically male but that he was “presenting as a woman” in court. It is unclear when Haverty began identifying as a woman or formalized his new name, but it appears to have been following his arrest

She Can't Stay In The Closet, It's Not Big Enough...

As you might know if you read my columns, see me a mile away, or talk to me for five seconds, I am a card-carrying lifelong member of the Fat Lesbian Club.

I wonder what sort of cards they carry… 

However, ever since I first laid eyes on the television show Roseanne (very important to me) as a small child, the actor John Goodman has held a special place in my heart. It was confusing for me: did I want to be Dan Conner, or be with Dan Conner? I’m still not sure. He has always been so hot to me, from Dan on Roseanne to Fred Flintstone to Walter in The Big Lebowski. His body has now drawn attention in the last week or so, after a photo of him showing significant weight loss went viral.

He looked ill. Of course the media was rife with speculation. 

It’s not Goodman’s 74-year-old body (his choice) I want to discuss, but instead the arguments that broke out about how he lost the weight. On one side there were many people congratulating him on his hard work. Then there were people claiming he had taken Ozempic so it wasn’t actually hard work, and then there were people defending that by saying he’d been losing weight for years, so he’d done it the “right way”, actually.

I don’t know the details and I don’t care, but none of this is good.

For someone who ‘doesn't care’ you’re rather dwelling on it.

I’m a fat person. We are constantly badgered and tortured by a society that tells us to lose weight, at all costs. If you’re fat, that’s a moral failing: you’re lazy and unhealthy.

Society has spent decades telling fat people that our value depends on our ability to control our weight. Now there is medicine that can make that control easier, and suddenly the problem is not the weight but whether the person has suffered sufficiently to “deserve” it. People resent us for being fat, and they resent us for getting thin.

My god, ‘Not The Nine O’clock News’ was spot on, wasn’t it? 

🎵"Don't stick stickers on my paper knickers..."🎵

...especially not these sort!

Two council cleansing workers were taken to hospital after falling ill while removing an “unauthorised sticker” from a lamppost on Morningside Road on Thursday, sparking a large-scale response by emergency services.A 30-year-old has been arrested and charged after a substance was found on a lamppost in the Morningside area.

What substance? No-one's saying! And these stickers seem not to be 'hazardous' at all, or so the police woulld like us to believe, which makes you wonder what the 30 year old has been charged with. And 30 yrar old what? Man ? Woman? The police say woman. Social media says different.

Police Scotland later confirmed the substance had been deemed safe following testing, reassuring residents it posed “no threat” to the public. However, emergency services were called out for a second time late on Thursday night following “additional reports of a potential hazardous material" near Hermitage Terrace.

 The colours are significant, I feel...

Police have arrested and charged a 30-year-old woman after an ‘unknown substance’ was discovered on a lamppost in Morningside. She is due to appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court at a later date.

The mystery deepens...

 

Well, It's Only Fair To Spread The Burden...

                              

....isn't it, Matt?

Sunday Funnies...

 Just in time for the release of 'Planet Zoo 2', I can only hope it doesn't have this level of realism...