But Didn't It Happen In 2016..?

And some might say we aren't there yet...

H/T: Ian J via email

It's Finally Here!

Happy Brexit everyone! 

"Those that shout the loudest seldom have the support of the majority or their moral backing."

I think my love affair with Brexit may be over:

Lord Goldsmith, the Government's animal welfare minister and a close friend and political ally of Boris Johnson and his fiancee Carrie Symonds, is understood to be spearheading the move.

The Government is considering plans to prohibit the import of wild animal fur into the UK that would essentially forbid the sale of clothes containing fur in shops after the transition period.

We're really going to prevent free people from buying items of clothing that are sustainable and natural? This is what we voted for Brexit to accomplish? Really? 

Defra — the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs — is expected to publish a consultation paper after the transition period ends this year.

Leaked Defra documents seen by The Daily Telegraph showed Lord Goldsmith met with the executive director of anti-fur organisation, Humane Society International, on May 12 in which he asked if there were any particular areas, in relation to the fur trade, that the Government should research.

And why is the connection to Carrie Symonds a factor? Reader, I'm glad you asked...

Last year, Ms Symonds blasted people who wanted to buy fur as 'sick'. She has also campaigned against whaling, and reportedly swayed Mr Johnson in his decision to axe a proposed badger cull in Derbyshire.

Yes, it appears public policy is now decided on the autocratic whim of whoever Boris is doing at this particular moment.  

Maybe We Should Hang Rustlers Again, Then....

Passing sentence, Judge Lucking said: 'A dedicated police operation was necessary to bring this organised offending to an end.

'The sheep were stolen from seven different owners. Not all of the sheep were farm livestock, some were in fact pets.

'On one occasion two very young children were completely traumatised finding their sheep slaughtered and butchered such that they were screaming at the sight.

'There must be an element of deterrence. The general public are dependent upon farmers to produce meat for food.

'Those who farm livestock often work on small margins and simply don't have the manpower to guard their livestock day and night.'

 Particularly from yet more imported criminals from the EU...

Prior to sentence, one of the men's defence barristers urged the judge to pass as short a sentence as possible in light of the 'uncertain times in respect of coronavirus'.

 Nice try.

Robert Iordan, aged 23, and Florin Nutu, aged 36, were both jailed for four years and four months on Friday by Judge Adrienne Lucking QC, who described the inhumane killing of sheep worth around £10,000 as gruesome and distressing.

Judge Lucking also sentenced Viorel Manu to a custodial sentence of two years and 11 months after hearing that the 39-year-old father-of-nine was involved in only one albeit serious offence.

One hopes they can be immediately deported on release, since free movement within the EU won't apply now we're (supposedly) on course to leave?

This Day In History....

Well, it's almost here. And whether or not you are sceptical that it's what we asked for, you can't deny that it is here, and we are leaving.

So rejoice! We are, once again, a sovereign nation. Democracy won. Despite everything they threw at it.

Who Could Have Foreseen This? Pt 487925

Oh, that's right. Everyone.

Norfolk police have put an increase in the number of dangerous dog offences in the county over the past three years down in part in an influx of street dogs from other countries.

Gosh, who'd think that this might be a bad idea? C'mon, Boris, bring the Brexit to stop this madness.

Of the 595 offences recorded over the past three years, less than 10pc of offences ended in a person being charged.

And the excuses for this? Well, it's not going to be police laziness or incompetence, is it?

Insp Hammerton said while every offence committed was investigated, the outcome depended on a number of factors including the nature of the offence, evidence and the victim's wishes.

"Victims may not want to go through with a prosecution for a number of reasons including not wanting to go to court or they don't want to prosecute the owner because they fear the dog will be put to sleep.

"Sometimes the victims are friends of the dog and owner so do not wish to take further action. It could also be that the dog within the family may have injured another family member," she said.

Even more reason it should get the needle, then. Regardless of the victim's wishes.

It's Always Fun When The 'Guardian' Goes Walkabout...

...and meets with the sort of people they despise:

Talk of coups and warnings about threats to democracy were given short shrift by high-street shoppers enjoying the midday sun in the Thames estuary town of Grays on Thursday.

“It’s fearmongering. I’ll tell you what’s undemocratic: not finally delivering on what the people voted for back in 2016,” said Maureen Fowler as she paused from a shoe shopping expedition in the largest town in the Essex district of Thurrock, where 72% of voters backed leave in the EU referendum.

Heh! Our intrepid explorer forges on, questioning people who are trying to make a living:

Selling toy bubble-blowing guns (“£4.99 and it comes with two bottles of mixture”) from a stall halfway along the high street, Zoe Scarrott shrugged her shoulders and shook her head when asked if she shared the concerns of others elsewhere that the prorogation of parliament might be profoundly undemocratic.

“I think that they, the MPs, need to deliver what the people voted for and if he [Boris Johnson] thinks that he can do it this way then people are not really going to care,” she said.

Ouch! Not going well so far, eh?

Ah, well. There's always the 'Look, they are racists!' subtext to fall back on:

Like the others, the restoration of lost sovereignty was a priority but there was also a personal motivation, as she saw it, for wanting to see Brexit realised.

“My little boy is six and is extremely bright but he’s being held back because the school he goes to is one where there has been a massive influx of Romanians, Poles and other people, and the teacher’s time is being taken up with teaching their children how to speak English in the first place,” said Scarrott, who noted that most of her customers spoke in accents that appeared to be from overseas.

And with that, our guide to the wilds scurries back to the safety of Islington, where the nannies and gardeners and doulas have learned to hide their accents.

I'll Just Leave This Here, Shall I?

No further comment required...

Post Of The Month

A dual turn this month, on the subject of Brexit. First up, North Northwester. Hot on his heels, it's Bucko.

Another Good Reason For Brexit*...

A Romanian dog rescue charity is using £5,000 fundraising to go and pick up dogs off the streets over there - but says Brexit could impact their work.

Well, good! We have enough animals needing rescue in this country (mainly because it's easier to adopt a child than an animal from a big UK charity), there's no need to import more.

Leaving the EU could limit the numbers of vulnerable dogs taken to new homes in the UK, the charity’s chairperson has said.

'Vulnerable' dogs like these, perhaps? Frankly, this is a good thing.

Next week a group of the charity’s volunteers is heading to Romania to help combat a street dog problem.

Volunteers will travel to Braila, a city in eastern Romania, where they will team up with Dog Rescue Norway and a local vet to round up stray dogs which will then be neutered.

And left in Romania. As they should be.

* Even if we do now have to fight until Hallowe'en for what we voted for....

The Day Is Upon Us At Last...Or Is It?

I am, of course, setting this post up in February. And I'm not returning to it.

So where we are right now will be a surprise, perhaps. Time will tell.

We voted for it. Now we should get it. Will we? Let's see.

Open thread!

This Is Why Brexit Is So Popular

Mark Sheward, defending, said his client accepted the conviction but was not responsible for everything that took place. He said the married father and long distance lorry driver was the main breadwinner for his family.

He added: “His main concern is what is going to happen to them. The people who will be punished if he goes to custody will be his wife and child.”

And that's his fault. No-one else's.

And he's got a bit of a cheek playing the 'dedicated family man' card in this case anyway!

Mr Amarasinghe said it was Scapau who fetched others to join the attack on Mr Vulturu at the junction of Washington Street and Southfield Street in the Arboretum. Miss Simonesc described how the men made‘rude comments’ towards her in Romanian. She tried to ignore them but they persisted so she told them her boyfriend, Mr Vulturu, was ‘coming soon’.They told her they ‘didn’t care’, stood in her way, invaded her personal space and used foul language.

When her partner arrived they set upon him in a ‘savage’, ‘sustained’ and ‘unprovoked’ attack.

Mr Amarasinghe said: “It involves punching him, putting him to the floor. They jump on him, kick him whilst he’s on the ground. The witnesses said he was stamped on several times.

“Miss Simonesc lost count of the number of times he was hit. Mr Vulturu could hear her screaming.”

When Miss Simonesc intervened she was grabbed by one of the attackers, not Scapau, and pulled away, sworn at and warned she too would be beaten up.

Yes, clearly his family is uppermost in his mind...

Judge Nicholas Cole said: “Those who kick people on the ground and stamp on their head must understand that very serious injuries can often arise.”

He told Scapau he had played a leading role in a group attack. However, he balanced this against the defendant’s lack of previous convictions and accepted the submission that the attack was ‘out of character’.

He sentenced him to 18 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, ordered him to complete 200 hours of unpaid work and pay £1,000 compensation to Mr Vulturu.

We have enough worthless scum in this country, don't we? Why on earth are we forced to give free movement to those in Europe too?

And What's Better At Christmas Than A Board Game With The Family?

Enjoy!

H/T: Stephen Canning via Twitter

“The secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.”

Felicity Lawrence is at it yet again in the pages of CiF:

It has been a summer of food scares. They pop up at regular intervals to shake us briefly out of our complacency about the safety of our food supply before we carry on as before.

Yup, like big cat scares, henna tattoos gone awry and near-drownings, they are the hallmarks of summer. And they are usually as based in reality as the first, and caused by people's stupidity just as much as the second and third.

Rarely are they a genuine concern. Mostly, they are whipped up by the MSM to fill the empty summer pages.

With equal regularity the authorities reassure us that they have it under control. The risks are low. We have a food chain of unparalleled sophistication and all is basically well in this best of all culinary cornucopias.

Well, compared to other countries, yes, we do. That's an undeniable fact.

The truth, however, is that the structures established in the wake of previous scandals to ensure our food is not only safe and wholesome, but is also what it claims to be, are being quietly dismantled. Just when Brexit demands a well-resourced, home-grown capacity to safeguard food standards, we are shrinking our capabilities. Local authorities – a crucial pillar in the edifice since they have legal responsibility for testing foods sold in their areas – are so starved of money that they have cut checking to the bone.

Good grief, is there nothing they can't shoehorn a mention of Brexit into?

Controls are to be “proportionate and risk-based”; “administrative burdens” on business are to be reduced; “relationships with industry improved”; and the agency’s understanding is to become “more commercially astute”.

In other words, we will replace the burdens on business and instill the concept of personal responsibility and common sense into everyone? What's not to like?

The Food Standards Agency, at its best a model of transparent working in the public interest, has shrunk from the eight floors it once occupied at London Aviation House to less than two.

Yet it still manages to find time to draw up nannying press releases, doesn't it?

So before we have another food scandal, let’s hear less about reducing burdens on business, and more about the crucial role of an active state in giving the public the protection it deserves.

Whether the public wants it, or needs it...

On The Twelfth Day Of Brexit, The Metro 'Letters' Page Gave To Me…

...people wanting a do-over!

Also fevered nationalist dreamers, clueless stroppy youngsters, sensible levelheaded folk, bitter hysterical Remainers, judicial activism cheerleaders, wild Utopian dreamers, readers cottoning on, dire 'racism' predictions, touching faith in 'experts', stroppy democracy deniers and baffled angry voters.

On The Eleventh Day Of Brexit, The Metro 'Letters' Page Gave To Me…

...fevered nationalist dreamers.

Also clueless stroppy youngsters, sensible levelheaded folk, bitter hysterical Remainers, judicial activism cheerleaders, wild Utopian dreamers, readers cottoning on, dire 'racism' predictions, touching faith in 'experts', stroppy democracy deniers and baffled angry voters..

On The Tenth Day Of Brexit, The Metro 'Letters' Page Gave To Me…

...clueless stroppy youngsters

Also sensible levelheaded folk, bitter hysterical Remainers, judicial activism cheerleaders, wild Utopian dreamers, readers cottoning on, dire 'racism' predictions, touching faith in 'experts', stroppy democracy deniers and baffled angry voters.

On The Ninth Day Of Brexit, The Metro 'Letters' Page Gave To Me…

...sensible levelheaded folk.

Also bitter hysterical Remainers, judicial activism cheerleaders, wild Utopian dreamers, readers cottoning on, dire 'racism' predictions, touching faith in 'experts', stroppy democracy deniers and baffled angry voters.

On The Eighth Day Of Brexit, The Metro 'Letters' Page Gave To Me…

...bitter hysterical Remainers.

Also judicial activism cheerleaders, wild Utopian dreamers, readers cottoning on, dire 'racism' predictions, touching faith in 'experts', stroppy democracy deniers and baffled angry voters.

On The Seventh Day Of Brexit, The Metro 'Letters' Page Gave To Me…

...judicial activism cheerleaders.

Also wild Utopian dreamers, readers cottoning on, dire 'racism' predictions, touching faith in 'experts', stroppy democracy deniers and baffled angry voters.