...legislation requiring warnings to click to receive emails and offers on the internet, and opt-in messages on any kind of finance deal, not to mention warnings about gambling excessively, this:
More than 550 people have been attacked by dogs in South Devon so far this year, and now a leading Torbay councillor is calling for action before the figures escalate further.
If those figures are extrapolated across other counties, it is indeed something that needs looking at. I'm just not sure he's on the right track, though, despite actual first-hand evidence of the problem.
Earlier this year Liberal Democrat leader Steve Darling (Barton with Watcombe) was injured himself when a Bully XL attacked his guide dog while he was out canvassing in Torquay.
What does he suggest?
...he said, Torbay Council should consider reinstating the post of dog warden to help cut attacks. The bay does not currently have a dog warden.
More local council jobs? Hmmm. How will that help? Since it turns out that the injuries are - thankfully - almost all minor:
Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust says 556 people sought treatment at minor injury units for dog attacks across South Devon in the year up until Wednesday 20 September.
He's not a fan of BSL.
In his letter he says that banning the Bully XL breed – a recently-developed American breed which can become aggressive – is not the answer.
Really? A breed so agressive people prefer to jump from a window rather than be mauled by the thing?
“We cannot and should not keep adding dogs to the banned list – we need a fundamental change to the law on dogs acting dangerously to protect the public now and in the future.”
We had a change to the law. Remember? The police begged for one to the DDA, and it was granted. And did they then act immediately to use those new powers?
Reader, we know they didn't...
H/T: IanJ via emailThe campaign to cancel Natalie Bird began with an item of clothing. She was standing in the sandwich queue when a woman marched over asking ‘Why are you wearing that T-shirt?’ The T-shirt in question had the words ‘Woman: Adult Human Female’ emblazoned across it. To some, an indisputable fact. To others, a red rag to a bull. Either way, it proved a provocative choice for a Liberal Democrat gathering.
How basic biology can ever be 'provocative' I can't imagine, but then thankfully, I'm not a LibDem...
‘I told the woman I was wearing it because I wanted debate,’ says Natalie, 45. ‘She asked me if I was an approved party candidate and I said yes, and she said: “Well, we’ll see about that.” ’Days later, in December 2018, Natalie received a letter telling her she was banned from standing as an MP or holding party office for ten years.
Not that the chances of them winning any are particularly huge, but still...
Natalie, who says the party’s focus ‘has moved from women’s equality to trans rights’, believes it is pushing more and more women out of politics. ‘For speaking out, I’ve been bullied, harassed, hounded... and received twice the punishment [with the ten-year ban] that people receive for electoral fraud,’ she says.
Well, yes, I mean, electoral fraud is clearly a lesser crime in the eyes of the people who want it in order to get into power...
Louise Distras, 36, a singer-songwriter from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, believes the music industry is ‘so captured by gender ideology that they don’t know what a woman is any more’. She adds wryly: ‘Yet the “mob” always hounds women who speak out more than men. So they do know what a woman is, really.’
Bullies always target the weaker victim. They have an unerring sense for it.
And in this topsy-turvey world the progressives and rabid trans-cult followers are building, anything can be a trigger for the mob:
Artist Sonya Douglas, 52, is another whose livelihood is under threat. She was dropped from the Critically Speaking arts podcast after she refused to give her pronouns and, according to a tweet made by the podcast, for ‘sharing transphobic content’. The repercussions have been far-reaching.
‘I decided not to put anything and simply said: “It’s not important how people refer to me.” But I knew that I’d stuck my head above the parapet.’ Sure enough later that day the podcast team emailed her: ‘They told me — a black Welsh woman — that they were an “inclusive and diverse” team and wouldn’t be platforming me any more.’
There's 'diversity', and then, there's diversity, clearly...
Former Lib Dem transport minister Norman Baker, has long campaigned against 4x4s on environmental grounds and believes they should face higher taxes to drive them off the road.
He told MailOnline: 'While they are useful for farmers, they are completely inappropriate for urban locations, and clearly more dangerous and have a bigger impact if a collision occurs.
'The taxation system should be changed to reflect that they are antisocial vehicles. We need to increase tax on them and make it social unacceptable to drive them in cities.'
Some of the victims of what's looking like a tragic accident that could have happened to a bus driver of lorry driver (all large heavy vehicles) are still in hospital.
But don't let that stop you clutching their tattered blood-soaked clothing to your breast while you indulge yourself, eh. Norman?
Not that you're the only rabid authoritarian out there...
John Scruby, a road safety campaigner and former policeman, suggested drivers of 4x4s could face extra tests before being allowed on the roads.
He told MailOnline: 'People in outlying areas need these vehicles, but I'm not sure that parents on the school run do.
How about we let people decide what they need, rather than some jumped up little popinjay?
'Drivers need to be aware that they're in a four-ton killing machine and they need to be used accordingly.
If the driver did suffer a medical episode, she wouldn't have been aware of anything, would she?
'As police officers we needed to take a separate course to drive a heavy vehicle. That's something we could look at with 4x4 drivers more generally.'
Hasn't stopped your former colleagues killing people while driving, has it?
A Liberal Democrat councillor who was set to represent two places - more than 150 miles away from each other - is expected to resign from one.
Blimey, his travel expense claims will bankrupt both councils!
Chris Twells won Tetbury with Upton in Gloucestershire despite already representing Ordsall in north-west England. Following his Cotswold District Council victory, Mr Twells said he would begin the process of resigning from Ordsall.
Oh, maybe not...
It comes after his candidacy sparked controversy in both areas.
That's the LibDems for you, showing an unerring instinct for upsetting everyone they can!
H/T: Ian J via email
And hopefully, you'll be the next goose well and truly cooked this Yuletide...
North Shropshire had previously only had Tory MPs in its modern incarnation and was the party's 76th safest seat.
It also backed Brexit in the 2016 referendum. But they lost it with one of the largest by-election swings (34 per cent) in British electoral history to Ms Morgan, who finished a distant third in the 2019 general election.
Even now, Starmer's unpalatable. That should tell both parties something.
Following these exchanges, Cllr Tutt issued a statement questioning Ms Caulfield’s post, saying she was “either failing to keep herself informed or seeking to defend the government”.
He said: “I am frequently asked questions about the availability of PPE in East Sussex and have been doing my best to keep track of what is happening.
“Whilst I am not aware of anywhere running out locally my understanding is that stocks are dangerously low and that promises of deliveries have often failed to materialise.
“Whilst I suspect that the government is well aware of this issue, I do not believe that comments reported to have been made by Lewes MP Maria Caulfield, which suggest that there is not a problem, are helpful.
“Clearly resolving this issue must be a key priority for the government in order to protect those on the frontline of the fight against Covid-19 who are risking their own lives to protect others.”Those people 'on the frontline' includes the MP herself. Who's a nurse.
Ms Caulfield said: “I worked the whole weekend on the ward in my hospital and we had no shortage of PPE .
“I can only share my experience from the front line. It’s a shame the Lib Dems want to play politics with this.
“I also spoke to Dr Adrian Bull as the chief executive of the East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust (ESHT) locally and they also have all the PPE they need.”I know LibDumbs are usually monumentally thick (or they wouldn't be in that party in the first place) but this is surely a new record?
A trio of councillors have blasted the processes that led to four men being stabbed at a music festival in Morden over the weekend.Unusually for Lib Dems, they aren't blaming 'poverty', 'Tory underinvestment' or 'policing failures'...
“The festival was only approved after organisers gave assurances about the security measures in place. Clearly something went seriously wrong.
“As an immediate step, the Liberal Democrat group has written to the Council to call for a formal review of security arrangements at the festival. We will also be pushing to ensure that councillors are kept fully briefed at every stage of the review, so that we can keep residents informed and ensure that their concerns are adequately addressed.
“I hope that any review can consider whether knife arches or further weapons searches could be used at future events of this type.
“When I speak to local people on the doorstep, crime comes up repeatedly as a real concern. Residents deserve to be able to feel safe in this area, and that is why preserving a proper local police presence is a priority for me and my fellow Liberal Democrat councillors.”Makes a change, You're usually tying their hands so they can't do anything about yobbery!
Cannon Hill Councillor Nick McLean as well as Dundonald's David Dean think that the event should no longer be held at Morden Park altogether.
“Merton’s parks are there for everyone to enjoy," Cllr Dean said. "It was very clear from last year’s event that residents were aggrieved with the noise, litter, loss of parkland, overcrowding in Morden, drugs and apparent lawlessness. It appears that this year’s event has surpassed the previous one in its anti social behaviour and has added violence to its litany of complaints.
"Merton Council should not have entertained another year of aggro. It’s time to say goodbye to this unpopular pastime.”Excellent! Finally, standing up for decency! What a refreshing change.
A window displaying a “stop Brexit” poster was smashed by a thug in an act of “physical retribution”.
The home of former Lib Dem councillor Jean Howes, and Liberal Democrat secretary Bob Howes, was targeted on Tuesday night at 10pm as a “curb-stone” was thrown through the window.Drunken yobs have been throwing bricks at people's windows since bricks (and windows) were invented.
Jean said: “It is a sign of intolerance, and this is what happens when society begins to breakdown, people think they can act this way.
“We live in a democracy....Errr....yes. We do. We had a vote. A democratic one. Your poster wants to halt the result of that vote.
...and we have been expressing our opinion, we haven’t forced it on anyone, we simply have a poster up.
“It is upsetting, it is sad that people feel the need to do that in such an aggressive way.”If you were genuinely targeted due to the poster, you really only have yourself to blame.
Every hospital accident and emergency department in London should have a …Tip-top up to the minute medical scanner on 24 hour availability?
… dedicated youth worker to help break the cycle of teenage knife crime, the Liberal Democrats said today.Just what hospitals need, another non-medical person getting underfoot…
The number of children who disappear soon after arriving in the UK as asylum seekers has doubled over the past year...I know, I know. Who could have anticipated this, eh?
The Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron will present a bill in the Commons this week calling for...An immediate ban on accepting child 'refugees'?
...better support for such children.*sighs*
...data shows that Vietnamese, Albanian and Afghan children are disappearing in high numbers – a worry for charities that believe these are the nationalities particularly at risk from criminal gangs.'They' are at risk from criminal gangs?
Jack Hunter, from Darlington, fell to his death through the asbestos roof at Darlington Auction Mart in August 1992.
His mother, Christine, said the death of Kyle Hull on Sunday, following his fall last Tuesday, brought back memories of her own bereavement. Mrs Hunter said: "I really feel for the family. I thought something was going to be done after what happened to Jack.
"You can't stop kids being kids, but I did think the market was going to be moved – it was supposedly on the cards when Jack died and it is still being talked about."And if it was moved, wouldn’t they simply go mess around somewhere else?
Tributes have continued to pour in for 15-year-old Kyle, who was a student at the Education Village.It clearly wasn’t teaching him much. Of course, the ‘something must be DONE!’ people are mounting their hobby-horses:
Peter Freitag, who is president of the Liberal Democrats in Darlington, also criticised officers at the borough council who he said had attempted to force councillors into a corner having opposed a new cattle mart development on the edge of the town.
“Unfortunately if you put temptations in people’s path they will often take them.
“Other tragedies could happen as well if nothing is done.” He added: “When I moved here in 1965 the cattle mart was an important part of the business of the town, but it isn’t anymore.
“At the moment it is just a bloody nuisance and dangerous.”It must be nice to be so secure in your political position that you can freely label a business providing much-needed employment ‘a bloody nuisance’, mustn’t it?
Council leaders described the collision between two new government education policies – the introduction of free school meals up to the age of seven, and pupil premium payments to help schools teach pupils from poor backgrounds – as wasteful and inefficient.Something local councils should find very familiar, then?
Pupil premiums are awarded partly on the basis of the number of pupils receiving free school meals, but since the government introduced free meals for all infant schoolchildren in September, authorities have been left struggling to convince parents to apply for them in order to qualify for the funding.Because why would they? It’s not worth it to them; their kids are getting fed for ‘free’, without them having to lift a finger, aren’t they?
Some schools have resorted to offering prizes to eligible parents to convince them to continue to sign up for free school meals.Fabulous! Schools are actually resorting to bribing the feckless benefit classes in order to score more government funding! It’s like a merry-go-round of waste & bureaucracy!
One officer at Surrey council said: “It was hard enough to persuade parents to sign up in the first place. But this is a bloody car crash.”Ahahahahahaha! If I wasn’t paying for this (indirectly) I’d laugh even harder!
A Liberal Democrat source close to the schools minister David Laws said: “The pupil premium and infant free school meals are two of the policies Liberal Democrats are most proud of – they would simply not have happened without us in government. As such, there is absolutely no question of us standing back and letting schools lose out.
“Schools have consistently proved the naysayers wrong on this policy, and over the last year have had a huge amount of information and guidance on how pilot areas successfully managed the change. That said, if this does prove to be a problem, we will take further action to fix it.”What part of ‘this is a problem’ in that article did you not understand, Lib Dem source?
When politicians need to visit an educational establishment they cross the river to Lambeth. Clegg was last here for Christmas lunch. I ask him if he’s getting his usual table, and he grins. “The food’s good here,” he says, perkily.I'd imagine he says everything perkily. He's just that sort of chap..
According to government figures 98% of the nearly 16,000 primary schools in England were able to offer a hot meal. Those having to make do for now with packed lunches for lack of kitchen facilities were in the low hundreds.
“I’m thrilled to bits that something all these naysayers said couldn’t and shouldn’t happen, has happened,” Clegg says.Allow me to translate: "IN YOUR FACE, RIGHT-WINGERS!"
There’s a choice of noodles, lentil bake or lamb sausages with peas and gravy and mash that’s the reassuringly familiar shape of an ice-cream scoop. We both choose the latter.Yummy!
… critics saw a benefit worth more than £400 per child as wasteful when many parents could afford to pay for it.
“Look, we as a society have already made choices about certain things being available as a universal benefit, be it the NHS or education itself.” What matters, he says, is that the children living in poverty benefit from it.
“You don’t want children at a tender age being separated out between those who can pay and those who can’t. There is a value in everybody feeling the same.”Ah, the raising of feelings to the status of reality, again...
“What lies behind the criticism of free school food is this belief that worrying about food is a distraction from real education issues, that somehow it doesn’t count. There’s a sneering disregard for food, that it’s not serious.” And that’s not so?
“No,” he says. He has cleared his plate, leaving only a puddle of gravy and has moved on to the fresh fruit.
“They’re wrong. They’re flatly wrong. It’s a turning of the page that as a country we’re much more comfortable talking about the importance of food.”This is a country that doesn't do that? I'm pretty sure the 50% of tv that isn't superhero shows or property shows or gameshows is cookery stuff, Cleggy-boy. You can't really escape it.
The subject does, however, lead him on to a point of principle: that school meals for infants and the pupil premium are examples of policies targeted at the earliest years of life.
“The state is intervening intelligently at a point in a child’s life when it makes a difference. Feeding children properly early on at school means in the long term you have better educated children,” he says.
“That means lower crime, better health and benefits for society all round. I think people will look back and ask how we managed when hot healthy meals were not available to little children at school.”You really believe that?
Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat minister for care services, wants a change to the rules for dressage competitions.The LibDems, folks. Forever grappling with the big decisions...
Teenagers should be randomly checked for knives on their journey into school …OUTRAGE! Furious letters to the ‘Indy’ are being written, CiF is mobilising the comment section, clearing the decks for column after column and…
… the best friend of Stephen Lawrence said today.*crickets*
Mr Brooks is standing as the Liberal Democrat candidate in tomorrow’s election for mayor of Lewisham.So, collective punishment and suspecting everyone is liberal now, is it?
A-level student Alim Uddin, 17, died after he went to the Roupell Park estate to collect a bike he had bought. A 16-year-old boy has been charged with his murder.
Today his uncle Absal welcomed the idea of searching pupils for weapons on the way to school. He said: “A lot of people will be saying it’s going too far but I think it’s a good idea.
“It doesn’t matter how much you spend on this or that, a person’s life is priceless. Even if you save just one life it’s worth it.”Really?
Lorraine Dinnigen, whose 14-year-old son Martin was stabbed to death by youths in Holloway seven years ago, disagreed with the idea.
Ms Dinnigen, 46, from Islington, said: “At first I think I thought ‘yes, we need to do all we can to get knives off the street’. Even if it’s setting up knife arches at schools.
“But I’ve thought more about it and I don’t really think it is a good idea, because it’s sending out a message that doesn’t relate to young people. The majority don’t carry knives. It would demonise perfectly innocent ordinary young people.”Let the infighting begin!
Liberal Democrat politicians have taken aim at the bright new pink paint job on a former jeweller’s in Surbiton saying it spoils the building’s appearance.The garish yellow colour scheme of the shop a few doors away is OK, I suppose?
FP Turner and Sons, which closed on Christmas Eve last year, has been painted bright pink by its new owners.
And now Liberal Democrats in Surbiton have started a petition to ask the owners to change their minds.Why a petition? Why aren't they demanding it comply with building regu...
But the petition admits: "Planning law cannot help as it specifically allows for the application of paint to a building, even in a conservation area."LOL!
