Will It Address The Elephant In The Room?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oh, Jonathan, Of Course That's The Point Of Them...

 

Don't you understand? 

Consider this month alone. On 6 March, four men were arrested in London and Hertfordshire suspected of gathering information on potential targets: synagogues and individual Jews. Over the following days, gunmen opened fire on three synagogues in Toronto. The day after that, it was the turn of a synagogue in Liège, targeted by a bomb. On 12 March came the attack on Temple Israel in Michigan, followed the next day by the arrest of four youths on suspicion of exploding a device outside a synagogue in Rotterdam. The next day, a bomber struck a Jewish school in Amsterdam. The day after that, French prosecutors launched an investigation into two brothers said to be plotting a “lethal and antisemitic” attack. Inside their car were found a loaded semi-automatic weapon and a bottle of hydrochloric acid.

The perpetrators carefully not identified. 

And I am thinking of the progressives who suggest attacks on Jews are not, in fact, antisemitism, but merely opposition to Israel. So that, say, a brick through a window of a London shop associated with Jews, blood-red graffiti painted on its walls, is something other than a threat to Jews and Jewish life. That it’s really about international capitalism or tangential associations with a country thousands of miles away.

Well, Jonathan, you won't have to go far to find some of those, will you? the 'Guardian' cafeteria will suffice, after all. 

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. 

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…

Knife Crime And Why It's Unsolveable

The 'Guardian' does one of its 'deep dives' into a social issue, in a bid to ensure the real cause isn’t mentioned. This time, it’s knife crime. 

But away from opportunistic politicking and tabloid frenzy is a side of the story we tend to see less: the voices of the hundreds of people who silently bleed from every stab wound inflicted.

Jessica Plummer, whose son was stabbed to death in 2015; Martin Griffiths, a trauma surgeon at the Royal London Hospital; Jacob*, who used to carry a knife himself; and Graeme Halleron, a Met Police officer working in violence prevention — all of their lives are a reminder of the infinite and devastating diameter of a knife.

The mother:

It was a bright and chilly Tuesday afternoon in January 2015, and 17-year-old Shaquan Sammy-Plummer was in good spirits. He had come home from college, Camden’s LaSwap, and was laughing with his mum, Jessica, as he quickly got dressed to head out to work at Waitrose. Shaquan did not make it home that day.

After work, he stopped by a house party in Winchmore Hill, but was turned away at the door by Jemal Williams, who told him it was full, but demanded that Shaquan hand over the drinks and snacks he had brought. Shaquan refused, but made no fuss and walked away. He was only a few doors down when Williams grabbed a knife from the house, chased after Shaquan, and plunged it into his chest.

In the years since Shaquan’s death, Plummer has worked tirelessly to educate young people in London about the dangers of knife crime, speaking in schools on behalf of The Shaquan Sammy-Plummer Foundation, the charity she set up in her son’s name.

‘When I talk to children these days, they say, “There’s nowhere for us to go.” The youth centres have been shut down, so they find themselves outside. And that’s where the problems start.’

Ah, yes. That old chestnut. If only Jamal had had access to a youth club, he wouldn’t have been a short-tempered waste of oxygen, and would have made something of himself, like Shaquan, who, errr, didn’t appear to have had access to a youth club either. At least, it’s not mentioned. 

So, since they were both young black boys, perhaps there’s some other factor at play?

The surgeon:

‘Often it’s over nothing,’ he says, when I ask about what he and St Giles see as common causes of knife attacks. ‘Impulse control, money, prestige. The stimulus can be minimal and the action is horrendous. Occasionally, something more significant, some sort of long, deep-seated issue. But more often than not, it’s trivial — he said this, she said that. A lot of this stuff seems to be an insanely cheap tariff for a life.’

‘I don’t lament my choices,’ he says. ‘I’m good at what I do. What I lament is that this is happening in a first-world country with lots of resources. That’s what makes me annoyed.’

Happening in a first world country, yes, but is it happening mainly to first world cultures? 

The gang member:

‘The first time I carried a knife…’ Jacob pauses for a moment, shifting in his seat. ‘I didn’t even really think about it. I’ve just taken this big kitchen knife, put it down my pants and walked out. And I’m just thinking, “I’m gonna get this guy today. Now.”’ What led to a then 21-year-old Jacob feeling the cool blade of a knife against his thigh, searching the streets of London for its intended target, is both remarkably trivial and incredibly complex. The flashpoint was a petty social media argument about a girl, between his friend and another young man.

A budding rapper, Jacob is now focusing on cultivating his music career, while working in construction on the side. ‘There’s a lot of the mandem that I know on the streets, [who] could have been footballers, doctors, so many things. They had a lot of things going for them, but due to certain circumstances, not having the money… the opportunities… a lot of them are from single-parent homes.

‘If there was more skills in school, if they taught us plumbing, electrics, how to pay your bills, rent, things like that, I feel like kids would be more reluctant to be in the streets because they’d know how to make money in a legal way.

‘Over the years, as I’ve matured, I’ve realised a lot of it is just about wanting acceptance. I think it stems from just being a young kid that wanted to actually have that love that I wasn’t getting.’

Strange that those would be things you’d need school to teach you, isn’t it? I learned them from family life. 

The policeman:

He has been a schools’ officer for the Met for 14 years, delivering workshops to children across east London. Graeme acknowledges that mistrust of the Met, an institution found in last year’s landmark Casey report to be ‘institutionally racist, sexist and homophobic’, is a huge barrier to building relationships with young people. ‘We know young people a lot of young people don’t like the police,’ Graeme tells me. ‘We have the ability to take away liberties. So I understand there’s that negativity.’ The majority of the students at St Edward’s are Black – a community seven times more likely to be stopped and searched by the Met. ‘We do experiences with young people where we switch roles, we get them to put on our kit and say “you be a police officer you do the stop and search”, and they see it from our point of view, and that opens them up to the police a little bit.’

You know, if I was continually butting heads against people who could deprive me of my liberty, I’d stop doing the things that would draw their attention, wouldn’t you?

So what has this ‘deep dive’ really shown us? Over to you, Reader. 

Let's Take Him At His Word, Judge..

Jurors were told Hussain does not dispute stabbing the women and the issue for them to decide was what his intention was at the time. 

Judge Nicholas Dean QC, the Honorary Recorder of Manchester, told them: 'The prosecution say that Mr Hussain had a terrorist motive for his actions.

'Even if you are sure he had such motivation it does not necessarily follow he had an intent to kill.'

Wow, you really have to be steeped in 'justice' to make that sort of convoluted direction to a jury, don't you? 

Following his arrest, a note, written in Urdu, was discovered on him which read: ''O Israel, you are inflicting atrocities on Palestinians and Marks Spencer helping you financially.'

Good, I'm even happier to shop there now! 

Alex Leach QC, prosecuting, said ... it became apparent to police officers he had a history of mental health problems but doctors later deemed him fit to answer questions the following March.

Mr Leach said: 'He told the police that he had targeted Marks & Spencer deliberately because he believed Marks & Spencer funded Israel in what he described as its persecution of Palestine.

'He said that had his knife not broken he would have gone on to kill others. He said that he expected that the police might kill him and he intended to be a martyr.'

I hope the jury comes to the right conclusion. Which is to ignore the Recorder's direction.  

Sticks And Stones May Break My Bones But...

'Racist' incident, headlines in all media, outrage on Twitter from the usual suspects:

Police said the attack on Monday evening took place following an earlier incident involving Dea-John and his friends during which they were subjected to racist language.

The Guardian understands the abuse is believed to have included the N-word.

Not a racist incident, a single report in local newspaper:

Mr Hayes said: “My daughter can’t remember anything, she was unconscious at the scene for an hour - they took over an hour to revive her.

“However, we have gathered information from witnesses who have come forward.

“She was out with her younger sister and was walking to the taxi rank in Brighton to go home.

“As she walking past Burger King, three black girls came out and ran up and attacked her.

“Witnesses say that these three girls were in Burger King having an altercation with someone in there, they got ejected and as they came out, took it out on my daughter.”

I can't wait to see what happens when the real story abour Dea-John's killing comes out in court. 

Didn't Go How You Planned, Dawn?

Labour's Dawn Butler has accused the police of racially profiling her after she was pulled over while driving in East London.

While someone else was driving, actually.  

Speaking to Sky News, she said: 'The institution is racist.

...

'So there is an institutional racism in the police, we know that, and it needs to be taken out. It's cancerous and it needs to be cut out out of the police force. It's urgent, it's really urgent.'

Unfortunately for Dim Dawn, her Tweet and the video (showing officers being perfectly polite) brought scorn from all but her fellow race hustlers. 

The MP said: 'I wasn't going to go live with this at all...'

Oh, please! You had a grin as wide as a watermelon slice all over your chops in that video. Couldn't wait to speak your brains like you often do. 

After the stop, former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said: 'This is so unsurprising. When will the Metropolitan Police give up on racial profiling?'

Yeah. That Diane Abbott. 

Kate Osamor MP tweeted to her backbench Labour colleague: 'Hope you're ok?'

Yeah. That Kate Osamor. 

With MPs of this quality, it's not much of a surprise Starmer's Labour Party isn't making headway in the polls against the worst Tory Party since....well, since the last one!

We were just going out to have a nice lunch. My plans were basically ruined. It’s a sunny Sunday, and you don’t get many of those.

Your Sunday was ruined, Dawn? Gosh. You know who else's Sunday was ruined? This kid. 

What a pity your race-baiting is moving that further down the headlines...

I'll Just Leave This Here, Shall I?

No further comment required...

"We Must DO SOMETHING!"

Soaring numbers of children and young people in England are being admitted to hospital with knife wounds, NHS figures reveal.

So, anything to be done?

The increase has prompted NHS England to demand a crackdown on shops that illegally sell knives to under-18s.

“Far too many young people are able to buy knives on the high street and we need councils and retailers to work together to stop this”, said Prof Chris Moran, NHS England’s national director for trauma care.

Well, I suppose it's something. And the public sector loves doing something. Even if it's an utterly futile thing. Like this one.

Because there's not a house in the land that doesn't have knives in the cutlery drawer.

The Very Definition of 'Displacement Activity'

...researchers, led by doctors at Barts Health NHS Trust in London, said knife injuries have soared in recent years.

They examined medical records of under-25s treated for stab wounds in London hospitals between 2004 and 2014. Some 1,824 young people had been stabbed - of whom 172 were aged under 16, 861 were 16 to 19, and 791 were aged 20 to 24.

Around 22 per cent of the under 16s who were knifed were attacked on a schoolday afternoon. This rose to 11 per cent among 16 to 24 year olds.

Which tells them...well, what, exactly? That gang culture is prevalent amongst young people from a certain demographic?

They called for schools to introduce a staggered finish to the day, to stop pupils leaving all at once, and called for a visible police presence at bus and train stations after school hours.

Errr, wait, what? All schools? Everywhere across the country?

So little Hamish in the Isles and Glyn in the Valleys must have their school times staggered, so Amibola & Duwayne don't meet outside MickeyD's for a rumble?

Insanity!

The researchers, who also included experts from Newcastle University, London Ambulance Service and South East Coast Ambulance Service, said schools must do more to help.

They wrote: 'The sharp increase in stab injuries between the ages of 14 and 16 suggests that educational programmes and other preventative interventions are best delivered in primary or early secondary education.

'We have shown that assaults resulting in penetrating injuries occur in distinct age-related patterns.

'Specifically, the period immediately after school accounts for a large proportion of incidents in children, and these predominantly occur close to home and school.

'This represents an opportunity for targeted preventative strategies in this population.'

'This population' being 'schoolchildren', I suppose? I can't help but feel that you're not tackling the real issue here...