But You Have Such Awful Values And Standards..

The BBC has said it has "no plans" to broadcast a BBC Three documentary series hosted by Ashley Cain after he was accused of using explicit sexist and misogynistic language in historic social media posts. A second series of Ashley Cain: Into the Danger Zone was commissioned and filmed earlier this year, but had not yet been scheduled for broadcast. The BBC said it has "no future projects" with Cain planned.

Ah, well, it's only licencepayer's money, plenty more where that came from, eh? 

In a statement issued on Thursday night, a BBC spokesperson said: "The posts by Ashley Cain, albeit from many years ago, are completely unacceptable. 

"The BBC has clear requirements around vetting and social media checks, which are undertaken by the production company. In this instance, the process clearly failed and we are investigating why. We are continuing to strengthen our processes to ensure everyone working for, and on behalf of, the BBC meets our values and standards.

Your values and standards?  But they are far worse than anything this bloke is accused of! Tolerating smut on the radio if it pulls in listeners, employees playing Miss Marple on the clock, the slavish focus on progressive hobby-horses, and don't get me started on the nonce issue....

Most Of Us Don't Fall For This, Emma

When did food become medicine? There’s all the pseudoscientific supplementary stuff, but even normal food has started to feel functional, mere units of nutrition. A tally runs in my head of things I “need” to eat: am I getting enough oats, beans, leafy greens? What about nuts?

The edible sort, or your equally neurotic fellow columnists at the 'Guardian', Emma? 

I’m not sure I remember what I actually enjoy eating any more. I’m certain no one on earth enjoys eating flaxseeds – they have all the personality of polystyrene packaging chips – but I choke them down daily, for my cholesterol and gut health.

Then more fool you!  

A twentysomething man I know told me he knows the protein content of every food, which conjures the spectre of the generations of women unable to erase calorie counts from their brains. We’re making food a source of anxiety, not enjoyment.

I refuse to belive any  normal red-blooded chap would, but then I realise the sort of circles Emma likely runs in... 

It’s a luxury problem...for those with means, dietary neurosis is whipped up and egged on by companies and influencers, convincing us we need “immunity shots”, “brain food” packs and protein bars.

Indeed it is, most of us look askance at this sort of ultra-processed crap and wouldn't eat it if we could afford to.

Could we stop seeing eating as another way to self-optimise and remember it’s a daily joy? With Lent coming up, I’ve decided to observe what I’m calling “anti-Lent”. I’ll be giving up consuming anxiety-inducing nutritional content and instead eating food I love every day. It definitely won’t include sea moss.

Congratulations on joining the majority of people at last!  

Well, Don’t Buy Them Then!

It's a Christmas miracle, the 'Guardian' finding a drag artist to whinge about something other than how people are so mean to men in womanface:

It’s lovely going out for dinner in London. It’s a gastro capital with cuisines from all around the world. One night, Indian, French the next, Peruvian, Ethiopian. You can travel the globe without leaving Hackney.

And since we now have the recipes, do we really need the people as well? 

But one pernicious dining trend that refuses to go away and which I detest is “small plates”. My heart sinks and I become inwardly furious when I sit down and the waiter asks: “Have you been here before?” “No, it’s our first time.” “Well, we do ‘small plates’ and we suggest you order between three and 20 per person.”

A suggestion. Simply that. You're free to ignore it.  

People think I’m a hipster, being an east London drag queen, but I’ve got nothing on the purveyors of “caulifower bites”. Suddenly you’re handing out a tenner here, a tenner there, for tiny saucers of pomegranate seeds, things sprinkled in petals and a random blow-torched lettuce leaf. Just give me a bloody dinner!

Just bloody order one - or go to a restaurant that doesn't do the small plate thing. There's plenty, even in Hackney.

I’m 53. I grew up in Kent in the 1970s in a perfectly normal working-class, borderline lower-middle-class household, the kind so wonderfully explored in Mike Leigh movies. It was the kind of home where the food was dished from the pan on to the plate. And then the whole plate was plopped in front of you and you were told to eat it all up – or you couldn’t go and watch Grange Hill.

And look how you turned out, despite that upbringing... 

In small-plates hell, you end up trying to reconstruct a normal meal and paying twice the price for it. Death to small plates – that’s the hill I will die on. Unless you’re in Spain, of course; I love a spot of tapas, but that’s different.

Really? I fail to see how, unless you simply revere anything foreign over your heritage.  

Well, Rev, You Know What They Say Happens When You Assume

Letters in tthe 'Guardian' can be illuminating. Here's one from Rev Dr Michael Fox:

Twenty years ago, while making a documentary on politics for the Open University, I interviewed a group of 15-year-olds at a school in Moss Side, Manchester. The school had selected a mixed group of children, half identifying as white British, half as second-generation immigrant. Against my expectations, when discussing immigration, the children of immigrants strongly expressed views similar to those now espoused by Ms Mahmood. “The country is full,” one of them said. I assumed at the time that the children were reflecting the views and language of their parents, with such factors in play as a desire to “fit in” their host country and to identify with the perceived values of their neighbours, a kind of “self-othering” as a natural response to the trauma of migration. Conversely, the white British children were open and accepting of immigrants.

Oh dear, how awkward, Rev! But why, apart from the obvious, did you assume it would be different? 

As a (non-Conservative) son-in-law of a former Conservative home secretary, the late Robert Carr, who took the decision to admit refugees from Idi Amin’s Uganda in 1972, I have always found it unthinkable that some more recent Tory holders of that office have abandoned the compassion he personified in favour of a “drawbridge” mentality.

A drawbridge is something you pull up when you're under attack, Rev... 

Yet More Sob Stories In The 'Guardian'...

They just can't help themselves, can they?

Afran – not his real name – hit the headlines when he became the first asylum seeker to return to the UK in a small boat after being removed to France under the controversial “one in, one out” scheme on 19 September. He was sent back to Paris for the second time on 5 November.

“France, UK, France, UK, France – it’s not my choice,” he says. “I went to UK twice because I felt I had no other option. The smugglers in northern France attacked me and threatened my life before I crossed to the UK for the first time on August 6. When the Home Office returned me here the first time I believed the smugglers were still searching for me.

And rather than risk your life trying to cross the English channel in a small boat, you didn't think to go elsewhere in Europe by land? I womnder why?

Afran is sitting with three other recent returnees from the UK, including the first woman removed under the scheme. Soon after they speak, the policy will be followed by draconian measures that the government says will deter asylum seekers from crossing the Channel in small boats. But the group’s stories – of danger, dislocation and a lack of protection even after removal – are a stark illustration of how those theories of deterrence can collide with the desperate logic of survival.

No, sorry, 'survival' is not the issue here or they would not choose the small boat route, which is insanely risky. They are determined to get to the UK and the UK only.  

Afran pushes fish fingers aimlessly around his plate and sips tea. The group, thrown together by circumstances, wear a jumble of donated tracksuits and lack weatherproof shoes and warm coats. All of them in turn laugh hysterically and weep at the hopelessness of their situation. “I know the security now in the detention centre I’ve been locked up in twice,” Afran says. “I told them I’ll be back for Christmas.” He laughs hollowly and then starts to cry.

Reader, he probablt will... 

On the other side of the Channel, another man, an Eritrean, is awaiting his fate in a detention centre. He was the second to return to the UK after being forcibly removed to France.

And he too has not been deterred, he too is still fixated on the UK to the exclusion of anything else.  

He says he came back to the UK again because he felt unsafe in France. After getting medical help for several conditions from a charity in Paris, he returned to his shelter late and was refused entry because the gates were already locked. ”I called my family and told them about the bad things that had happened to me. They arranged for me to return to the UK in a small boat because they understood that France was not safe for me.”

What about Holland? Belgium? Denmark? 

He adds: “I have suffered a lot and am terrified of being forced back to France. If the security at the Paris shelter had allowed me back inside when I returned from the medical appointment I would not have been attacked on that night – it was 23 October – and I would still be in France now. Because of the bad experience I had I no longer believe France can protect me.”

Documents seen by the Guardian, written before he was removed to France, show that a detention centre doctor judged his account – that he had been trafficked and tortured in Libya after fleeing Eritrea and before first reaching the UK – to be “consistent with torture”.

Lochlinn Parker, the acting director of the charity Detention Action, says...

Who cares? He's not exactly impartial, is he? He's making a nice living off this.  Being one of the employees in its £608k staffing costs. 

The three male asylum seekers around the table in the Paris cafe are protective of the woman who is with them. “Why did they send a woman back to France? This is really bad,” Afran says. “Even the security staff in the UK were shocked the Home Office was sending me back to France,” the woman says.

Yes, concern for females. This is believeable. 

“Before I came to the UK my mental health was normal. Now it is not. I do not know where I can go or what I can do to be safe. The Home Office is no good for humans. They have broken me. They have finished my life.”

They are still pretty good for this human, despite everything else, if they are keeping people like you out of my country. 

Racehustling Attempts To Conquer Cyberspace...

...after all, us folk here in reality have had enough of them, so they have to have new worlds to try to conquer.

A new study published in the Jama Network that looked at Black adolescents’ exposure to online racism – including traumatic videos of police violence, online racial discrimination and racial bias perpetuated by AI – can cause increased anxiety and depression.

As online hate speech increases and the federal government cracks down on diversity initiatives, which Tynes said has spurred the normalization of racism, investigations into youth’s exposure to online racism is more important than ever.

“We need studies that are documenting what’s happening,” Tynes said. “And also we need platforms to help people to manage those experiences, to critique them.”

Anf how does this 'online racist' express itself? Not, Reader, as you might have thought... 

The study began with a nationally representative sample of 1,138 white, Black, Latino and multiracial adolescents recruited by Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel, a US online research panel. Out of the larger sample, 504 participants were asked to complete a seven-day survey for a nationwide look at young people’s online behaviors in December 2020. While the study authors only focused on Black participants’ responses, they hope to compare those experiences to that of adolescents of different races in the future.

Because racehustling needs new victim narratives to survive. 

Respondents reported experiencing algorithmic bias one time per day every three days.

 Whut?

Some of the survey questions about algorithmic bias included how many times in the past year that a filter made them look more European by lightening their skin and straightening their hair, or whether their content about racial justice didn’t get likes because a platform suppressed it.

Maybe it didn't get likes because it was observably stupid. And a filter is something you apply yourself, isn't it? 

Questions about positive experiences that they had online around race included how many times they saw favorable comments or information about their race on a television show, film, a cultural website or social media.

If you aren't seeing favourable comments about your race, maybe it's a sign about your race's behaviour? 

Another question asked how many times they learned something positive online about their race’s contributions to society in the past 24 hours.

Forgetting that it's often made up bollocks anyway, or deliberate propaganda?  

Tynes wants youth to be armed with digital literacy tools that help them navigate algorithmic bias that perpetuates racism.

They'd do better witth actual literacy tools, wouldn't they?  

She hopes to analyze whether teaching Black history in schools imparts students with the knowledge and confidence needed to “help people protect themselves, critique the messages, and place them in historical context so that they don’t have the impact that they have”.

As Longrider points out, historical context has gone out the window!  

This Is Rightly Not The Role Of The Police

"We are still going through such a horrendous traumatic time and loss, and we're left alone to navigate it, and it's not OK." Mimi Conder is calling for mandatory police support for families whose loved ones take their own lives.

What!? Why? Well, Reader, because she found it all a bit difficult to cope at the time, and so SOMEONE NEEDS TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS… 

She has started a petition calling for the introduction of Jason's Law, named after her late husband, so that bereaved families in cases similar to her own can benefit from the guidance of a family support officer (FLO). "I just feel like I couldn't grieve because I was so overwhelmed trying to understand what the processes were," she tells the BBC. Thames Valley Police currently employs FLOs to help explain criminal investigation processes to bereaved families, but this is not applicable in cases of suicide.

Because suicide is no longer a crime. It used to be, but our modern, enlightened society thought that was an outdated view. 

Mimi says she did not expect an FLO to be a "shoulder to cry on". Instead, the family's petition calls for trained officers to "ensure consistent support, communication, and guidance during investigations, inquests, and the immediate aftermath". "If I had someone there... then 100% I feel like I would have been able to process it a lot quicker than I did, or am still doing," she explains.

The police are a law enforcement agency, if a role like this is needed for people who are incapable of navigating the systems and organisations they need to deal with after a loved one commits suicide, it should be filled by another organisation, or charity. 

The government responds to all petitions that get more than 10,000 signatures.

But not always as you'd hope, so bear that in mind, Mimi... 

“Give Us More Money So We Can…Make Efficiency Savings!”

Some universities will need financial support to deliver the efficiencies that the government wants them to make, a report on higher education reform is expected to say.

Ha ha ha ha ha! You have GOT to be kidding!  

The recommendations are expected in an upcoming report on major higher education reform, set up after the Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson called for “real change from the sector” last year, and that will be shared with the government once finished. Sir Nigel Carrington, who was appointed to lead a task force focusing on university efficiency by Universities UK, told PoliticsHome that there would likely be proposals in the report around a “transformation fund or other financial assistance”.

No, I don't think even Labour are going to be daft enough to fall for that one! 

"Probably there will be some proposals in our report around which some sort of Transformation Fund or other financial assistance in a very targeted way would be helpful," Carrington said. He told PoliticsHome: “It’s pretty self-evident that if institutions are running deficits and have pretty much exhausted their borrowing lines, then significant structural change is not deliverable because they don’t have the resources to deliver it.”

Funny, they always seem to have plenty of resources to squander on other things... 

Don’t They Just Fall Right Through?

Another day, another crackpot definition of 'poverty'. This time it's 'lack of flooring'. Really? Yes indeed, Reader.

Ah. Just the BBC flirting there with getting checked by their own Verify service - of course they have flooring, it's floor covering they lack.

When Pia Honey had her house extended in 2021, the builders planned to put her old flooring into a skip - much to her surprise. After all, it was in perfectly good condition. Instead, Pia listed the carpet on Facebook. Three families each took a share. "All three were single parents living in social housing with no floor covering," Pia, 55, says. "Each one told me the council had removed the previous carpets before they moved in."

I think we can all understand why they might do that, can't we, Reader? 

It was this that ultimately led to the creation of her community interest company No Floor No More, which provides second-hand carpets to social housing tenants who would otherwise have to make do with bare floors. Pia, who lives in St Albans, says it's "disgusting" that council and housing association properties are routinely left with partial floor coverings.

I think you'd find it even more 'disgusting' if the council didn't rip it out. And surely it's better to put up with no carpet for a while than be out on the street, isn't it? 

The quality of social housing - including the provision of flooring - can have a huge impact on tenants' lives, says Aileen Edmunds, chief executive of Longleigh Foundation, which supports social housing tenants. "We hear some really shocking stories," she says. "For example, people are more likely to return to the perpetrators of domestic abuse if where they've been rehoused doesn't feel like a home. We've heard of children being embarrassed to bring their friends round to play."

God save us all from a world where children are embarrassed by the housing they live in... 

Tally Ho!

Giving the midgets a run for their money, in gallops PETA:

Animal rights activists have demanded the Sly Old Fox pub in Birmingham change its name because it is 'derogatory' towards foxes. PETA has suggested the pub, which dates back to 1891 and has hosted a number of famous faces including Charlie Chaplin, becomes 'The Clever Old Fox' instead. They have argued the current name is 'negative' and perpetuates foxes' 'unearned' reputation as pests.

I think they've more than earned that reputation.  

While the Sly Old Fox has so far made no public announcement as to whether it will agree to PETA's demands, the suggestion has been ridiculed on social media.

Good old social media, sometimes seeming the only sane thing in an increasingly insane world. 

When 'Micro-Aggressions' Have A Macro-Effect...

 I'm going to regret this, I know, but....OK. Give me an example:

This year, I did a couple of stints in the Middle East anchoring a sports programme. It wasn’t my “main” sport, but I had an analyst with me to do the deep dive into its intricacies and what was happening on the field. I needed to know enough to tee him up to get the best out of him, but crucially I can hold a broadcast together; following a running order, taking cues from the gallery and knowing what kind of questions to ask the analyst. A couple of days before flying out, I had a call from the producer to talk through what would happen when I got out there. The producer and I had a chat about how the programmes would look and how much specialist knowledge I’d need. “Oh,” he said, dismissively, seemingly almost surprised by my question. “Don’t worry about that. The channel don’t care if you don’t know what you’re talking about, as long as you look glamorous.”

This kind of thing, of course, is nothing new. But the fact it still happens in 2024 is exhausting.

No love, deep sea longline fishing is 'exhausting'. Coal mining is 'exhausting'. Ice road trucking is 'exhausting'. You're a talking head reading someone else's words for far more money than such a job deserves in a just world.

At the start of one of my recent shifts, I was busy writing my scripts before going on air when someone from a different programme approached the bank of desks where I was working alongside a few others. He addressed the space generally. “Hello”, he said. “I’m looking for your sports presenter. I suppose he’s in the studio, is he?”

I swivelled round in my chair. “No,” I said. “She is here.” It felt like a mic drop moment, and the guy was visibly embarrassed. His question as to the presenter’s whereabouts was innocuous, but it got my back up because these assumptions (even if they’re subconscious) that I’m taking a man’s job away from him are constant.

Maybe that's simply your imagination in overdrive, perhaps because it's not being stretched by your current job?

Facts Or Feelings?

Is there any evidence of this 'trauma'?

Rob DesRoches, founder of Forest Gayte Pride, said the organisation would work with Newham Council to repair or replace the flags, adding: "We feel that people have been traumatised by the repeated vandalism, which needs to be sorted out now. The healing process needs to take place."

That's a 'no' then. I assume. I mean, it's not like the BBC can be bothered to send down any reporters to stop a few people and ask them. I mean, they might say anything. Better to just regurgitate a press release from an activist group as if it was Holy Writ.

What do the police say?

Det Insp James Rush said the force was keeping an "open mind" as to whether the latest report of vandalism was actually an attempt to "cover up the previous defacement".

I'm no detective, James, but if so, wouldn't they have used rainbow paint?  

Mr DesRoches said the organisation would work with the council to expedite repairing or replacing the flags.

Does that mean you're going to pick up a paintbrush yourself, Rob? I suspect it doesn't. 

More Pointless Grandstanding From The Coroner Service...

The hearing, at Surrey Coroner’s Court, was told the chartered accountant had consulted an online GP and, between 2019 and 2021, was prescribed a ‘significant amount’ of anti-anxiety drug propranolol without the knowledge of his family doctor.

Senior Coroner Richard Travers also heard that, in 2016 Mr Pattison had alleged to police that his wife had assaulted him. However, no consideration was given as to whether this was evidence of domestic or coercive controlling behaviour towards her, nor was the incident brought to the attention of the Licensing Officer when Mr Pattison applied for his shotgun certificate to be renewed.

He complains of assault, and the assumption the police should take is that he's at fault of something else? Do we need a 'I Believe Him' movement?

Mr Travers has now issued two prevention of future deaths notices to Stephen Parkinson, the Director of Public Prosecutions, and to Graham Wareham, chief executive of Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, saying there is ‘a risk other deaths will continue to exist in the future unless action is taken.’

Pretty specific cirumstances, though. They only apply to licensed shotgun holders.  

The coroner identified three concerns.

Oh, go on then... 

Firstly that ‘an applicant for a shotgun certificate was able to obtain medication from an on-line doctor without the knowledge of their GP,’ meaning a licensing authority ‘might’ grant a shotgun certificate to an applicant who has a relevant previous medical history about which they were unaware.

What do you suggest, Dickie boy, a full audit of someone's online history before granting a license? A bit unnessessarily intrusive, don't you think? 

Secondly, by consulting an on-line doctor, ‘it is possible for an applicant for a shotgun certificate to avoid the current safeguards relating to full disclosure of their previous and current medical history, and thirdly, Mr Travers said, ‘consideration should be given as to how a licensing authority can obtain full and accurate disclosure of an applicant’s history of coercive controlling behaviour towards others.’

Oh, and the police to conduct themselves so as to treat alleged victims as alleged perpetrators, but only if they are dealing with a man. Well, can't see that opening a can of worms.  

Somebody Didn’t Like Dags…

A dog was run over and killed by a car on seafront lawns.Sussex Police have seized the car involved and are investigating.

Inspector Alexandra Bailey said: “We understand the significant distress this incident has caused to the dog’s owners – and the wider public – and our enquiries to identify the driver of the vehicle are ongoing.

“We know there were a large number of people in the area around that time, and we’re urging anyone who can assist in our investigation to please come forward."

The car, which has been seized, was unregistered and uninsured and the driver is yet to be traced.

I can't help but think if you look behind you, you might find a clue or two...

 

He's Laughing At You, You Idiots!

Dr Psaroudakis told the tribunal he used the term 'Yew' or 'Yewish' in the messages replacing the 'J' of Jewish with a 'Y', because of his accent.

No, of course not, it was to stop his foul messages being searchable by MS Teams software!

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service concluded: 'The evidence suggested that it was Dr Psaroudakis' common practice to pick out and use what could be considered offensive or derogatory characteristics about people whom he did not like or get along with, and liberally use those terms to describe them.

'Rather than use someone's name or work title, Dr Psaroudakis preferred to make unpleasant and unacceptable references to protected characteristics of colleagues.

'The Tribunal makes no finding that Dr Psaroudakis is a racist but is satisfied that he is someone who is quite comfortable with using discriminatory language.'

Utter clowns, the whole lot of them!

No, It's Just Limiting Their Ability To Stick Their Hand In My Pocket, Rhiannon...

Here we go again. You'd think she was the only female in the world to have given birth...

Essentially what we have here is the legislating of the female body, in plain sight, yet with none of the outrage and fury that we see over abortion rights. In forcing women to choose between abortion and poverty, the policy appears specifically designed to limit women’s reproductive choices.

No, not at all. Just the ability of these women to get other people to pay for those choices. You want kids? Go right ahead. But they are an expensive proposition. 

As Sian Norris, the author of Bodies Under Siege, tells me: “The two-child policy seeks to legislate over women’s bodies, treating women’s wombs as something that can and should be arbitrated on by the state. It ties into ideas of women’s wombs being public property, which in turn links to anti-abortion ideology – ironic considering the policy is pushing some women to terminate wanted pregnancies as they can’t afford to care for a third or fourth child.”

She added: “There is a specific class-based element to this that states that if you are on a low-income, then you are not entitled to make your own decisions about pregnancy, fertility and your family.”

You're perfectly entitled to make your own reproductive choices. That hasn't changed. But make them with your own money.  

Don't Forget To Add On Contempt Of Court...

Shafiq Azam, 43, of Leeds Road, Bradford, failed to attend for a stand-down probation report this morning.

He had been committed to the higher court by the city’s magistrates after pleading guilty to being in charge of an Akita called Bolt that was dangerously out of control in Leeds Road on February 26, 2019, and injured a person.

Complete contempt of court, that is. And let's face it, there's a lot to be contemptuous of, isn't there? 

Prosecutor Paul Canfield said Azam had failed to turn up at the court. He had previously not attended at the magistrates’ court and a warrant had been issued. Judge Colin Burn issued a new warrant and enquired what had happened to Bolt in the almost four years since the incident.

A police officer present in court told him the dog had been destroyed.

Judge Burn said that ‘with the demise of Bolt,’ and given the age of the case, it might be possible to sentence Azam without a probation report.

*sighs* 

Well, I Dunno, Dr Helen...

...maybe put some of that two years of practice in shutting down and not seeing patients to use? 

And if the NHS wants to run itself as a business, shouldn't it have a business continuity plan for unforeseen events?