This Is Why We Love Social Media!

And why politicians don’t. Stella Creasy is upset. The peasantry are mean to her:

The slogan “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution” holds new meaning in a world where an MP simply singing along to Robyn is labelled a sign of national decline. A tweet celebrating a Saturday night in my own constituency has now been viewed by almost 1 million people – and many more have offered an opinion.

Oh noes! The great British public shouldn't be allowed an opinion! Shut it down!  

Egged on by political opponents and the presenters of GB News, these have included death threats, vile commentary on my appearance and accusations that I’m not fit for office, all because I went to a silent disco.

No, it's because your party is loathed for good reason, as are you yourself. Not for your dancing, for your policies. 

Joy is now seen as something that should shame politicians – as though having frazzled and miserable people in our parliament is good for decision-making.

Your decision making?  It's awful, no matter what emotional state you're in at the time. 

Underlying this is more than just embarrassment about seeing a middle-aged MP dance, it’s a concerted attempt by some to drown out their opponents’ voices through character assassination.

Infamy, infamy, that've all got it in for me!  

Abuse and violence towards politicians is at an all-time high. Every day, MPs trade stories and sympathies about criminal proceedings against those who have harassed them, offices being attacked and poison pen letters, and fears they have for their families and staff.

Yet they do nothing about the causes of it. What did you do when Southend's MP was hacked to death in his office by one of your imports, besides import more of them, while ensuring his daughter's pleas for a public enquiry were ignored!  

It’s not hard to see why making rage-baiting statements is appealing in a world where the next generation will end up poorer than the last. Frustration and fear about the future are widespread and understandable. Politics seems incapable of offering answers at a time when they are needed.

Maybe then we should stop looking to politicians to provide them? 

It is also why dismissing the social-media cesspit misses how behaviour online feeds the real world, as it sets the expectation that we politicians deserve what we get. Since Elon Musk took over, X has promoted conservative material and demoted alternative perspectives.

You've got Bluesky for those.

But public debate and good policy-making only thrive when people can speak freely and listen carefully...

Then stop locking up people for doing just that, and start to argue that people shouldn't be allowed to use the law to silence people arguing against woke policies!  

... it is noticeable that attempts at public shaming are disproportionately handed out to women and people of colour.

Oh, give it a rest!  

If we want to stop politicians being punched, we need to stop using them as punchbags.

Nobodies punching you, more's the pity. We, the public, however, that's another matter... 

The Biters Bit

Scotland Yard is using AI tools supplied by the US tech company Palantir to monitor staff behaviour in an attempt to root out failing officers, the Guardian has learned.

Oh dear!  

The Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, criticised the approach as “automated suspicion”. It said: “Officers must not be subjected to opaque or untested tools that risk misinterpreting unsustainable workload pressures, sickness or overtime as indicators of wrongdoing.”

But it's perfectly OK for the public to be subjected to  

God, How I Love This Site!

Trans-activist, failed lawfare perpetrator and all round nutter Willyboy gets slapped down resoundingly by his target, then JK Rowling pours whipped cream on this cone of humiliation and a councillor applies the cherry on top! 

Never leaving this site....

But It's Not A Person...

...so it's nothing of the sort. Any more than winding up a company is 'murder'. Good grief, it's like saying if my auntie had balls she'd be my uncle (if that's even a saying that's still valid these days).

It is a global company with more than two centuries of managing money but for Abrdn jokes in the media about the lack of vowels in its name is no laughing matter. After changing its name three years ago, an executive at the fund manager formerly known as Standard Life Aberdeen has accused the media of “corporate bullying” that would not be acceptable if the business was a person.

Good grief! 

“Would you do that with an individual? How would you look at a person who makes fun of your name day-in day-out? It’s probably not ethical to do it. But apparently with companies it is different,” he added.

Has he forgotten the artist formerly known as Prince then? He got tons of stick! As did Snoop Dog when he requested a name change to Snoop Lion. 

...it settled on Abrdn in the spring of 2021, prompting scorn from City analysts, linguists and the press, who joked the company was experiencing “irritable vowel syndrome”, and was trying to be “too cool for schl”, and that the decision was “rlly stpd”.

All very amusing.  

More Of This, Please, And Faster!

A female boxer withdrew from a Canadian tournament after being told her rival is transgender, citing safety fears.

Dr. Katia Bissonnette, from Saguenay, claims she was given just an hour's notice she was being matched with transgender fighter Mya Walmsley last month. The two had been due to face off in the 2023 Provincial Golden Glove Championship in Victoriaville, Quebec.

It's the only way this nonsense will ever be defeated. 

She did have the advantage, of course, in being able to cite a genuine H&S concern:

She ... cited a study by the University of Utah which found that men can punch 163 per cent harder than women.

Studies on the strength of transgender women suggest that hormone blockers may reduce this biological advantage slightly.

How slightly? 

Didn't Really Need The Location Pointer, 'Mail' Photo Editor...

Needham, commenting on her club's Facebook site, revealed that her side has 'faced challenges from teams unwilling to play against us while I am on the field.'

Well, how would they kn...

Oh. 

Needham had received full backing from her club, with the ladies' team secretary posting the message 'in unity we defeat discrimination', as well as its fans.

It's not discrimination, it's health and safety! 

The trans player has only played two matches this season – both in October – after apparently being given clearance by the FA. In the first game the opponent's manager, who has asked not to be named, realised five minutes into the game that she was transgender.

It took 5 minutes? I thought it was traditionally the referee who was supposed to have eyesight problems!

Fiona McAnena at Fair Play For Women said: 'Footballers are separated by sex for very good reasons.

'If you put one male on the pitch they are faster, they are stronger. It is patently unfair and in a contact sport like football it's unsafe.

'These women didn't choose mixed football, they chose women's football. It's not because this player is trans, it is because they are male.'

And they will stay male, no matter what surgery they undergo or what a piece of paper declares them to be... 

Why Would They Ever Be Able To..?

The government watchdog called on ministers to set out how they plan to convince the public to take up a smart meter after a “troubled” rollout that began in 2011.

They could always ask these guys for advice?  

The government has pushed back the date by which it hoped that all homes and businesses would have a smart meter three times since it first proposed a deadline of 2019.

Meg Hillier, the Labour MP who is chair of the committee, said: “Some 15 years later and four years after that missed target, and its vision of access and support for every household to control their energy efficiency remains a distant one.”

Because it really means someone else controls it, Meg...

Late last year it emerged that firms had been remotely switching customers on to pay-as-you-go tariffs through their smart meters. Separately, energy firms have been temporarily banned from physically fitting prepayment meters under warrant.

Only temporarily? Until when, I wonder... Still, as Longrider points out, it's a good way to stick it to the government good and hard.

More Of This, Please!

The video, which has now gone viral, shows a confident Trudeau waving at supporters who had lined up to meet him as he marches up to greet them with his security guards standing just yards away. The 51-year-old shakes someone's hand and waves at a child in a stroller before attempting to shake the hand of another crowd member who says: 'I'm not shaking your hand bro, you're a f***ing piece of s***.'

One wonders what he was doing in the crowd. Waiting for this chance? 

And of course, with the typical arrogance of the politician, Trudeau stops to argue. After all, he can surely get the better of his heckler, can't he?

Trudeau looks visibly taken aback and asks; 'Why's that, sir?' The man replies: 'You f***ed up the entire country.

Trudeau then asks: 'How did I mess up this country?' The man replies: 'Can anybody afford a home?' He starts ranting about carbon taxes asking what the people are getting charged for. Trudeau calmly explains that the government is putting the price on pollution and 'returning it to families like yours'.

'You're sending it over to Ukraine, right?' the man counters. 'You're sending it over to the guy you were with who slaughtered his own country.'

So, how does a world leader, a man supposedly selected for his quick thinking and mature outlook, handle this?

Before walking off, Trudeau says: 'You've been listening to Putin have you?'

'You know a lot of Russian disinformation.'

Yes. Like a five year old losing a playground spat. What a statesman! 

Sauce For The Goose, Leroy...

What I found utterly amazing were these acts of solidarity across the country, made by individual officers and their staff associations and the UK Police Federation, but based on scant information about the Chris Kaba killing. Policing is supposed to be evidence-based, however a critical mass of armed officers put their rational thinking to one side and joined this mass hysteria of handing back their firearms authorisation.

...after all, how many of the black mobs that gather outside police stations when some gangster has been taken out stop to 'consider the evidence', eh?

What this showed me was the toxic culture of some in the firearms fraternity.

Is that more or less toxic than the knife and machete fraternity, then?

...I hope each and every officer reflects seriously on why they carry out their role, and reminds themselves of the rewards and risks that apply when first they seek to join the firearms command, things that are reiterated to them during training. The reward, for some, is the glamour of carrying firearms and the associated paraphernalia; the risk is the scrutiny that follows the discharging of a firearm and the possibility of ending up in court to defend their actions as proportionate and necessary.

Even when that's already been decided, Leroy? 

Sauce For The Goose, Craig...

“It’s impossible for a teacher to know what’s in the minds of parents when she starts her lesson,” Goodmark said. “For parents to be able, with a political agenda, to come in from outside the classroom and have a teacher fired is completely unfair. It’s not right. It’s terrible for Georgia’s education system.”

Some might say it's similarly unfair that teachers have been doing this themselves, and parents have had no say in it up until now...

She had been a teacher for 10 years when she got into trouble in March at Due West elementary school for reading the picture book My Shadow Is Purple by Scott Stuart, after which some parents complained.

Elementary school. That means ages 5-10. Shouldn't they be reading about Pokemon or dinosaurs instead of transgender and identity fluid issues at that age?

Rinderle declined comment after the vote but released a statement through the Southern Poverty Law Center, which helped represent her. “The district is sending a harmful message that not all students are worthy of affirmation in being their unapologetic and authentic selves,” Rinderle said in the statement. “This decision, based on intentionally vague policies, will result in more teachers self-censoring in fear of not knowing where the invisible line will be drawn.”

Or maybe it will result in teachers sticking to teaching what pupils of ages 5 to 10 should be learning about? And not sending harmful messages about adult subjects in defiance of what the parents wish?

None of the board members discussed the decision, but the school district lawyer Sherry Culves said at the hearing that discussing gender identity and gender fluidity was inappropriate. “The Cobb county school district is very serious about the classroom being a neutral place for students to learn,” Culves said at the hearing. “One-sided instruction on political, religious or social beliefs does not belong in our classrooms.”

Who can really argue with that? 

How'd You Like Your 'Community Action' Now, Lefties?

At least a quarter of the cameras in London's newly expanded Ultra Low Emission Zone have been damaged by vandals, new data reveals.

Campaigners this week have stepped up efforts to deface the cameras installed in wake of mayor Sadiq Khan's controversial extension of the scheme, which is now clobbering thousands more drivers with £12.50 a day charges.

A crowd-sourced map appears to show that 450 of the 1,762 cameras installed to monitor cars in the zone are damaged or missing, The Telegraph reported.

Oh, the populace is rising up against hated installations and vandalising them because of what they represent? Well, councils, you know what to do, don't you?  

Or...is this somehow different? 

Could The Left Wing Establishment Get Its Story Straight..?

Is Nigel Farage a bumbling joke politician, a one-shot busted flush? 

Or a wily operator who engineered the fall from grace of a banking executive, helpless to avoid the pitfall he led her into?

The Telegraph’s story, which was based on information requests Farage had made to the bank, appeared to contradict an earlier BBC story which had said that Coutts had ousted him for falling below its financial thresholds, rather than concerns about his views.

Rose herself came under fire when it emerged that she had sat next to the BBC’s business editor, Simon Jack, at a function the previous night.

It's popcorn time every day, lately, isn't it? 

Well, It Takes A Village To Raise A Child, After All...

A cyclist who crashed into a three-year-old girl at a zebra crossing in east London suffered a broken jaw...

Came off his bike, did he? 

...after being violently assaulted by a member of the public.

*suppressed chuckle* 

“The suspect is not believed to have been known to the child,” said a Scotland Yard spokesperson.

Nice to see some people still retain the old atavistic instincts, despite the current woke agenda. 

Police investigating the incident are now appealing for any drivers who may have been in the area at the time and could have dash-cam footage of what happened to come forward.

I hope they don't, if it allows him to be identified. 

"Some Of It's Even From The Students..."

In the past couple of years, the insecurity in people’s lives has been getting worse and worse – and it’s affecting their behaviour. You see learners breaking down in tears because they are so overwhelmed, or they are venting their anger and frustration.

Since we came back on-site post-lockdown, behaviour is worse than it has ever been. Every staff member that I have spoken to agrees. There has been spitting, foul language, littering, disregard for shared spaces and teachers’ authority – it’s shocking.

What could possibly have given these students a lack of respect for, well, everything? 

It must be a hangover from covid restrictions, right? It couldn't be anything else...

Ah, You Know What Will Help? Some Doggerel...

No, no, really!

Brighton Palace Pier has received criticism from some customers for not allowing dogs on the popular tourist attraction. One Trip Advisor reviewer, Darren_R1, even wrote a poem in protest, stating that dogs should be allowed on the attraction.

Oh no! Not poetry!  

... the management has defended the policy, stating that it is for the safety of both the dogs and the other customers.

But, but, someone's written poetry...!! 

A spokesman replied: "Lovely poem but a busy pier is not the place for dogs.

"The pier gets too busy and dogs get frightened, also health and safety and also relieving themselves on the deck and around the bins, who will clear it up?

"What if the dogs get into fights, there are too many risks involved with allowing dogs on Brighton Pier and so the rule is no dogs."

What next? Mime? 

But This Isn't 'Controversial'...

A pub landlord at the centre of a row over golliwogs has denied that he is racist after controversial social media posts from him emerged declaring support for...

Apartheid? Forced repatriation? Brown sauce on bacon sandwiches instead of tomato?

...'White Lives Matter'.

Ha ha ha ha ha! Try harder, race baiters.

He faced a huge social media backlash and was accused of being racist after his hard-hitting posts were circulated by critics.

It wasn't anything like 'a huge social media backlash'. Ask Nike what one of those looks like. These people aren't 'critics'. They are race baiting shit stirrers and should be regarded as such.

In the latest twist to the controversy, historic Facebook posts from Mr Ryley also show him posting: 'Black Chancellors matter' in October 2022 in a reference to former Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng.

The monster, eh?

Mr Ryley, who is the licensee of The White Hart pub is due to be questioned by police when he returns from Turkey next month. He is being investigated for a hate crime because of the display of golliwogs in his pub.

He added: 'I will have a solicitor with me and I'm looking forward to defending my position. The golliwogs are not me being racist, they are a reminder of my childhood. I don't understand how anybody could be offended by them.'

They aren't. They are pretending to be, with the full collusion of the disgraceful Essex Police.  

They Had No Standing To Give Such Orders...

...so 'defying' them is absolutely the right thing to do:

A pub landlady today defied authorities and put more of her golliwog collection back on display just days after 20 of them were seized by police as part of an investigation that she and her husband had committed a hate crime.

She added: 'The police took 20 of my golli dolls but I've got plenty more of them upstairs. If people don't like them and feel offended by seeing them then they don't have to come into my pub. It's as simple as that. I'm not going to give into this crazy political correctness. We have customers at this pub from all different races and none of them have ever complained about seeing my gollis on display. Why did the police get involved in this?'

Indeed, a good question, since thay utterly fail at their real job, when needed... 

The White Hart pub is located on the edge of a council estate in Grays notorious for crime and drug dealing.

Ms Ryley and other regulars fumed that police rarely attend when called out for 'real' crimes and slammed the presence of six police officers who removed the golliwogs from the pub.

So what prompted the action now, given a previous complaint to the council had been seen off? 

The landlady claimed that the complaint was made by a customer who entered the pub three weeks ago and asked her to remove the golliwogs as he found them offensive.

She said: 'None of the regulars had ever seen him before, he's not from around here and doesn't even drink in this pub. He walked in, took some pictures, complained and then left.'

We will, of course, never know his name. He'll be protected by the Essex plod better than any supergrass... 

A Home Office source said: 'The Home Secretary's views have now been made very plain to Essex Police so they're under no illusions.

'Police forces should not be getting involved in this kind of nonsense. It's about tackling anti-social behaviour, stopping violence against women and girls, attending burglaries and catching criminals – not seizing dolls.'

Over to you, Essex plaod. What will you do now, meekly accept defeat, or double down and send more officers to remove these new dolls?  

Oh, We All Understand Why, Mrs Ryley...

Benice Ryley, 61, was quizzed by six officers after police received an anonymous complaint about The White Hart Inn in Grays, Essex.

She and husband Chris, 64, who is currently abroad, had displayed their collection of 15 dolls after receiving them as gifts from customers over the years.

Dolls..? Well, yes, they are creepy, with their dead eyes and blank stares (rather like Essex coppers, come to think of it!) but does it require a police res...

Oh. 

On Tuesday, Essex Police raided the pub and confiscated the dolls, saying they were investigating a 'hate crime'. They also took a book about the history of golliwogs.

CCTV shows six officers walk into the bar and question Mrs Ryley at a table. One inspects the bar before taking the dolls and putting them in an evidence bag.

Why? Did they swab them? Get them forensically examined? Is this the first such complaint? 

Reader, it is not: 

The raid comes after the couple refused to remove the black-faced dolls after the local authority received a complaint in 2018.

Thurrock Council launched an investigation after a whistleblower claimed the golliwogs were offensive and represent a racially aggravated crime. But Mr Ryley said the dolls were 'here to stay' and his no nonsense approach paid off after the council confirmed no further action will be taken.

So what happened in the last five years? Or has it taken that long for Essex plod to reach the bottom of the paperwork pile?  

Mrs Ryley said today: 'I don't understand why we have to go through all this again.'

Because the progressives don't like to lose, Mrs Ryley. 

'We have the police taking away information that is literally the history of this country. And why?

'We are quite happy to call them dolls, not golliwogs, but even the officer who wrote down the inventory as he was taking them away described the larger one as a golliwog and the others as golly dolls.

'So even the police don't know what to call them. I understand that some people may not like them and they are entitled to that view, but they don't have to come into the pub.

'As far as we are aware we are not breaking any laws by displaying them, and that was proved last time when we were investigated. If we were not breaking the law then, why are we breaking the law now?'

A very good question. One that Essex plod should have to answer. 

A spokesman for Essex Police said: 'We are investigating an allegation of hate crime in Grays reported to us on 24 February.

'On Tuesday, 4 April, we attended a location off Argent Street, Grays, and seized several items in connection with our investigation.'

Pointlessly. Don't you have better things to do? 

It Should Be Your Position...

An NHS trust has sparked fury after warning that immigrant doctors who take to picket lines could be referred to Border Force.

*cheers loudly* 

The message, which was circulated on social media, drew the ire of junior medics and the British Medical Association (BMA), which said it 'will unnecessarily instil fear and doubt' among doctors.

And no doubt drew the approval of all those patients whose operations and treatment will be cancelled as a result of the greed of people we are told are 'necessary' to the functioning of the NHS... 

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust has admitted that the message was from one of their staff. But a spokesperson insisted it is not their policy and apologised for the distress caused.

They added that the message was sent in a local Whatsapp group who 'made a mistake'.

'It has been corrected internally at the most senior level and we have assured our all teams, including our international colleagues, that this is not our position,' they said.

Pity. It might raise the NHS satisfaction levels a little if it was... 

Can't Do Their Job Properly...

...but will bang you up in a second if you dare to criticise them, or try to do it for them.