Freudian Slip, 'Evening Standard'?

                                         

Essex Police began an investigation after his ex made a complaint several weeks ago that he allegedly attempted to rape her during their relationship.

Sunday Funnies...

 I'd be very wary of disturbing whatever's at No 12...or No 9 for that matter!  

All The Usual Suspects, Francine?

Shilling for an Afghan refugee in the States, Ali Faqirzada, she tries to bolster her appeal by telling us who else supports it.

Among his advocates are Leon Botstein, president of Bard College and himself a refugee from the Nazis, who has stated that wisest course in such situations is to be as vocal – to make as much noise – as possible. Others who have spoken out on Faqirzada’s behalf include the New York governor, Kathy Hochul, Congressman Pat Ryan, a Democrat of New York, the communities of New Paltz and Stone Ridge, New York, and the Episcopal bishop Matthew Heyd, who led a vigil in November outside Delaney Hall.

A long list of the usual suspects, inveterate bleeding hearts who are ideologically wedded to refugee status or/and rich enough not to have to live with the fallout from same. 

The merits of Ali’s case and the sheer absurdity of the suggestion that the genial, well-liked college student could pose any sort of terrorist threat has prompted an outpouring of popular support.

Aheer absurdity, Francine? Really? 

The sweeping new changes targeting Afghans were enacted in the aftermath of the tragic Washington DC shooting of two national guard soldiers, one fatally, by an Afghan national who had worked with the CIA and whose application for asylum had been thoroughly vetted and approved.

No doubt you'd have described that similarly, before the shots rang out? 

Common sense – a trait that the Republican party has claimed as an essential aspect of their political agenda – suggests that a genial, kind-hearted, highly motivated computer science student and hospital security guard should not be held accountable for someone else’s crime.

 I look forward to you explaining to your coterie that the average modern white American shouldn't be held responsible for slavery, a crime they neither comitted nor benefitted from, eh?

Nor should the entire Afghan community, many members of which have fled great danger at home, be punished for the actions of one man and made to worry about whatever safety and stability they have managed to find in our country.

Safety and stability that, as we know now, may be a sham... 

See, It Is Possible To Recover From Foreign Invasion

If you're a squirrel, that is!

Red squirrels have expanded their range across the Highlands by more than a quarter after a 10-year reintroduction programme moved hundreds to new homes. The species once came close to extinction in Britain when foresters killed them as pests and their natural habitat was destroyed. A deadly virus carried by invasive grey squirrels has hampered their recovery.

It's nice to see some good news. And a native species recovering from an influx of disease-ridden invaders gradually enchoaching on their last strogholscertainly fits that bill. Even if the 'Guardian' would go into a fit of the vapours if the same scheme was proposed for white English people. 

Scotland is the red’s heartland, home to 80% of the UK’s population of about 200,000. The reintroduction project, run by the rewilding charity Trees for Life, has established more than a dozen thriving new sites, from Ullapool to Morvern to Lairg.

I've still never seen one in the wild. Perhaps this gives me a better chance in future. 

More In Sorrow Than In Anger...

That's the statements put out as two rogue institutions are brought to heel by the victory in the Supreme Court and, no doubt, the urgings of their paid legal firms that if they continue drinking the trans Kool-Aide, they are laying themselves open to expensive lawsuits: 

This being 2025, of course, even the cringing apology has to have a 'trigger warning', least the word 'No' should cause a cock en froque to have a fit of the vapours:

The 'members of our community upset by it' can just pull on their big boy panties and go back to the gents...

Monkey Business...

An ex-keeper is suing Edinburgh Zoo bosses over alleged discrimination and "humiliation" she faced at work as a result of her ADHD. Lisa O'Hare appeared at the Edinburgh Employment Tribunal on December 1.She claimed she was subjected to "degrading" treatment and "excessive scrutiny" aimed at "constructing a case against" her. Ms O'Hara resigned from her post in February 2025 after starting in the role less than a year prior in April 2024.

It should be an open and shut case, because she sounds like a fucking nightmare to have had to work witrh, but you never know with tribunals... 

Ms O'Hara was assigned to care for primates at Edinburgh Zoo and the court heard she had difficulty identifying individual capuchin monkeys due to her ADHD, which her superior took issue with.

Zoo bosses claimed identifying individual animals is a vital part of a keeper's job to ensure animal health and wellbeing.

Why do I suspect that the welfare of the animals will take second place when the 'disability' card is played? With the tribunal, anyway, the zoo management and her workmates thankfully weren't happy to put up with it. 

Court documents showed Callum Gibson, Ms O'Hara's superior, said: "You have to start taking responsibility for yourself with training. It is not the rest of the team's responsibility to help you with this. There is only so much I can do to support this before you need to take ownership and communicate with others".

Ms O'Hara told the court: "I just didn't feel, given how it was a particular problem for my disability" how there couldn't be more flexibility, adding: "I felt it was unequally applied to me than others" and "there were other individuals" on the team who could identify the capuchins.

Maybe there were, but it was YOUR JOB to do so, not theirs!

She also alleged her colleague Kenna Valles repeatedly made critical statements regarding her timekeeping ability. In one instance, documents showed Ms Valles allegedly said "I'm just waiting on Lisa" in a "sardonic" tone. Ms O'Hara felt this showed her co-worker was "outwardly expressing annoyance with my disability and related difficulties with timekeeping" and "mocking my disability [and related issues] with timekeeping and hyper focus" resulting in "negative treatment and frustrations".

Are the other employees supposed to put up with someone who is continually later for work then? 

A solicitor representing the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, owners of the zoo, mentioned that five employees had lodged complaints against Ms O'Hara.

Seems they weren't prepared to, yet they didn't have a Disability Card to wave.

Disinformation…

Though handily, we have a new word to describe this now.  At the weekend, two Twitter posts about supposed UK Police overreach went viral, Tweeted by trusted accounts and retweeted endlessly by accounts trusted and untrusted. Neither of them were accurate: 

No, he wasn’t arrested for simply firing a gun in a country where it’s legal to do so (and it would be legal to do it here too) and posting a picture of it. He was arrested for a claim made by an anonymous person that this was part of targeted harassment of them, a claim apparently now dropped.

And the day after, this:

No, he wasn’t convicted of enjoying music in the comfort of his own home, as the Tweets would have you believe but of distributing music banned because it contained lyrics supporting terrorism.

The point being, whether you disagree with ‘hate crime’ nonsense, or think there’s two tier policing going on (I agree with both points), the police are here to enforce the law and neither of these cases were as presented. 

So when you’re on the Internet, take a tip from a police officer of the kind I wish still existed, and: ‘Mind how you go’

Canadians: Not As Friendly As 'Due South' Would Have You Believe

Two Canadian nationals have been charged with attempted murder after a young man was stabbed near the Tower of London. Jermaine Blackstock, 40, and Kamara Lewis, 26, are accused of wounding Cyrus Morgan-Flynn, in his 20s, on Pepys Street.

Good Lord! Don't we have enough drug dealers in the UK, that we have to import them from across the pond?  

They were also charged with possession with intent to supply class B cannabis and possession of criminal property, namely cash.

They aren't even based in London!  

Blackstock, who gave an address in Camden Street, Ladywood, Birmingham, and Lewis have been remanded in custody by Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

What would drive them here to deal drugs, I wonder? 

Oh...

Is There Anything More 'Anti Science' Than The Left, Polly?

That number will stay fixed for ever in public memory: 23,000 people died because Boris Johnson resisted locking the country down in time.

How many of those woulfd have died of 'normal' flu anyway, Polly? Will we ever know?  

But this is not just about one narcissistic politician. It’s about his entire rightwing coterie of libertarians and their lethally dominant creed in the UK media.

Ah, yes, the 'vast rightwing conspiracy again'... 

They have a long history of rejecting things that save lives – seatbelts, speed limits, smoking restrictions, sugar taxes, vaccination, benefits, sewers, clean air, the NHS itself and, of course, stopping climate breakdown.

Some of those lives being saved there are those of the people indulging in risky behaviour, which isn't quite such a noble endeavour as you make out, Polly, is it? 

Recall that during the 1980s and 1990s, the Sunday Times under the editorship of Andrew Neil promoted the strangest gay plague theory, publishing pieces suggesting that Aids wasn’t caused by HIV, and that it was almost impossible for heterosexual people to contract it.

It was. It was strictly a gay disease at first, and targetting the people most at risk, and not everyone, was percieved medical wisdom at the time. 

That anti-science tradition is alive and well today. Lockdowns are the quintessence of everything rightwing science-sceptics abhor: what misfortune that a tribe least equipped to cope was in power during the pandemic. In the circumstances, the interventions from those in charge were “too little, too late”. Hard to imagine, but Covid in the UK could have been even more deadly, had unavoidable facts about the pandemic not eventually overwhelmed their fact-free ideologies.

Could have been even more deadly for whom? The people who were never at risk from it, and who now see their children's education ruined, their country's economy trashed, and are about to see a thick token who would be out of his depth as a parking attendant in Islington but is somehow elevated to the status of a British Cabinet member use it as a lever to wreck our justice system even further? 

Sweden is the country constantly quoted by the right, as it relied entirely on a voluntary advisory approach, never compulsory lockdowns. In terms of deaths per capita, many fewer Swedes died than Britons: case proven? Hallett trounced? Alas, we are not Sweden in social structure, national wealth, vulnerable deprivation, health or social care, mainly due to the longterm malign influence of the right fighting tooth and claw against Swedish-style social democracy.

Funny the 'Guardian' never remembers that when it's praising Sweden for something or trying to suggest we need to be more Swedish.  

The precautionary principle, putting safety first when the science is uncertain, is as alien to these ideologues as risk registers.

And to those supporting the trans agenda and demanding chemical sterilisation for mentally ill children, Polly. Frankly, you don't get more 'anti science' than that!  

Brutally Murdered In The Street, And For What?

A saveloy and chips? Is life so cheap in vibrant, enriched  London? Yes, Reader, it is!

In bodycam footage captured during his arrest, Augustine furiously told police officers: 'I've not murdered nobody... I've not killed no one. What you talking about?' Augustine, who refused to attend court, was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 23 years before he can be considered for release by Her Honour Judge Sarah Whitehouse KC at the Old Bailey today.

As always, this wasn't his first rodeo: 

The judge said Augustine, who has a host of previous convictions, may never be released from prison.

Sure, we believe you.