Saturday 28 February 2015

Cheers, Dhimmi Dave..!

The prime minister has ordered a new inquiry into claims the security services may have been complicit in the ill treatment of Michael Adebolajo, who went on to butcher a British soldier in a London street, it has emerged.
Christ, I despair.

What next – ‘British PM orders investigation into claims Jihadi John was ‘looked at funny’ in the street by white people’..?

Post Title Of The Month

Gildas the Monk at 'Anna Raccoon' (nice new masthead!) nails it: 



Quote Of The Month

'Constantly Furious' comes out of retirement:
"This week's question was ... "Is it acceptable to legally avoid tax?"
To which 57% of the public apparently answered 'No'.
'No'? What? Dear God, public, what? Did you understand the fucking question? Did you read all of the words? If so, what the living fuck are you on, for Christ's sake?
Can you not see that the only possible answer to this question is 'Fuck off, you idiot from the Sunday Times, this is a pointless and unanswerable question. Stop wasting my time and yours' ?
CF fucking despairs. Time to restart the blog, and right a few of the ever-so-ever-so many wrongs currently crowding the horizon ..."
Welcome back!

Post Of The Month

Longrider bares his soul in a lengthy response to another blogger's post...

Hey, ‘Lock Up Your Daughters’ Is A Figure Of Speech!

It’s not a bloody instruction!
A judge has ruled a teenage girl from Newcastle should be placed in secure accommodation, because she is thought to have been sexually exploited by Asian men.
Now, I know what you’re thinking – it’s April 1st. But I checked the calendar, and it isn’t…
Judge Wood said he had considered targeting the men who were exploiting the teenager, but had concluded that he was not in a position to take such an approach.
Why not? Because it’s more difficult? Isn’t that why he’s paid the big bucks?
He said he had been giving "chilling evidence" about the girl from a senior detective.
The detective had "impressed" on him that as long as the teenager was in secure accommodation she was "safe" and "could not be raped or worse".
Well, I've no doubt that the senior, office-bound police officer grade would prefer all victims to be locked up so they could have a quiet shift investigating French train etiquette or people being mean to one another on Facebook, rather than doing the difficult job of investigating Muslim grooming gangs or rolling around covered in dog crap with habitual burglars.

But there’s a question of civil liberties here, isn't there? When will we see Shami and Liberty riding to the rescue?

H/T: @SuperOldHolborn via Twitter

Friday 27 February 2015

The Tally Man's Become The TV Man...

Under the rent-to-own model, customers take out an agreement to buy a product, and then pay weekly instalments until they own it - similar to hire purchase agreements.
Hull city council's trading standards team launched an investigation into PerfectHome after a customer complained that she had been pressured into giving her house key to them before they delivered her television.
Well, can you blame them, given the ... errr, 'clientele' they must deal with?
Trading standards officers visited PerfectHome's store on Prospect Street in Hull in September 2013 and found more keys belonging to other customers.
Lizzie from Hull, who was not part of the court case, told Radio 4's You & Yours that she had to give up her keys after buying a 50-inch TV and Blu-ray player.
She said: "I just didn't have the money to buy a TV straight away. I was paying £17.50 a week for about three years."
"On the third week when I went in to pay, they said they needed my keys in case I defaulted on paying."
"I went and got the keys cut and gave them to them. I just thought it was part of the agreement."
Well, you could have just bought a tv with the money you saved up and...

Oh. That was clearly expecting too much.

H/T: CJ Nerd via email

They Don’t Do Their Job, And They Don’t Like Anyone Else Doing It Either…

The CPS have finally spat out the Desai case – literally!
Police have told victims of a conwoman she will not be prosecuted - because she does not have any money to confiscate. The police declined to comment on the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decision, which has been formally challenged by at least two of her outraged victims.
The entire case stinks to high heaven:
To date police have not asked to see any of the evidence the Advertiser has collected, including a tape recording of a conversation between Amar and Desai in which she promises to repay the money she took.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman could only say the investigating officer was “aware” of our material.
*sighs*

They did spring into action when the chance came to put the boot into someone, though:
Desai attempted to block our investigating by alleging our reporter was "persecuting" her.
The police gave him a harassment warning and, after they rejected our complaint, he has now appealed to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).
I can’t wait to see that one!
I was told at the time that when police receive an allegation of harassment they are not required to carry out an investigation to discern the validity of the claims. As ridiculous as that seems, I had hoped they would at least investigate as part of the complaint I raised.
Instead it seems they have again taken the account of a convicted fraudster and serial liar at face value.
I wonder why..? Professional courtesy?

Remember, Our Money Is Safe In Their Hands…

Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet member for education Melinda Tilley warned children in the city have been left “unable to read” because the city council decided to launch its own three-year reading programme, at a cost of £505,000, rather than taking up a county council scheme.
/facepalm
all six schools on the KRM reading programme – John Henry Newman, St John Fisher, East Oxford, Pegasus, Windale, and Orchard Meadow – had dropped out two years into the three-year scheme.
/doublefacepalm
Mrs Tilley said: “I’m really upset there are children who still can’t read in the city because the city council didn’t follow our programme.
“I asked the city council if they wanted to come in on our reading programme and they didn’t say yes or no. Then they went on and started their own programme and lorded it over us saying we weren’t doing our jobs properly.
“The reason it [the scheme] failed was because it wasn’t purely reading, it was based on lots of psychometric testing which causes kids to lose interest.
“Now I’m stuck with trying to help the city’s children and I don’t know if we can now get any more money to do it.”
Naturally, the council is in full ‘It’s not our fault!’ mode:
Spokesman Jonathan Solity said it was a “pity” schools had dropped out and added the programme had been “highly effective” .
He said: “The programmes achieved what they set out to achieve, were extremely successful and demonstrated that the gap in attainments between pupils in schools in disadvantaged communities can be bridged through the quality of what is taught and how it is taught.”
He added: “[Mrs Tilley] is looking to score cheap political points at the expense of children’s education rather than take the time to check her facts.”
City council spokesman Chofamba Sithole said Mrs Tilley’s comments illustrated “a disappointing lack of understanding about the KRM programme” and failed to address the basic question of why the county “has been unable to address the underperformance of these schools over many years”.
So, who’s right?

Ah, who cares? It’s only taxpayer money, isn’t it?

Thursday 26 February 2015

Another Of Those 'Rare' Events...

Lisa-Jayne Samuels, 29, falsely accused a man of having spiked her drink and attacked her in October 2012.
It led to the arrest of innocent Terry Brown who endured more than a year of suspicion before Samuels finally admitted she had made the whole thing up, a court heard.
How rare! Why, we hardly ever hear about these cases, do we? Oh well, at least no one was hurt.

Wait. What?
During that time, Mr Brown was attacked by a gang and his pregnant partner lost her baby, Basildon Crown Court was told.
Oh, well, We can't blame the police, after all, they can't do any investigation before they arrest, can they? That would be stupid and....

Wait. What?
CCTV showed no sign of Samuels at the time and place she was supposed to have been at the pub, and the friends she had spoken of did not to exist.
During a voluntary interview with Samuels on December 6, 2013, she eventually admitted to making up the whole story.
And if she hadn't?
She pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice and was imprisoned for 20 months. All her children have been taken into care.
Lucky kids.
Her defence solicitor, Paul Vickers, tried to argue her sentence should be suspended.
He said: "She accepts what she has done was loathsome and describes her actions as stupid.
"You are dealing with a lady who was homeless, intoxicated and in the grip of an addiction, who botched a scheme to enable her to get the support of her mother, to try to get her to feel sorry for her and to take her back and to rebuild her relationship with her."
The poor innocent sod who lost everything might argue with the idea that this is any kind of lady....

H/T: AndreaUrbanFox via Twitter

Wonder No Longer At The Discipline Problems In Schools…

District Judge Vanessa Baraitser found Miss Itauma not guilty of common assault, saying she could not know how hard Itauma held the boy’s arm, or if he threw himself on the floor.
She said: “You did act with good intentions… I have no doubt you took hold of him not as an act of aggression but to stop him going back to the fight.
“I find the case against you not proved and dismiss the charges against you. I find you not guilty.”
Someone else should be in the dock, though:
Speaking after the verdict, Itauma branded the trial a “complete waste of time and money” and said the resources spent on the case should have gone to helping the nine-year-old.
She told the Advertiser: “He needs a lot of help and he hasn’t been given that help, and I have been scapegoated because the school can’t deal with him.
“He [the pupil] has had no consequences. When he is 18 and smacking people over the head with chairs he will go to prison. We haven’t taught him anything.”
Well, you’ve taught him that not only are there no consequences for him, the system will come down like the wrath of god on anyone trying to stop him, so there’s that…
Itauma said the school initially called the police, but have only brought a case which has “exposed their failings” .
“I feel very let down by them,” she said.
“If he [the headteacher] got out of his office he would have known what was happening.
“I’m a newly qualified teacher it would have been okay if they had given the things they promised.
“Most of the time it’s me and the teaching assistant in the class. It’s all nice for everybody to get involved afterwards but then it was just me. Where was everybody then?”
A very good question.

Is This Magistrates’ Court Or The Catwalk..?

In the short hearing at Southend Magistrates’ Court on Friday, Spivey, wore a mustard and navy jumper, black bomber jacket, jeans and Timberland boots.
Ummm….

Wednesday 25 February 2015

Greens: "Hugs For Thugs!"

I don't think it's a vote-winning strategy, love...
Yesterday (Wednesday) lunchtime, the whole of the Highbury Quadrant Estate, off Catherall Road, was put on lockdown by police in response to a gang of yobs terrorising residents.
People on the estate have been victimised by thugs driving stolen mopeds, burning the bikes, taking drugs and breaking into homes. A pizza delivery boy has been stabbed, Christmas trees torched and teenagers regularly run from police helicopters in the chaos that’s blighted the lives of residents.
Now under the dispersal order, which expires tomorrow (Friday) lunchtime police can ask anyone to leave the area if they are even suspected of harassing or intimidating people on the estate, or causing any kind crime and disorder.
Hurrah! Right?

Oh.
But Cllr Caroline Russell, Green Party councillor for Highbury East ward which covers the estate, says the answer isn’t as simple as locking up the offenders or kicking them out.
Really? Well, have we tried it yet?
She said: “It’s incredibly complicated - ever since I first got elected I have been contacted by people concerned with motorbikes being burnt out, being intimidated, minor break-ins and so on.
“The situation had clearly got out of control.
“But I have huge misgivings about evictions, just kicking people out.
“These are kids at the end of the day and we need to help them, offer them support and give them things to engage them - we are working on more activities for young people in the area.
“These kids have been rampaging around the estate causing mayhem and destruction.
“People are at their wit’s end - they’ve had enough.
“But on the whole the are incredibly sympathetic to the situation. We can’t just wash our hands of them.
“We have to work towards their future and help them live a purposeful life - stay in education, find employment and be constructive members of society.”
But maybe they never will be. What then?

H/T: wiggia via email

Yet Another SMBD* News Story…

Mark Eden, 47, who has lived in Erith Road for 15 years, said it's only a matter of time before someone is killed on the road. He said the situation is particularly bad during rush hour, with parents driving up to the school to pick up their children and youngsters cramming themselves onto buses to get home. He said: "It is terrible - I am surprised people haven't been killed.
"You've got buses racing down, cars racing down, lorries racing down.
"You need a zebra crossing for the kids and a speed camera. It's a death trap that road.
"We've had a car smash into the front of our neighbours house, another one crashing into the wall out here. It is frightening."
Right, OK, got it, the motorist is 100% to blame and…

Wait.
The incident happened at around 3.30pm as children were leaving at the end of the school day.
Pupils have said how the girl - named locally as Caitlin Martin - ran in front of a bus as she attempted to reach her mother on the other side of the road. She is said to have frozen in front of the oncoming vehicle, which was unable to brake in time.
Hardly surprising, and certainly not an attitude confined to children, either. I’ve lost count of the adults I’ve seen in the last few years that have blithely stepped off the kerb into traffic, engrossed in their smartphones or simply failing to look.
The father-of-six added: "Something has got to be done about it. Either a car is going to smash into one kid or a car is going to smash into a group of kids.
"We live here and I cannot even let my kids play at the front of the house. It is like the M25 out there.
"And the way buses speed down there - I feel sorry for the girl."
Maybe you should feel sorry for the bus driver instead?

*Something Must Be Done

Panic Over...

Rules which bar sex offenders from working with children are ‘unfair’ and even convicted paedophiles should have the right to adopt, a leading legal academic has said.
OMG! Really..?
Helen Reece, a reader in law at the London School of Economics....
Ahahahaha! Never mind. No-one's going to take that seriously.
In her article, Miss Reece suggested that the review should also introduce an assumption that sex offenders including child abusers posed no threat once they had served their sentence.
She said: "There is no reason why all sex offenders should not be considered as potentially suitable to adopt or foster children, or work with them.
“The Vetting and Barring Scheme and other legislative measures single out sex offenders for unfair special treatment and they destroy the principle that a prisoner pays his or her debt by serving their sentence before re-entering society on equal terms.
I wonder where this airhead stood on the Chad Evans debacle..?

Tuesday 24 February 2015

No Humans Involved…

A drug dealer has been found guilty of murdering a young father in a flat in Braintree.
Michael’s death devastated his family. In a statement issued shortly after he died, his family said: "Michael was a new father, a son, a brother and a good friend who had his whole life ahead of him. He had just got a new job and had a lovely new home with his partner and new son, Eli.
"He was loved by many and helped people when he could. He used to bring in young homeless children to spend Christmas with his family to make them feel a part of this world again and bring hope into their lives.
"May his humble soul rest in peace."
How awful! The man sounds like a saint. What a terrible loss this must be!
The three week trial had heard that Eva and Haastrup were rivals
Rivals, eh..? Over a woman?

Well…no.
Speaking after the verdict, (Det Chief Insp) Hall said: "I welcome this guilty verdict to give some peace to Michael’s family and friends. Michael was a young man who had just become a father. His life was cut short by the actions of Luke Eva on that night in Braintree."
Jesus Christ, I know the police have to parrot politically-correct crap, but do they really need to go the extra distance for a ‘victim’ whose life was cut short not so much by the actions of his killer as by his own?
The court heard James McGowan, 25, and Mr Haastrup were at the flat to buy cannabis when Eva arrived, went into a bedroom with the flat’s occupant, Colin Cornelius, and emerged saying a deal had been done.
Eva, Mr Haastrup and Mr McGowan then fought, leaving Mr McGowan with a broken nose and a bloody jaw. At one point, Mr McGowan claimed Eva was holding a knife in an “aggressive manner” while Mr Haastrup had a hammer in a “defensive position”.
Mr McGowan escaped from the flat and Mr Haastrup followed shortly afterwards, where he used a hammer to smash windows on Mr Cornelius’ car.
During the trial, neighbour Abigail Pollard said she called police after hearing a commotion and saw Mr Haastrup standing by the door of a flat shouting “you are going to die.”
I can’t seem to find it in me to shed any tears for either of them.

“Gentleman! You Can’t Fight In Here, This Is A Boxing Tournament!”

With some of the invaders reported to be carrying weapons, police were called and the tournament was promptly halted - ruling out some top clashes between leading London boxers and their Scandinavian rivals.
“It’s heartbreaking, so many people work so hard to keep amateur boxing alive yet the action of a few idiots can ruin everything,” said Mills, who runs his own plumbing company.
It’s uncertain whether the ‘idiots’ referred to are the gatecrashers, or the police who failed to ensure the miscreants were dealt with so the event could continue…
However ABA official in charge Ted Goreham backed the police intervention, adding: “They were correct calling off the show.
“If they had not stopped it, I would have done. You just cannot tolerate that sort of behaviour at tournaments, it’s terrible for the sport.”
Wait, what? Is he suggesting that it was the ticketholders present that were causing the trouble, and not gatecrashers?
Romford official Paul Claydon has worked regularly with Scandinavian clubs staging shows in the past and said: “They are great people - we are good friends.”
Shaking with anger he was quick to apologise to the Scandinavian team and RUSSC club staff and management.
“I have put on around 40 shows and never had any trouble before. It has cost me thousands of pounds and months of hard work to arrange this show,” added Claydon, who is still counting the cost of a night he fears could cause his club to fold.
Curiouser and curiouser…

No Rush, Lads..!

Mr Cheema said he was disappointed with the speed of the police investigation.
A police spokesman said: “Our enquiries are ongoing. We have had no confirmation about which breed the dogs are.”
What does it matter? The new legislation – which you whinged for because otherwise ‘your hands are tied’ – allows action to be taken no matter what breed, and no matter if it occurs on private property.
“Officers have been to see the man in hospital but he was in theatre at the time. A statement will be taken when he is ready and the dogs have been earmarked for a visit from the dog patrols.”
No-one has been arrested.
I bet you’ve marked the address on the PNC, though, so you don’t get an unwelcome surprise when knocking on the door one day, eh?

Monday 23 February 2015

Remember, These People Are Professionals…

Not even the letter by Jane Extance warning of harm that could come to members of her family if action wasn’t taken, could spur the department into action.
Calls to social workers went unreturned, visits and meetings were left to “drift” by days and weeks.
Peter Meek was again arrested in September 2011 and was released on bail. A statement from Sarah at the time said that he had threatened to kill her and that he enjoyed beating her up – on this occasion over a computer game.
Within two months Blake was dead, at the time in the care of Peter Meek who should not have been in contact with the family at all because of his existing bail conditions.
That case was also thrown out by Southampton Magistrates Court, days after Blake’s death as Sarah once again refused to support the prosecution. A prosecution breach of Peter’s bail conditions was also discontinued by magistrates.
And it’s quite clear that this is yet another failing by…well, by all concerned.
The Serious Case Review (SCR), which was eventually commissioned to examine the role the authorities played in the circumstances surrounding his death, sets out a list of damning failures that led to the youngster remaining in an environment where he eventually died.
In the first instance a victim of the worst parenting imaginable, but secondly the victim of a systematic failure of care. The report concludes that Blake could have been protected long before his death and that there were too many missed opportunities.
So, what will be the excuse? Lack of resources? It won’t fly.
It goes on: “This was not a case which required particular investigation expertise or determination. Evidence of the abuse and neglect was repeated and explicit.” The violence to which he was exposed was so obvious, even workmen in the Southampton street where Blake lived were so appalled they reported it.
The boy’s grandmother wrote to social workers pleading with them to intervene before it was “too late. But those who had the statutory duty to protect the child from harm failed to see it, and failed and failed and failed.
So reminiscent of so many cases…
Teachers, health workers, police and social workers all failed to either act swiftly enough, or act at all despite a catalogue of warning signs, the report concludes.
What a pity he didn’t have the ‘wrong’ beliefs, though, eh, instead of being too handy with his fists?
A social worker said the nature of the values and beliefs of the English Defence League were "immoral". And she had said the nature of the "offences" the man had committed against the 13-year-old girl when 17 were "immoral".
I guess murder isn’t immoral enough for our ludicrously well-paid public sector leeches to do their job…

Wait, Now The 'Guardian' Is In Favour Of Surveillance By State Agents..?

As British counter-terrorism officers were accused of failing to pick up on signs that the teenagers may have been radicalised online, the father of Amira Abase, 15, said she had never discussed an interest in jihadism with him but “maybe with friends”.
Hussen Abase, 47, revealed that Amira had claimed she was going to a wedding on the day she went missing, but instead secretly met up with her Syria-bound friends.
Yes, I remember when I was 15, going off to a wedding alone with my passport and... wait, what?
Aamer Anwar, a lawyer for Mahmood’s family, said on Sunday they were “incredulous” that the contact could go unnoticed by Scotland Yard and other counter-terror agencies.
“We are aware from contact with Special Branch and the police that her social media contact is regularly checked and regularly monitored,” he told the BBC.
“The idea that a young 15-year-old should make contact with Aqsa, who’s regarded as a terrorist, yet no action is taken – the family of that young girl do not have the customary knock on the front door.
Maybe because if she had, the likes of the 'Guardian' would have been piling on the hysteria about 'demonising Muslims'..?

Did Yorkshire Ambulance Service Roll Out The Wrong PR Piece?

Ben Holdaway, of Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said: "We are aware of the incident that took place in Bradford.
"We would like to reassure members of the public that patients' needs are at the heart of everything we do and providing a safe, responsive and high quality service to the people of Yorkshire is our main priority.
"However, any attacks on our staff, both verbal and physical, are completely unacceptable and we operate a zero tolerance policy towards violent and aggressive behaviour."
Or is Mr Rumel not being entirely candid about his or his family’s part in this story?

Sunday 22 February 2015

An Antidote For That Bloody Song...


via: io9

And here's one for 'WoW' fans:
 

No, Not Even As A Camel...



Mr Arbuthnot said: "I just suggest the Bill should, as the Welsh equivalent Bill does, make it clear the word horse includes ponies and jennets."
Liberal Democrat David Heath intervened and said: "I do think the normal definition of a horse would involve anything which was of the same species as a horse, which is to say equus ferus caballus, which ponies and jennets are.
"The reason donkeys are separately identified is because they are not the same species - they are equus africanus asinus if I remember correctly, so they have to defined separately."
Mr Arbuthnot said: "You are almost certainly right. It is quite clear from your intervention that you know far more than I do about these matters - probably most matters."
He added: "If this amendment is unnecessary and we don't need to define what a horse is, as you suggest, then I will move on."
Councils! What would we do without them?

"You come to Glasgow, we don't stand for it, we'll just set aboot ye."

“But I only wanted to watch a film..!”
One witness Michael Bolton, 33, told The Mirror: "Besides being the worst film I have ever seen, three women were getting arrested and put in a police van when we arrived.
"A woman came out the theatre and said that a guy had been glassed. One woman was in handcuffs and another two women were in tears.
"She said that three or four girls had been very loud and were shouting. The man had asked them to shut up and he was glassed.
"It’s a cinema where you can buy drink. Only in Glasgow are police called to the cinema. This type of behaviour happens at pubs and nightclubs – but you don’t expect that at a cinema.
“The guys at the cinema were tidying up the blood before we were going in. They were wiping down seats before the start of the 8.20pm film. "
Oh, Glasgae! Don’t ever change…

Sunday Funnies...

When overthinking fantasy goes right!

Saturday 21 February 2015

Homa Khaleeli Encapsulates #FirstWorldProblems…

Of course, it would be easy to shrug and say not keeping up with the Kardashians is part of growing up. Maybe I’m just too old. So much pop culture is youth culture, and it’s easy to let The Hunger Games or Zoella pass you by with a cynical shrug. Yet some people manage it: I recently found out my great aunt is on Snapchat. Worse, last week she posted a funny parody of a music video on her Facebook page before I’d even heard of the singer in question.
Oh noes! Why has this awful situation come about?
I think I am suffering from a mild form of chronophobia: fear that time is moving so fast I’ll never be able to catch up. When it comes to the tide of culture, I am not waving but drowning. And I can pinpoint the moment this started: 18 months ago, when my daughter was born. Suddenly my free time was slashed, and more often than not I chose to spend it staring into space contemplating my exhaustion. All the same, I never expected that, having dropped out, tuning in again would be so hard.
Ah! Right. Now it all makes sense. You had a real job to do, so couldn’t waste time on fripperies.

Presumably, you’ve now managed to offload the kid onto a nanny and can resume your celeb-watching?
For those of us desperately trying to #stayrelevant, there are apps that tell us exactly which cultural events we are missing. The old fear that others have a better social life than I do has turned into anxiety that everyone is more up to date than me.
Poor, poor you…
For me, the best reason not to throw in the towel is that pop culture mirrors our society’s values and assumptions just as much as art does, and it’s very timeliness is why it matters. Losing track of it feels like retreating from the bigger conversation about what we think is important, and why.
We know exactly what you think is important, Homa.

Senior Police Officers Like Mike Barton Are The Problem, Not The Solution…

Drug addicts are not bad people and should be given support and treatment rather than regarded as criminals, one of the country’s most senior police officers has said.
Great! I suppose after that, we’ll dish out free beer to alcoholics and free goods to shoplifters?

I don’t think I would like to dwell on what we might dish out to sex maniacs…

So who does this barmy old git think the police should be arresting?
“The police should continue to tackle drug dealers and other criminals.”
Odd. There are calls to criminalise the users of prostitutes elsewhere rather than the suppliers of such services, yet he wants the suppliers of this particular ‘service’ criminalised rather than the buyers.

Can’t we get some joined up thinking?

Or even some thinking. It’d be a start.

What’s Your Preference: Tokenism Or Talent..?

The ‘Indy’ clearly favours tokenism:
The shadow minister for the arts, Chris Bryant, has criticised the “disturbing” lack of diversity in British film-making, after no black or ethnic minority performers were honoured at the Baftas. The almost total absence of black actors and directors at the top of the industry “feels like an insulting throwback to a bygone era”,
Mr Bryant wrote. “A British film without any ethnic diversity can hardly portray the full richness of modern Britain,” he said.
I suppose the fact that the films in question were mostly set in a time and place when there wasn’t so much of the ethnic diversity of ‘modern Britain’ Mr Bryant seems to love has no bearing on anything? I expect the introduction of a black Guinevere in BBC’s ‘Merlin’ was greeted with delight in the Bryant household.

The ‘Telegraph’, however, clearly favours talent:
Let’s hear it for the awkward Brits. On Sunday, two British stars scooped major entertainment awards on either side of the Atlantic, and yet, on the face of it, neither is obvious star material. Sam Smith is a plump, gay soul singer. Eddie Redmayne is a geeky, weedy, freckle-faced actor. Yet both are representatives of some distinctly British entertainment values in which talent supersedes glamour, a capacity for making a virtue of ordinary humanity that may be Britain’s greatest export strength in an over-polished, Americanised entertainment market.
And a great antidote to the ‘quota’ system clearly favoured by the likes of Bryant.
It shouldn’t really matter how you look. It’s not important how cool you are, or how cutting edge. It matters how talented you are, and how you use that talent to make people feel something.
Quite so. You might also say that it’s better to be a nation where people are not judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character…

Friday 20 February 2015

They Know Who They Serve....

...and it isn't the 'customer':
Cllr Joe Caluori, Islington council’s executive member for children and families, said: “By not having pork on the menus in our schools, we can keep down costs and reduce food waste, maximising the schools meal budget in tough financial circumstances. We meet regularly with our catering contractor and stakeholders, and feedback is that schools are very happy with the food offered by the service.”
Eh, what's that? The children..?

Well, who cares about them?

H/T: @_AndreaUrbanFox & @GrumpyCockney via Twitter

Clearly Not As ‘Excessive’ As Three House Burglaries?

Bradley said the couple were very sorry about what had happened, but the victim had insisted on telling the police and had appeared in newspaper and radio reports.
“She was understandably quite upset about it but I think maybe that was a bit excessive,” he said
Do you really? And … who are you to judge?
At the time of the May 29 attack, Bradley was living at home. But since then he has been remanded in custody and is due to be sentenced for his third house burglary.
/facepalm

Maybe We Should Call Them ‘Insecurity Guards’..?

A young mother was left “traumatised” after an elderly woman tried to throttle her baby in his pushchair in a busy chemist in central London.
The woman in her sixties, wearing a distinctive striped poncho and deerstalker hat, was heard to say “that baby would rather be dead” as she reached into the pram and grabbed the one-year-old boy’s throat.
Scary, and very reminiscent of this case too. Luckily, Boots have security guards and they were quickly on the scene and…

Oh.
A security guard, who had been following the woman inside the store, led her outside before she walked away calmly toward Trafalgar Square.
Good grief! Since she’s clearly the local nutter, it can’t be long before she’s apprehended. That’s assuming that the Met aren’t too busy enforcing political correctness on foreign public transport.

Update: That's a relief!

Thursday 19 February 2015

A Bit Out Of The Church’s Remit, I’d Have Thought..?

A vicar who promoted conspiracy theories that Israel was behind the September 11 terrorist attacks on the internet has been banned from speaking, writing, tweeting or blogging on the Middle East by the Church of England.
The Rev Stephen Sizer has also agreed a complete prohibition on using any social media for at least six months. It is believed to be the first ban of its kind issued by the church.
I’m guessing that not only does this ban have no legal standing, they’ve no way of checking that he’s complying with it? There’s nothing to stop him setting up an anon account, after all.

And…if he’s that bad, how can he still remain in post?
But Dr Sizer will be able to remain as priest in charge of his Christ Church parish in affluent Virginia Water, Surrey, and there are no current plans to defrock him.
Hmmm…
Bishop Watson said Dr Sizer's "strong but increasingly indiscipline anti-Zionist agenda" had become a "liability". He said that even other Christians who support the Palestinian cause found his strident stance counterproductive.
"Having now met Stephen, in my brand new role as Bishop of Guildford, I do not believe that his motives were antisemitic," he said.
"But I have concluded that, at the very least, he has demonstrated appalling poor judgment on the material he has chosen to disseminate, particularly via social media, some of which is clearly antisemitic."
Can’t help but think that an undemocratic ‘ban’ on social media use doesn’t send the right message, when coupled with a failure to prevent him representing the church…

And Who Is To Blame For That State..?

He said Inyanga’s state meant he was more irritated than normal with innocent requests, resulting in a terrible injury.
“You probably never intended any such harm, not that level,” he added.
Was he 'learning disabled', then, or whatever the politically correct term is this week?

Well....no:
Inyanga, who had been drinking and taking drugs...
Just another waste of skin junkie.

Y'Know, 'Daily Mail', It's Possible You Might Have A Hand In This...


"Who, us?"


Yeah. It's possible.

Wednesday 18 February 2015

And Clearly, You Still Are...

'Calorie intake wasn't explained to me. I was seven, I was a child.'
The words of 17 stone 15 year old Brooke Walker, who went on breakfast TV to demand a gastric band operation. Because she 'can't diet', it 'doesn't work'.
She said: 'When I was younger I would eat chips, pizza, fast food stuff. Curry cheesy chips, I would have them a lot.
'I wasn't going out and burning off the food I ate. Calorie intake wasn't explained to me. I was seven, I was a child.
'Now, it's completely different. I have breakfast lunch and dinner - and small portions.
'Now I would have cereal for breakfast, lunch, a soup or sandwich - it depends each day.'
So....is it not working, then?
Brooke has since moved in with her grandmother, who encouraged healthy eating, exercise and smaller portion sizes.
After this change in lifestyle she was losing weight and enjoyed the feeling, so started skipping entire meals to see a quicker result. She said: 'I noticed the weight coming off me. I started lose more weight when I missed meals.
'I stopped eating breakfast. I stopped eating lunch at school because I didn't like eating in front of people. I was worried about what people were saying.'
Wow! That's great! So.....why on earth do you want a gastric band op?
After years of embarrassment, gastric band operation would allow her to live normally and enjoy her twenties.
She said: 'If I get a gastric band, it's not a quick fix.
'It'll be beneficial in the long run, because the weight is coming off you so you can watch what you're eating.
'Also, soon I'll start to like the way I look and I'll feel confident enough so I'll start feel comfortable going out in public by myself and make friends.'
But....you just said that the weight is coming off you?

Naturally, Tam Fry is quick to get climb aboard this bandwagon:
He said he agreed Brooke should be given the gastric band operation on the NHS, saying it could be 'the game changer' for her.
He said: 'The operation should be the last resort. You should go through the healthy lifestyle steps first. But for people like Brooke, who have been through that, it's got to be the operation by choice.'
Aha! There you have it - choice. Whatever she says, it is a 'quick fix'. Because today's youth have never heard the term 'deferred gratification', much less practiced it...

'Can't Find', Or Don't Want To Find..?

A North Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said it had no details about the incident, but would welcome anyone with information to come forward.
Well, you have to give the police a chance, and report these sorts of...

Oh.
Mr Flowers, 28, said while he had recovered from the incident, which had been reported to the police, his client had been left in a state of shock.
Which is it, North Yorkshire Police, laziness, incompetence, or....something else?

The comments give a clue:
darldish says...
mog2012 wrote: attention seeking dog owners. no-one wants to steal dogs when they are offered for free all over the country. BS story to titilate the facebook crowd.
Mog2012 when we wanna hear an @rsehole talking we'll **** thanks. Even if the occasional dog is offered for free its normally advertised as free to good home. so how many dog owners are gonna hand their pooch over to a scruffy shifty looking member of a certain community in a van, given their love of dog fighting etc as all too often they use smaller dogs for training theirs?
Well, well, well...

Dangerous Out Of Control Bitch At Large...

The owner of the large dog said she was unable to call for an ambulance due to her phone battery being dead, and left the woman until she was found hours later by another dog walker.
WTF?
While appealing for witnesses and information, Guildford police officers were contacted by another victim, Vicky Clark, who had sustained a break to her lower leg and foot two weeks beforehand.
The 37-year-old from Ash said: “I thought it was a freak accident until I saw the same thing had happened to another woman.
...
“It just came hurtling towards me,” she said. “It knocked me flying and kept running round me.
I called out to the owner. She said ‘I am not sure what I can do’ and I said you can call your dog off and then she whistled for it and just walked off. The owner was not apologetic, you would at least grab your dog.”
You'd do so if you were a decent human being, yes.

Tuesday 17 February 2015

More Telling Phrases...

When I read phrases in the 'Guardian' like 'the life and tragic death of...' and 'hounded to suicide at the age of 26 by a vindictive US administration' I know I'm bound to ask 'OK, what sort of criminal was he?'
He was arrested in January 2011 and pursued by federal prosecutors with a vindictive zeal, eventually being indicted on a raft of charges which carried a potential jail sentence of 35 years.
Ground down by this, he hanged himself on 11 January 2013. News of his death left countless people saddened and enraged.
What had made the Feds so vindictive? Sure, he had broken the law. But it wasn’t as if he’d hacked a bank.
Because hacking a bank would probably make you a hero in the eyes of most of the CiF commentariat.

In A Spirit Of Reconciliation…

One mum whose son saw the film said: “Mr Reilly has responded in an appropriate way. He has done the right thing and I think everyone should now move on. We all make mistakes.”
Good lord! What did he show them? ‘Reservoir Dogs’..? ‘I Spit On Your Grave’..?

Not quite

The grovelingly apologetic letter he sent out has to be read to be believed. Mind you, nothing's going to top the 'One Ring' story from Texas for school insanity.

Isn’t This A Little Out Of Your Remit, Reverend?

“There is a lot of needless slaughter going on.”
So says Canvey Island Reverend Brenda Gutberlet.

Is she talking about the slaughter of Christians in Muslim lands? The slaughter of one type of Muslims by other types of Muslims, perhaps?

Even the slaughter of whole species of animals? No. 

No, this is something a little bit more…secular, shall we say?
She has been fighting for an update to the Road Traffic Act 1988 since losing her niece in a crash nearly nine years ago.
Bride-to-be Natalie Wade, 28, from Rochford, was out shopping for her wedding dress when a 78-year-old motorist with partial blindness drove through a red light and ploughed into her on a pedestrian crossing. She died in hospital five days later, on Valentine’s Day 2006.
Her family want the DVLA’s “honesty declaration”, which allows drivers over 70 to self-certify their fitness to drive, to be abolished. It also puts the onus on motorists with eyesight problems and epilepsy to own up to the DVLA about their condition.
Errr, right. OK…
Rev Gutberlet, the former vicar of Canvey Methodist Church, said: “As a family, we feel very strongly about this.
“From the age of 40 our eyesight starts to deteriorate, and by 60 most people are wearing spectacles.
Being able to drive is a privilege, not a right, and we can’t see why it’s not possible for the Government to make changes to the law. We understand money is tight and we’re realistic we’re not going to get everything we want.
“We’re looking at simple changes. For example, in America, anyone who has been told they need to wear spectacles when driving has an icon on their driving licence, so police are aware of this if they stop them. ”
Which wouldn’t really have prevented the accident that killed your niece, would it?

Still, I suppose it’s better than simply saying ‘it’s God’s will’…

Monday 16 February 2015

So, Twice As Many Can Cope With The Problem As Consider It A Problem In The First Place?

We clearly have no need for a ‘Safer Internet Day’, then…
Nearly a third of British 11-16 year-olds say they have been targeted by mean or cruel behaviour online in the last year, but nearly two-thirds say they feel able to cope with online negativity, according to a survey commissioned by the UK Safer Internet Centre.
No problem here!
The report suggests that many children are taking action on these services when they encounter negativity. Of those who have experienced mean behaviour, 75% have blocked another user; 68% have supported someone who was being targeted, and 74% have stood up to a culprit.
Heh! They are doing better than the adults, then, clearly!

Not that that’s going to stop yet another worthless fakecharity from pushing their agenda:
“The report shows how important technology is in young people’s lives and their friendships: for the majority of them, the internet is a positive place. But there is still that issue of young people that don’t have such a good time,”
Will Gardner, chief executive of Childnet International and director of the UK Safer Internet Centre, told the Guardian. “We don’t want to trivialise the fact that many young people are having a difficult time online. We want to use this Safer Internet Day event to inspire young people to create a kinder internet for themselves, as well as showing parents that internet safety is an important issue to be looking at.”
Translation: “Gissa job!”
“The UK is seen as something of a leader in the area of online safety. We’re very careful not to make this into a political issue: it is something which is relevant to everybody,” said Gardner.
“We want to make sure that whatever happens after the general election in May, there is good support in this space for education and awareness work.”
Translation: “Hey, you, new government, gissa job!”

Why Are The CPS Institutionally Incompetent..?

Bako, from Oldham, Greater Manchester was initially charged with child destruction but ahead of his trial pleaded guilty to an alternative charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
Really..?
Miss Helen Veitch added: "A witness described how he swung his arm and punched her in the stomach – very low in the stomach.
''He repeatedly punched in the same area whilst still had his arm around her neck.' She said 'he hit her like a boxer.' She also said it seemed like a targeted strike and that the victim could not move. The witness says she still thinks about how strange it was that he got that low.
''She described the scream omitted by the victim. Another independent witness heard a clapping sound and said such a blow was delivered to him he felt it would have floored him."
Well, it's not for want of witnesses that they couldn't pursue the charge, so the only answer left is laziness...

H/T: wiggia via email

Ever Wonder Why We Have So Many Pitbulls In This Country?

Wonder no more...
A man who allowed his pitbull terrier to maul a police dog which was called to the scene of a suspected burglary has been spared jail.
Carry a knife = automatic jail sentence. Carry a four-legged knife, and nothing happens.
Brett Gerrity, Senior Crown Prosecutor for CPS North West said: “A police helicopter was deployed as well as two officers with a police dog.
“The dog was so dangerously out of control that after all efforts to get it under control failed, police were forced to shoot it.
Pity they didn't put a couple of rounds in the owner too...
Karl Millward was sentenced to 6 months in a Young Offenders Institute suspended for two years, 18 month Supervision Order, disqualified from keeping a dog for five years and ordered to pay a £80 Victim Surcharge.
David Roscoe, 18, of The Glen, Ribbleton, was given a 12 month Community Order with 140 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay a £15 Victim Surcharge after pleading guilty to attempted burglary.
What, they think he'll be a responsible dog owner in another five years? Madness!

Saturday 14 February 2015

I Guess Women Killed By Women, Men Killed By Men, Men Killed By Women And Children Killed By Either Don’t Matter…

On Thursday a database will be launched online entitled Femicide Census: Profiles of Women Killed by Men. It is a project designed to force a recognition of the scale and significance of male violence against women and is the culmination of several years of work by Ingala Smith, who began a grim and time-consuming task of counting Britain’s murdered women and putting their names on her own blog back in 2012.
And this is significant because..?
Ingala Smith says men and women have to confront the situation. “I want us to stop seeing the killings of women by men as isolated incidents: to put them together and to see the connections and patterns; to highlight what a big issue it is; and to make it feel real for people,” she said.
But maybe there are no ‘connections and patterns’..?
The issue is not confined to women who have been killed by their partners or former partners in incidents of domestic violence, campaigners say, but extends to all women killed by men.
Really? So it’ll include traffic accidents, as well?
When, in 2012, Ahmad Otak stabbed and killed Samantha Sykes, 18, and Kimberley Frank, 17, Otak was not the boyfriend of either of them but of Kimberley’s sister. Ingala Smith said it was this case that made her realise the issue was wider than domestic violence.
Not really. The trigger there was indeed domestic violence, it was simply a case where a female friend of the victim was deliberate ‘collateral damage’, or a proxy, if you prefer…
Although she acknowledges that violence is perpetrated by women sometimes and that it should be taken seriously, it is not the major issue. “People are falling for the line that women can be violent too,” she said. “Men kill men, obviously. But nearly always when a woman kills a man, the woman herself has been a victim of his violence or abuse. When men kill women they tend to have been perpetrators of violence against that woman and other women for years. It isn’t good enough just to look at the police either. They are most definitely improving enormously in how they tackle domestic violence.
“If we had a perfect police force, men would still kill women. The criminal justice system should not be seen as the place where this has to be tackled. It’s deeper, right down in the way we raise our children, the girls dressed in pink and called princesses. Told by their parents that the boy hit them in the playground just because he secretly likes them. What sort of message is that? We need to send clear messages to boys and girls. We need to take a step back and look at how sexist our society is.”
What sort of ‘message’ do you think setting up a group that focuses only on one sex killing the other, as if the sex and not the killing were the most important thing will send them, then?

Didn’t We Once Have A Civil Service To Sort This Out?

A British minister was left red-faced after giving the mayor of Taipei the gift of a watch - a taboo act in Chinese culture - only for him to joke he would “sell it to a scrap dealer”.
Giving someone a clock or watch as a present is traditionally taboo in Chinese culture due to the similar pronunciation of “giving a clock” and “attending an old person’s funeral”.
Sir Humphrey would not be amused at such incompetence..!

It’s Like The Death Of An Old Friend…

A community-led street redesign project transforming the Becontree estate has reached its end after two years of consulting, planning and building.
Oh, that seems familiar – could it be…?

Yes. Yes, it can.

Provider of utterly useless ‘improvements’ that residents were apparently clamouring for, but in reality, weren't even aware were needed!

Who can forget the amateurish signs? And who can forget the star? And no, it DIDN’T come back!
Project coordinator Phillippa Banister, 29, led the scheme from the off, working with the public to find out what exactly was wanted from those living and working in the area.
And then ignoring it and providing exactly what the designers wanted…
But the project isn’t leaving the borough just yet, with the launch of a similar regeneration scheme already planned in Marks Gate.
Be afraid, Marks Gate. Be very afraid…

Friday 13 February 2015

Let’s See More Of This!

Defence barrister Martin Steen began to tell Judge Eccles that Jake had “expressed sympathy” to Miss Shrewsbury and her family, when she also interjected.
She said: “Never has he said that, not once has he said sorry.”
Good for you, even if it did simply serve to get you removed from the court by security.

I wonder if the judge asked any probing questions of the defence? If so, the newspaper doesn’t recount them…
Mr Steen told the judge that, since being moved to Bullingdon Prison last year, Jake had been a target for abuse.
He said: “The problem with Bullingdon is that his brother was previously detained there.
“Jake faces being tormented and intimidated by those who assume that he’s involved with his brother, which he is not in any way.”
But he was involved with him. Involved enough to pervert the course of justice…
When Judge Eccles returned he adjourned the sentencing until March 10 for reports to be prepared.
Jake, who has been in custody for 14 months, will remain in custody until then.
My heart bleeds for him. Where’s my tiny violin?
He … distanced himself from his older brother and said: “He is an evil person. Everything he does is horrible.
“I’m not like Ben, I’m me.
“I’ve lost everything because of him.”
No, you self-absorbed little shit, a mother has lost everything. A family has lost everything.

You? Your own actions have brought you to this point. The justice system will no doubt be lenient, as it always is with creatures like you.

Essex Police Strike Again…

“I asked if they had tracked the number it was supposed to have come from and they said no. I don’t think they knew what to say to me.
“I presumed she had shown them her phone, but they had no evidence, no witnesses, nothing.
“The interview didn’t go on very long.”
Well, no. One wonders why they arrested you at all.

Still, they got your DNA & fingerprints. Maybe that’s what they were really after?
When police decided not to take the case further, Mrs Sales was adamant she did not want her niece to try again, and pressured police to press charges against her for perverting the course of justice.
Pankhurst protested her innocence when questioned in September, and continued to do so until she appeared at Basildon Crown Court on January 5, when she admitted the charge against her.
/facepalm

Yes, Sgt Madden, There’s A Right Side & A Wrong Side…

…nice to see which one you’re on:
"I had been told it was a cut and dry case. But it was so sad - I could not believe what was happening.
"It is like the victim becomes the accuser. I was shocked - I did not think I could lose the case. How can I be wrong?"
Because our justice system is broken, magistrates couldn’t care less that a known vicious dog is now free to wander local parks they’d never dream of going in themselves, and the police couldn’t care less about this, so long as their ‘resources’ aren’t touched:
Sergeant Peter Madden, who leads the Met's Status Dogs Unit, said police in London had seen a 20 per cent rise in the number of dangerous dogs seized in the capital last year. He said he expected his unit to spend all of its two million pound budget assigned by Scotland Yard this year.
Commenting on Mr Cumberbatch's case, he said: "If a dog attacks another dog in a park, then the Dangerous Dogs Act would not be relevant legislation.
"The court can order than the dog be put under better control. They can order for the dog to be destroyed.
"But with any court process, there are two sides to the story."
A man’s beloved pet is killed, the dog that did it is free (to do it again), no-one’s been held to account for it and you seem utterly blasé about that state of affairs?

Thursday 12 February 2015

The RMT Hands Their Employers A PR Victory…

Drivers on the London Underground have voted to strike over the firing of a co-worker who reportedly failed an alcohol breath test before going on duty.
Failed it twice, in fact. And the vote only went through by the slimmest of margins, on a 41% turnout.
Nigel Holness, London Underground operations manager for the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines, said: “We don’t let people who have been drinking alcohol drive other peoples’ families in Tube trains.”
“And thanks awfully to the idiots in charge at the RMT for allowing us to paint them as people who care more about their union members than they do about the travelling public. Again. We couldn’t do this without you, guys!”
In a released statement on the union website, RMT General Secretary Mick Cash wrote: “A culture of harassment and misuse of procedure is rife on London Underground at the moment and the Union will not stand back while individuals are fitted-up and picked off as has happened in this case. One person has already been unfairly sacked and if we do nothing it will happen again.”
Newsflash: You’re defending someone caught drunk in charge of a public transport vehicle. Twice

You’re losing the PR war. Especially, as Longrider points out, when these men are your generals!

Give up.

I Really Can’t Blame Him…

…by now, it must be like throwing a sausage down Oxford Street:
A mother dubbed the "baby-machine" has claimed her cheating husband has walked out on her as she expects her 12th child.
She told the Sunday People: "He’s been unfaithful more than ten times. Things went wrong quite early on. Two weeks before we got married he was cheating."
Maybe that was a clue that not marrying him might be a good idea? Just a thought…
Mrs Prudham also revealed on Facebook the sex of her baby, saying: "I'm having a GIRL!!" which was greeted with congratulations.
She then added her eighth girl will have a double-barrelled name, saying: "I want a double barrel name, first name needs to begin with L like my Lexi-Rose, Lacey-May and Lainey-girl."
Thereby ensuring that the poor little sods are indelibly marked as the spawn of the underclass. That’s some great mothering there.

OK, Everyone, Altogether Now…

...’It’s nothing to do with Islam!’:
“When we did the search of the premises, a number of items were located, including a machete, a hunting knife, a home-made flag representing the prescribed terrorist organisation Isis, and also a video which depicted a man talking about carrying out an attack,” New South Wales Deputy Police Commissioner Catherine Burn told reporters.
“We will allege that both of these men were preparing to do this act yesterday.”
And neither is this, I suppose?

Sometimes, correlation actually is causation…

Meanwhile, in America, the shooting of three Muslims over a parking dispute is loudly proclaimed a 'hate crime' by the usual suspects, while the Fort Hood shooting remains mere 'workplace violence'.

Wednesday 11 February 2015

Gaming 1987: "F15 Strike Eagle" (Sinclair Spectrum)

Still on my brother's Spectrum, and this was my first intro to flight simulators. It was - of course - Microprose's 'F15 Strike Eagle' and to say the graphics were basic is.....

Well, judge for yourselves!



Compare it to a modern flight sim (Hell, compare it to its sequels!) and there's just no contest, graphics-wise.

But the gameplay was pretty good, and soon made you forget that awful insistent 'brrrrrrr' noise from the rudimentary soundcard. It was tricky to play, and so very rewarding when you actually managed to shoot something!

And if you went on - as I did - to play more advanced flight sim games throughout your gaming career, it was a pretty good basic trainer.

A Telling Line…

Aditya Chakraborty gets out an onion for the deprived:
Norris Green falls among the most deprived places in England but, with greenery, wide roads and new houses going up, it doesn’t look bad at all. Gazing out of his windscreen, Barry Kushner, a local councillor, set me straight: around half these households were now in temporary work, he reckoned; the launch of the bedroom tax had caused mayhem for residents; there was a two-month wait for appointments at the local Citizens Advice bureau. Along this neat terraced street was a row of front rooms where parents were fretting over how to pay off the Christmas they’d just given their kids.
The idea that they shouldn’t spend money they don’t have on things they don’t need being too much to cope with, I suppose?

Be Sure Your Sins Will Find You Out…

Mr Massi was in the second year of an engineering diploma at College of North West London.
He had previously studied mechanics and taken part in an apprenticeship scheme at a garage. His mother, father and sister came to London in 1997 as refugees fleeing the conflict in Congo.
He joined them in 2002 where he lived in Enfield, and studied at Lea Valley High School.
Oh, dear, a hard-working innocent immigrant cruelly cut down in his prime by…

Oh. Wait.
His heartbroken family today said Mr Massi had been involved in gangs as a teenager but had been trying to extricate himself from the deadly lifestyle and qualify as an engineer to “make his family proud.”
Never mind.

How To Compound Arrogance With Lies...

Seems it wasn't just Wiltshire Police (be honest, who thought it would be?):
DCI Paul Taylor, of Cheshire Constabulary, said he was not aware of any officer contacting newsagents by telephone but added: “We were aware of the potential for heightened tensions following the attacks in Paris. Therefore where it was felt appropriate officers visited newsagents to provide reassurance advice around the time of its publication.”
And you needed the names of purchasers for that? *hollow laugh*


Seriously, heads need to roll for this.

Happily, newsagents are less obsequious to the police in Cheshire and Dyfed-Powys and so at least they didn't hand any names over.

But congratulations to the police for handing Teresa May a huuuuuuuuuuge stick to beat them even further with, after the success of the #TruePicture Twitter campaign. Truly, they are masters at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory!

Tuesday 10 February 2015

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett Doesn’t Understand Life…

… today’s story of the single but divorced adults building gigantic detached homes for themselves does leave a funny, sour taste in the mouth, but talk to most members of our parents’ generation and they feel as worried as we do. We are, after all, their children, and many of them have stepped in try to create a better life for their children where the government has failed to do so.
Newsflash, sweetie: it’s not the government’s job to create a better life for you or your children, it’s your’s and your parent’s job

Well, Good..!

Frankly, I want the police to aggressively pursue teenage muggers who breach their bail conditions! 

If they end up falling 17 stories to their death in a futile bid to escape out of a window, well, I’ll have my nano-violin ready…
Her mother Mildred Goff told Southwark Coroner's Court that officers were aggressive when they came to her house looking for Shanice-Paris during her eight months on the run from June 2011.
Mrs Goff said two friends of her daughter had reported that when officers found her at the flats on the day she died, one said 'you're going back to prison for a long time' and was aggressive.
So, basically, hearsay about something we shouldn’t worry about anyway?
Mrs Goff told senior Southwark coroner Dr Andrew Harris and a jury: "She's my child, I've raised my kids to do what's right by the law
Well, clearly, that didn’t take with this one, did it?

Q: When Is A Council Happy To Upset Travellers?

A: When the alternative is upsetting a Muslim
Shadrack Smith was buried at the Lychgate Lane cemetery after a traditional Romany funeral on Friday .
His family brought three plots they picked which faced his home at Aston Firs - a tradition in Romany culture.
But since they purchased the plots the family of a Muslim man, who was already buried on the site, have objected to 89-year-old Mr Smith being buried next to him, despite the cemetery being billed as open to all faiths and denominations.
Well, surely the council told them to take the sex & travel option?
Tracey Smith, Shadrack’s daughter-in-law, said: “My mother-in-law chose the plot - she had her heart set on it.
“The grave was already being dug and bricked out when we had a call last Monday at 5.45pm from Julie Perrin at the parish council asking us if we could move plots.
“We said no - we bought the land and it was too late to find another plot.”
*gobsmacked*

Can anyone – anyone at all – explain to me the mindset of someone that blithely rings up a grieving family and expects them to comply with this outrageous request?

Nor is Julie Perrin the only cretin at this parish council. Someone else presumably came up with this bizarre ‘resolution’ attempt:
The Smith family said Burbage Parish Council, which runs the cemetery, asked if it could buy one of their empty plots in between the two graves to plant a hedge to separate the plots.
I…

I just…
Chairman of the parish council, Councillor Richard Flemming, said: “Burbage Parish Council provides an award-winning cemetery for the benefit of the whole community. The cemetery is multi-faith and non-denominational, providing a number of interment and memorial options in a peaceful, serene, picturesque environment.
“Unfortunately the parish council has recently received representation from two families regarding the allocation of adjacent grave plots within Burbage Cemetery.
“The parish council is sympathetic to the feelings of both families concerned and is committed to working with the relatives and the wider community to reach an amicable and acceptable solution.”
Well, it’s clear that we know what a winning hand in Victimhood Poker is now, at least if you play against Burbage Parish Council.

H/T: JihadWatch via Twitter

Monday 9 February 2015

Can’t Help But Think Peta Wouldn’t Be Sorry To See Dead Keepers…

…after all, they don’t mind seeing dead pets, do they?
The Pittsburgh zoo is defending its use of dogs to control its African elephants and protect their handlers, after officials with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) ordered it to stop stressing the animals through this practice.
Better a minor amount of short term stress than a dead keeper, surely?
The report, dated 6 January, said the manager was “clear” that the dogs were being used for protecting staff.
Not an argument that’ll ever wash with this bunch of loons:
“It does not provide any modicum of safety to put a small dog in between an elephant keeper and a 15,000lb animal who could easily kill the dog with a simple kick or a missed step,” said Brittany Peet, deputy director of captive animal law enforcement for Peta.
And how many have been killed? Ah. None.
In a statement released on Monday the Pittsburgh zoo gave no indication it would change its practices.
“The introduction of the dogs has been a valuable tool as we continue to elevate the care and management of our elephant herd,” said the president and chief executive, Dr Barbara Baker.
"The safety of our keepers and animals is a top priority and we provide an additional safety level with the use of trained cattle dogs. The dogs read the behavior of the animals and alert the keepers to any disruption in the herd, preventing potential safety concerns for the staff and elephants. ”
Good for you, Pittsburgh Zoo! Let’s see more organisations giving this ghastly human-loathing pressure group short shrift.

Contacting The Spirit World: Yr Doin’ It Wrong…

It’s not supposed to be done in person:
The wife and stepdaughter of a man who drowned and dismembered his pet dog, then blamed black magic for his crimes, were in hospital last night after their home was destroyed in a fire.
Police said Margaret Carroll and Katrina Livingstone had been arrested for arson with intent to endanger life.
I totally missed the first story!
Last week Mrs Carroll's husband, Paul, pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.
Magistrates heard how he drowned and dismembered a Bedlington terrier then claimed supernatural spirits from a Ouija board session on Christmas Eve had killed it.
The 51-year-old, who has learning difficulties, is due to be sentenced later this month.
Sounds like they run in the family, frankly:
Despite that, neighbours claimed that the family had continued trying to commune with the spirit world.
By, presumably, getting much, much closer to it? Section the survivors!

He Has A Point…

David Sedaris, who obsessively carries out eight-hour litter picks in Pulborough, said many discarded items he finds were “the cheapest” .
The American author and broadcaster, who denied being a snob, has a council rubbish truck named after him in honour of his efforts.
*stifled giggles*

I confess, he sounds just like the sort of earnest bore that you’d avoid at a party as he hoves into sight, clutching a soft drink and with a sheen of perspiration and a fevered gleam in his eye at the prospect of buttonholing a victim to listen to him spout off about his hobby horse.

But…is he wrong?
While giving evidence at a House of Commons inquiry into littering, he said: “If I am looking at things I find at the side of the road, I haven’t found opera tickets.
“There’s a Waitrose not far from me. I found one Waitrose bag last year. There’s a Tesco Metro that I think of as a litter-supply store not far by and I find Tesco bags all the time.
“I don’t find containers that nuts came in. It’s fast food, crisps, candy bars.
“Of all the cigarettes I find, I find more Mayfair than any other brand. And are Mayfair not the cheapest cigarettes?”
“I’m not trying to sound like a snob but there is no denying the things you’ve found.”
It would appear there isn’t, though I bet there’s a lot of progressives trying to find ways to do just that.
He also suggested authority figures like teachers and judges were to blame for poor education on littering. He described how one headteacher said asking children to pick up litter would be “demeaning” .
Mr Sedaris added: “Why should everyone have to live in a teenager’s bedroom?
“It’s bad for your spirit – I don’t care where you live or how much money you have – to have to walk through filth is no way to live.”
It seems, though, that some prefer to live that way. Isn't it about time we acknowledged that?

Saturday 7 February 2015

Shouldn’t ‘Understanding & Tolerance’ Go Both Ways..?

Lancashire students and teachers celebrated the Muslim way of life when they wore headscarves for a day.
Did they indeed..?
The movement was set up by New York resident Nazma Khan, who came up with the idea as a means to foster religious tolerance and understanding by inviting both Muslim and non-Muslim women to experience the hijab for one day.
And is there a reciprocal ‘Don’t Wear A Headscarf’ Day? No, oddly enough:
Abdul Hamid Qureshi, chairman of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, said: … the Koran tells women to dress modestly, and cover their chest and head.
He said: “People choose. Some people don’t wear it. It’s not a sinful act not to wear it but it’s a Koranic instruction, so you can’t defy it either.”
Ah. Catch 22, then?
US First Lady Michelle Obama came under fire recently for choosing not to cover her hair on a visit to Saudi Arabia.
Blackburn Councillor Salim Mulla said: “In my opinion she should have conformed to the values and the principles of the country and should have worn a scarf. It would have shown respect to the Muslim community.”
Oh, quite! I’m all for ‘conforming to the values and principles of the country’.

So when are you going to start doing that?

No, Dr Ulfkotte, The Point Is, If You Were, You Wouldn't Be Capable Of Feeling Shame...

Dr Ulfkotte, 50, who currently has a book at number three in the bestselling chart in Germany called 'Bought Journalism', is aghast at the lawsuit which he promises to fight 'tooth and nail.'
He said: 'If I was Dr Ubani, I would be ashamed to be involved in this after what he did.'
He's also never heard of the Streisand Effect.