Coercion

The creator of the Ask for Angela campaign says its new charity status will help it support more people who feel unsafe on a night out. Hayley Crawford started the scheme 10 years ago in Lincoln pubs and named it after Angela Phillips, a family friend who was killed by her husband in 2012. Ask for Angela allows people who feel unsafe in bars or clubs to discreetly seek help. When someone "asks for Angela", staff can help them leave safely or take them to a secure area.

A worthwhile voluntary scheme, you might think, Reader. But voluntary isn’t good enough, apparently. 

Crawford hopes its new status will encourage more bars to take it on. She said: "There's never any excuse why a venue doesn't implement Ask for Angela."

Yes there is. A bar may feel it’s not for their staff to take the responsibility, and that’s their prerogative. They hire people to pour drinks, not be police or security. You may not think that’s a good enough reason, but you aren’t paying those staff, so it’s not your call to make. 

Failures were uncovered by the BBC in 2024 when secret filming found that in more than half of the London venues they visited, staff failed to respond to the code word. 

In 2025, Phillips's daughter, Hollie, called for government action to ensure the scheme was implemented properly.

The irony of expecting the government to coerce everyone into complying with their ‘voluntary’ scheme is clearly lost on them. 

Crawford said the charity status would help solve the issue of pubs not implementing the scheme. "Hopefully, that will give them the confidence to implement the scheme and not feel like it's going to cost them a lot of money, or it's complicated, or that they won't have the support in place because they'll be able to access that all through the charity," she said.

And yet, they still may feel like it’s not their responsibility to take this on, and that’s perfectly fine. 

Westwide trends as of 4.30 a.m. GMT Tuesday

Am deliberately avoiding party leaders afap in this post … aim is to look at trends in almost all western countries as of this timepoint. To do this, I’ve taken screenshots and am running them in the order in which they appeared on X except the first two from Lord Toby’s newsletter from London this morning.

Just before that … Thune has called a special rushed vote for him to be Senate leader for two years at 9 a.m. Washington time, before anyone (and there is one by the way) can be brought in to oppose him:

It Will Be Ironic If This Finally Seals The Met Police's Fate...

Meghan Markle wanted to go public after she was made aware of child sex abuse claims against her father but the Metropolitan Police's royal bodyguards advised her not to, it is claimed. The revelation comes after Scotland Yard confirmed it handed the Duchess of Sussex, 45, a letter containing allegations against Thomas Markle, 82, in January 2019, but failed to alert other law enforcement agencies.

I don't know whether to be horrified by their lack of responsibility to law and order or astonished at their success in getting this woman to keep her mouth shut for once:  

The handwritten letter from Loveless, who died in 2024, was assessed by the Met's royal protection team, before it was passed on to the office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at Kensington Palace for 'awareness'. It has now emerged that Meghan wanted to speak out about the allegations, which she last week described as 'troubling and disturbing'.

You have to admit, that's some achievement!  

However, one of her Royalty and Specialist Protection [RaSP] bodyguards reportedly told her: 'Leave it with us, we'll investigate it.' The same officer reportedly advised Meghan not to go public at a time she was being criticised for cutting ties with her father without any explanation, who did not attend the Sussexes' wedding in 2018. The Met, who did not did not investigate any of the allegations against Markle due to them taking place abroad, are still trying to identify and find the officer in question, The Times reports.

Due to them 'taking place abroad'..? That's stopping them now?  I guess there's not a lot of golf courses in the Phillipines...

But there’s always someone to tell you black is actually white and you are wrong for thinking that a police officer should have any concern for illegal activities:

On Saturday, a source within the Met said it appeared as though the RaSP officers who assessed the 2019 letter had failed to understand the significance of the allegations and failed to refer it up the chain of command. The source said: 'These people are not detectives and have a tendency to be quite linear in their thinking. 'RaSP would only have been interested in what it meant for the security of the Duke and Duchess [of Sussex]. Having assessed that, they should have thought about the wider consequences.'

Clearly employing the best and the brightest for the role! 

Remembrance Day in Britain in 2026

Julia and I and I hope Grandpa wish you all the best in your commemorations today.

One of the two poems in the British commemoration of Armistice and subsequent remembrances was:

They won’t age, no, but we will … and the friend of many here, LegIron, has written this morning:

Yes. But by the same token, people are still commemorating the Fallen in various ways, for example:

… which is nice, almost quaint and may that sort of thing never dies out.

Just a word on why Remembrance Sunday for Britain and some other places, instead of on Wednesday, November 11th, which is Armistice Day:

Here’s a nice gesture which at least until recently was still being offered:

And so to the opening poem and the attached bugle call for the 11th of the 11th, at 11 a.m.:

Is there any defence against this global collusion?

One argument goes that if our issues are tackled nationally, e.g. in Poland, hence the all out war between von Leyen’s mob and the Polish President, as it had been against Hungary’s Orban, then the globo-psychos stand a chance of being toppled, despite the civil service, e.g. the FCO.

In a functioning electoral system, perhaps this might bear fruit:

Going back in history to Thanet South, with Nige poised for victory, the Tory number cruncher was interviewed at 11 p.m. and predicted the eventual outcome before the ballot boxes were due to be opened at 2 a.m.

The type of global thing we’re up against across the west, in every western nation, is:

Von Leyen? Australia? And electoral integrity in other nations?

Or this:

Which raises the question of the point of voting in the first place? Let’s say people decide to stay home … then we get Labour majorities on 20+% of the eligible vote.

All right, let’s say a few thousand do a Dover-Portsmouth sit-in and their leader is of course now in prison until June, uncharged, as with J6ers. So old soldiers just press on, selling poppies, right?

Well, the kids doing it can’t be identified, but the woman’s photo can be seen … the chief stompette … she’ll need reparations for that.

Sort of an organised tsunami of assault on us from every direction, would you not say? And as was shown in NIMBY Piddington, if it’s not kids attacking and maiming the elderly, then it’s barracks of fighting age third worlders awaiting the call, raping here and there in the meantime. In villages and towns, let alone in the Lake District.

Is there a Homan or Miller anywhere, as in the States, who could rid the country of the problem? Only if the political leadership was onside with that. Not a lame duck.

Oh, say I, voice heavy with irony … but what if a strong leader were to arise from nowhere in a Hegelian way, offering to scour the land, to wash away the Augean stable ordure, to sweep away the Weimar Republic of deliberate sleaze? And if not national, then how about continental blocs or even One World Govt and Religion?

*Sigh*

 Isn't it all just so bloody tedious?

This is definitely the most niche brag you will read today: with the release of A Wall Is Also a Road, I will have a 5/5 score when it comes to publishing sci-fi books with nonbinary protagonists. No matter the topic of my books—time travel, robots running a noodle restaurant, far-future terraformers—I always include a nonbinary point of view.

Of course you do, dear boy…. 

This is trickier than it sounds, because nonbinary pronouns in science fiction have a pretty checkered history. Over the past century, sci-fi authors have often deployed nonbinary pronouns to make characters seem incomprehensibly abnormal.

Stop sniggering at the back! 

After the rise of feminist science fiction in the 1970s, authors became bolder about using nonbinary pronouns without inserting a judgey, binary-centric protagonist.

There was a rise of ‘feminist science fiction’? Really? 

Marge Piercy consistently uses the neopronoun “per” for the eco-conscious future humans in Woman on the Edge of Time (1975). And Octavia Butler’s female protagonist in the iconic 1980s trilogy Lilith’s Brood has children with an ooloi, the third sex of a spacefaring species called the Oankali.

The fact they probably did this to make characters more ‘other’ and so alien has gone right over his head, hasn’t it? 

But something profound has changed: Today, nonbinary characters are protagonists. Readers are invited to identify with em, table-flip the typical narrative, and perceive binary gender as abnormal.

It isn’t, no matter how you might wish it to be, and ‘queer fiction’ isn’t going to change that one iota. 

Being nonbinary in a binary world feels like living in a state of low-key defamiliarization all the time. I’m constantly confused by the weirdness and artificiality of binary gender, which inspires all kinds of out-of-pocket assumptions about who I am.

We know just who you are, unfortunately… 

Since the 1780s, linguists, journalists, and even mathematicians have been advocating for a simple act of language reform that would give nonbinary people more options. With nerdy fervor, they’ve coined gender neutral neopronouns like ip, thon, xe, ir, and ae. Not for political reasons, or “wokeness.” Just to settle on a grammatically correct way of describing individuals without reference to their genders.

Have they really? Since the 1780S? 

Nonbinary pronouns aren’t mere rhetoric. They’re about selfhood and being seen for who we are. Whether a story introduces 15 wild neopronouns, or a single epicene one, it creates a space for imagining what our hearts might do if we had more choices than two.

Pronouns eh? The dictionary definition of which is 'a word or group of words used to replace a noun or noun phrase to avoid repetition and make sentences flow better'. So you're asking rather a lot of them, aren't you?

The assault on the farm

 … and in particular on the cow

The overriding question, after the deep state attack on farming itself (so many other articles) … is that of food additives … and today, the humble cow.

https://www.farminguk.com/news/arla-and-tesco-suspend-dairy-farms-after-shocking-welfare-allegations_69413.html

Any ideas for a solution to this, some way to stop these deep state monsters doing these things to humans … plus cows themselces?

Here’s one idea:

It's Not The UK, You See...

Two MPs and an MSP have said they were detained by Israeli authorities for eight hours while trying to enter the West Bank.

Well, you see, unlike the UK, the Israelis actually ontrol their borders and don't let in undesirables. I can see why that would baffle UK politicians…

SNP MP Lara Bird, Labour MP Clive Lewis and Scottish Greens MSP Kate Nevens said they were prevented from entering the territory on Monday before being questioned and eventually turned away.

Are there no Scottish issues that need resolving then? 

A spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in the UK claimed the group "failed to cooperate with border officials" and provided "false information about the purpose of their visit".

Gosh, UK politicians, lying? Well I never, said absolutely no one! 

She told BBC Scotland News: "It was an exercise in intimidation and fear. "They said they had evidence that I hate Israel and that, I think, was one of the reasons they didn't want to let us in."

You probably hate England too, but sadly the UK will let you back in… 

Lewis, who represents Norwich South, said the group had been "made to feel as though they had done something wrong" in a post on X.

You should be used to that, frankly! 

US midterms today ... a take from across the pond

Americans for Limited Govt site newsletter:

In elections, midterm and presidential, dating back to 2010, in years the Republicans won the popular vote for the U.S. House of Representatives — in 2024, 2022, 2016, 2014 and 2010 — the Democratic candidate averaged 57 percent of the vote in the Delaware at-large Congressional district. And in years Democrats won the popular vote for the House — 2020, 2018 and 2012 — the Democratic candidate averaged 62.17 percent of the vote in Delaware.

So, if U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.) is coming in well above 60 percent of the vote, it will likely be a Democratic win in the House of Representatives nationally, but if it’s below 60 percent of the vote, it could prove to be a challenging night for Democrats.

The problem with that is both the new electronic voter fraud involving ballots generated from other countries … China, Venezuela etc. … plus the massed invader vote, plus the rampant illegality, mainly Demonrat, e.g. Arizona … it’s how far they can successfully cheat. On a slightly different matter but still the same people behind it …lowlifes with low moral compass and an agenda, largely involving gold, oil and $$$$, plus sophisticated organisation over decades, tweaked for today:

Yeeessss … Slotkin is the new Nuland. And is Donny, at that age, and with those gatekeepers, capable of putting a lid on it? You being more au fait with all this than I am, who knows?

There does appear to be some pushback … while blue state Americans, plus some nominally red states, esp. Bush country, are mired in sleaze, voters Reps and Senators do seem to draw the line at death cult terrorists as the candidate. What have Demonrats against Rogers? AIPAC. Interesting race.

Will Iran and Rubio stop Republicans coming out and voting straight red, or will sufficient move themselves to stand in lines for hours, then meet the Demonrat officialdom near the door, then have their vote refused and/or then flipped, electronically? With no later comeback via activist judges?

🍿🍿🍿🍿 and prayers to the correct God this time.

Your Mother Wouldn't Have Believed The Little Popinjay...

...but you're not your mother, are you? More's the pity.

King Charles’s tour of the Caribbean has been thrown into confusion after Andy Burnham declared that he was ‘open’ to apologising for Britain’s role in the slave trade. The Prime Minister’s comments immediately triggered calls from leaders in the West Indies for Britain to pay billions of pounds in reparations – and sparked questions about the UK’s official stance. Journalists travelling with the King had been assured as late as Thursday evening that the Government’s policy was ‘absolutely no apology’.

Only a man as dim as Charlie boy would trust the jumped up little oik to be telling the truth.. 

Meanwhile, the issue has prompted Tory leader Kemi Badenoch to ask whether the UK should boycott Commonwealth summits if they become ‘an exercise in presenting Britain with demands for cash’.

Of course we should!  

Mr Burnham’s statement has led to speculation as to whether the King, who is head of the Commonwealth, will be forced to make a public apology on behalf of Britain, or at least drastically change his keynote speech to a gathering of leaders in Antigua on Tuesday.

Apoloogy for what, exaclty? Ending the slave trade with the Royal Navy?