What Sort Of 'Improved Access'...?

We joined Claire Wood, who is from Manchester, and Clare Birnie, from Bradford, on a sunny autumn walk around Swinsty Reservoir near Harrogate to learn more about their plus-size outdoor experiences. The women are part of the Yorkshire branch of Every Body Outdoors - a group dedicated to improving access to the great outdoors for plus-size people.

It's the wide outdoors, what more do these landwhales need?

"There is no competitive element, we're not racing (Ed: *stifles comment*), we've got no target," Ms Wood said. "It's literally just because outdoor spaces are traditionally not welcoming for those of us in bigger bodies." 

In what way? Well, by just being there, it seems.

She said she had never tried to join a "traditional" walking group because she assumed she would slow everybody down and was worried that she would need to stop for a rest while the rest of the group carried on without her.

Ms Birnie, 40, who described herself as a "comfortably fat woman", recalled a time when she tried to join a walking group. She said: "I'm actually quite an experienced walker with my husband, we've been going out for 15 years, but I wanted to go on a group hike.

"I contacted the organiser and said, 'By the way I'm in a bigger body, I am capable and happy walking a distance and I can absolutely achieve what we're looking to do, but I just will be slower'."

"It felt like they didn't even look at what I'd written," she said angrily when referring to a walk she went on with the group. "Within the first 200m they had just bounded off with the rest of the group and it made me feel very unwelcome.

"It made me feel very excluded and I got very upset during the day."

FFS, she actually thought everyone else should slow down so she could keep up with them. How utterly narcissistic! 

It also campaigns for clothing, gear and representation for plus-size bodies in the outdoor movement. Ms Wood said there was a lack of outdoor clothing available for plus-size people. "We have money to spend, there's money to be made, we want to buy these things, we need these things," she added.

Well, if manufacturers aren't making them because there's not enough demand, have you thought of starting your own business? 

Rebecca Dawson, one of the founders of Every Body Outdoors, set up the clothing company Vampire Outdoors in 2022 because she was so fed up with not being able to find suitable outdoor clothing that fitted plus-size people. She has been a keen hiker for more than 10 years and said: "It's 100% a problem. There is a size bias to people doing outdoor activities.

"A lot of clothing manufacturers and retailers don't recognise that people in bigger bodies want to do outdoor activities, including the more adventurous things like long-distance hiking and mountaineering."

See? That's how it's done, ladies. 

Shouldn’t This Be A Job For The Police?

A doctor accused of wrongly discharging a boy from hospital before he died from sepsis cannot be tracked down, health chiefs have admitted. Dylan Cope, nine, suffered a burst appendix which led to a sepsis infection spreading through his body - and a coroner later ruled that had he been kept in hospital to have his appendix removed, 'his death would have been avoided'.

But a mystery medic discharged him with an advice sheet for flu after failing to read the referral note from the doctor. An inquest ruled Dylan partly died from neglect and his parents have been trying to trace the doctor who assessed him.

Why? Shouldn't the police be doing this? Isn't it their job? 

Yet almost two years following the schoolboy's death, parents Corinne and Laurence Cope say they have been told the health board are unable to identify the clinician in question. They appealed to the Grange University Hospital in Cwmbran, south Wales. to hand out anonymised portraits of staff so his father - who had accompanied Dylan to hospital - could identify him, but have been told this is not an option.

Why not? It's almost like they don't want to find him, isn't it? 

Mrs Cope has now said: 'Losing Dylan is a life sentence of pain for us, and for all we know the person who was instrumental in reassuring Laurence is carrying on in his profession as usual.

'If they can't identify all staff involved, how can they ensure that this will not happen again 

'We are concerned for future patient's safety. If they don't identify people, then there is no accountability. Accountability is a key part of learning.'

There's never any accountability.  

Mr Cope said the doctor, who was in scrubs and a facemask, was in his 30s to 40s, slim to average build, tall and with a slight 'foreign' accent.

Probably of little help in a modern NHS hospital. 

But If They Are Coming Here To Work...

NHS nurses from overseas are being “pushed into poverty” because of rules that deprive many people coming to work in the UK of welfare benefits for five years after they arrive.

...why would they need benefits?

They are being forced to borrow money, run up credit card debts and go without food because they are unable to make ends meet, according to a report from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

Ah. Because the NHS is employing them on the cheap. Despite the billions poured into it and its sanctimonious pontificating about 'poverty'. 

The nurses are on temporary visas, which means they are subject to the “no recourse to public funds” rule that bars them from claiming child benefit, housing benefit and universal credit for at least five years before they can apply for indefinite leave to remain. The RCN is urging ministers to scrap the rule, which it says is unfair because foreign-trained nurses cannot obtain the benefits despite paying income tax and national insurance.

Well, pay them more, then. Or start training people already here, and let them nurse in their own countries, who probably need them more. 

Last Friday, the United Nations said that it too wanted the rule axed for migrants.

Of course it did. And it too can GTFO.

Just Declare Victory, Then?

A chief constable has said her acknowledgment that her police force was “institutionally racist” unsettled and hurt some officers but insisted it has allowed the force to make vital changes.

Such as..? 

A series of changes have been made, including changes to the force’s stop and search policy, the introduction of alternative ways of dealing with young people accused of crime, and the running of cultural awareness training programmes for officers.

So her patch is now a crime-free paradise, is it?  

There have been a series of fatal stabbings in and around Bristol in the past 12 months.

Oh! Guess not.  

Crew said she believed her openness had made them easier to investigate.

Have they all been solved then?  

“Without the acknowledgment and the work we’ve done, I think we’d been in a very difficult, very different place.

“Had I not acknowledged that institutional racism exists, I’m sure the communities most directly affected would not trust us. Without trust there is no consent, and without consent we no longer have legitimacy to police.”

Doesn't sound like it, or she wouldn't be waffling about 'community engagement'. You know, the same 'community' that is forever stabbing each other and then whining about the police attempts to stop them doing it.  

Crew has won plaudits for her force’s attempts to put rape suspects’ credibility and not their victims’ at the centre of sexual offences investigations, and she said the plan was to take lessons learned from that to try to improve how it served victims from Black and ethnic minority communities.

“Do we need to have a particularly enhanced kind of response if you’re a minoritised victim of crime? That could be quite controversial, so we are getting some legal and ethical feedback.”

Yes, two-tier policing will be 'quite controversial', I guess you could say!  

'No Risk To The Public' Who Aren't At A Bus Stop?

Joyce Bacon, 60, and Adele Boylin, 55, both mothers, were standing waiting to board the bus in Piccadilly Gardens when they were hit by a double decker Stagecoach being driven by 35-year-old Baruania Baros. Baros, a bus driver with four years experience with a clean driving licence, was helping a disabled passenger leave the bus when he accidentally pressed the accelerator instead of the brake pedal.

Baros, from Ashton-under-Lyne, pleaded guilty to two counts of causing death by careless driving, and was given a suspended prison sentence. The judge said his pregnant wife would be harmed if Baros was locked up and ruled that he did not pose a 'risk or danger' to the public.

We've been here before, so the leniency should probably be expected.

An expert found that Baros had left the bus in gear, rather than in neutral as it should have been. If it had been left in neutral, the accident would have been avoided, the court heard.

And yet despite clear evidence of incompetence, the (female!) judge has more sympathy for the perpetrator than the two victims.  

'This was a fatal mistake on your part,' Judge Suzanne Goddard KC told Baros, describing the incident as a 'tragic accident'.

I wonder why? Does she have a soft spot for public transport workers?  

The court heard that Baros and his family arrived in the UK as part of a refugee program, after spending time detained in a refugee camp in Tanzania.

Ah. Now I see. What are two dead Englishwomen set against your desire to stroke your progressive conscience, eh, Susie?  

Sentencing, Judge Goddard told Baros: 'In my judgement you do not present a risk or danger to the public. You have a good record, an absence of previous convictions and you have shown remorse. 'Here there is a realistic prospect of rehabilitation, strong personal mitigation, and immediate custody will result in significant harmful impact upon others.'

Have all our judiciary forgotten that prison is supposed to be a punishment as well?  

You Can Bet His Name Isn't Fred Smith...

And should we ever get to know it, no-one will be surprised, I'm sure. 

Managers at a hospital where police are investigating dozens of deaths promoted a consultant surgeon months after they allegedly assaulted junior doctors during surgery, the Guardian can reveal. Two female registrars at the University Hospitals Sussex NHS trust in Brighton sent written statements to the trust’s chief medical officer in March 2022 detailing how they were allegedly assaulted by the surgeon in separate incidents as they helped to operate on patients, leaked documents reveal.

The consultant surgeon was alleged to have slapped one of the registrars across her face with the back of a hand. The other registrar claimed she was slapped on the hand and had surgical instruments snatched from her by the same person.

Yes, Reader, in surgery, when they should really be concentrating on the task in hand. You'll say there can be no excuse for behaviour like that, but you'll be wrong!  

The trust said its investigation found the surgeon’s actions were inappropriate but did not constitute assault and were taken in the interest of patient safety. The surgeon apologised to the registrars.The investigation concluded that, in the first incident, the registrar’s visor was blocking the consultant’s field of vision during surgery, causing them to instinctively push the visor away.

By actually touching the offending item rather than asking 'Nurse, please move'? Aren't they supposed to not touch anyone but the patient to avoid cross-contamination?  

In the second incident, it concluded that an instrument was taken from the registrar’s hand during a procedure for patient safety purposes.

Sound like patient safety would be better assured by making sure this chap never entered the operating theatre.  

Not So Much A ‘Radical Flank’, Chris…

...as urban terrorists who are unhinged about global warning nonsense. Just the sort of people you want knowing your address.

Packham, 62, defended the right of environmental activists to target the homes of MPs, as long as their action was “peaceful and non-violent”.

Because that always happens, right, Chris? 

“I think that we need a portfolio of protests, basically, because we need a radical flank and Just Stop Oil are seen by many as that radical flank,” he told Times Radio on Monday.“They are the people who in some people’s minds go a step too far. And that might be, you know, standing outside an MP’s house. But the fact is that they are motivated, as I am, by a manifest fear for the health of our future.

“The science tells us we have to act. These people are frightened for my future, for your future, for the future of any children they might have. They need to draw attention to this issue.”

By destroying public art and preventing the emergency services reaching people in need? Well, I suppose it makes as much sense as urging people to buy their eggs from Cambodia rather than Britain... 

Packham added that Just Stop Oil “want a rapid just energy transition away from fossil fuels to a healthy, renewable energy system and they need to get that message across, and they’re desperate to do so. So I would support a breadth of protest.”

Which is something they don't appear to have. So, can we see you forgoing your cosy BBC sinecure and glueing your hand to the pavement in future? 

“That doesn’t mean that you and I need to go and stand outside MPs houses. I’m taking a legal approach, a perfectly democratic one, which is available to me as a citizen of the UK. But yes, we’re on the same sheet.”

Let's hope you end up in the same cell too then. 

"Mr Jenkins added that the public would be 'shocked' if they saw PC Pearson's actions."

Not so sure about that, most would be cheering him on!

The Hampshire Constabulary misconduct hearing was told in June 2022 PC Pearson and a junior female colleague identified only as PC Rich attended the boy's home on the Isle of Wight to speak to him after he hit two youngsters.

PC Pearson was tasked with reaching a Community Resolution - which are used for low-level crimes - and the boy's father was in and 'encouraging his son to listen to the officers and pay attention'. The 'naughty' boy, who can't be named for legal reasons, was said to be 'rude' and 'obnoxious' towards the officers. PC Pearson asked the child 'Why did you whack them?' to which the boy replied 'Why not?'

The uninterested youth sat on his phone and the constable, raising his voice, told him: 'Excuse me, don't talk to me like that, boy.

'You don't start talking to me like that - do you understand me?'

And the father who was present? What did he do about this child's behaviour?

Mr Jenkins said PC Rich described her senior colleague's approach as 'old school' and commented that he 'escalated the situation' which potentially put both of them in danger.

He continued: 'The situation developed by PC Pearson grabbing the boy's arm and there was a short struggle in which the boy's head hit the wall, whereby he sustained some minor injuries.

'The boy's father was understandably angry and he demanded that both officers leave the house, which they did.'

I guess we can see why the child's a little hellion... 

Mr Jenkins said: 'If it is to be suggested that the later conduct of [the boy] is relevant to show that, by June 2022, he was gradually turning into a youngster with violent or criminal tendencies, the Appropriate Authority [Hampshire police] would suggest that PC Pearson's violent actions played a role in that development.

'The boy's strong dislike for the police is plain enough from the bodyworn video material from June 21, 2022, and there are flashes of hatred after he had had his head knocked against the wall.

'His attitude towards police officers and being a law abiding young citizen is unlikely to have changed for the better after PC Pearson's actions on that day.'

I very much doubt anything's going to change his attitude at this point. Why should it? There are absolutely no consequences whatsoever for him, and those who try to impose some are stopped cold.

Am I the only one who can see that?  

PC Pearson denies gross misconduct. The officer admits that bending down and raising his voice breached a Standards of Professional Behaviour offence.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why we have a crisis in policing. 

No, Sidney, There’s One Better!

Blimey, Sidney, you don't have to look all the way across the Pond. There's a better option much closer to home, after all:

The Met Police's chief has claimed that the special constable who told off a Christian busker for singing 'church songs' on Oxford Street was trying to 'do her best', but made a mistake.

Rowley, 59, told BBC Radio London: 'She’s a volunteer doing her best who made a mistake.

''We had a special constable who was on patrol and because of complaints about busking decided she would deal with the case and she didn’t deal with it perfectly well – it was a woman singing some sort of religious songs – and we’re dealing with that as a management issue and we have said we got that slightly wrong.'

The utter contempt for the public who pay this uniformed weasel's wages by referring to Harmonie London (a popular and well-known figure on the street) as 'a woman singing some sort of religious songs' is utterly breathtaking. But hardly surprising. 

He effortlessly pivots to the attack and claims victimhood on behalf of his Karen-with-a-badge:  

He said he was disappointed to see that Hadzhipetkova had received a wash of racist abuse following the incident, which took place on Sunday.

'She has had massive racist abuse online, she has had all sorts of vitriol. Now that doesn’t help policing in London.

It might, if it curbs this ignorant power-drunk bitch in any future interactions with the public, and teaches her that her actions are scrutinised and will draw consequences.

'People behaving like that to me, I’m paid for it, I’ve stepped into a senior role. Someone who’s just out there a couple of days a week trying to help out her community who gets that vileness, that’s a real, real problem.

'That’s tough for my men and women on the frontline having to cope with that sort of thing day in, day out.'

I'm glad you mentioned 'your men and women on the frontline', 'Sir' Rowley. Because this wasn't a case of one ignorant volunteer making a mistake, there were four other officers with her - presumably at least one or two were real cops. 

Yet not one stepped in to defuse the situation, apologise for her mistake and reassure Ms London that she was perfectly well entitled to be there. Why is that? Are they all cut from the same cloth? It would explain a lot. 

But Shouldn’t The Purchaser Do Their Bit Too?

... but (coroner) Dilks said she would not be making any direct recommendations to the three major food ordering apps, which had no legal requirement to provide allergen information.

Speaking afterwards, James’s parents, Stuart and Jill, said they believed the inquest had “shone a light on much bigger issues that need urgent attention”. They said the UK had one of the biggest online food delivery markets in the world and one in four people lived with allergies. “Online food platforms have a major role in choosing who they partner with and how food is safely provided to customers by their partner providers.

“We now take this opportunity to publicly call on the bosses of the big 3 apps, Will Shu of Deliveroo, Matthew Price of UberEats and Claire Pointon of Just Eat, to meet with us to carry out a collaborative review of what further steps can be taken to better protect consumers. This is not about competition or sales. This is about people’s lives.”

Those wicked food delivery companies, eh? Just careless about whether they poison their customers? Well... 

Karen Dilks returned a narrative conclusion outlining how Atkinson ordered the food on the app, that he did not contact the restaurant directly to inform them of his allergies and that he did not have an EpiPen available once he started to feel unwell.

Hmmm... 

As If That's A State You Aren't Part Of....

A pub refused to serve a five-year-old girl apple juice in a champagne flute on New Years Eve - with the manager telling her parents it was 'not a good look'.

Celebrity doctor Renée Hoenderkamp made the request to the waiter at the Old Bull & Bush in Hampstead, north London , so that her daughter could join her husband in the celebrations at around 7pm.

However, the NHS doctor says that a manager at the gastropub told her 'it could encourage her to drink alcohol' and served it in a tumbler instead.

And this is suddenly an outrage, as if mumsie hasn't based her entire career around nanny state meddling... 

The TV presenter claimed every other child in the restaurant was 'stuck on a screen while the parents downed their champagne', believing the whole situation felt 'very judgmental and nanny state'.

Well, yes. Good job! Right? 

Dr Hoenderkamp said she would not be surprised if the 'slow virtue signalling and nanny state wokeness' displayed in the pub that night got into other places.

Where have you been, doc? It's already embedded everywhere. Thanks in no small part to, well, people like you.  

I Thought We'd Abolished Shame, Judge..?

A former police chief who retired while under investigation for possessing indecent images of children was spared jail on Monday after a judge said the 'shame' of admitting his crimes was the greatest punishment he could receive.

Pretty sure the guidelines allowed for something far, far more appropriate... 

On Monday, the 55-year-old stood grim-faced in the dock at Manchester Crown Court as his barrister described his 'humiliation' at how his 30-year policing career had been ended by what his bosses branded the 'abhorrent' crimes.

But a judge accepted there was no evidence that Sansbury had been deliberately looking for images of children after hearing he had been searching for 'twinks' – pornographic pictures of adolescent-looking men.

Oh, well, that's OK then. He'd probably have got a promotion for that if he'd told his management... 

Imposing a community order with 80 hours of unpaid work, Judge Nicholas Dean KC, the Honorary Recorder of Manchester, told Sansbury he had 'served, no doubt with some distinction, as a senior police officer'.

The judge said the reasons why Sansbury saved the images was 'not now clear', but accepted he was not someone who 'consistently' sought illicit photos.

'The loss of your good character and the shame of your departure from the police force in these circumstances is plainly a significant punishment,' he added.

I don't concur. 

Where's The Justice Here?

Sickening footage shows the moment a surly teenager killed an 82-year-old Army veteran with a single punch after being told off for causing trouble in a Derby bus station.

Omar Moumeche, who was 16 at the time, violently attacked beloved Dennis Clarke at Derby bus station after he told off his friends for messing about on an escalator.

That's a good old Derby name, isn't it? 

Moumeche, now 18, was found guilty of manslaughter in July and was sentenced to two years in youth detention at Derby Crown Court today.

*sighs* 

Detective Inspector Mark Shaw said: 'Our investigation was assisted by the capture of CCTV footage and many witness accounts, all of which were presented during the trial. 'The defendant claimed he acted in self-defence, and the jury on the balance and high threshold required refused to accept his version of events.'

Yeah, it was a pretty open and shut case but I wouldn't congratulate yourself too much, if I were you:

No further action was taken against two other teenage boys who were arrested at the time in connection with the attack.

Why not? They acted in concert, after all. They should be facing the very same (utterly pathetic) consequences, shouldn't they? 

Bending The Language To Breaking Point...

A former Metropolitan Police officer has been found guilty of sending an offensive racist message following a BBC Newsnight investigation.The court heard that he shared an image in the WhatsApp group in September 2022 that the prosecution described as "grossly offensive".

Was it? Reader, you decide:  

The image showed parrots of different colours and children of different ethnicities. It read: "Why do we cherish the variety of colour in every species except our own?"

And underneath, said: "Because I've never had a bike stolen out of my front yard by a parrot."

Chadwell then sent the message "oops, not too woke", the court heard.

It's not only funny, it's accurate! 

On finding Chadwell guilty, deputy magistrate Tanweer Ikram told the court: "He thought it was funny, but it was grossly offensive, and he was aware of it at the time."

*shakes head sadly* How did we come to this?

’As a result, a member of staff at the children’s home has been suspended.’

Frankly, I'm struggling to see why it hasn't been shut down:

In a letter submitted to the court, one police officer who has visited the child multiple times noted that “he is always vaping or smoking tobacco” when he met him in the community. Having challenged the children’s home staff as to how the child was able to buy these products, as he is always accompanied, the officer observed: “[They] have no reasonable answer.” The same officer wrote how the boy is “very open about the use of [cannabis] and … smokes it in the house and bedroom in an open manner … The on-site care staff are aware and never challenge him”.

 Are they being paid to? I’m guessing they are. If so, why are they not being told to do their job or GTFO..?

The boy is subject to a deprivation of liberty order, in which a local authority can ask the high court for permission to deprive a child of their liberty for their own protection. This occurs when they do not meet the criteria to be sectioned under the Mental Health Act. A deprivation of liberty order allows a child in an unregistered placement – because no secure registered placement is available – to be subject to restrictions on their liberty. Upon hearing the boy is subject to the order, Lieven said such a situation continuing could be seen as “a legal sticking plaster” for a “wholly unacceptable” standard of care.

That’s because it’s what it is. I very much doubt he’s the only young thug in these circumstances, and we are likely to need more and more of these places, thanks to the standards of parenting in this country, so why aren’t we building them and staffing them appropriately?

The New Term For ‘Retreat’…

 …it’s ‘de-escalation’.

A group of Jewish people gathered at the station to pray for the people of Gaza before videos appear to show British Transport Police officers attempting to break them up and take their speeches. A small scuffle broke out with clips suggesting around half a dozen officers were involved, before the situation was de-escalated by them walking away from the group.

Did they wave a white flag too? It's really a mystery why we have such little confidence in the police these days, isn't it? 

Another case in point:

How can we have confidence in British policing? pic.twitter.com/2Y9MOAsyvw

— David Vance (@DVATW) November 1, 2023

How, indeed... 

Well, If We Really Are A Nation Of Animal Lovers…

 

…maybe this will finally wake the Left up to the cause they are supporting? And the sort of people they are marching for?

No, you’re probably right, Reader, they are a hopeless cause…

More Retail Cowardice...

Another shop falls prey to the hysterical ninnies amongst us, as Longrider notes:

The shop has since removed the image and apologised on Instagram.

'We will keep this brief,' the post read. 'The image that has caused offence has been removed. We apologise unreservedly for any and all distress that it caused.'

Mr Harriman posted screenshots of the apology, with a tweet from Surrey Police confirming that the image has been taken down.

The 'offending image'..? A photo of a tobacco plantation. In a tobacconist.

After filming inside the store, Harriman, 46, spoke directly to the camera outside it, expressing his fury that a shop in 2023 could use an image of oppression to promote its products, calling it 'triggering' and 'damaging to many people'.

Something's damaging all right, but it isn't a sepia photo of a byegone age... 

Sums Up The NHS To A 'T', Doesn't It?

A woman who suffered a miscarriage has been fined by the NHS for claiming a free prescription during her pregnancy.

Wait, what? 

Sadie Hawkes lost her baby before she had received the maternity exemption certificate that entitled her to free prescriptions throughout her pregnancy and the first year after birth. She has now been sent a demand for £56.10 for medication issued the week before her miscarriage. She’s been told that she can’t apply for a certificate retrospectively as she is no longer pregnant.

/facepalm 

Hawkes is one of thousands of women in England to have fallen foul of NHS red tape which penalises patients who qualify for free prescriptions because of a medical condition or pregnancy, but who have not yet been registered for, or have failed to show, an exemption certificate.

And they will pursue them to the ends of the earth, unlike other debts... 

“The PCN [penalty charge notice] arrived on a day when I was feeling particularly ill and low [after] the miscarriage,” the 33-year-old veterinary nurse said. “It made me feel like a fraudster. I immediately called the NHSBSA and explained the circumstances to a robotic woman with zero compassion who said I was no longer eligible for a certificate because I was no longer pregnant. I was told the fine, but not the prescription charge, could only be waived if I got proof of pregnancy from my GP. That was really distressing to have to do, and made me feel I wasn’t being believed. It was the worst phone call of my life.”

Maybe move these robots onto the foreigner's debt department where they can perhaps do some good?

"It doesn’t have to result in a nanny state telling us how much to ration."

No, maybe not. Yet, somehow, it always does, doesn't it, Reader?

Ofwat chief executive, David Black, insisted the new differential charging is good for consumers and urged other water companies to follow the example set by Affinity.

He also made clear that a key aim of the scheme is to reduce water use, saying: ‘Water resources are being impacted by climate change which poses significant long-term challenges to river water health and security of water supply.

‘While charging is only one approach, companies need to use every tool at their disposal to support affordability, encourage us all to use water wisely and reduce our impact on the environment.

‘We want to see more companies seeking out and implementing innovative solutions.’

I want to see more companies cleaning up their own house first, before telling us how to behave while they are rifling through out pockets.