Wrong Tense!

It never used to be, what changed, I wonder? 

Akter had come to the UK from Bangladesh, where Masum was also from. She had been living above a shop in Oldham but was staying in Bradford on the day she was killed.

Ah! 

Muhammad Shehzad said crime had worsened significantly since he came to the UK in 2003.

You don't say?  

He blamed Rishi Sunak for driving down living standards to the point where people felt the need to turn to crime.

“If you give a good chance to work, crime goes down,” said Shehzad. “There needs to be more investment in this country, my home.”

What difference do living standards make to the typical Muslim mysogynistic crime of passion? 

Naz Shah, the Labour MP for Bradford West, said the city had been traumatised by what was a rare attack on an ordinary day.

Yes, Reader, this Naz Shah.  

“People are very clear this is a very isolated incident and Bradford isn’t like this,” she said, adding that the fear was not that people would be killed in a random attack on the street but that women were being murdered by men.

Muslim men, Naz. Your voters,  

“I went to speak to literally hundreds of women in the Chaand Raat events, prior to Eid, where everybody gets their mehndi done. We had a conversation and all of them were saying: ‘When is this going to stop, men killing women?’ It wasn’t about Bradford, it was generally women really, really angry that, again, a woman has been murdered. They were saying: ‘Naz you need to talk more about it. This has got to stop.’

Women at segregated events urging another woman to do something about it? It's a nonsense, and it's what has turned Bradford into what it is today. 

Are We Charging The Brother? If Not, Why Not?

The BBC is taking out an onion for illegal immigrants again:

Obada and Ayser were among five people who drowned, a few metres from the shore, on the coast of northern France that night - the first to die while trying to cross to the UK in a small boat in 2024, a fortnight into the new year. To try to understand how a child could be put in this situation, the BBC reconstructed Obada's journey from Syria - using videos, messages and interviews with the brothers' relatives and others who accompanied them. Our aim was to explore the wrenching decisions involved at every stage.

Oh, that was your aim, was it? 

In his bedsit in west London, another of Obada's brothers, Nada, 25, kept glancing at his phone. It was 01:00 in London, 02:00 in France. A few hours earlier, Nada had called the whole group as they sat warming themselves around a fire at their makeshift camp under a canal bridge in Calais. They'd seemed confident about the journey ahead. Nada had made the same dangerous crossing two years earlier, ignoring his father, at home in Daraa, who had initially urged him to be patient, suggesting the war in Syria might soon end. Nada had chosen to travel to England because an uncle had already made the journey almost a decade earlier and been granted permission to remain. Both men had come illegally because, Nada said, there was no alternative.

And how did he repay this country? By encouraging more illegal immigration, of course. And now he has a foot in the door our own laws allow him to bring relatives legally. 

In October last year, Nada was granted refugee status and permission to remain in the UK for five years. He recently found a warehouse job near Wembley. He's now taking an English language course and hopes to bring his wife from Syria soon - something he is allowed to apply for as a refugee - and eventually to resume his law degree in England.

Which is the same aim his brother had:  

A neighbour from Daraa, who was with Obada the night he drowned, backed that up. "He would reach Britain and reunite with his brother and soon after would bring his mother and father. That was the whole point of them leaving, so his father could seek medical treatment abroad," said the man, who asked us not to reveal his name. In fact, the plan was flawed from the start. Given that he already had an adult brother in London, Obada would not have been in a position, as a minor, to arrange for his parents to follow him legally.

Well, thank goodness for that! As it happened  he never made it, but why has the brother's asylum not been revisited in light of his collusion? If he's broken no laws in encouraging the child and failing to alert the authorities, it's an utter travesty. 

The following evening, about 100 locals from Calais and a handful of migrants gathered in the town centre to hold a minute's silence for the five dead and to add Obada's and Ayser's names to a long scroll listing those who have died trying to cross the Channel in recent years.

"The biggest fault is the laws of Europe who make the life of the refugees impossible. Who give them not any rights. Who make their life here in Calais and all over the borders impossible. And we have to remember that. It is the fault of the European laws," a local French woman told the sombre crowd.

Sounds like France has its share of idiots too. Just like the UK. 

Where Were You Three Years Ago?

Alice Ferguson, of Playing Out, said: “Compared to previous generations, children’s lives have become incredibly restricted, indoors, isolated and inactive, largely due to changes in the outdoor environment. Government could reverse this trend and hugely improve children’s health and wellbeing by making streets safer and neighbourhoods more child-friendly, enabling them to get outside and play every day.”

Until the government forbids them from going outside in the next manufactured panic, you mean?

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said in a report last year that children’s health in the most disadvantaged communities presented “a terrifying picture”.

“Economic deprivation and racial inequality are both significant additional factors compounding children’s lack of access to outdoor play, physical activity and green space. There is also evidence to suggest girls spend less time outside playing than boys.”

Wow, suddenly, there is a difference between boys and girls after all! 

Maybe No-One Really Cares, Love..?

Billie Eilish said that she thought her queer identity was 'obvious' during Variety's Hitmakers event, which took place on Saturday.

The 20-year-old performer recently spoke about her attraction to women in an interview with the media outlet that was released this past November.

The songwriter, who opened up about working on an original song for Barbie expressed her incredulity about not having been asked about her sexuality in the past.

I'm frankly incredulous that you should belive that's the most important question to ask any artist. 

I don't care what someone I read/watch/listen to does in their spare time, and I very much doubt I'm alone in that... 

Can't Spell, Can't Count...

...that's the 'Mail' for you!

Staff at his restaurant were filmed preparing the fish in a video on social media. But a wildlife campaigner said Stein should be ashamed of himself for cashing in on 'these rare incredible fish'.

A campaigner? Then why the plural in the headline? 

Dominic Dyer, a wildlife campaigner, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: 'Why are fishermen being licensed to catch these incredible fish? Also, what is Rick Stein thinking, promoting the catch of this rare 150kg specimen to feed to tourists in his hugely expensive Padstow restaurant?

'There is no such thing as sustainable management of these rare incredible fish and Rick Stein should be ashamed of himself cashing in on killing them.'

*sighs* No such thing, eh? 

Fishermen were banned from catching bluefin tuna – the most expensive fish in the world – after overfishing of herring and mackerel depleted its food supply and it vanished off Cornwall in the 1950s. But it has now returned, due to rising sea temperatures, and the ban was relaxed in 2021.

Seems there is indeed such a thing! So global warming ain't all bad, is it?

A spokesman for Stein's restaurants said the fish was caught by 'one of ten boats with a licence to catch some of the small quota allowed by the Marine Management Organisation – a quota that's been carefully decided upon following detailed tracking and research of tuna in our waters'.

And the fishermen caught it because it's their job. Just as it's Stein's restaurant staff's job to feed tourists. 

What have you got against employment, Dyer? Was it your 13 years as a civil servant at MAFF that put you off?

To Be Fair, It's Only A Little Problem...

*sighs*

This winter has seen the release of two new major fantasy series, Willow (Disney+), set years after the original film, and The Witcher: Blood Origin (Netflix), a prequel to the hugely successful series The Witcher, based on the books of the same name by Andrzej Sapkowski. Both feature actors with dwarfism playing fantasy dwarves in central roles.

You might be thinking “hurrah for diversity!”...

No, as a long-suffering 'Guardian' reader, I can assure you I'm not! I know what's likely to be coming. 

...but the existence of fantasy dwarves on screen holds a complex and sensitive history for those of us who have dwarfism off screen.

*sighs even harder*

So, you want to ban real-life dwarves from acting? 

On the other hand, the decision Peter Jackson made not to cast actors with dwarfism in his The Hobbit film series and The Lord of the Rings felt frustrating at the time, given the aforementioned lack of jobs offered to actors with dwarfism.

Oh. So, you want to have your cake and eat it. Like so many professional whingers... 

Of course, all of this is only fantasy, and people might be reading this thinking “it’s obvious those characters aren’t real, so what’s your point?”. My point is that we need to see more accurate dwarfism representation on screen before people who know nothing about us can reject the wealth of misinformation they often subconsciously consume.

Funny, whenever I watch 'Tenable', I think of it as 'that quiz show Warwick Davies hosts'. I don't think of it as 'that quiz show hosted by the dwarf actor'. 

Isn't that what we're supposed to be aiming for?