We've Seen How Other Economies 'Succeed', Julia And Winsome...

The cost of living crisis affects all of us, but it doesn’t affect us equally. One of us struggles to afford the spiralling price of the weekly shop, while the other can shop as before, unaffected by rising food prices. One of us fears turning on the heating to keep her house warm, while the other can heat her home and travel for some winter sun without a second thought.

This isn’t how an economy succeeds.

...and while it might be good for the wall-building trade, I don't much fancy it in my country.

Instead of squeezing low earners, the chancellor should have matched his actions to his rhetoric and taxed wealth at the top.

Here you go, Julia! If you don't think you're taxed enough, the nice people at the Treasury will gladly accept your voluntary payment at that link.

Do be a dear, though, and come back to the 'Guardian' and tell us all when you've done it, eh?

Cow Wars!

Almost 20 years ago, hundreds of furious New Zealand farmers jumped into their tractors, farm bikes and trucks and ploughed up Wellington’s main street towards parliament to kick up a stink against the so-called “fart tax” – a levy on livestock methane gases, proposed by the then-Labour government to reduce emissions.

A cow named Energy was led up the building’s granite steps and left an unwelcome mess in her wake. In doing so, she provided the opposition movement with a powerful, if indelicate, visual metaphor: rural New Zealand was ready for a mudslinging match with the capital.

Just months later, the government abandoned the tax.

That was then. And the government bided its time: 

But last month – 19 years after Energy’s memorable performance – the current Labour-government proposed a not-too-dissimilar plan to the ill-fated “fart tax”, with a crucial difference: it had been broadly created by farmers themselves. 

All the farmers? Well, maybe not: 

“As everyone knows, the farming lobby is one of the strongest,” says Dr Adrian Macey, an adjunct professor in climate change research at Victoria University of Wellington and senior associate at the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies. But there is growing division within the sector, he says – those who are “ready to be part of the solution”, and those who feel “very oppressed by not only climate change measures but all government regulation”.

Who can blame them? 

Macey says the plan could pave the way for other countries to follow suit. “[New Zealand] is probably the first country to set a hard target on agricultural methane and the first country to put a levy on it,” he said. “We’re showing world leadership on what you can do with the sector – no one has gone there before us.”

Don't mind if we all just sit back and watch to see what happens, then, Adrian? 

What Happened To Scathing Reviews?

Martin Kettle in 'The Guardian':

There is nothing wrong in principle with protesting at the opera. I’ve very occasionally booed shows I hated, and I want to be free to do so again if I choose.

Why..? You've a column in the 'Guardian' to rip it to shreds the next morning, why ruin everyone else's enjoyment? 

Booing and whistling at the opera or theatre can sometimes be healthy and necessary protest.

Really? I'm not an opera goer, so it never even crossed my mind that this might be a thing. I've been to theatre performances I thought were rubbish, but I just left before the end... 

What happened at Covent Garden on Tuesday evening, however, wasn’t booing but heckling.

Oh, really? Trust a 'Guardian' writer to be able to draw a distinction... 

The target was Malakai M Bayoh, a 12-year-old boy soprano...

That's not the most stand-out thing, though, is it, Martin? 

I’d add for the record that, as far as I could tell, the heckling was not racist (Bayoh is a black boy from south London), although it may have been.

Maybe the chap should be given his own column in the paper to tell us why he did it? 

But there is a wider issue to consider here. Expressing one’s dissent against a production or a performance is often unattractive and sometimes (as here) unmerited. But it can have its place. Not always, but sometimes. It’s a tricky line to draw and to police. But I hope theatres do not start making it a requirement of attendance not to boo or protest, let alone make booing punishable by a lifetime ban.

"If I do it, it's necessary and needful. If you do it, it's wrong!" That ought to be the 'Guardian's' new strapline. 

The True Enemy Within...

Staffordshire county council has agreed to remove the name of terrorist Usman Khan, who killed two people in the London Bridge attacks, from a council report over concerns it could 'inflame' the far right.

What has it got to do with Staffordshire, anyway? 

In 2019, Cambridge University graduates Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23, were attacked and killed by convicted terrorist Khan, 28, who was born in Stoke-on-Trent.

Ah. Well, no doubt they do want to obscure that inconvenient fact. But a fact it remains. Still, these loony-left councils, eh? What are they l... 

At the Conservative-run council's Safeguarding Overview and Scrutiny Committee...

Oh! 

...councillor Gillian Pardesi argued that including Khan's name and ethnic background could provoke an increase in hate crime.

How? 

The chairman of the committee disagreed with cllr Pardesi and said the authority should be wary of 'watering down' information that was in the public domain.

Councillor Bob Spencer said: 'I think the expression of how that translates into the far-right threat is not 100 per cent clear.

'I think we ought to be careful about how we report some of the things and some of the words that we use. However, having said that, if we are simply mirroring or echoing the phrases and words already used by the coroner, that gives it the requisite validity around us using those as well. 'I think this is public knowledge and within the public domain - we're not telling people something that they don't know. I don't see the value personally in changing the language of Home Office reports. I do worry about us constantly watering down facts.'

But sadly, Bob, you're not getting any traction. Richard Littlejohn is rather more forthright:

...it does give yet another depressing insight into the official mindset when it comes to downplaying Islamist atrocities, especially on British soil. This isn't just confined to pusillanimous politicians, the Guardianistas who run the justice system and the Home Office, or the officer class at Scotland Yard, all brainwashed by the Left-wing freemasonry Common Purpose. It now extends throughout every branch of government and so-called 'public service', including Staffordshire council.

Quite! 

You Spelled 'Ethnics' Wrong...

...well, it is the dear old 'Grauniad', I suppose.

The culture minister of Nigeria...

Ha ha ha ha ha! Wait, they really have one of those..? 

...has urged the British Museum to follow the example of the Smithsonian Institution, which on Tuesday returned ownership of 29 Benin bronzes to Nigeria at a celebratory event in Washington.

Why? Reminds me of my mum's favourite saying from mt childhood: 'Well, if all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you too?' 

“I told them the last time I was in London: it’s not if, it’s when. They will eventually have to return these because the campaign is gaining strength by the day and, when they look at what other museums are doing, they will be compelled to return them.”

Isn't it about time some of these institutions grew a backbone and started saying 'No' and meaning it? 

Another Case Of 'Working As Intended'..?

Terror suspects like Shamima Begum could be treated like victims if they exploit modern slavery laws, the terrorism watchdog warned last night.

Would anyone be surprised at this? 

It sparked calls for an inquiry into claims the Met and the government knew the alleged people smuggler was responsible for helping Begum and her two fellow schoolgirls join ISIS while also working as a double agent.

Would anyone be surp ... oh, I'm just repeating myself now! 

He's not right on everything, mind you:

Mr Hall voiced particular concerns with the idea that a child recruited to a terrorist organisation was automatically a victim, 'if they did so entirely of their own free will'.

'It is at odds with the fact that children are not generally seen as victims when they commit other crimes, just because someone suggests they should do so,' he added.

Well, I guess he's spent so long on terrorism that he's failed to see the direction the wider justice system has been heading in. 

Why Should The Justice System Care About The Criminal's Mental Health..?

Shouldn't it be more concerned with that of the victim?

A thief who assaulted and stole thousands from a vulnerable neighbour has dodged jail because he is transitioning.

Judge Robert Linford told Truro Crown Court the 'extremely unusual' decision was made because the 26-year-old would currently have to be held at a women's prison.

Andrew's defence barrister argued this would affect his mental health and delay the process of his transition by months, if not years.

It's a woman. That's why she has to be held at a woman's prison.  

Prosecutor Katie Churcher said Andrew came up with a litany of reasons why he needed the money from his neighbour, who was said to be vulnerable. These included needing a locksmith, a train fare, a medical emergency and moving to Manchester.

Andrew was actually funding a drug addiction, buying cannabis and cocaine, and settling debts with dealers.

So many of these cases hinge on drugs, don't they? Is anyone looking into a connection? 

I Don't Think It's God's Own Country Anymore...

Ah, Yorkshire, fondly-remembered holiday destination of my youth, bucolic setting for... 

Oh:

A young woman has told of her horror after she found a man's freshly severed hand on the floor of a Huddersfield club after he was attacked by two males armed with machetes.

Nice! 

The drama unfolded around 5.15pm last night at Deighton WMC when the men in balaclavas ambushed a man in the club's smoking shelter. The incident comes just months after another man had one of his arms partially chopped off with a machete near the club in February.

When did Huddersfield turn into Mogadishu? 

Still, at least some of the natives retain the phlegmatic practicality I remember:

The woman, who lives just yards away, said: "I heard this sudden scrunch of metal and went to take a look and there was this man bleeding with his hand twitching on the floor. I picked it up and took it home and started clearing out my freezer.

"My dad told me to put in a bag surrounded by ice cubes and take it back to the club which I did."

Although...perhaps there's such a thing as being too phlegmatic: 

"I'd seen these two males who attacked him seconds before. And although they were in balaclavas I didn't think anything of it, it's not unusual around here. The next time I saw them they were running away - both were carrying huge machetes."

*blinks* 

The Only 'Human Error' Here Is In Cowering Before The Karens, Tesco...

Tesco has apologised to shoppers after...

Out of date food? Dirty store? Rude staff?

...'racist' security tags were placed on cosmetics for black skin but not lighter skin tones in one of its stores.

*sighs* Buckle up, we're going in.... 

Mother-of-three Natalie Westgate complained to the chain after she spotted the security measures on the makeup, calling it 'racist' and 'absolutely disgusting'.

'I understand you have to security box items but do you think it is ok to only have the dark range security boxed and not the entire range,' she said to Tesco.

'Please ask your race and ethnicity network and Black Voices Advisory Group what they think to security only boxing the dark range then get back to me.'

The utter arrogance in that demand is breathtaking. But sadly only to be expected of someone who doesn't even pause to consider the absurdity of having a 'race and ethnicity network' in the first place...

The supermarket responded first on Twitter and said 'stores may sometimes use security tags on items which have recently been subject to theft and the decision to do so changes from store to store'.

Brave of the corporate Twitter-wrangler to use facts and logic to bat away the annoying Karen. But futile, because there's never just one. They hunt in packs. And the avalanche of manufactured outrage reached the eyes of a manager trained to be obsequious in the face of anything 'racist':

A spokesperson for Tesco apologised and said that it was an example of human error, and they should not have been tagged.

'It’s really important to us that Tesco is a place where everyone feels welcome, and the tags have now been removed,' they told The Sun.

So there you have it, thieves and shoplifters; Tesco wants you to 'feel welcome'. You know where to go now, don't you? 

Only One In Four..?

I'd have put it a lot higher if asked to guess...

One in four councils is promoting ‘highly contentious’ race theories in schools, a major report warns today. Town halls are using controversial terms including ‘white privilege’ and ‘unconscious bias’ in teacher training materials, research has found.

If only our 'conservative' government were as interested in this as they are in fighting like rabid weasels to get into the top spot, eh? 

Tony Sewell, who led last year’s landmark government inquiry into racism that was castigated by the Left, added: ‘As I found as chair of the Commission for Ethnic and Racial Disparities, and as this work underlines, it is increasingly apparent that a single, contentious interpretation of anti-racism has taken hold across many of our country’s institutions. Uncovering the ideological drift in schools is of vital importance both for creating a more balanced discussion on race, and for protecting the integrity of education itself.’

Oh, Tony, I think the integrity of education is a lost cause. Don't you? 

DDU began investigating after learning that Brighton & Hove City Council was recommending pupils as young as five be taught that they are either racists or victims.

Or in the case of cricketer Azeem Rafiq, both!

"He was allowed to be dangerous, untreated, and at liberty..."

Like so very many others:

The MoS revealed earlier this year that a psychiatric team decided not to detain Glover just weeks before the December 2019 attack, even though police had warned that he was planning to run over children.

Now a report by the Independent Office for Police Conduct reveals:

• Glover called Essex Police ‘many hundreds of times’, including on 117 occasions in the eight months before Harley’s death;
• On at least 30 occasions, he made threatening comments, including eight calls in which he threatened to run over children;
• A worried parent warned police that Glover was driving suspiciously near the school and watching children as they went home after lessons.

Despite that, the IOPC probe cleared Essex Police of any blame and makes no recommendations to change its policies or training.

‘Essex Police appear to have acted reasonably in their dealings with him and, having responded in line with the powers available to them in response to his vague threats to kill, cannot be judged to have contributed to Harley Watson’s death,’ it concluded.

Now an inquest has - quite rightly - decided differently. But this is just the one case. How many others are similarly allowed to be at large?

"Do Something About Knife Crime....Wait, Not That!"

The Met says the scheme, known as Project Alpha, helps fight serious violence, with the intelligence gathered identifying offenders and securing the removal of videos glorifying stabbings and shootings from platforms such as YouTube.

The unit, comprising more than 30 staff and launched in 2019 with Home Office funding, scours social media sites looking at drill music videos and other content.

Who could possibly object to th...

Oh. Of course.

Stafford Scott, a veteran community campaigner, said he feared the project was part of a continued assault on young black people.

Only the ones that want to shoot or stab their fellow black people, Stafford. Are you in favour of that, then?

“Young people use social media to magnify their lived experience. It is a tool for projection, you can’t rely on it for detection,” he said. “It is racially motivated, racially driven and involves racial stereotypes.”

Ever wonder why there's no unit set up to monitor young people of other origins? Why there's no Portugese, Spanish or Samoan drill videos?

Should've Gone To SpecSavers Hooters!

A self-proclaimed preacher who attacked a takeaway boss and left him with severe brain damage after complaining about an ‘inappropriately dressed’ female member of staff has today been jailed for more than eight years.

Blimey, the Church of England is getting a bit feisty, isn't it? 

Oh, wait...

Hamdi Braiek was offended that a woman working at Mukhtar Hussain’s business Mix Grill 91 in Maidstone, Kent, ‘had her boobs hanging out in his face’ and told her she should cover-up.

Just a few hours earlier he had punched another woman in a shopping mall in an unrelated transphobic attack, a court heard.

Lovely! 

Braiek, an Uber Eats delivery driver who did national service in Tunisia and has no previous convictions, will have to serve two-thirds of his jail term before he can be considered for parole.

When can he be considered for deportation? Or is the answer, 'never'..? 

The court heard Braiek was on police bail at the time of the offences on May 30 having been charged in respect of punching his landlord in the street just two days earlier. That matter is yet to be dealt with by magistrates.

Don't bother. Put him on the next flight to Rwanda. 

When Will Priti Get A Grip..?

The Home Office is in the process of drawing up a new hate crimes strategy that aims to 'increase the reporting of all forms of hate crime', including those relating to gender identity.

The plans are being developed despite a court ruling last year, which ordered police to stop recording gender-critical views as non-crime hate incidents, which are declarations of wrongdoing added to someone's criminal record.

This is a department at war with itself. You cannot on the one hand have the law courts refusing you their backing, yet civil servants blindly carrying on with attempting to enforce the impossible demands of a handful of activists. 

What's the Home Secretary doing about it?

But free-speech campaigners fear the new drive could see comedians criminalised for telling jokes, particularly about the rise of transgender ideology.

The move comes after Gervais, creator of The Office, angered Twitter's 'woke' brigade following the broadcast of his new Netflix special, SuperNature, which mocks cancel culture with jokes about trans people, Hitler and AIDS.

It appears to be...nothing.  

Under the new strategy being developed by the Government, members of the public could be allowed to register an official complaint about his routine.

And we know, given the opportunity, they will.  

Last night, the Home Office Minister Rachel Maclean insisted the move was positive. She said: 'Increases in police-recorded hate crime have been driven by improvements in crime recording, better identification of what constitutes a hate crime and increased victim willingness to come forward.

'This is positive and reflects the hard work that has gone in to ensuring police can understand the scale of the challenge, and that victims get the support they need.'

Rein in this idiot, Boris and Priti, or lose yet more votes. It should be another no-brainer, as DumbJon points out. Why aren't you doing it? 

"People are telling us that they feel less safe and less welcome in the UK."

Working as intended, then?

The British Red Cross and the Refugee Council, which worked with nearly 44,000 people in the asylum process, warn that they are disappearing from hotels and are reluctant to claim support for fear of deportation, detention and other harsh measures.

Who didn't see this coming? Hopefully the Home Office have read some hunting literature and discovered the term 'flushing from cover'... 

This being the 'Guardian', let's see what sort of sob stories they can find:

Those supported by the Red Cross include:

An Afghan man living in temporary accommodation in the east Midlands who disclosed that he had gone into hiding, fearing that he would be detained and sent to Rwanda. He said that many of his friends were in the same situation and planned to go underground.

So it's not about safety and never was. He and his friends (how is he still in touch with them, I wonder) just target Britain. 

An asylum seeker from Ethiopia based in the West Midlands said that he feels anxious about the passing of the Nationality and Borders Act and disclosed he had left his accommodation out of fear that he will be sent to Rwanda.

What's the 'danger' in Ethiopia? Civil war? Drought? Won't he be at least in his own continent in Rwanda? 

An Afghan asylum seeker also based in the West Midlands who said he feels he is a second-class refugee as he is not eligible for recent schemes designed to support Ukrainians.

Ah. That's because you're not Ukranian. Funny how that works, eh?

Nothing unusual there. Absolutely no-one who anyone with their head screwed on could possibly have any sympathy for. It's amazing how they always manage not to find a genuinely worthwhile 'victim', isn't it?

No, Not Everything Is 'Racist'...

Yes, I'm broadly in favour of working from home, not least because it's annoying all the right people, could save money and is giving it to the transport unions good and hard without benefit of lube... 

But that doesn't mean I'm bound to agree with this nonsense:

A group of Apple employees have accused the big-tech giant of racism over its push for corporate workers to return to the office, saying that the shift back to an in-person model will make the company 'younger, whiter, [and] more male-dominated.'

Errr, what..? 

Although Apple will 'likely always find people willing to work here,' the group wrote, the shift back to working in the office will 'change the makeup of [the company's workforce].'

It's already changed once, what you seem to be worried about is it might change back.  

'It will lead to privileges deciding who can work for Apple, not who’d be the best fit,' the group wrote. 'Privileges like “being born in the the right place so you don’t have to relocate”, or “being young enough to start a new life in a new city/country” or “having a stay-at-home spouse who will move with you."'

All things that apply to any job, anywhere. 

'And privileges like being born into a gender that society doesn’t expect the majority of care-work from, so it’s easy to disappear into an office all day, without doing your fair share of unpaid work in society. Or being rich enough to pay others to do your care-work for you.'

Wait, what the hell is 'your fair share of unpaid work in society' supposed to mean? Didn't anyone else notice what they slipped in there?

Maybe You Should Change Your Name..?

Because there's nothing liberal about this:

The human rights group Liberty is threatening to sue the government and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) over the bitterly contested law of joint enterprise, arguing that it is discredited and racist in the way the authorities pursue it.

Or is it simply that the gang culture it seeks to prevent is more prevalent within certain races? Chicken/egg here... 

There have long been accusations, supported by academic studies and parliamentary inquiries, that the gang label is attached disproportionately and without adequate evidence to black and minority-ethnic young men.

Right, sure, ok... 

Lana Adamou, a lawyer at Liberty, said: “We all want our communities to be safe, and for our laws to treat us equally. But joint enterprise is overwhelmingly used against people from marginalised communities, especially young black men, and drags people unfairly into the criminal justice system.

“It’s completely unacceptable that there is still no official data being recorded about how the doctrine is used and who it is used against. By failing to do so, the justice system has been recklessly sweeping thousands of young black men into the prison system.”

Are we supposed to believe that the police simply arrest black and minority ethnic bus drivers, librarians and chemists who just happen to be present on the street when a gang of animals chase down a rival gang member with knives then?  

New In The Guardian: 'How To Handicap Your Kid For Life'

Oooh, parenting advice in the dear old 'Grauniad' This should be good (for a laugh):

What sort of behaviour should I look out for?

There’s a certain sort of kid, warns O’Malley, who goes to school with a supercilious presumption that they’re better than the others. Make sure your child isn’t that child: the idea that your offspring is inherently smarter, better looking and more skilled across the board, is, in fact, a facet of your own dark side – and transmitting it to your child will lead to big problems.

Wait, what? But what if they are? What if they shine amongst dullards (yes, I know parents always think that, but sometimes it must actually be true)..? 

The much better approach is to think from the point of view of other children, and to encourage your child to do likewise. “When asking your child about their day, don’t just ask about lessons and what they had for lunch,” says O’Malley. “Ask them, did everyone have a friend at playtime today? And if they say someone was left out, ask them did they give that person a smile, or go to ask whether they wanted to play?”

Thus making them the prey of the vicious and manipulative. Like...the future offspring of 'Guardian' columnists, perchance? 

How To Ensure We Continue To Have An Inner City Drug Problem?

Well, this will certainly help!

The police panel, led by Hackney’s Basic Unit commander, Marcus Barnett, admitted that the Met has a problem with officers viewing inner London children as “adults”, adding that what happened to Child Q would probably not have happened to a child living in the Cotswolds, as an example.

Well, maybe because in the Cotswolds, a child is unlikely to go to school smelling so strongly of cannabis that teachers are concerned, perhaps? 

The meeting also revealed that Barnett knew about the girl being strip searched in January 2021. Officers were called due to a teacher wrongly suspecting that she had cannabis.

Not an unreasonable assumption, given her clothes stank of it.  

He added that the school “probably should not have called us and we should probably have understood very quickly that we had no role to play there”.

Why not? Drugs are illegal, aren't they? Aren't you always boasting about your successes when you find some?

"Better put them back, lads. The boss said we've no role to play here after all..."

What exactly do you think you're playing at? Reflexively cringing in front of the mob won't head off the usual suspects at the pass, will it? 

Chanel Dolcy, a solicitor at Bhatt Murphy, which is representing the family in proceedings against the police, said Child Q had launched civil proceedings against the force and her school seeking to hold both institutions to account “to ensure this never happens again to any other child”.

Translation: "Open the taxpayer's pockets, there's more money to be made!" 

How Warped Do You Have To Be To Claim This As A Victory?

Amid the horror of Covid, some good has come out of the experience of coping with the pandemic.

Oh, really, Polly?

One of the great successes was ensuring that women locked down at home had easy access to abortion.

Ugh! 

Around 100,000 women a year in England and Wales are now using this quicker route to an early abortion.

Quicker, and breaking the spirit of the Abortion Act. Which should never, ever lead to abortion on demand.  

Still, at least this is something Polly can't blame on 'poverty' like she usually d...

Most women seeking abortions already have children: teen pregnancies have been falling this century. Women who lost income in the pandemic often seek an abortion because of a lack of money. The BPAS says many are avoiding this government’s draconian two-child benefit limit from harming their existing family.

Oh. Guess she can.