Removing Personal Responsibility

...and replacing it with woke rhetoric:

Civil servants were told to rewrite a proposed social media campaign to combat drink-spiking after the original appeared to blame victims, a minister has told Labour conference delegates. Alex Davies-Jones, the minister for violence against women and girls, suggested that Whitehall encouraged a “culture of victim blaming” and should instead focus on stopping perpetrators.

What exactly did it say? 

At a fringe event on Sunday at Labour’s conference in Liverpool, Davies-Jones said she refused to accept the script her civil servants had drawn up ahead of an awareness campaign that was due to coincide with freshers’ week at universities. “The civil service brought me my script for talking about this on social media, on TikTok, trying to bring in the youth,” she said. “One of the things they wanted me to talk about was how we keep ourselves safe from spiking – ‘cover your drink, make sure you look out for your friends, don’t accept a drink from a stranger’.

All perfectly reasonable, no? Exactly the sort of 'be cautious!' warning you get everywhere these days. Pretty unremarkable:

So why exactly is the Minister so agin' this?

“I refused to do it. I said we need to start reframing this, stop this culture of victim-blaming. If you want to go out and enjoy yourself, you should just be able to go out and enjoy yourself and not have to worry about keeping yourself safe. ”

So, on that basis, are we getting rid of all the warning signs to beware of phone thieves? Those ones that tell you to keep your mobile out of sight? 

She said that instead she ordered civil servants to go back to the drawing board and draft a campaign script that warned perpetrators not to spike or face prosecution and get treatment for their behaviour.

Because the sort of people who do this won't do it if they see a poster warning them not to... Is she drunk? Or just another Labour idiot promoted well beyond her capabilities?

Her approach mirrors a new strategy to tackle rape, known as Operation Soteria, under which police officers focus on the rape suspects’ behaviour and previous sexual activity rather than investigating the credibility of the victim.

Well, that's not a policy that's going to backfire, I'm sure!  

Well, They Didn't Say The Connection Would Be A Long One....

A new play area at the National Arboretum designed to help children 'connect with nature' has been built beneath trees that drop poisonous berries. Two playgrounds, called Branch Out and Holford Hollow, feature climbing poles, ropes and a giant web-like structure. But they are tucked away among yew trees, which produce small orange or red berries that are attractive to children – but deadly if eaten.

Well, really, who'd eat berries they didn't know anything about?  

It comes months after a coroner expressed concern about the hidden danger yew berries pose after a boy collapsed and died from eating them during a walk in a park with his father.

Ah.  

The source, who asked not to be named, added the site for the play area had been chosen because it was a 'natural clearing' – but pointed out it was only clear because the extremely toxic yew trees had suppressed other plants.

I guess these days, we can't even expect the people who run the National Arboretum to know anything about trees... 

Last week, bosses put up some small signs reading: 'Caution. Most berries in the arboretum are not safe to eat. If you see them on the floor or in the trees please leave them where they are.' However, staff feared these signs were not obvious or specific enough.

Stick a skull and crossbones icon on them then.  

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... 

The Audi Connection...

A father whose disabled son was hit and killed as he attempted to cross a motorway in the aftermath of a crash has admitted to his manslaughter.

Matthew Rycroft had been drinking with family throughout the day before driving off in his Audi Q5, with his 12-year-old son, Callum, as a passenger. While driving, the 36-year-old crashed off an M62 slip exit road for the Hartshead Moor Services, in West Yorkshire.

Moments later, Callum and his father attempted to cross the motorway, in what prosecutors described as "reckless folly".

Why is it always an Audi lately..? 

The son of former Rangers boss Ally McCoist should be the only person to settle a £244,000 claim over his dangerous driving, a judge has ruled.

Lord Menzies said Mr McCoist should not be required to pay any of the settlement sought by insurer Aviva following the incident involving his son Argyll seven years ago.The firm had claimed Mr McCoist, 60, was also liable because he failed to do enough to stop uninsured Argyll from driving an Audi A1.

See?! 

And more to the point, where does responsibility for what your child does end?

A Dispatch From Fantasy Land...

To us, white supremacy is not just an armed white man with a swastika tattooed on his forehead. It is the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (called by then senator Joe Biden, who drafted the legislation, “Biden’s bill”) juxtaposed with the Anti-drug Abuse Act of 1986 – which together led to the mass incarceration of, principally, Black men.

There was something else that led to their incarceration, though, wasn't there? Like, their inability to avoid breaking those laws?

White supremacy is not just Combat 18 in combat gear: it is a homeless Black man with mental health issues being choked to death on a subway train by a white marine veteran, members of a Fox News TV audience cheering at the report, and the attitude that sees the former soldier premptively hailed a hero and bolstered with public donations of $2m towards his legal fees.

Yes, clearly, it's only OK to applaud a criminal when they are black... 

Some of the foremost proponents of white supremacy are Black and brown. For some it is so normalised that they struggle to understand a world without it. Others understand what happens to those who oppose white supremacy and are rightfully scared.

What do they have to be scared about? Not getting invited to write nonsense like this in national newspapers or hector the audience on national TV? 

It's Not Green Flag's Fault, Judge...

A judge has slammed Green Flag for refusing to help a stranded nursing student motorist 'because she wasn't parked on the hard shoulder' before she was killed when a truck hit her car.

The accident happened a few moments after the call. Unless they had a Star Trek style transporter they couldn't have got to her in time anyway...

'In my judgement, Green Flag should take it upon themselves to ring 999 to help the person because it was obvious that Mrs Dumbuya would have been panicking and wondering whether to stay or leave the vehicle. She would have been worried about crossing the motorway.'

Why the scathing remarks about Green Flag? Why should it be their responsibility, rather than the driver? Just because she was a nursing student, or because she was from an ethnic minority, two groups we are supposed to worship? 

'It would be easy to wreak revenge on the defendant by jailing him but I rather suspect Mrs Dumbuya's family are not interested in vengeance.'

Bowers, 33, of Bamber Bridge, Preston, Lancashire, admitted causing death by careless driving and was sentenced to six months in jail, suspended for 12 months. He was also banned from driving for three years.

I guess he was of good charact...

Oh. 

Dashcam analysis revealed Bowers, who had a previous conviction for drink-driving and driving without due care and attention from 2016, was travelling at 55 mph and had an unobstructed view of the Kia from about 150 to 175 metres away - but an accident report concluded he did not appreciate the Kia was stationary.

He initially denied wrongdoing but eventually pleaded guilty ahead of his trial 18 months later.

Sounds to me as if the judge was misdirecting the rightous anger he should have been feeling. And in a macabre postscript, the 'Mail's' lack of proofreading gives us this gem:

 I think she knew...

And Your Efforts Will Be for Nothing...

"On behalf of the Crown Prosecution Service, I would like to pay tribute to the courageous and dignified way N'Taya's family and friends have conducted themselves during the entire legal process.

They have had to hear the most traumatic evidence relating to their beautiful daughter during the trial. "

Not the least of which was their daughter's fatal stupidity in choice of partner: 

Liverpool Crown Court heard Diakite was previously accused of assaulting his partner in October 2020. However, the next day, after police had visited their Prince Alfred Road home and recorded the young mum's allegations on bodycam, she made a retraction statement.

/facepalm 

Diakite, of Prince Alfred Road, Wavertree, will be sentenced on Monday, March 21. High Court judge, Mr Justice Stephen Morris, directed that the asylum seeker, from the Ivory Coast, must attend court for that hearing.

Anyone aware of any wars on the Ivory Coast that might have provided a need to seek asylum? No? Me neither... 

DCI Speight said:"We have increased the number of officers in our specialist domestic abuse teams and have also used domestic violence prevention notices, as well as the Domestic Violence Disclosure Schemes (DVDS), also known as Clare's Law, which gives someone in a relationship 'the right to ask' for information from various agencies, including the police, about a partner's previous convictions, cautions, reprimands or final warnings for any offence of violence."

And until women choose their partners with more care and - when that proves a mistake in spite of it - take action to protect themselves, it'll be yet another waste of time. 

Someone's Got To Make Some Changes...

...a year on from Everard’s death, the parents of Spinks have delivered a stark warning that mistakes are still being made in the cases such as their daughter’s.

“After everything that happened last year, the perception of the police with the general public is really low at the moment,” said her father, Richard Spinks. “They’ve got to realise people don’t trust them. They’ve got to do something, they’ve got to make some changes.”

They aren't the only ones though, are they? 

After her complaint, Sellers was fired from his job. Gracie was advised to report him to the police, but chose not to pursue a restraining order and asked police to caution him instead. Gracie had no more contact with Sellers, and as far as she and her family were concerned, the problem was dealt with.

It wasn't. Because the police don't have a crystal ball and can't predict who will turn out just to be a normal run-of-the-mill bitter ex, and who will turn out to be a murderer. 

Especially if they aren't assisted to do so by the victim... 

It later emerged that around a month prior to the attack, a rucksack containing weapons – a hammer, axe and knives – as well as Viagra had been found across the road from the field and handed in to Derbyshire constabulary. An investigation after Gracie’s death revealed that documentation in the bag, which Sellers frequently carried to work, had details on it linking it to his family home. The force is now being investigated by the police watchdog over its handling of Gracie’s original complaint against Sellers, and the rucksack.

The parents - understandably - point to this as a smoking gun. Perhaps they've seen too many police dramas where this would be taken seriously and prompt a confession from the miscreant. 

However, reality tells us that even if they had linked it, losing property - 'Oh, thanks, officers, I've been looking for this' - isn't a crime.