Why Not? Didn’t The Left Rewrite George Floyd’s?

 As we often say, if it wasn't for double standards, the Left wouldn't have any...

Perhaps it was these noble gestures toward generosity and sympathy that led some commentators to be more laudatory to Kirk’s memory than an honest recounting of his life would allow. In the days following Kirk’s death, several bewilderingly inaccurate postmortem hagiographies have appeared, including from prominent voices on the left and center, that seem to wish that the tragedy of Kirk’s death could retroactively have given him a more honorable life.

Not as egregious as raising monuments to a fentanyl-addicted long time career criminal who wasn't even 'killed by police' in any case, but by the consequences of his own addition, surely? 

The most egregious of these came from Ezra Klein, a center-left columnist at the New York Times known for his ability to channel and influence elite opinion. In a piece published the morning after Kirk’s death, titled Charlie Kirk Was Practicing Politics the Right Way, Klein made a series of strained, bizarre and outright untrue assertions about Kirk’s career and character. Kirk, Klein argued, was, if anything, an example of civic virtue. “Kirk was practicing politics in exactly the right way,” Klein said. “He was showing up to campuses and talking with anyone who would talk to him. He was one of the era’s most effective practitioners of persuasion.” Klein’s point was that political persuasion – the rational debate of ideas between equals in which violence is unthinkable and good faith is presumed – is a cornerstone of liberal democracy, the kind of thing we should all be striving for, the kind of thing we need more of.

And...shouldn't we? What happened to 'it's better to talk'? The left csn'y possibly disagree that that's what Kirk spent most of his time doing, can they? 

Fair enough, I suppose, on its merits, but such a description of reasoned, honest, good-faith debate is so inaccurate a description of what Charlie Kirk engaged in on college campuses – in his series of large, staged events where he “debated” untrained liberal undergraduates with cameras rolling – that it reads as willfully naive, if not outright dishonest.

Reader, it appears they can. 

Charlie Kirk’s “debates” were aggressive, unequal, trolling affairs, in which he sought to provoke his interlocutors to distress, shouted them down and belittled them, spewed hateful rhetoric about queer and trans people, women, Black people, immigrants and Muslims, and selectively edited the ensuing footage to create maximally viral content in which his fans could witness him humiliating the liberals and leftists they perceived to be their enemies.

Ah, the Left's 'argument' is that when he spoke, people got upset? Maybe ask why these people couldn't argue their points calmly and logically and without bursting into tears at the mean man who failed to agree with them that men could become women and vice-versa? 

In the rush to canonize Kirk and revise his history, honest accountings of his life have not only become rare – they have also become dangerous. In the days since his death, journalists, media personalities and others who have not been sufficiently laudatory to Kirk in public have lost their jobs for telling the truth about his life.

No, they've lost their jobs because in celebrating political murder, they've brought the brands they represent into disrepute, and thus breached their terms of employment. 

It is easy for me, even, to show sympathy for the humanity of Charlie Kirk, who, for everything else he was, was a human being who has now been robbed of the opportunity to learn, grow, and repent. But such commitments – to human life, to nonviolence, to a faith in the possibility of redemption and reconciliation – need not lead us to lie to ourselves about Charlie Kirk.

But you've already introduced the concept of lying about people's lives, even if these people you are complaining about were actually lying, you'd have no leg to stand on. 

The Gravy Train Has Hit The Buffers

Publications aimed at LGBTQ+ and other diverse audiences are facing “good old-fashioned discrimination” as advertisers avoid them after political attacks on diversity and inclusion campaigns, editors have said. Senior figures at publications aimed at the gay community and other minority groups said a previous “gold rush” to work with such titles was over.

Nature is healing, at last. 

Tag Warner, the chief executive of Gay Times, said his publication, which had been growing digitally in the US, had lost 80% of its advertisers in the past year. It has also lost in excess of £5m in expected advertiser revenue.Warner, who has led the outlet since 2019, said his title’s growth had been accompanied by an enthusiasm from brands to embrace LGBTQ+ audiences. He blames an anti-DEI drive in the US for the dramatic shift.

Sure, people were happy to buy your rags but stopped immediatly Trump was electted. That's believable. Isn't it more likely it's just part of the general slowdown in the magazine market?

“I know that media and marketing is also going through a challenging year anyway, but when we’re thinking about other organisations that don’t talk to diverse themes, they’re not nearly as impacted as we are,” he said. “This is just good old-fashioned discrimination. Because discrimination doesn’t have to make business sense. Discrimination doesn’t have to be logical. Discrimination is discrimination.

It's not 'discrimination' if Mr Average decides he can only afford one magazine this week, and makes it 'Field and Stream' or 'National Geographic' instead of 'Horny Lumberjacks' is it? 

Nafisa Bakkar, the co-founder of Amaliah, a publication aimed at “amplifying the voices of Muslim women”, said there had been a “change in mood” among brands and advertisers. “There was this DNI [diversity and inclusion] gold rush,” she said. “It is, I would say, well and truly over.

Basic fact of business life, love: all bubbles burst. All fads have a shelf life. And I think most people are hearily sick of having the voices of Muslims amplified!

Mark Berryhill, the chief executive of equalpride, which publishes prominent US titles like Out and The Advocate, said some brands and agencies “may have been a little bit more cautious than they have been in the past”. However, he said it had so far meant deals had taken longer to be completed, in a tough economic climate.

It's the economy, stupid. Just like always. 

Why Should You Be Treated With 'Understanding And Fairness' When You Haven't Shown Any?

Asylum seekers housed in an Essex hotel that has been the target of protests and far-right incitement for two weeks have told the Guardian how the Bell hotel, where they had previously felt safe, has been transformed since demonstrations began. In a letter sent to the Guardian one of the men living in the hotel, Nabil, who said he had previously been attacked while out walking, called to be treated with “understanding and fairness” and for people not to resort to harmful stereotypes.

Yes, of course it's in the 'Guardian'... 

We, as refugees, are frequently labeled with harmful stereotypes – that we came only for benefits, that we live off taxpayers, or that we are uneducated or disrespectful. These assumptions hurt us, hinder our integration, and most importantly, do not reflect the truth. I did not come here seeking wealth or running from poverty. In fact, I had a stable life back in my country, Yemen. I had a job, a house, a car, and everything I needed to live with dignity. What forced me to leave was not economic hardship, but persecution and fear for my safety and the safety of my family.

Yet we aren't told where your family is. And I can't believe the 'Guardian' would pass up the chance to challenge the 'myth' that the invasion is made up of mostly single men if they could, so I'm suspicious already that they are back in the Yemen. 

We refugees are not here to take advantage of the system. We are here to rebuild our lives, to work, and to contribute. We will pay taxes like anyone else, not to “drain the system”, but because we believe that mutual respect and responsibility are the foundation of any strong and united society.

I believe the same of national borders and immigration laws, both of which you've knowingly and willingly ignored. So you'll understand if I treat you exactly as you deserve based on your actions. And your claims that you will pay taxes ring hollow, when we didn't ask you to come here in the first place, and you came anyway regardless of our wishes and our laws. You're not a desired worker or guest, you're a burglar.

When Society Breaks Down, Progressive Justice Will Be Standing There With Blood On Its Hands And A Sheepish Grin On Its Face

A 15-year-old boy was ordered to serve just seven years in a young offenders' detention centre and a 13-year-old girl was spared being jailed and instead handed a three-year youth rehabilitation order over the manslaughter of Bhim Kohli.

His daughter, Susan, stood on the steps outside Leicester Crown Court following the hearing where she spoke of her disappointment about the length of the sentence. 'I feel angry and disappointed that the sentence... does not, I believe, reflect the severity of the crime they committed,' she said.

Another triumph in sticking your thumb in the eye of middle England so you can boast to your pals in chambers abouut how progressive and lenient you are, just like the last one.

Today at Leicester Crown Court, the boy and girl - who cannot be named after it was ruled they must remain anonymous - were sentenced by Mr Justice Turner.

Ms Kohli added: 'They have taken a life. When they are released they still have their full lives ahead of them. They can rebuild their lives. We can't.' She added that she felt that 'more could have been done to prevent my dad getting killed'.

Undoubtedly it could have, as in the Dagenham case, since this killing was the culmination of a long cvampaign of escalating harassment that no-one appeared to think was worth stopping.

Beginning his sentencing remarks, which were broadcast live on television, the High Court judge praised the family of Mr Kohli for their 'dignity' throughout the trial.

Turner wants to rememnber that we have imported a significant number of people into this country that, unlike the Kholis and their old fashioned trust in the institution of  British justice to right a wrong,believe in a rather more robust form of justice, and are prone to gathering a few of their relatives and taking the law into their own hands.

When some little scamps who have picked the wrong target are hanging from lamp posts, drenched in petrol and set alight, and the mob idss beating down the door to get at the rest of their family and treat them similarly. will 'Justice' Turner and his ilk recognise their part in this state of affairs?

He said: 'I'm sure you regret he died because of what you did to Mr Kohli, but you still say it wasn't your fault. It was your fault and the sooner you realise this the better.' The judge also told the girl that a short custodial sentence would do more harm than good, given the impact on her education.

So caring, to be worrying about the criminal's education, as if she has the slightest chance - or deserves to - grow up a productive citizen. 

I Guess Tree Homicide Isn’t Enough Outrage For The Chattering Classes

The two men convicted of chopping down the Sycamore Gap tree were suspects in an investigation into alleged homophobic assaults that took place around the same time they committed their infamous crime.

NOW will you be outraged, progressive press? 

Nine days earlier, a man reported being doused in icing sugar and subjected to verbal abuse by two people at a layby in Cumbria often frequented by men seeking sexual encounters. The CPS dropped the case more than a year later, but emails seen by the BBC confirm police prepared a file on Graham and Carruthers for prosecutors.

But…? 

The victim said he had reported the incident to police the same night, giving officers a description of the vehicle and his recollection of the registration number. He was, however, unable to identify any individual involved. The informant said he wished police had used his initial evidence to check CCTV at the time.

It doesn’t appear as though the police didn’t try their best, to be fair: 

Cumbria Police said checks had been carried out using the registration number provided by the victim, but these showed the vehicle linked to that number plate – which differed from that of Graham's car by one letter – had not been in Cumbria.

Two men had been arrested in connection with the incidents and video evidence had been found on a phone belonging to one of them. The victim was asked to watch "10 or 12" videos showing various men suffering homophobic abuse and, in some cases, having things thrown into their vehicles.After helping police identify some of the other men in the videos, and confirming his own appearance in some of them, he gave a formal statement in August 2024 but told police he could not definitively identify the driver.

What were they supposed to do? 

In December 2024 a case was presented to the Crown Prosecution Service relating to three victims across six offences. But the CPS decided against bringing charges due to insufficient evidence, difficulties identifying the perpetrators and too much time having elapsed since the incidents.

So why dredge it up now? 

But Activists Are Happy For Children To Experience All This IRL

“Deeply disturbing” research exposes how easy it is for children to encounter inappropriate content and interact unsupervised with adults on the gaming platform Roblox.

While the company said it “deeply sympathised” with parents whose children came to harm on the platform, it said “tens of millions of people have a positive, enriching and safe experience on Roblox every day”.

OK, this does sound horribly like 'Look, all our other ships made it to New York!' said the CEO of the White Star Line' but it's also not wrong... and how many of the people clutching their pearls over virtual perversion are at all concernced with its real life counterpart?

The report also found the avatar belonging to the 10-year-old’s account could access “highly suggestive environments”. These included a hotel space where they could view a female avatar wearing fishnet stockings gyrating on a bed and other avatars lying on top of each other in sexually suggestive poses, and a public bathroom space where characters were urinating and avatars could choose fetish accessories to dress up in.

Blimey, sounds almost as bad as Drag Queen Story Hour, doesn't it! 

Researchers found that their test avatars overheard conversations between other players verbalising sexual activity, as well as repeated slurping, kissing and grunting noises, when using the voice chat function.

Well, so what? They'll have heard worse if they'd ever attended something like this. 

Damon De Ionno, the research director of Revealing Reality, said: “The new safety features announced by Roblox last week don’t go far enough. Children can still chat with strangers not on their friends list, and with 6 million experiences [on the platform], often with inaccurate descriptions and ratings, how can parents be expected to moderate?”

If that sounds too much like 'How can parents be expected to do the bare minimum of what it is to be a parent?' then I suspect that's no coincidence. 

So What?

StopWatch, a police reform charity that campaigns against the use of stop and search and which analysed the data, also found 10,450 cases of the tactic used against girls.

I expected this to be another fakecharity, funded by the government to lobby the government to do what they wanted to do anyway and give a veneer of 'the public's support, but it seems not. 

Jodie Bradshaw, policy and advocacy lead at StopWatch, said: “We don’t think that stop and search is fit for purpose. There are other strategies which are much more likely to bring about fewer crimes and for people to feel safe walking in public spaces and in the communities where they live.”

As always, the mention of 'community' gives you a big clue to where their real interest lies... 

The Home Office data also showed that police forces in England and Wales submitted 747,396 use-of-force reports in the year ending March 2024, a rise of 13% on the year before. Use of force refers to officers using handcuffs, batons, tasers, firearms, limb or body restraints, and irritant sprays, among other measures. Women were the subject of 18% of these incidents, with black women making up about 9% of the total, even though the latest census estimates they make up just 4% of the population.

Maybe that's because they can be relied upon to overreact and get violent in greater percentages than any other ethnicity? 

Bradshaw argued that the police are more likely to patrol areas where a higher proportion of black, minority ethnic and marginalised groups live, and such communities are more likely to be stopped and searched as well as to have force used on them.

Police go where the crime is. That's just fact. 

Deborah Coles, the director of Inquest, a charity concerned with state-related deaths, said: “We know all too well that the use of force on women – particularly those who may have experienced violence and abuse – can be really traumatising.”

She said the rising number of stop and searches needs to be understood within the context of “increasing inequality, poverty and criminalisation”, and specifically the crackdown on protests and shoplifting.

Some of the poorest countrie don't have a problem with shoplifting, so why do we? And let's not forget that shoplifters mostly aren't Jean Valjean stealing a loaf of bread...

They Really Don’t Like It Up ‘Em, Do They?

Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin in federally assisted programs or activities. The education department’s “Dear Colleagues” letter redefines the central targets of Title VI to centrally include supposed discrimination against whites.

There's nothing 'supposed' about it though. And the progressives won't give up that easily. 

US history shows that slavery was a central factor in US wealth. The US was built on Indigenous genocide and colonialism, as seizing Indigenous land was one of the reasons for seeking independence from England and is, in any case, foundational to the country’s formation. Structural racism also persists; for example, cities are segregated because of structural injustice in housing and mortgage law. The ways in which the US was built on racism, against Black Americans and Indigenous Americans, is central both to the study of its history and its present structure. If Americans do not have an understanding of this topic, they will not be well informed.

And by 'understanding' they don't mean what normal humans would know anout history, they aren't interested in simple 'understanding', indoctrination is the aim of their game. 

The “more extreme practices at a university” that “could create a hostile environment under Title VI” include “pressuring them to participate in protests or take certain positions on racially charged issues”.

But reason, rationality and morality are sources of “pressure”. How does one distinguish the pressure placed on people by moral arguments for racially charged issues from other kinds of pressure?

In other words, if you aren't protesting about nonsensical 'discrimination', you've no heart. They aren't trying to say that progressives are more intelligent than everyone else, they are trying to say they are simply more moral than anyonr else. 

As I have long warned, the media have been useful dupes for fascism. After years and years of vilifying academia, first by raising hysteria about “wokeness” and too little free speech (about eg race), and then by raising hysteria about too much free speech (about Israel), the mainstream media has smoothly paved the path for educational authoritarianism. No one should be surprised by its arrival.

You used the media when it suited you - now it's dancing to someone else's tune, you're raging. Maybe the issue isn't the media. Maybe it's you.  

No, Veronica, We Really Aren’t. We just Want You To Stay In Your Lane...

Let’s admit it: cisgender people are really curious about us trans women. They want to know things such as: what’s it like to have a surgeon rearrange your genitals? How did you know you were really a girl all along? Does it suck having to be on the downside of sexism now?

As a 'cis woman' (translation: normal, genuine female) I can honestly say I'd rather not know any of those things, any more than I'd want to know the details of any other mental patient's delusions. But since the driving force amongst so much of the trans lobby is narcissism...

For our own part, trans women are curious about cisgender folk, too. We want to know things like: do you actually think I’m female, or am I just a deluded guy in a dress to you? If I try to have a beer at your bar, will you violently assault me? Am I ever going to get to use a public bathroom again?

The answers are: the latter, probably not, as a genuine female I'm not physically aggressive, and yes, of course you can, but it should be the gents. 

This column is, of course, generated because of the 'documentary' where Will Farrell goes on a road trip with his old friend who is now believing himself to be a woman. Some friend you are, Will. If he was an alcoholic, you'd no doubt be taking him to a distillery.

... throughout the movie, she is game to answer any of the questions the cis world has for her, and she even gives Ferrell complete carte blanche to ask her anything whatsoever. She doesn’t give any indication that she feels the sense of violation that many of us do feel at such personal invasions.

Because the driving force for this trend appears to be severe narcissism; it's the thing that all 'trans men' appear to have in common. 

I understand that intense desire to make yourself comprehensible to the world, to have it hear the story of your life that has been hidden for decades, to share all the pain you’ve tucked away. When I watched Will & Harper, I really wished that Ferrell might have stopped to ask himself why his friend seemed so eager to tell him about every last personal detail of her life and why she was willing to expose herself to one dangerous situation after another during their road trip.

Because narcissism, 'Veronica', that's why. 

I was one of the fortunate ones who managed to reclaim my pass back into humankind, and now I have the immense privilege of getting to decide who exactly is safe enough to inform about my past. Those who aren’t that fortunate have to do their best to find a place in a world where we’re a widely misunderstood, stigmatized and increasingly vilified 1% of the population.

The Eternal Victim... Move over Scousers, there's a new one in town.

We All Know Who's Really Not Thinking Straight...

A Labour MP has hit out at a primary school for getting young children to pose with a trans-inclusive pride flag. Rosie Duffield said the 'tiny' pupils could not understand the concepts of sexuality and gender identity they were being encouraged to celebrate, and should be left alone to discover them when older.

She spoke out after campaigners spotted that the London school had posted publicly on social media a photograph of an infant school class marking 'Pride Day' last month.

I wonder if - given schools are very wary about pictures of their pupils appearing on social media - they sought the approval of all the parents before hitting 'post'? I suspect they didn't, which is even more of a safeguarding issue than the genderwoo nonsense.  

One young boy held a sign stating: 'I can't even think straight.'

Too young to have the slightest clue what that means. But of course, schools consider children mere props for empty-headed virtuesignalling these days. They need to be reminded that they are not. By a court case, if necessary.   

The school put it on Twitter/X last Friday with the caption: 'Being proud of who we are and celebrating pride values.'

But amid a backlash yesterday [tues] the photo, along with several others showing older children with rainbow flags, was deleted from social media and the school's website. In previous years the school had asked pupils to wear bright colours on Pride Day and donate £1 which would go to controversial lobbying group Stonewall as well as to 'buy more inclusive resources'.

And the school have now turned a bit shy... 

The school did not respond to requests to comment.

I wonder why.  

The Nature vs Nurture Debate...

...looks like another 'Guardian' article trying to drum up sympathy for criminals might have inadvertantly provided us with the answer:

Nicol and Mooney grew up in a chaotic household in London. Their mother had six children and, Mooney says, terrible taste in men, who were unreliable at best. Her and Nicol’s father was from Saudi Arabia and left their mother when she was pregnant with Mooney. As a family, they stood out: “We were all different colours. Me and Tommy are brown, we have a white sister and the dads of my two younger brothers and sister are Jamaican.” They moved from home to home, sometimes living in refuges, escaping the violent men in their mother’s life.

And yet, despite similar upbringing, the two couldn't be more different. 

Mooney lives with her husband and two boys in a stylish, modern house, but asks me not to disclose the location because she has been attacked in the past for her campaigning. She looks around and says it couldn’t be more different from her and Nicol’s childhood. Her husband, a marketing executive, has done well for himself. As has she. Mooney taught nursery and primary schoolchildren before becoming an education adviser and academic.

She's a campaigner for her brother, the recidivist career criminal who the courts finally lost patience with and imposed a 99 year sentence to give the public some reprieve from his petty crimes. 

She thinks about the life Nicol could have led. “That’s what makes me so angry. The education system, the prison system; it’s all geared towards damaging the most damaged.”

As usual, no sympathy for the victims of her brother's depredations. 

No, I Think You'll Find It's The General Public's Buying Power...

The “gigantic” power of the meat and dairy industries in the EU and US is blocking the development of the greener alternatives needed to tackle the climate crisis, a study has found.

...they don't want your meat alternatives or your vegan food that's not as healthy and twice as expensive.

Cutting meat consumption in rich nations is vital to tackling the climate crisis. Livestock production causes 15% of all global greenhouse emissions.

And India and China's fossil fuel industry? And their livestock industry? How much is that? 

The researchers also highlighted restrictive labelling rules. Terms such as “milk” and “cheese” have been banned since 2017 in the EU for most alternative milk and dairy products.

A US proposal would prohibit the sale of alternative meats unless the product label included the word “imitation”.

Remember when scientists demanded accuracy in labelling? I do... 

“It’s not a level playing field at all at the moment,” Lambin said. “The new sector needs to be given its chance to expand and gain efficiency. After that, consumers will judge whether they like it or not...”

Well, going purely on the regular appearance of these foodstuffs in the 'yellow sticker' shelf of all my local supermarkets, they've already judged. 

The New 'Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name'...

...and believe it or not, it's 'Pride'. The BBC, it's the unique way it's funded, clearly!

The 'dear old Beeb' is seemingly determined to lose its reputation for impartiality as it surges ever forward into pushing the woke agenda:

A BBC spokesman said: 'It appears that the photograph used as part of this graphic has been altered, which, although there is no intention to mislead, should not have happened and is not acceptable BBC practice. We will be reminding our staff of this.'

If there was no intention to mislead, why was it altered? And why would you need to remind staff? 

H/T: @RiPNutmeg via Twitter

Advice Column Is Missing The Most Obvious Piece Of Advice...

I work in heritage in a rural area and am a minority in my workplace and local community. I really love living close to nature and what I do for work, but I feel that I don’t belong here. I grew up in a nearby rural county where we were the only Black family. Race was almost never mentioned by the white people around me...

Well, that's good, it means no-one cares that you're black, right? 

...but I now realise I was treated as an outsider my whole childhood.

Oh! So...how did you come to 'realise' this? 

I have over the past couple of years – after reading up about anti-racism – started to challenge the everyday racism that I had previously ignored. This has caused a massive backlash against me professionally with the resulting victimisation hounding me out of a job I loved at a large heritage organisation. I have learned the consequences of speaking out on racism and discrimination is to have your life and livelihood destroyed.

How will Sisonke Msimang (Yes, Reader, 'tis she) answer this one?

...when you ask about the ethics of telling “people to challenge racism when the power balance is so skewed that challenging may result in greater harm to the individual”, I hear this not as cynicism but as exhaustion. So many of us have been wounded by our attempts to stand up to racism that it sometime feels unwise to continue.

Ah. Of course. Reinforce and join in with the perpetual victimhood. I should have guessed, shouldn't I? 

One of the sadnesses of modern life is that, as James Baldwin has said, it can feel like, “your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world […]”. And yet of course, despite the many problems facing Black people around the world today, history tells us that nothing we are experiencing is new.

*yawns* 

You say you feel like you are the minority in every area of life, and I can understand why. It’s because you have been minoritized — that isn’t okay that you have been rendered a minority by virtue of processes of domination that place you at the bottom of the social ladder. I hope that knowing this helps you to feel less alone.

Why not tell her to go where she isn't a minority, if it bothers her so much? You can go with her, if you like... 

So Am I, Brent, So Am I...

...it's appalling.

 

But surely what's even more appalling is that they are trying to 'educate' children that babies gestate in the digestive system, rather than the womb? 

You know, that organ men don't have, and never will?

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... 

The Question No-One's Asking...

The arrest in London of a radical French publisher under counter-terrorist powers has been referred to the police watchdog after the reviewer of terrorism legislation found that it was wrong.

Ernest Moret, 28, was held for almost 24 hours by counter-terrorist police and asked about his opinion of Emmanuel Macron and participation in anti-Macron protests after he arrived at St Pancras station in April for a book fair.

...is why on earth the UK police farce should be protecting a French politician in the first place? Given that there was no danger to that politician in this country, as he wasn't even here! 

In a damning report published on Friday, Jonathan Hall KC, the reviewer of the terrorism legislation, said the police should not have used schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act to confiscate Moret’s phone and laptop and demand he reveal passcodes to the devices.

Moret’s lawyer, Richard Parry, said his client was “very pleased” with Hall’s report. “We will now be writing to the Met commissioner asking for a full apology and compensation for all the distress of the detention and everything else that’s followed.

“The police shouldn’t be doing this. They really need to get their house in order. Mr Moret has been the sacrificial lamb to highlight the extreme dangers of crossing the line from terrorism into public order policing. It has gone too far.”

You're not wrong, but I wish you hadn't stuck your hand in my pocket. Because we all know that's where the compensation is coming from in the first place... 

Announcing that the case would be referred to the IOPC, Commander Dominic Murphy, who leads the Met’s counter-terrorism command, said the force accepted that use of terrorism powers should be subject to “constant vigilance and attention to safeguards”. He added: “We fully cooperated with this review and we know how important it is that our work is as open and transparent as it can be, so that the public can have confidence and trust in what we do and how we do it.”

The public no longer has that, though, does it? Because they are well aware that the police no longer represent their interests, but those of everyone else instead. 

Just Stick To Fixing Potholes And Emptying Bins...

Almost a quarter of Bradford residents live in...

Squalor?  

...“food deserts” - areas where there is little access to fresh, healthy food.

*blinks* Really?  

And that number rises to almost two thirds when looking at families with less than £20,000 income a year – according to a recent survey. The figures were revealed during a presentation on Bradford’s new Good Food Strategy – a plan that aims to improve access to healthy food for people across the District.

A council plan to improve something! How can it fail?  

The strategy also calls for water to become the “first choice drink” and for local influencers to be recruited to promote healthy eating.

Oh. I guess I can see how...

But what on earth is a 'food desert' anyway? I've scoured Google Maps and can't see any place lacking in shops... 

Members of the Bradford and Airedale Wellbeing Board were told that areas were classed as food deserts if people living there would have to walk more than 20 minutes to buy fresh food, such as fruit or vegetables.

As a commenter points out, 'Bet they have no trouble at all walking 20 minutes to the benefit office!' 

Or the local mosque... 

Charlotte Ramsden, CEO of the Bradford Children’s Trust, said access to healthy food was not the only issue. She said: “There is also access to cooking facilities. Some disadvantaged families have nothing to cook with – they might have a microwave if they are lucky. To prepare healthy food they need cooking facilities.”

It's Bradford, love! I'd be astounded if there weren't cow-dung fired stoves in the backyards... 

That Long March Reached Some Pretty Exclusive Institutions...

Teachers at a leading sixth form will no longer answer to “Sir” and “Miss”, because they’re “deeply unequal” and feed into a view of the world that diminishes women, the school’s executive principal has told students.

Students will instead be required to address staff by their name – as in “Mr Handscombe” – and failing that, in an emergency where a pupil may have forgotten and needs a swift alternative, “teacher” will be acceptable, “in a pinch”.

How nice of him! It seems I've heard this before, though...

It is not the first time the school has tried to make the switch. When it opened in 2014, the same approach was attempted but there was too much else to think about, staff could not make it stick and “sank into cultural misogyny”, Handscombe told students.

Ah! But presumably, he thinks he's got a better chance now. I wonder why? 

“Which is what this is,” he said. “I don’t think that any of you are being actively woman-hating when you call ‘Miss’ over to get help with your chemistry, but we’re all feeding into a view of the world that diminishes women.

“Men get to be fearless leaders and alpha types, get credited for hustling whilst behind the backs of women it’s asked whether they deserve it, whether their career comes from good ideas or good looks, power moves or diversity lists.”

Maybe it's because everyone seems like they are just going to roll over and take it? 

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Addressing teachers as ‘Sir’ and ‘Miss’ is as old as the hills and something you’ll hear in many schools. It’s a way of implicitly reaffirming the authority of staff. But we live in changing times and obviously people are giving more and more thought to the use of language and its connotations.”

No, most people couldn't give a monkeys, Geoff ol' chum. It's a tiny unrepresentative selection that are driving this. Because people like you are too afraid to stand up to them. 

Of Course It Is, Sweetie...

The star of Netflix's much-talked about 'Queen Cleopatra' docudrama says the furore over her casting as the Egyptian ruler is 'fundamentally racist'.#

Pulling out the RaceCard™ is the automatic reflex, after all... 

Adele addressed the the high-profile criticism around being a black actress playing Cleopatra, saying: 'It would be naive of me to say that I didn't expect anything at all, but I didn't expect the scale of it.

'And I think it's distressing for anybody to receive any level of abuse, let alone the scale and the nature of what I've received, which is fundamentally racist, all of it.

'People are talking about the wrong things. Yes, we don't know where her mother was from or her paternal grandmother, but also the show is about so much more than the question mark over her race.'

You don't get to dictate what people talk about. And by casting you, that's what the makers of this show have done. No-one else did it. So you're perpetuating it. 

'If you watch it is a very small part of the conversation really, this is about the fullness of who this woman was and she was a human being and she shouldn't be reduced to her race any more than I should or anybody should.'

You've guaranteed it, actually. 

Adele also talked about the support of Hollywood actress Jada Pinkett Smith, who narrates the series and is its executive producer.

'She is an African Queen and I feel like it just couldn't be more pertinent and important that she's the figurehead of this. She's an icon.'

She's not African, she's not a queen either. What she is, is a Hollywood elite who knows exactly what she's doing to get her show watched. That it'll be for the wrong reasons matters not a jot, does it?