"Lord Summers’ comments have sparked an outcry..."

Amongst whom? People blind to reality?

The woman, who worked in Edinburgh’s Burke and Hare while she was a student, was fighting for £1,800 in holiday pay from the bar.

She is now working in a different job and moved away from the venue, but argued her identity becoming public would damage her mental health and put her at risk of violence.

Strange request from a barmaid? But no, Reader. That's not what her job used to be:  

Lord Summers concluded “she had willingly undertaken the risk of abuse and violence when she worked as a stripper”.

He also stated the woman knew “working as a stripper might harm her career prospects”.

Well, yes. Unless she was terminally stupid.  

It Should Cost Them, Not Us...

A council has publicly apologised after it was fined for 'breaching human rights' by...

Oh boy! *gets popcorn* 

...removing bus adverts for an evangelical Christian event.

Of course! It'd never be done for a Muslim Eid gathering, would it? But Christians are fair game, right?

Wrong, as it turned out. But what was so objectionable?

Ahead of an event at the town's Winter Gardens, the council removed advertisements that read 'Lancashire Festival of Hope with Franklin Graham - Time for Hope'.

'Hope'..? Hope is objectionable? To whom?

They had initially them (sic) but changed their position after a social media campaign against Mr Graham's 'offensive' opposition to same-sex marriage.

Ah! The usual suspects. And no doubt the council thought that they'd been played a winning hand in Victimhood Poker, until the courts slapped down a Royal Flush... 

'We accept the findings of the Court that we discriminated against Lancashire Festival of Hope because of the religious beliefs of Franklin Graham and in doing so interfered with Lancashire Festival of Hope's right to freedom of speech,' the council said in a statement.

'We sincerely apologise to the organisers of the event for the upset and inconvenience caused.'

What about an apology to all the ratepayers who will actually be paying for your miscalculation? 

It's Victimhood Chess, Not Poker!

Posting on Twitter, Andrea wrote: "I’m absolutely disgusted. This nail Salon Style Studio in South Wimbledon called me to cancel the appointment because they don’t do nails on man.

Andrea added: "When she first called up and asked me directly 'Are you a man or a woman?', I was puzzled, because that question asked with that intention felt transphobic anyway.

"Once she heard my voice, she went 'Oh, so you're a man', and hung up the phone.

"I was shocked - what just happened? But I felt like I had to say something, so I called them out on Twitter and Instagram."

Of course you did, sweetie... 

"Best part is that I identify as gender fluid, so I'm also a woman."

Errr, no. I don't think that's how it works. 

But I think the nail bar woman's queen is in trouble here. 

Salon Director Maria told the Wimbledon Times that the cancellation was due to the beautician's own religious beliefs.

She said: "As a Muslim woman she is not allowed to touch another male under any circumstances.

"It would not be out of place to mention that the same way Andrea has stated on all the social media platforms that there must be equal treatment towards non-binary or transgender individuals, I strongly believe that the beautician has the same right in relation to her religion."

Ouch! Check, mate!  

"Furthermore, we only have one beautician at the salon at the moment, due to the lockdown and Covid situation."

Oh, throwing in covid is just overkill! 

"They livin' it up at the Hotel California..."

And the residents are fleeing in their droves as a result:

Scott Thatcher and his wife Angela were born in California and love the sun-kissed Golden State. But two months ago they sold their home, packed up their belongings and travelled 1,700 miles with their three sons to start a new life in Texas.

Now the couple have a far bigger home in Fort Worth – and although they earn slightly less, they take home more money thanks to lower taxes in Texas.

As Scott says: ‘You pay a high premium for the Californian lifestyle.’

It seems to be a lifestyle that people feel is no longer worth that price. Lots of people... 

For the first time in a glorious 171-year history that attracted thousands seeking fortunes during the 19th Century Gold Rush, gave birth to the global movie industry and unleashed the digital revolution, California has seen its population – currently just under 40 million – decline.

It shrank by 182,083 last year – equivalent to all the citizens living in the coastal idylls of Santa Monica and Santa Barbara combined.

And it's not just taxes. Far from it. 

Families and firms are being driven away by the high cost of living, crime fears, hefty taxes, inadequate housing, interfering officials, persistent political failures, red tape, raging wildfires and the squalor of streets littered with homeless drug addicts.

‘It is very sad,’ said Scott. ‘I will always love California but it has changed. It is not what it was when I was a kid, or even five years ago. I could never go back.’

It's very sad - I loved San Francisco when I visited 20 years ago, but even then, the rot was beginning to set in.  

Delian Asparouhov is typical of those who turned California into such a powerhouse: a computer geek who attended the top-ranking Massachusetts Institute of Technology, launched a space start-up, was backed by a billionaire and became a venture capitalist in the state.

Yet this month the Bulgarian-born entrepreneur, still ony 27, bought a house in Miami, Florida.

He said: ‘Silicon Valley has a stifling intellectual climate with its mono-culture that only allows one viewpoint to be expressed. It seems to espouse the same socialist values as the Soviet Union.

‘So I am fleeing just like my parents fled a similar system for America when I was a kid.’

Ouch! What do the politicians think about this? Well, you guessed it...

Little wonder senior Democratic figures are on the defensive.

And how!

A senior Democrat faces the media... 

One insisted to me that the population exodus was ‘largely a myth’ spread by political enemies.

‘The whole notion that people are fleeing California in droves is false,’ he said.

Numbers don't lie.  

The Art Of The Hustle...

Sturridge and his partner Jamilla Ferreira rented an £18,500-per-month Cheshire mansion from Alan O'Neill and his wife Katie in October 2018, during the footballer's six-year stint at Liverpool.

But, less than two months after they moved in, Sturridge and Ms Ferreira discovered a profile called 'n*****' when they accessed the O'Neills' Netflix app on their Apple TV account.

It belonged to the O'Niell's young son. A fan of rap music, apparently. And O'Neil apologised for any offence (though you'd think a footballer would be able to afford his own Netflix account). 

That should have been the end of it. 

Reader, it wasn't, of course...

Sturridge and Ms Ferreira sent Mr and Mrs O'Neill a letter on December 10, stating that their older children were in the wrong if they had ignored the existence of the account.

The letter, reported in The Times, read: 'Your son can play act this word, but at the end of the day he goes back to his privileged "white skin" existence.'

Because being able to rent a mansion isn't in any way 'privileged'... 

Correspondence between the families became heated when the O'Neills pursued Sturridge in the county court for £67,000 of unpaid rent.

Sturridge paid the rent in July 2019 but then filed a different claim for damages 'in respect of the defendants' discrimination against them and/or harrassment on the grounds of their race'.

Well, of course! But turns out he's a better footballer than he is a gambler: 

Just days before the discovery of the account in November, Sturridge had been charged with allegedly breaching FA betting rules. He was slapped with a £75,000 fine and was banned for six weeks - but four of the weeks were suspended.

And now a judge has dismissed their £100,000 claim for damages and discrimination. Oh dear, how sad, never mind.