Best Of

This stuff is just stupid economic self harm.

Today in UK planning law ruins everything:

NHS patients waiting for surgery in Lincolnshire could face a further one year delay for a new surgical centre, as the developers have to prove that they are providing "integrated bat bricks" and "provisions for hedgehogs to pass"
https://x.com/dc_lawrence/status/1983173907294122432

Why does that take a year? Should take less than a day to sort the bat bricks.

Because the aim of the regulations is not to simply provide bat bricks.

It’s to create an elaborate stack of paperwork regarding the design, planning, requirement and impact of bat bricks.

Quite possibly no inspection will be done - so either no bat bricks get installed, or they will be installed so they are of no use to bats.

The bats will probably have to nest in the paperwork.

On Topic. The New York Mayoral elections are next week and there are notable parallels between Mamdani and Zack. They are both of the left both super articulate and both prepared to say what others are afraid to.

People have been talking to me about Mamdani for months. The new Great (off) White Hope. If he makes as big a splash in the US as many hope this could spell even better things for Zack. He's everything that Sultana and Corbyn aren't so if he's looking for advice when they come knocking have nothing to do with them

Is Zack also a raging anti-Semite who makes up stories about his own family?

The next mayor of New York:

"We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it's been laced by the IDF."

https://x.com/mazemoore/status/1982974662175752646

The day after he admited that the story he told last week about his aunt being afraid to travel on the subway in her hijab after 9/11 was untrue.

As you like to defend Charlie Kirk by saying his comments are taken out of context you seem not to acknowledge he was talking about the NYPD like a lot of US police forces are trained by the IDF.

From 2016

https://www.amnestyusa.org/blog/with-whom-are-many-u-s-police-departments-training-with-a-chronic-human-rights-violator-israel/

From 2023

US police agencies took intelligence directly from IDF, leaked files show

Analysis of BlueLeaks trove also shows police received training on domestic ‘Muslim extremists’ from pro-Israel groups

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/08/us-police-agencies-idf-files-blueleaks

From 2020

How the US and Israel exchange tactics in violence and control

Two decades of Israeli-US police cooperation includes training in racial profiling and violent suppression of protests.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/6/12/how-the-us-and-israel-exchange-tactics-in-violence-and-control

And I think the story about the hijab is untrue only in that the lady in question is his parents' cousin and someone he refers to as his "aunt". This is I believe a cultural thing, but back when I was a kid, we referred to family friends of my grandparents' generation as "aunt" and "uncle". So not so strange.

I call my parents’ Muslim friends auntie or uncle even if they aren’t related to us.

My son has a few aunties and and uncles that are actually just my friends. Its designed to help them recognise the wider group of people that will be important in his life.

Of course, but if you spoke about your aunt in a public meeting you’d expect her to actually be your aunt, and not some distant relative who’s conveniently not able to corroborate the story.

I think it’s too common nowadays to get caught up in trying to score zingers by picking on tiny errors - in all honesty it doesn’t matter if his aunt or a woman known to him - if we got back to focussing on the actual issues that matter it would be great for everyone.

I admit that I also pick on silly things to get a “win”but it ultimately doesn’t benefit anyone.

@Foxy FPT

He tried to kiss her, said he wanted to make babies with her and invited her back to his flat.

I don’t know what world you live in but that’s a long way past the line as far as I am concerned.

She’s a 14 year old child for goodness sake.

Yes, I agree, as I made clear in my post.

It should be dealt with by the police, but is a 12/12 custodial sentence appropriate for such a low level non-violent offence? And one that most teenage girls will have experienced since time immemorial?

If so, then no wonder our prisons are bursting at the seams.

Maybe it had to be custodial because of his housing situation, but locking up every lecherous man is just impossible.

He physically assaulted her and another woman.

The Judge who heard the evidence deemed it appropriate.

Why do people mitigate these offences on women by predatory men ?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cde3w04jwjzo

‘ A judge at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court also found him guilty of harassing the girl, inciting her to engage in sexual activity and an attempted sexual assault, and warned him to expect a prison sentence.

Kebatu attempted to kiss the girl and placed his hand on her thigh, as well as asking her to kiss another child in front of him, the court heard.

When a woman intervened he also placed his hand on her thigh, which she said made her feel "shocked, uncomfortable", before she called the police.’

Like I said, it is an offense and should be dealt with by the police, but to make him out to be a violent sex offender is exagerrating things.

I suspect a white offender with similar actions would have got off with a caution.

If you go and read the sentencing remarks it is clear 6 months in jail was the absolute minimum he could have been given by following the sentencing guidelines. So black, white, yellow, purple, its was going to 6 months and that is before the judge gets to the fact one victom was 14 year old, repeated offences, no admission of guilt or willingness to really engage or show remorse etc etc etc. It could easilly have been even more serious sentence.

So no, a white offender who acted exactly this way wasn't getting a caution.

@maxh to answer your question, I see Corbyn as directly threatening the economic and physical security of my family.

If Corbyn were elected PM I'd expect him to attack my income, and come after my assets. I'd also expect him to ignore the advice of the security services where it didn't accord to his pre-existing beliefs, and even defund them, as well as the military and police, leaving us vulnerable to state action by Russia/China and organised terrorist acts. In time, I think he'd also try and qualify or put restrictions on the democratic process too.

If Trump were elected PM I think would favour himself and the business interests of his family, he would try and cut across due process, he would second guess judges, he'd raise tariffs, he'd corrode public standards of behaviours, and he'd damage a lot of relationships, but he wouldn't attack people's income and assets and, after a lot of bluster, and no doubt sacking some people he didn't like, he would by and large act on security advice.

I don't think it's a difficult choice. Thankfully, we are not faced with it.

There are no circumstances in which I would ever vote for Jeremy Corbyn.

There's one thing I'd add though. Trump looks willing to tear down the democratic framework of the USA. That's a recipe for civil strife.

The crazy thing about the rise of populism in this country is that things aren't actually that bad. The economy is growing, unemployment is low, real incomes are rising again after being squeezed by a series of global economic shocks, and we face an international migration problem that is small by the standard of many countries and fixable with time and effort. Imagine the state of our politics if we were to face a real crisis! Pardon my lack of political correctness, but perhaps we just need to man up a bit?
Plus of course, on the slow moving but very real problem the country is facing around the fiscal costs of ageing, the populists and mainstream politicians alike have nothing to say.

I would say that generally speaking things could be worse. Growth is pretty poor and nowhere near where Labour need it to be. We also have a real problem with energy costs, the solution to which is not reverting to to fossil fuels use, but fixing things like the pricing mechanism, transmission, and investing more in renewables with planning and development simplified.

If we could get a bit more growth — trend would be okay, higher than trend great but less likely now — and get energy prices under control I think most people would feel better off, and the longer term stuff like housing, transport, education, justice where to be fair to Labour they do broadly correctly identify the problems, if not yet have the solutions, would have time to improve.

When you consider what we've been through since the financial crash, and then Brexit (more for the log jam it created than anything else), a once in a lifetime pandemic, and huge spike in energy costs due to a major European war, and lately the Leader of the Free World now being a crooked lunatic, I honestly think we are doing quite well. It's certainly not been plain sailing, and no government over that time has had it easy, but none of them have really stuffed things up.

Labour's campaign in 2024 made it all sound too easy to quickly change things, and the public are impatient with some justification, but the last thing we need next is the country veering off in some extreme far-left or far-right direction.

Starmer need to make a better case for long-term change and hold steady, not make abrupt changes to policy or leadership.

Talking of Polanski.......

There are a bunch of posters on here who think if they take the moral high ground in matters of morality it makes them look noble or even chivalrous. They are all of the right and at least one is a laughable hypocrite........

.....Some years ago I described Roman Polanski as 'a man more sinned against than sinning',.........

In brief a couple of girls went to his hacienda and asked him to have sex with them. He obliged and it transpired that despite looking early 20's they they were just 13 or 14. To avoid US jail he escaped to Europe where the laws on under age sex were more lax and he hadn't returned since. I wrote that he was a generational talent and he was a great loss to film making.

This must be at least ten years ago. But to this day all you need do if you are a rabid right winger is clutch your pealrs to you bosom and mention my name and Polanski and you are guaranteed the approval of at least five or six of your peers.

That is not what Polanski did, according to sworn testimony, in court.

To start with, he knew the age of the girl(s). He had personally signed the paperwork involved in working with minors.

@Foxy FPT

He tried to kiss her, said he wanted to make babies with her and invited her back to his flat.

I don’t know what world you live in but that’s a long way past the line as far as I am concerned.

She’s a 14 year old child for goodness sake.

Have you ever been to Rome with an attractive girl? Possibly not but you wouldn't make it to the Colisium from the Trevi Fountain without hearing 'bella figa' a dozen times. Different cultures are different. I don't know what happened in Epping I wasn't there but if you say to someone 'Come to Africa with me so we can make babies' I don't think they would be meaning it literally.

Here are the two most reliable reports. It just struck me that it sounded like a joke that didn't translate. And as for 'touching' a knee does not sound like a full sexual assault. Well probably not in Etheopea anyway. It could be he's a sex pest but maybe not, But 'A Dangerous Paedophile' as described by Chris Philip?

https://www.cps.gov.uk/east-england/news/man-who-sexually-assaulted-teenage-girl-epping-convicted

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cde3w04jwjzo

Piece of free advice

Do a safeguarding course for minors - an example of a course that isn’t bullshit.

Sat in on one at my rowing club - because, while I don’t directly deal with the school kids at the club, thought it was a good idea to be aware.

Given your job, I would seriously recommend it.