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In today’s most unsurprising news, Russia’s pontoon bridge into Crimea got taken out by Ukranian drones last night.

https://x.com/tendar/status/2065749958452518939

Now only the Kerch Bridge left, and the Russians really don’t want to use it for anything heavy or flammable. The starving out of the Russian Army is going according to plan.

I predicted about a week ago that Russian control of Crimea was going to collapse within months. I think Ukraine are ahead of schedule.

Putin will carry on a broken back war, in the style of Sir Ralph Richardson in The Shape of Things To Come.

If he loses Crimea, that could open a window for him.

On the fourth or fifth floor I would say.

Speaking of which, one more senior officer took something of a fall yesterday.

https://x.com/lxsummer1/status/2065694474227871948

They really need to stay away from tall buildings.

Expertise is everywhere. Nothing surer than Billy McMason of Sandy Row is DESPERATE to be Irish.


It is difficult to overstate just how dumb, ignorant, stupid, the people who currently govern the United States are.

Here is the Homeland Security Secretary claiming that the unionists & loyalists in *Northern* Ireland ‘want to be Irish’ & want to be in Ireland. Pure ignorance.

https://x.com/mehdirhasan/status/2065390779334344998?s=61&t=LYVEHh2mqFy1oUJAdCfe-Q

It is not that long since we had a Northern Ireland Secretary surprised to learn that nationalists and unionists voted for different parties.

Some here were surprised to learn that Loyalists got concessions as well as Republicans, a while back, when EU customs officials got threatened.

This is interesting, from a Change.org email. Why Sikh leaders are demanding a public enquiry:

Dabinderjit Singh, chief executive for political engagement at the Sikh Federation, has started a Change.org petition demanding a statutory public inquiry into the death of 18-year-old Henry Nowak, and the institutions that failed him.

The petition argues that multi-agency oversights contributed to Henry’s death; that police conduct at the scene was seriously deficient; and that a criminal trial at Southampton Crown Court not only failed to deliver justice for his family but brought the sacred Kirpan — a Sikh religious symbol — needlessly into disrepute.

do you agree? Sign Dabinderjit Singh’s petition today.

There was a lot of reporting that appeared to suggest the Sikh ceremonial knife was the murder weapon, but that wasn’t actually the case.

The Sikh community are worried that there will now be pressure to remove the religious exemption that exists for carrying these ceremonial knives in public.

Most Sikhs wear basically a badge in the shape of a dagger. It's tiny and could not seriously be called a weapon. The killer also had one. He did not need to carry an actual knife for religious purposes.

The murderer was not carrying a kirpan, but he did justify his carrying of a deadly weapon by referencing the law concerning carrying them. That makes the law just as much a contributing factor as it would be if he had stabbed Nowak using a kirpan.

No, it doesn’t. That logic says that the law is to blame for offences committed by “sovereign citizens”.

If someone breaks the law (or falsely claims a safe harbour) the law isn’t a contributing factor

This is interesting, from a Change.org email. Why Sikh leaders are demanding a public enquiry:

Dabinderjit Singh, chief executive for political engagement at the Sikh Federation, has started a Change.org petition demanding a statutory public inquiry into the death of 18-year-old Henry Nowak, and the institutions that failed him.

The petition argues that multi-agency oversights contributed to Henry’s death; that police conduct at the scene was seriously deficient; and that a criminal trial at Southampton Crown Court not only failed to deliver justice for his family but brought the sacred Kirpan — a Sikh religious symbol — needlessly into disrepute.

do you agree? Sign Dabinderjit Singh’s petition today.

There was a lot of reporting that appeared to suggest the Sikh ceremonial knife was the murder weapon, but that wasn’t actually the case.

The Sikh community are worried that there will now be pressure to remove the religious exemption that exists for carrying these ceremonial knives in public.

Most Sikhs wear basically a badge in the shape of a dagger. It's tiny and could not seriously be called a weapon. The killer also had one. He did not need to carry an actual knife for religious purposes.

The murderer was not carrying a kirpan, but he did justify his carrying of a deadly weapon by referencing the law concerning carrying them. That makes the law just as much a contributing factor as it would be if he had stabbed Nowak using a kirpan.

No, it doesn’t. That logic says that the law is to blame for offences committed by “sovereign citizens”.

If someone breaks the law (or falsely claims a safe harbour) the law isn’t a contributing factor

He would still have been breaking the law if he had stabbed someone with a kirpan - there are laws against stabbing people. What's under consideration is whether repeal of the law permitting carrying weapons of this type would make the public safer. This case makes that impossible to deny.

Does it? The number of stabbings (even if down on 1977) suggests laws against using knives are routinely ignored, let alone carrying them.

Given that the killer was carrying a deadly weapon unchallenged because he claimed a religious exemption, yes.

If unchallenged, he did not need to claim anything. But as it happened, the knife covered by the exemption was different from the knife used to kill Nowak. And any exemption would not have covered murder in any case.

The "Kirpan" law has been in place since 1988, and the numbers of murders over those 38 years involving a kirpan is 0. It is hard to deny that there is some increased risk but experience tells us it is completely negligible and would be a complete waste of government time to legislate on, unless it is all about virtue signalling*.

* Surely not, as if there is one thing the patriotic right hates it is virtue signalling........(done by others)......

It’s my understanding that the various laws on knives have endotoxins for religious and cultural usage.

There is no actual definition of what that is in the laws.

So no literal definition of what is a Kirpan or Sgian dubh etc.

The problem is then who defines such things. The police and courts seem to have been using customary usage to create case law.

It seems to have passed by without notice or significant controversy for decades, until a lying murderer lied about the weapon he was using. So the experience and case law the police, courts and other establishments have been using is not problematic and is functioning well.

It’s the classic where a wanker spoils the quiet, sensible arrangement that has worked for 99.999%, for decades.

Steven Swinford
@Steven_Swinford
·
1h
One hell of a letter in The Times today from General Sir Nick Carter, a former head of the armed forces

He warns that Britain risks becoming ‘Belgium with nuclear weapons’ unless it spends more on defence

https://x.com/Steven_Swinford/status/2065738379694666229

So… good chocolate, and chips with mayonnaise?

Military guy says more should be spent on defence. Let me see if I can find a doctor to say more should be spend on health. Obviously, the real answer is that more should be spend on universities, which I know as a professor.

I am (feels dirty) inclined to agree. Having listened to all the arguments I am loath to hose money at the MOD in its current form. Tell us what forces we need, in what areas, and how we can get there in a very lean, efficient way, potentially with compromises on efficiency where manufacturing or technological capabilities need to be kept in the UK. Then you can have a bit of money. I do not feel inclined to spend more on generals, admirals, shit vanity projects, and bungs to the US military-industrial complex, with no plan and no reform. I would feel exactly the same about any other Government expenditure.