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Not the sharpest tool in the Tory box – politicalbetting.com
Not the sharpest tool in the Tory box – politicalbetting.com
Even the strongest supporters of jury trials accept that sometimes juries get it wrong. Or, rather, the prosecution and defence cases and/or the conduct of the trial were so poor that the jury could not help but come to the wrong (guilty) verdict. So there is nothing wrong – if you believe that a miscarriage of justice has occurred – to campaign for its overturning. If people, including MPs, had not done this – many infamous miscarriages of justice (from Stefan Kiszko, to the Birmingham 6 to, most recently, hundreds of sub-postmasters) would have remained unchallenged. Nor is there anything dishonourable in standing by a friend. Unwise and insensitive maybe. But not necessarily dishonourable.
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This is all so reminiscent of 1992-7. The Conservative Party have pressed the self-destruct button. Like then, the PM has lost control of his MPs and they are in demob happy mode: shooting off their mouths no matter how inappropriate.
Dirty sleazy tories. Gonna get a kickin'.
I really don't see how that has any relevance to the topic in hand. Making the accusation you made on the other thread after mentioning your own tragic history is a bit shit.
Yesterday you went off on a long rant about how I was anti-nuclear power, and how that made me a bad person. When as regular posters will know, I'm fairly pro-nuclear power - both fission and fusion. We had enough discussions on here about Hinkley Point...
This topic brings up a lot of deep emotions for me. But it should for us all even if we haven't personally experienced the horrors of child sexual assault or rape.
p.s. Please can Leon keep posting triumphalist messages about Boris? Every time he does the tories manage to press another self-destruct button.
Which MPs or members of the Conservative Party have criticised the Jury’s verdict, apart from Blunt?
The CCHQ response has been:
The Conservative Party has issued a statement stating that Khan, who has said he will appeal his conviction, was found guilty by his peers and that "we completely reject any allegations of impropriety against our independent judiciary".
On Tuesday morning, a Tory source told the BBC: "Crispin's views are wholly unacceptable. Following exchanges late last night, we expect the statement to be retracted first thing this morning.”..
Following the verdict, the Conservative Party said Khan had been "expelled with immediate effect", meaning he will for now sit in Parliament as an independent.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61075923
Anyway, the customs computer was fixed yesterday, P&O are still not sailing yet the queue is now dissipating. Why? Because the official line was a lie to distract from Brexit being the cause.
Anyway, we are about to welcome a brexit dividend. TV news reports on Twitter from the Netherlands and Spain interviewing their drivers who were illegally imprisoned on the M20 by kent police. Why illegally? Because they were instructed to remain in their cabs at all times, regardless of driving hours. Truckers not being allowed out of their cab to crap in a bush appears to be the final straw for many. "never coming here again", "we can choose where we work" and "bye bye" verbatim quotes from dutch drivers.
Why do we do this to ourselves?
Mirror
New Statesman
Independent
Daily Mail
Conservative ex-Justice Minister Crispin Blunt has been slammed by all sides of Westminster after he leapt to the defence of Tory MP Imran Ahmad Khan and described his conviction for sexually assaulting a boy, 15, as an 'international scandal' and 'dreadful miscarriage of justice'.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10709151/Ex-Justice-Minister-DEFENDS-sex-offender-Tory-MP-Imran-Ahmad-Khan.html
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/apr/11/tory-mp-imran-ahmad-khan-guilty-sexually-assaulting-boy-15
P rivates are private
A lways remember your body belongs to you
N o means no
T alk about secrets that upset you
S peak up, someone can help.
https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/support-for-parents/pants-underwear-rule/
This continued into school, and he is aware of the issues, although not scared. As adults, we have to ensure that if kids talk to us and speak up, we listen.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/11/ukraine-last-marines-defending-mariupol-running-out-of-ammunition
...The surviving marines are now holed up in the Azovstal iron and steelworks next to the port.
“The enemy gradually pushed us back. They surrounded us with fire, and are now trying to destroy us,” the marines posted. The “mountain of wounded” amounted to nearly half of the brigade, they added, with those “whose limbs are not torn off” continuing to fight.
Their infantry soldiers had all been killed. The “shootings battles” against the Russians were now being conducted by artillerymen and anti-aircraft gunners, as well as radio operators, drivers and cooks. Even musicians from the orchestra were fighting, they said.
The desperate last bulletin came as Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had “destroyed” Mariupol. “There are tens of thousands of dead...
So if the system is broken, Crispin - who should we blame? You must know.
I suspect the voters of Reigate will have a different choice of Conservative candidate by 2024.
On topic it's very odd that Blunt has issued such a strong statement. One can regret that a colleague or friend has been found guilty. One can, privately preferably, say that one doesn't believe the accuser, or that the accuser has exaggerated. But 'an international scandal'; seems a bit OTT.
It is good though, to see that the Conservative party now has faith in our judiciary and the courts after the remarks thrown about late in 2019.
Go big on CoL, say it is both SNP and Tories.
Go on potholes on the reverse (but don't mention the danger to cyclists, which is weird given part of the country I live in). Must be a national one as lot of stuff is not relevant to my LA.
Now he needs to retract them.
https://amp.theguardian.com/law/2020/dec/09/character-references-in-elphicke-court-case-should-be-public-judge-says
To my mind he needs to make it absolutely clear that he does not think that sexual abuse of a boy is " minor on any scale". It is an appalling thing to say.
Tory source: “Crispin’s views are wholly unacceptable.”
https://twitter.com/estwebber/status/1513771035446980609
That was unfortunate. My parents were, and are, wonderful.
And that’s in a very strong field of competition as well.
To hear it still expressed, by an MP, is disturbing.
Rishi Sunak.
I will not say, have a good day, but perhaps that is not the right expression for a funeral; still, it will be interesting.
Currently trading on the buy side at 1.72 "Yes" 2.18 "No" (104% book).
I would have expected the prices to be the other way round.
Whatever, I think it's good that kids are taught such things.
Child Q: Police going into schools should be last resort, teachers say
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-61073813
What happened to that girl who was illegally strip searched was undoubtedly disgusting and should see criminal prosecutions follow.
But are we really saying that the police shouldn’t be allowed into schools to investigate crimes? Actual crimes, including serious breaches of the law? Speaking as somebody who teaches in a school where we have an average of one knife or drug case a fortnight I think that would make bad worse. Especially for their victims.
What would be more useful and would have prevented the disaster in this particular case is to have specialist officers who are trained to deal with adolescents, including the laws around their safeguarding. Which would not be difficult to achieve and would help everyone not least the children themselves.
But no, let‘a just ban the police from schools, a la ‘defund the police tactics’ Stateside.
Idiots. I’m so glad I turned in my membership of that union.
https://twitter.com/jessicaelgot/status/1513774031870341124
At least it was a reasonable comment on the outcome.
One of the more startling parliamentary moments of the last few years was Blunt’s stout defence of the use of poppers.
Tweeting whilst pissed is still not the reaction you would expect of your elected member.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/3590923/Cringing-at-Crispin.html
Daily Quordle 78
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Mind you, we have a thriving group who are taught to use swords, and now I come to think about it a rifle range…
I think that's smart - it would be very difficult to stand by and let your friend behave inappropriately now that it's so ingrained in everyone. And women (if they didn't already) now have a very clear understanding of what is not acceptable, and that they are quite within their rights to kick off if something happens.
That last bit is a bit patronising, possibly, but important - I watched the second part of the Savile doc on Netflix last night and it struck me how he literally assaulted people on camera and the women/girls could only attempt to laugh it off. I'd hope the new norm would either stop it happening in the first place, or give people the confidence to call people like that out.
Whether it should start with children is another question - by the time someone is 18, it might already be too late.
In this particular case, though, there was no compelling evidence of any such thing.
Neither the police nor the education union come out of this at all well - but while the union statement is foolish in the extreme, it does also indicate a complete and not unjustified breakdown in trust of the police.
It seems quite reasonable to me that calling the police into school should be the last resort. It doesn't mean banning them, just that it should not be done lightly.
I dont recall the police coming into my schools (all comprehensive) other than for the occasional assembly.
Here "retired foreign intelligence officer" Dmitry Yepishin describes the UK as the "main engine of the whole anti-Russia project"
https://twitter.com/francska1/status/1513536254410956813
As for 1992, who is the John Major figure who can change the tone and ditch a totemically had policy?
Meanwhile, there are some new pay data out. This wasn't in the plan:
What's happening to pay? My regular chart
Healthy nominal pay growth, meaning real pay overall flat - but driven by financial services & bonuses.
Despite staff shortages/Brexit etc, real pay in accommodation/food services well below pre-pandemic levels https://t.co/IIoOAiIjlc
Pay growth is currently being driven by finance and ICT
https://t.co/uYQmS2kET5
Different to my previous ops in that there was a Covid questionnaire to answer and everyone is wearing masks, but the NHS does not seem to have completely collapsed.
Having said that the ward is half full.
I still don't get why they are allowed to record non-criminal hate speech (or whatever it is).
V
Crime in schools is still crime. It's mirrors when the NUS considered banning police from campuses.
https://news.sky.com/story/war-in-ukraine-uk-working-urgently-to-verify-reports-of-possible-chemical-attack-in-mariupol-12588373
I can't really remember whether primary schools teach other rules/ethics at that age though.
"And what did he talk about?" Asked my wife
"He said what you should do if you got lost" said my daughter
"And what did you say?"
"I told him I'd seen his grandmother in Tesco"
Good luck with it all.
Pay is rising, just not as fast as inflation apart from in finance and IT due to rising energy costs and reduced supply due to the Ukraine war
"European Union countries have been pretty open on accepting Ukrainian refugees. The United Kingdom, by contrast, has put together – despite all the rhetoric from the government – a pretty complicated system.
The form-filling is very onerous. It would be much better if a family only had to make one application. Typically, it’s a mother, and one or two or three children filling in an application. But we’ve got a situation whereby even a two or three year old child has to have a separate application and answer quite ridiculous questions asking what sort of former employment they have been in, and have they been involved in the armed forces."
They added: “He isn’t going to be PM now and it shows just how shallow his support was. He was the front-runner because everyone thought he’d win, not because he was popular in the party.”
Others, however, say it’s far too soon to write Sunak off — but even they want the embattled chancellor to learn hard lessons from the political bruising he’s taking.
https://www.politico.eu/article/boris-johnsons-heir-apparent-rishi-sunak-comes-unstuck/
Macron leads Le Pen 54% to 46% in the overall second round vote .
The Mélenchon voters support breaks 27% to 21% for Macron with 53% abstentions .
In 2017 that was 60% to 10% with 30% abstentions .
Should the Conservative Party take action against him? It depends whether his "clarification" expected today makes clear that he is not trivialising statutory rape of a child by a much older man (I believe that the police usually look the other way when a 16-year-old sleeps with a 15-year-old). If he were to confirm that he meant that it's no big deal, then I think he has no place in a serious party. If he clarifies that the offence is extremely serious and he is merely expressing incredulity that his friend was guilty of it, then I think that's not a political issue but a matter of judgment, and if MPs were thrown out of their parties for mistakes of judgment then, well...
And while he said he attended some of the case - as he didn't attend all of it he really isn't in a position to pass comment on the bits he didn't hear.