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A Good Deed – politicalbetting.com
A Good Deed – politicalbetting.com
The government has finally done something right! I know. Scarcely believable. Admittedly, it’s early days and it’s by its Legal Department (which usually manages to maintain some modicum of integrity and competence – or tries to anyway.) Small mercies. What has it done? The Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor, Alex Chalk, and Attorney-General, Victoria Prentis have announced an independent inquiry into the Andy Malkinson case. This will be into all the relevant authorities: the Greater Manchester Police (1 of 5 police forces in special measures), the Crown Prosecution Service and the Criminal Cases Review Commission. All three of them have pledged their full co-operation, not that they had any alternative, despite their own separate inquiries. The IOPC is looking at the police’s behaviour but, given its feeble record, little could have been expected of it. The CCRC has appointed a KC to review its behaviour; doubtless his findings will be fed into this one. The Law Commission is also reviewing this case as part of its wider review into the criminal appeals process.
Comments
Kemi Badenoch = Radiohead of politcs.
And "Advanced Boardroom Excellence" is a decidedly ambiguous term.
It gets rather less credit because it explored all other options first.
Well, she certainly was a curious one, was Morgan le Fay. I have seen a good many kinds of women in my time, but she laid over them all for variety. And how sharply characteristic of her this episode was. She had no more idea than a horse of how to photograph a procession; but being in doubt, it was just like her to try to do it with an axe.
I like the idea of this kind of photography.
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2023/aug/15/dna-and-injustice-a-timeline-of-the-andrew-malkinson-case
The whole point is that the FTGG is a demented, murderous lie.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-66603784
Parole Board says "Tell us where her body is". Razzell says "I don't know because I didn't kill her".
Others I like include:
Insurance Companies - bookmakers who don't pay out on winners
Banks - Lenders and providers of finance to people and businesses that can prove they don't need it.
Recruitment agents - people without the customer service skills and care of Estate agents
Chalk is an MP I'd personally like to keep in the House, but I believe the LDs have him in their crosshairs.
My own local Fuzz Force, Gloucestershire, are one of the filthy five in special measures. Unlike Greater Manchester and the Met, they do not appear to have been associated with any particular special scandal. I think it's just their sheer level of incompetence generally.
And of course I'd forgotten about the classic 'Management Consultants - who borrow your watch and then charge you for telling you the time'. [Do firms still use Management Consultants, or did people eventually wise up to their wheezes?]
Journalists - people who try to convince their readers that week old twitter posts are news.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_2023_New_Zealand_general_election
I have no experience of Cheshire Police and wonder if those who do can testify as whether such excellent work was characteristic of their work generally. It would be nice to think there is at least one Force out there that is up to snuff.
The Biden administration sued Elon Musk-owned rocket and satellite company SpaceX on Thursday for allegedly discriminating against asylum seekers and refugees in hiring.
“The lawsuit alleges that, from at least September 2018 to May 2022, SpaceX routinely discouraged asylees and refugees from applying and refused to hire or consider them, because of their citizenship status, in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act,” the Justice Department said in a statement.
I shouldn't be so cynical about them because they help keep me in work, but they do leave clients with the impression that unicorns and mermaids can be willed into existence.
Is the Church of England giving up on Sunday worship?"
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/is-the-church-of-england-giving-up-on-sunday-worship/
But there are some good ones out there. And I second what @Peter_the_Punter said about the Cheshire Police's work on the Letby case.
(BTW I am amused to note that the ex-PB'er stalker who disobeyed OGH is now stalking him and me on Twitter and being as childishly rude there as on here. I honestly don't know (and don't care) what on earth I can have done to annoy him so.)
One thing about these various Inquiries bothers me, though (well, more than one..). It's that they are too focused on the particular. One on the appalling Malkinson miscarriage of justice. Another on the appalling Post Office Horizon miscarriage of justice. If we are really going to 'learn lessons', shouldn't we be focusing on what these scandals have in common, which will no doubt apply to the next appalling miscarriage of justice, and the many less publicised ones?
Similarly, the real lessons which should be learnt from the Letby case aren't really about a murderous staff member on a neo-natal ward, but about how the NHS handles whistleblowers. The Letby case is an extreme, but atypical, example of a wider dysfunction in investigating concerns. The lessons should focus on the wider issue.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/republican-debate-august-poll/
That makes it sound as though they were asking the wrong question entirely. Certainty that someone else's DNA was crime-specific would have proved that Malkinson was certainly innocent (given that there was only one assailant). Obviously, reasonable doubt of guilt is the correct criterion.
It is very common, in the US space industry, for example to have to advertise a job as US citizens only. The penalties for disclosing information on launch systems to non-citizens include unlimited fines and/or decades in prison.
It would be very easy to present the legal rules that make non-US citizen hiring pretty much impossible - with precedents all the way back to Loral.
Haley seems to have done rather well out of it if Trump is looking for a VP.
Scott appears to have made no impression at all based on that, whereas at least Christie and Hutchinson picked up some hate.
I see a lot of commonalities between these various scandals - not just with other NHS scandals but with police ones and City ones too. It is difficult enough to join up the lessons inside one organisation, though it is a very important part of what needs doing. But within government and and other public services? That should be one of those changes that ought to be made - to have someone / some team responsible for joining these dots and trying to do a read across not just in relation to why things have gone wrong but in how to put them right.
For instance, there is much the police and the NHS could learn from finance. I could bore on about this for ages. But no-one at the top will think: maybe we could learn from what other sectors have been through.
The whistleblowing aspect is particularly important. This is my day job. I have just written for one of my clients an article on this - and when published - happy to provide a link to anyone interested.
Organisations do not really understand - or choose to understand - the human behaviours behind why staff are worried about raising concerns and why those at the top react in the way they do. Until they do they will have little success building structures/ processes that encourage people to do the right thing and stop or make it hard for them to do the wrong thing.
The other key issue - especially in the NHS - is the absolute necessity of having an independent investigation team, independent of management, that staff could - because of its independence and professionalism - trust.
Infuriating. Honestly, I know I am blowing my own trumpet but there is lots people like me and plenty of others could do to help, inform and teach these organisations.
😠
https://www.justice.gov/media/1311656/dl?inline
SpaceX officials have repeatedly said publicly that they can only hire U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents because of export control laws and regulations, like ITAR.
But export control laws and regulations do not prohibit or restrict employers from hiring asylees and refugees; those laws treat asylees and refugees just like U.S. citizens.
Under IT AR and EAR, "U.S. persons" working for U.S. companies can access exportr controlled items without authorization from the U.S. government. A "U.S. person" under IT AR and EAR, includes a U.S. citizen or national, a lawful permanent resident, a refugee, or an asylee. 22 C.F.R. § 120.62; 15 C.F.R. pt. 772.
In contrast, a "foreign person"-anyone who is not a "U.S. person" under ITAR and EAR may need authorization from the federal government to access export-controlled items. 22 C.F.R. §§ 120.62 and 120.63; 15 C.F.R. pt. 772. For a "foreign person" employee to access export-controlled items, their employer must apply to the U.S. Department of State or the U.S. Department of Commerce and obtain approval.
SpaceX regularly conducts export compliance assessments, a process to check whether new and existing workers require authorization to access export-controlled items. During this process, new and existing workers identify their citizenship or immigration status and present documentation proving their citizenship or immigration status to show whether they are a "U.S. person" or "foreign person."
Despite SpaceX's claims, IT AR and EAR do not contain employment or hiring restrictions. They do not require employers to limit jobs based on citizenship or immigration status. And they do not prohibit employers from hiring asylees and refugees. Thus, they do not create an exception to hiring discrimination under 8 U.S.C. § 1324b(a)(2)(C)
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
And yet this is how the NHS works.
This can cause all kinds of fun. Your non-US citizen employee invents a new widget. Under ITAR this widget is the property of a US company and export controlled. Your employee (and your company) are now in the shit, since the employee wasn’t specifically approved for access to the widget they invented.
Haley gets the biggest post debate bounce followed by Burgum
The fact that NHS managers and the HR people in this hospital did not understand this absolutely basic point is appalling. And terrifying. Because if it happened there, there is every chance that the same basic errors are happening elsewhere within the NHS right now.
HR - Human Remains
Good HR people are rare and worth their weight in gold. Most are just the employment equivalent of spending time in purgatory.
I prefer my rule followers to be consistent.
Which means you are even more reliant on a few experienced and knowledgeable individuals for when it is necessary, but if you were listening to them the situation would not be as it is anyway.
"88 UK deaths linked to Canada 'poison seller'"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-66609884
Enquiries regularly come out with general recommendations for reform - which are just as regularly ignored.
Perhaps better aims would be for them to report in more a timely manner - often, by the time they report, it's many years on - and to have some mechanism to follow up in recommendations.
I think more than one regular pb'er was taken in by Saint Jacinda at the time.
215 lbs LOL.
Gives hope for the orangutan population.
Not a good look !!!!
Poll shows most Scots back Sunak’s oil plans for the North Sea
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/poll-shows-most-scots-back-sunak-s-plans-for-the-north-sea-q23c2f0n7
Not a good sign.