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The Search for Justice – politicalbetting.com

SystemSystem Posts: 12,191
edited March 12 in General
The Search for Justice – politicalbetting.com

Sarah Everard's killer Wayne Couzens should never have been a police officer and things must change now to stop it happening again, inquiry says https://t.co/8T7w7TNwAE

Read the full story here

«134

Comments

  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,814
    The shocking thing is that I am not shocked by the behaviour of The Met.
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 17,560
    Second (class - like the Tories)

    (Am I doing this right? Ed))
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 52,010
    Third like the LibDems
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,765
    edited March 5

    Third like the LibDems

    ...if the Tories have a good night.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,340
    viewcode said:

    DavidL said:

    Talking of America and matters budgetary this is a really interesting and thorough piece of research on the effect of Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act 2017. https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w32180/w32180.pdf

    The findings demonstrate the complexities of fiscal policies in a largely free trade world and I suspect that the international effects would be even more marked in the UK than it was in the much larger US economy but basically the benefits of the tax cuts largely accrued to corporations; those benefits did boost US investment somewhat but that was by about the effect of the tax cuts with no obvious multiplier effect. The belief that this increased corporate activity would make the tax cut self funding was completely false. Government debt rose sharply. And the benefits to the average tax payer, whilst there, was a small fraction of what was promised.

    What it also demonstrates to me, as an interested amateur rather than a professional economist, is that both Truss and Reeves seem in their different ways to fail to appreciate the narrow parameters within which a UK Chancellor dependent upon international markets for funding has to operate. Each thought that they could address a problem by a simple step or series of steps with no real thought of the broader implications that step may have. Each seems to think that they have the ability to make changes without giving reassurance on that broader picture.

    Those who think that a Starmer government will result in a materially different situation really should read this paper. It is a failure on the right, a failure of supply side economics (once again) but there are many broader lessons to be learned.

    What I take from this (which is less than your rather impressive summary deserves) is that instead of just moving the existing levers, we need to develop new ones. And that assumptions about the role of government and how to pay for it needs to change.

    If you pour salt onto a table, it forms a little hill, then it slips, and forms a bigger hill, and so on. Punctuated equilibrium. Similarly here: a generation of politicians are trying old solutions, but sooner or later the voters will lose patience, things will change quickly, and a new equilibrium will form. Boris understood this. Nobody else does... ☹️
    How did Boris understand that? He was very conventional in most ways.
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,318
    One little tidbit in the report intrigued me.

    Couzens could speak almost fluent Russian. He also had chaotically poor and unmanaged finances and persistent indebtedness, a fact which alone should have prevented him being hired - because of the risk of blackmail and the stress it places on a person - and yet the Civil Nuclear Constabulary still hired him.

    Then though one of his reasons for joining the Met was to become a detective he applied to become a Diplomatic Protection Squad member.

    Did no-one in the police worry about such a person being a target for a hostile foreign state actor?
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,925

    In protest against PB powers-that-be making "like" button anonymous, until further notice yours truly will NOT be "liking" ANY post by a PB owner, heir OR moderator.

    J'accuse! Et je n'aime pas!

    I suspect its just Vanilla messing about again.
  • Casino_RoyaleCasino_Royale Posts: 60,578
    The Met is the Air France of the policing world.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,340
    Cyclefree said:



    Did no-one in the police worry

    No.

    Worrying is stressful after all.

    Still, I'm sure lessons have been learned. In the sense of the cliche phrase when no actual lessons are learned of course.
  • londonpubmanlondonpubman Posts: 3,639
    @rcs1000 are you able to advise site users on the 'anonymous likes' situation please? 👍
  • FoxyFoxy Posts: 48,925
    edited March 5
    Cyclefree said:

    One little tidbit in the report intrigued me.

    Couzens could speak almost fluent Russian. He also had chaotically poor and unmanaged finances and persistent indebtedness, a fact which alone should have prevented him being hired - because of the risk of blackmail and the stress it places on a person - and yet the Civil Nuclear Constabulary still hired him.

    Then though one of his reasons for joining the Met was to become a detective he applied to become a Diplomatic Protection Squad member.

    Did no-one in the police worry about such a person being a target for a hostile foreign state actor?

    Like I pointed out yesterday. What's the point in requiring DRB when the police are as useless as this at keeping an eye on their own?
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,765
    Foxy said:

    In protest against PB powers-that-be making "like" button anonymous, until further notice yours truly will NOT be "liking" ANY post by a PB owner, heir OR moderator.

    J'accuse! Et je n'aime pas!

    I suspect its just Vanilla messing about again.
    Same on PB.com (although does that embed Vanilla?)
  • TimSTimS Posts: 13,091

    The Met is the Air France of the policing world.

    Apparently now quite posh, according to Leon.
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,814
    Cyclefree said:

    One little tidbit in the report intrigued me.

    Couzens could speak almost fluent Russian. He also had chaotically poor and unmanaged finances and persistent indebtedness, a fact which alone should have prevented him being hired - because of the risk of blackmail and the stress it places on a person - and yet the Civil Nuclear Constabulary still hired him.

    Then though one of his reasons for joining the Met was to become a detective he applied to become a Diplomatic Protection Squad member.

    Did no-one in the police worry about such a person being a target for a hostile foreign state actor?

    Tangentially this makes you wonder about the bloody point of DBS checks?

    Rapists are likely to have avoided justice because the Metropolitan Police has been routinely failing to record basic details about sex offenders and their victims, despite repeatedly being told by regulators that its methods are failing women and girls.

    Scotland Yard has been forced by The Times to disclose a highly critical internal report detailing its failures to prevent violence against women and girls after a 14-month legal battle.

    These key details, which may help to identify similarities between offences and better link suspects to crimes, could have helped investigators bring violent criminals to justice by establishing patterns of offending.

    The 2022 document commissioned after the murder of Sarah Everard shows that for 356 serious sexual offences reported the previous year — 7 per cent of all crimes recorded — officers did not record detailed information about the reported sex offence which could have helped to identify any trends or linked attacks.

    Officers regularly failed to properly record details of suspects, which meant they could not easily be identified by other investigators. In thousands of cases the relationship between victim and offender was not recorded on police computer systems.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/met-police-report-failed-sex-offenders-basic-details-wmtml2h9m
  • TheScreamingEaglesTheScreamingEagles Posts: 119,814

    The Met is the Air France of the policing world.

    No, The Met is a Boeing plane that Air France operate.
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    On topic - police culture featuring "vile behaviour and deeply abusive language" is certainly NOT limited to London or UK.

    For example

    ABC News - Investigation opened after Seattle officer heard joking about pedestrian's death
    https://abcnews.go.com/US/seattle-officer-joking-pedestrian-death/story?id=103130361

    After discussing whether she was in the crosswalk and how far she was thrown, [SPD Officer] Auderer [who investigated the incident shortly after it occured] says, "But she is dead," and laughs several seconds later.

    Toward the end of the 2 1/2-minute video, Auderer says, "Yeah, just write a check," followed by laughter.

    "Eleven thousand dollars. She was 26, anyway," he said, misstating Kandula's age. "She had limited value."

    SSI - Note that Officer Auderer is (or at least was back then) the vice president of the Seattle Police Guild (union).
  • mwadamsmwadams Posts: 3,644
    kle4 said:

    viewcode said:

    DavidL said:

    Talking of America and matters budgetary this is a really interesting and thorough piece of research on the effect of Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act 2017. https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w32180/w32180.pdf

    The findings demonstrate the complexities of fiscal policies in a largely free trade world and I suspect that the international effects would be even more marked in the UK than it was in the much larger US economy but basically the benefits of the tax cuts largely accrued to corporations; those benefits did boost US investment somewhat but that was by about the effect of the tax cuts with no obvious multiplier effect. The belief that this increased corporate activity would make the tax cut self funding was completely false. Government debt rose sharply. And the benefits to the average tax payer, whilst there, was a small fraction of what was promised.

    What it also demonstrates to me, as an interested amateur rather than a professional economist, is that both Truss and Reeves seem in their different ways to fail to appreciate the narrow parameters within which a UK Chancellor dependent upon international markets for funding has to operate. Each thought that they could address a problem by a simple step or series of steps with no real thought of the broader implications that step may have. Each seems to think that they have the ability to make changes without giving reassurance on that broader picture.

    Those who think that a Starmer government will result in a materially different situation really should read this paper. It is a failure on the right, a failure of supply side economics (once again) but there are many broader lessons to be learned.

    What I take from this (which is less than your rather impressive summary deserves) is that instead of just moving the existing levers, we need to develop new ones. And that assumptions about the role of government and how to pay for it needs to change.

    If you pour salt onto a table, it forms a little hill, then it slips, and forms a bigger hill, and so on. Punctuated equilibrium. Similarly here: a generation of politicians are trying old solutions, but sooner or later the voters will lose patience, things will change quickly, and a new equilibrium will form. Boris understood this. Nobody else does... ☹️
    How did Boris understand that? He was very conventional in most ways.
    Indeed. I think Boris's genius (?) was that onto that carefully cultivated blither, people could project whatever they wanted.

    Sometimes it worked out for him (London, first half of his premiership) sometimes it didn't (latter part of his Premiership, Foreign Office).
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 52,010

    On topic - police culture featuring "vile behaviour and deeply abusive language" is certainly NOT limited to London or UK.

    For example

    ABC News - Investigation opened after Seattle officer heard joking about pedestrian's death
    https://abcnews.go.com/US/seattle-officer-joking-pedestrian-death/story?id=103130361

    After discussing whether she was in the crosswalk and how far she was thrown, [SPD Officer] Auderer [who investigated the incident shortly after it occured] says, "But she is dead," and laughs several seconds later.

    Toward the end of the 2 1/2-minute video, Auderer says, "Yeah, just write a check," followed by laughter.

    "Eleven thousand dollars. She was 26, anyway," he said, misstating Kandula's age. "She had limited value."

    SSI - Note that Officer Auderer is (or at least was back then) the vice president of the Seattle Police Guild (union).

    @SeaShantyIrish2

    I have a beautiful model from Seattle in my bedroom right now.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,948

    Cyclefree said:

    One little tidbit in the report intrigued me.

    Couzens could speak almost fluent Russian. He also had chaotically poor and unmanaged finances and persistent indebtedness, a fact which alone should have prevented him being hired - because of the risk of blackmail and the stress it places on a person - and yet the Civil Nuclear Constabulary still hired him.

    Then though one of his reasons for joining the Met was to become a detective he applied to become a Diplomatic Protection Squad member.

    Did no-one in the police worry about such a person being a target for a hostile foreign state actor?

    Tangentially this makes you wonder about the bloody point of DBS checks?

    Rapists are likely to have avoided justice because the Metropolitan Police has been routinely failing to record basic details about sex offenders and their victims, despite repeatedly being told by regulators that its methods are failing women and girls.

    Scotland Yard has been forced by The Times to disclose a highly critical internal report detailing its failures to prevent violence against women and girls after a 14-month legal battle.

    These key details, which may help to identify similarities between offences and better link suspects to crimes, could have helped investigators bring violent criminals to justice by establishing patterns of offending.

    The 2022 document commissioned after the murder of Sarah Everard shows that for 356 serious sexual offences reported the previous year — 7 per cent of all crimes recorded — officers did not record detailed information about the reported sex offence which could have helped to identify any trends or linked attacks.

    Officers regularly failed to properly record details of suspects, which meant they could not easily be identified by other investigators. In thousands of cases the relationship between victim and offender was not recorded on police computer systems.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/met-police-report-failed-sex-offenders-basic-details-wmtml2h9m
    I had a rape trial earlier this year which did not result in a conviction. A major reason for this (apart from my ineptitude, natch) was that an Initial Briefing Report had been prepared by an Officer when he (and the "he" was significant) had gone to see a complainer alone who allegedly agreed with him that no crime had been committed.

    When the accused was under investigation for a series of offences from a series of relationships the complainer was visited by a female officer and had no problem telling her what had happened. The Initial Briefing report of this Officer, however, was presented as a prior inconsistent statement by her and the change of position was used by the defence (understandably) as evidence that the inquiry which had produced the charges was something of a witch hunt.

    It was a deeply frustrating experience which frankly made me wonder how many other prosecutions, actual and potential, this officer had blighted.
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559

    On topic - police culture featuring "vile behaviour and deeply abusive language" is certainly NOT limited to London or UK.

    For example

    ABC News - Investigation opened after Seattle officer heard joking about pedestrian's death
    https://abcnews.go.com/US/seattle-officer-joking-pedestrian-death/story?id=103130361

    After discussing whether she was in the crosswalk and how far she was thrown, [SPD Officer] Auderer [who investigated the incident shortly after it occured] says, "But she is dead," and laughs several seconds later.

    Toward the end of the 2 1/2-minute video, Auderer says, "Yeah, just write a check," followed by laughter.

    "Eleven thousand dollars. She was 26, anyway," he said, misstating Kandula's age. "She had limited value."

    SSI - Note that Officer Auderer is (or at least was back then) the vice president of the Seattle Police Guild (union).

    @SeaShantyIrish2

    I have a beautiful model from Seattle in my bedroom right now.
    Please say "hello!" to 'em from me!
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,965
    Penarth to standby.


    Avian flu makes me nervous ++ We need to be ready for it becoming more transmissible between humans.

    Between 2020–2023, 26 countries reported >48 mammal species infected by H5N1. Geographic area and No. of species affected has increased.

    /eid/article/30/3/23-1098_article

    https://twitter.com/PeterHorby/status/1764596545620410662


    "We reviewed information about mammals naturally infected by highly pathogenic avian influenza A virus subtype H5N1 during 2 periods: the current panzootic (2020–2023) and previous waves of infection (2003–2019). In the current panzootic, 26 countries have reported >48 mammal species infected by H5N1 virus; in some cases, the virus has affected thousands of individual animals. The geographic area and the number of species affected by the current event are considerably larger than in previous waves of infection. The most plausible source of mammal infection in both periods appears to be close contact with infected birds, including their ingestion. Some studies, especially in the current panzootic, suggest that mammal-to-mammal transmission might be responsible for some infections; some mutations found could help this avian pathogen replicate in mammals. H5N1 virus may be changing and adapting to infect mammals. Continuous surveillance is essential to mitigate the risk for a global pandemic."

    https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/30/3/23-1098_article
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,660
    edited March 5
    TimS said:

    The Met is the Air France of the policing world.

    Apparently now quite posh, according to Leon.
    The world’s most glamorous airline.

    As a wise PBer said recently, after you have been served vintage champagne, several glasses of good claret, and a good cognac, who cares if the flight’s a bit ropey?

    (I doubt any of this is true, but print the legend etc)
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,711

    On topic - police culture featuring "vile behaviour and deeply abusive language" is certainly NOT limited to London or UK.

    For example

    ABC News - Investigation opened after Seattle officer heard joking about pedestrian's death
    https://abcnews.go.com/US/seattle-officer-joking-pedestrian-death/story?id=103130361

    After discussing whether she was in the crosswalk and how far she was thrown, [SPD Officer] Auderer [who investigated the incident shortly after it occured] says, "But she is dead," and laughs several seconds later.

    Toward the end of the 2 1/2-minute video, Auderer says, "Yeah, just write a check," followed by laughter.

    "Eleven thousand dollars. She was 26, anyway," he said, misstating Kandula's age. "She had limited value."

    SSI - Note that Officer Auderer is (or at least was back then) the vice president of the Seattle Police Guild (union).

    @SeaShantyIrish2

    I have a beautiful model from Seattle in my bedroom right now.
    SP&S?
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,635
    Three quarters of Tory members want Hunt to prioritise increased defence spending over tax cuts

    "Our survey. Three-quarters of Conservative members back defence spending over tax cuts in the Budget. | Conservative Home" https://conservativehome.com/2024/03/05/our-survey-three-quarters-of-conservative-members-back-defence-spending-over-tax-cuts-in-the-budget/
  • turbotubbsturbotubbs Posts: 17,560

    Penarth to standby.


    Avian flu makes me nervous ++ We need to be ready for it becoming more transmissible between humans.

    Between 2020–2023, 26 countries reported >48 mammal species infected by H5N1. Geographic area and No. of species affected has increased.

    /eid/article/30/3/23-1098_article

    https://twitter.com/PeterHorby/status/1764596545620410662


    "We reviewed information about mammals naturally infected by highly pathogenic avian influenza A virus subtype H5N1 during 2 periods: the current panzootic (2020–2023) and previous waves of infection (2003–2019). In the current panzootic, 26 countries have reported >48 mammal species infected by H5N1 virus; in some cases, the virus has affected thousands of individual animals. The geographic area and the number of species affected by the current event are considerably larger than in previous waves of infection. The most plausible source of mammal infection in both periods appears to be close contact with infected birds, including their ingestion. Some studies, especially in the current panzootic, suggest that mammal-to-mammal transmission might be responsible for some infections; some mutations found could help this avian pathogen replicate in mammals. H5N1 virus may be changing and adapting to infect mammals. Continuous surveillance is essential to mitigate the risk for a global pandemic."

    https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/30/3/23-1098_article

    We have easy access to flu vaccines. Good to be cautious, but no serious concern.
  • LostPasswordLostPassword Posts: 18,741
    One sad thing is that, in the event that the police do clean up their act, I fear that it will take a long time to rebuild trust. My assumption will be that wrongdoers are being shielded again, rather than that the police have managed not to employ quite so many.

    How would you prove that the police weren't riddled with rapists? At some level it will always have to be taken on trust. And trust, once broken, is very slow to rebuild.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,948

    DavidL said:

    I wasn't sure about Angiolini when she was Lord Advocate in Scotland. There were, it has to be said, a lot of sniggers around Parliament House about her lack of actual court experience and the quality of her performances when she did appear, no matter how much support she got. Some of these comments had more than an edge of misogyny to them.

    Last year, I attended a Crown Office training weekend and Angiolini was a guest speaker. Sher was also on my table. Both her courtesy at the table and her speech gave me a very different impression and, I must say, a much more favourable one. She is a very serious and intelligent person. She is, so far, unique in retaining the post of Lord Advocate when there was a change of administration and I began to appreciate why. It would be very unfortunate if this perceptive report ended up gathering the same dust as all the others.

    Lessons Will Be Learned*

    I do not want lessons to be learned. I want several senior people to lose their jobs, and be unable to ever work in the police service, ever again. In any shape or form.

    image

    *May not include lessons. May not include learning. May not include Will. May not include anything except pathetic excuses.
    I completely agree. It is like the Post Office scandal. Until people are held directly accountable and their incompetence and wilful blindness has consequences things will continue as they always have.
  • SandyRentoolSandyRentool Posts: 22,100

    On topic - police culture featuring "vile behaviour and deeply abusive language" is certainly NOT limited to London or UK.

    For example

    ABC News - Investigation opened after Seattle officer heard joking about pedestrian's death
    https://abcnews.go.com/US/seattle-officer-joking-pedestrian-death/story?id=103130361

    After discussing whether she was in the crosswalk and how far she was thrown, [SPD Officer] Auderer [who investigated the incident shortly after it occured] says, "But she is dead," and laughs several seconds later.

    Toward the end of the 2 1/2-minute video, Auderer says, "Yeah, just write a check," followed by laughter.

    "Eleven thousand dollars. She was 26, anyway," he said, misstating Kandula's age. "She had limited value."

    SSI - Note that Officer Auderer is (or at least was back then) the vice president of the Seattle Police Guild (union).

    @SeaShantyIrish2

    I have a beautiful model from Seattle in my bedroom right now.
    Airfix?
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,711
    edited March 5
    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    I wasn't sure about Angiolini when she was Lord Advocate in Scotland. There were, it has to be said, a lot of sniggers around Parliament House about her lack of actual court experience and the quality of her performances when she did appear, no matter how much support she got. Some of these comments had more than an edge of misogyny to them.

    Last year, I attended a Crown Office training weekend and Angiolini was a guest speaker. Sher was also on my table. Both her courtesy at the table and her speech gave me a very different impression and, I must say, a much more favourable one. She is a very serious and intelligent person. She is, so far, unique in retaining the post of Lord Advocate when there was a change of administration and I began to appreciate why. It would be very unfortunate if this perceptive report ended up gathering the same dust as all the others.

    Lessons Will Be Learned*

    I do not want lessons to be learned. I want several senior people to lose their jobs, and be unable to ever work in the police service, ever again. In any shape or form.

    image

    *May not include lessons. May not include learning. May not include Will. May not include anything except pathetic excuses.
    I completely agree. It is like the Post Office scandal. Until people are held directly accountable and their incompetence and wilful blindness has consequences things will continue as they always have.
    It comes directly from my NU10K thesis - if they bullshit and equivocate and, above all, smear the blame like butter, then they are "team players" and a "safe pair of hands". So on to the next job, with more money and responsibility.

    Anyone who participates in accountability will not be allowed to have these kinds of jobs.

    So public services become a Testudo of the useless, incompetent and wilfully blind.
  • FairlieredFairliered Posts: 4,989
    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    I wasn't sure about Angiolini when she was Lord Advocate in Scotland. There were, it has to be said, a lot of sniggers around Parliament House about her lack of actual court experience and the quality of her performances when she did appear, no matter how much support she got. Some of these comments had more than an edge of misogyny to them.

    Last year, I attended a Crown Office training weekend and Angiolini was a guest speaker. Sher was also on my table. Both her courtesy at the table and her speech gave me a very different impression and, I must say, a much more favourable one. She is a very serious and intelligent person. She is, so far, unique in retaining the post of Lord Advocate when there was a change of administration and I began to appreciate why. It would be very unfortunate if this perceptive report ended up gathering the same dust as all the others.

    Lessons Will Be Learned*

    I do not want lessons to be learned. I want several senior people to lose their jobs, and be unable to ever work in the police service, ever again. In any shape or form.

    image

    *May not include lessons. May not include learning. May not include Will. May not include anything except pathetic excuses.
    I completely agree. It is like the Post Office scandal. Until people are held directly accountable and their incompetence and wilful blindness has consequences things will continue as they always have.
    With your attitude, you obviously aren’t part of the NU10K. I assume you didn’t attend an English public school, Oxford or Cambridge.
  • DavidLDavidL Posts: 53,948

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    I wasn't sure about Angiolini when she was Lord Advocate in Scotland. There were, it has to be said, a lot of sniggers around Parliament House about her lack of actual court experience and the quality of her performances when she did appear, no matter how much support she got. Some of these comments had more than an edge of misogyny to them.

    Last year, I attended a Crown Office training weekend and Angiolini was a guest speaker. Sher was also on my table. Both her courtesy at the table and her speech gave me a very different impression and, I must say, a much more favourable one. She is a very serious and intelligent person. She is, so far, unique in retaining the post of Lord Advocate when there was a change of administration and I began to appreciate why. It would be very unfortunate if this perceptive report ended up gathering the same dust as all the others.

    Lessons Will Be Learned*

    I do not want lessons to be learned. I want several senior people to lose their jobs, and be unable to ever work in the police service, ever again. In any shape or form.

    image

    *May not include lessons. May not include learning. May not include Will. May not include anything except pathetic excuses.
    I completely agree. It is like the Post Office scandal. Until people are held directly accountable and their incompetence and wilful blindness has consequences things will continue as they always have.
    With your attitude, you obviously aren’t part of the NU10K. I assume you didn’t attend an English public school, Oxford or Cambridge.
    Sob, all true. I did attend a minor public school in Scotland for a couple of years but that clearly was not enough.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,711

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    I wasn't sure about Angiolini when she was Lord Advocate in Scotland. There were, it has to be said, a lot of sniggers around Parliament House about her lack of actual court experience and the quality of her performances when she did appear, no matter how much support she got. Some of these comments had more than an edge of misogyny to them.

    Last year, I attended a Crown Office training weekend and Angiolini was a guest speaker. Sher was also on my table. Both her courtesy at the table and her speech gave me a very different impression and, I must say, a much more favourable one. She is a very serious and intelligent person. She is, so far, unique in retaining the post of Lord Advocate when there was a change of administration and I began to appreciate why. It would be very unfortunate if this perceptive report ended up gathering the same dust as all the others.

    Lessons Will Be Learned*

    I do not want lessons to be learned. I want several senior people to lose their jobs, and be unable to ever work in the police service, ever again. In any shape or form.

    image

    *May not include lessons. May not include learning. May not include Will. May not include anything except pathetic excuses.
    I completely agree. It is like the Post Office scandal. Until people are held directly accountable and their incompetence and wilful blindness has consequences things will continue as they always have.
    With your attitude, you obviously aren’t part of the NU10K. I assume you didn’t attend an English public school, Oxford or Cambridge.
    Most of the NU10K didn't attend an English public school, either. That's Old10K

    We have incompetence and wilful blindness drawn from a wider range of social backgrounds, now
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 38,938
    DavidL said:

    Cyclefree said:

    One little tidbit in the report intrigued me.

    Couzens could speak almost fluent Russian. He also had chaotically poor and unmanaged finances and persistent indebtedness, a fact which alone should have prevented him being hired - because of the risk of blackmail and the stress it places on a person - and yet the Civil Nuclear Constabulary still hired him.

    Then though one of his reasons for joining the Met was to become a detective he applied to become a Diplomatic Protection Squad member.

    Did no-one in the police worry about such a person being a target for a hostile foreign state actor?

    Tangentially this makes you wonder about the bloody point of DBS checks?

    Rapists are likely to have avoided justice because the Metropolitan Police has been routinely failing to record basic details about sex offenders and their victims, despite repeatedly being told by regulators that its methods are failing women and girls.

    Scotland Yard has been forced by The Times to disclose a highly critical internal report detailing its failures to prevent violence against women and girls after a 14-month legal battle.

    These key details, which may help to identify similarities between offences and better link suspects to crimes, could have helped investigators bring violent criminals to justice by establishing patterns of offending.

    The 2022 document commissioned after the murder of Sarah Everard shows that for 356 serious sexual offences reported the previous year — 7 per cent of all crimes recorded — officers did not record detailed information about the reported sex offence which could have helped to identify any trends or linked attacks.

    Officers regularly failed to properly record details of suspects, which meant they could not easily be identified by other investigators. In thousands of cases the relationship between victim and offender was not recorded on police computer systems.


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/met-police-report-failed-sex-offenders-basic-details-wmtml2h9m
    I had a rape trial earlier this year which did not result in a conviction. A major reason for this (apart from my ineptitude, natch) was that an Initial Briefing Report had been prepared by an Officer when he (and the "he" was significant) had gone to see a complainer alone who allegedly agreed with him that no crime had been committed.

    When the accused was under investigation for a series of offences from a series of relationships the complainer was visited by a female officer and had no problem telling her what had happened. The Initial Briefing report of this Officer, however, was presented as a prior inconsistent statement by her and the change of position was used by the defence (understandably) as evidence that the inquiry which had produced the charges was something of a witch hunt.

    It was a deeply frustrating experience which frankly made me wonder how many other prosecutions, actual and potential, this officer had blighted.
    It also makes me wonder about that officer's own personal behaviour towards women if he's spending time convincing them that they weren't raped.
  • GIN1138GIN1138 Posts: 22,321

    @rcs1000 are you able to advise site users on the 'anonymous likes' situation please? 👍

    I've given you a LIKE just so you know! :D
  • londonpubmanlondonpubman Posts: 3,639
    GIN1138 said:

    @rcs1000 are you able to advise site users on the 'anonymous likes' situation please? 👍

    I've given you a LIKE just so you know! :D
    Reciprocated 👍
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,660
    FPT

    Alcohol is pretty much everyone’s favourite drug.

    As @Leon says: delicious, reliable, soothing.

    And that is, in good part, the problem.
  • TazTaz Posts: 14,656


    Will Hutton
    @williamnhutton
    ·
    1h
    Anybody who seriously thinks the fate of the UK economy hangs on 2 p off National Insurance or 1 p off the standard rate of income tax needs medical help. The whole debate is pathetic- a condemnation of how the Westminster and media village are in thrall to Treasury bookkeeping

    https://twitter.com/williamnhutton/status/1765108755987857567

    Why would they need medical help and what would that help be ?

  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,660
    Whatever tax cuts Hunt delivers, Rachel will keep them. She’ll find other ways to raise the cash: freezing the thresholds being one such mechanism. Don’t expect much in the way of scrutiny in that regard from the media.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,711
    DavidL said:

    tyson said:

    I've been back now in frontline hardcore social work now for six years since my long sabbatical in Italy...I've not encountered one diversity officer, been invited to a single diversity training event, or been advised on anything diversity related....

    I have though witnessed just how committed my colleagues are in dealing with just what we deal with....and which is becoming worse...

    I don't even speak to my wife about what happens during my working day because it is so remorselessly depressing...drugs, mental health, self harming, homelessness, poverty, violence, and abuse.....rinse and repeat....

    Someone brought up WFH as a productivity issue....I logged in a couple of weeks ago at 2.00 in the morning...and I could see that 3 of my colleagues (in a small team) were logged in.

    If we get hit with more cuts I cannot see how our job is at all sustainable. I feel so sorry for the young social workers now just starting, all with student debts. And you have the likes of Hunt telling us that the problems with Councils is spending on diversity. I would imagine that at some point he will look himself in the mirror and feel utterly ashamed.

    An extremely powerful contribution. It was me that raised WFH and that is based upon my experience in the Crown Office and my daughter's experience in the NHS. I do think in many areas it is a problem, not least for managers, but it takes nothing away from the dedication you are your colleagues are showing.
    WFH is like many other things - done well, it works. Done badly, it is a disaster.

    It requires the right management techniques, equipment and team structure.

    "Here's a laptop, go home" is to working from home what "have no stock" is to inventory control & management.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,965

    Whatever tax cuts Hunt delivers, Rachel will keep them. She’ll find other ways to raise the cash: freezing the thresholds being one such mechanism. Don’t expect much in the way of scrutiny in that regard from the media.

    She could sort out CGT for one.

    But she has stupidly ruled that out already.
  • CarnyxCarnyx Posts: 43,118

    DavidL said:

    I wasn't sure about Angiolini when she was Lord Advocate in Scotland. There were, it has to be said, a lot of sniggers around Parliament House about her lack of actual court experience and the quality of her performances when she did appear, no matter how much support she got. Some of these comments had more than an edge of misogyny to them.

    Last year, I attended a Crown Office training weekend and Angiolini was a guest speaker. Sher was also on my table. Both her courtesy at the table and her speech gave me a very different impression and, I must say, a much more favourable one. She is a very serious and intelligent person. She is, so far, unique in retaining the post of Lord Advocate when there was a change of administration and I began to appreciate why. It would be very unfortunate if this perceptive report ended up gathering the same dust as all the others.

    Lessons Will Be Learned*

    I do not want lessons to be learned. I want several senior people to lose their jobs, and be unable to ever work in the police service, ever again. In any shape or form.

    image

    *May not include lessons. May not include learning. May not include Will. May not include anything except pathetic excuses.
    Byng was given an impossible job, though perhaps no more than many other leaders. But are you going from Wiki, I wonder?

    'Byng's perceived failure to relieve the garrison at Minorca caused public outrage among fellow officers and the country at large.[26][27] Byng was brought home to be tried by court-martial for breach of the Articles of War which had been revised eleven years prior to mandate capital punishment for officers who did not do their utmost against the enemy, either in battle or pursuit.[28]

    The revision followed an event in 1745 during the War of the Austrian Succession, when a young lieutenant named Baker Phillips had been court-martialled and shot after his ship was captured by the French. His captain had done nothing in order to prepare the vessel for action and was killed almost immediately by a broadside. Taking command, the inexperienced junior officer had been forced to surrender the ship when she could no longer be defended.[28] The negligent behaviour of Phillips's captain was noted by the subsequent court-martial and a recommendation for mercy was entered,[29] but Phillips's sentence was approved by the Lords Justices of Appeal.[30]

    This sentence angered some in parliament, who felt that an officer of higher rank would likely have been spared or else given a lighter punishment and that Phillips had been executed because he had been a powerless junior officer and thus a useful scapegoat. The Articles of War were amended to become one law for all: the death penalty for any officer of any rank who did not do his utmost against the enemy in battle or pursuit.[28] '
  • MaxPBMaxPB Posts: 38,938
    Here's a time sink that I recently learned about. My sister works for a major university in London and she's attempting to recruit a junior to mid level finance analyst in her division. They had 143 applications for the job and because of some insane rules she has to read every single application to give feedback on why they're unsuitable. It's taken her hours and hours to do it and she's said she found the person she wanted by the 5th application, set up the interview and is moving to offer stage. Yet due to the odd rules of the public sector she couldn't shut the process down until the originally stated date and she can't just reply to the rest saying the job has been filled already.

    As someone who has hired many, many people the thought of having to reply to every applicant would make me never bother with it. One of the jobs we put out there "Junior Investment Analyst -no degree required" had over 500 applications just from one partner. We used a machine learning sorting system to get through it, iirc by the end of the week there were something like 2000 applications across all partners.
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,711
    Carnyx said:

    DavidL said:

    I wasn't sure about Angiolini when she was Lord Advocate in Scotland. There were, it has to be said, a lot of sniggers around Parliament House about her lack of actual court experience and the quality of her performances when she did appear, no matter how much support she got. Some of these comments had more than an edge of misogyny to them.

    Last year, I attended a Crown Office training weekend and Angiolini was a guest speaker. Sher was also on my table. Both her courtesy at the table and her speech gave me a very different impression and, I must say, a much more favourable one. She is a very serious and intelligent person. She is, so far, unique in retaining the post of Lord Advocate when there was a change of administration and I began to appreciate why. It would be very unfortunate if this perceptive report ended up gathering the same dust as all the others.

    Lessons Will Be Learned*

    I do not want lessons to be learned. I want several senior people to lose their jobs, and be unable to ever work in the police service, ever again. In any shape or form.

    image

    *May not include lessons. May not include learning. May not include Will. May not include anything except pathetic excuses.
    Byng was given an impossible job, though perhaps no more than many other leaders. But are you going from Wiki, I wonder?

    'Byng's perceived failure to relieve the garrison at Minorca caused public outrage among fellow officers and the country at large.[26][27] Byng was brought home to be tried by court-martial for breach of the Articles of War which had been revised eleven years prior to mandate capital punishment for officers who did not do their utmost against the enemy, either in battle or pursuit.[28]

    The revision followed an event in 1745 during the War of the Austrian Succession, when a young lieutenant named Baker Phillips had been court-martialled and shot after his ship was captured by the French. His captain had done nothing in order to prepare the vessel for action and was killed almost immediately by a broadside. Taking command, the inexperienced junior officer had been forced to surrender the ship when she could no longer be defended.[28] The negligent behaviour of Phillips's captain was noted by the subsequent court-martial and a recommendation for mercy was entered,[29] but Phillips's sentence was approved by the Lords Justices of Appeal.[30]

    This sentence angered some in parliament, who felt that an officer of higher rank would likely have been spared or else given a lighter punishment and that Phillips had been executed because he had been a powerless junior officer and thus a useful scapegoat. The Articles of War were amended to become one law for all: the death penalty for any officer of any rank who did not do his utmost against the enemy in battle or pursuit.[28] '
    If you want the big bucks, then you should take on big responsibility.

    The result of the Byng affair was that senior officers felt their necks were on the line. The resulting “we always attack” attitude probably saved lives and won many battles.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,660

    Whatever tax cuts Hunt delivers, Rachel will keep them. She’ll find other ways to raise the cash: freezing the thresholds being one such mechanism. Don’t expect much in the way of scrutiny in that regard from the media.

    She could sort out CGT for one.

    But she has stupidly ruled that out already.
    She is not going to go into an election committed to raising any particular tax. She would be stupid to do so, in fact, as it just gives the Tories a free hit. She can find other ways of raising the money once inside No. 11, when she has looked at the books.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 51,977
    edited March 5
    The Republicans look to have the presidential election in the bag

    image
    image

    https://x.com/iapolls2022/status/1765138976405409839
  • pigeonpigeon Posts: 4,839
    tyson said:

    I've been back now in frontline hardcore social work now for six years since my long sabbatical in Italy...I've not encountered one diversity officer, been invited to a single diversity training event, or been advised on anything diversity related....

    I have though witnessed just how committed my colleagues are in dealing with just what we deal with....and which is becoming worse...

    I don't even speak to my wife about what happens during my working day because it is so remorselessly depressing...drugs, mental health, self harming, homelessness, poverty, violence, and abuse.....rinse and repeat....

    Someone brought up WFH as a productivity issue....I logged in a couple of weeks ago at 2.00 in the morning...and I could see that 3 of my colleagues (in a small team) were logged in.

    If we get hit with more cuts I cannot see how our job is at all sustainable. I feel so sorry for the young social workers now just starting, all with student debts. And you have the likes of Hunt telling us that the problems with Councils is spending on diversity. I would imagine that at some point he will look himself in the mirror and feel utterly ashamed.

    Being a Government minister - possibly full stop, but certainly as part of the present administration - is a position mutually exclusive with any concept of shame. And doubtless once the gentleman has departed office he will enjoy his vast fortune, free both of conscience and any significant burden of taxation thereon. Obligations and austerity are both for the little people.

    As for council spending, I recall one council leader retorting that virtually nothing is spent on diversity (not exactly a surprise when most other forms of expenditure have been hacked back so much to try to cope with social care that your typical upper tier authority transport department probably consists of little more than two blokes in a beat up old van, riding around filling a small selection of the myriad potholes with a bucket of black gloop,) and that spending on consultants is mainly a product of councils having to fight one another for various pots of cash that get doled out by Whitehall departments administering ministerial vanity projects.
    .
    Councils and their supposed profligacy are simply one more scapegoat to be used to mask the incompetence of central Government; the inconvenient truth is that all the well run councils are going down the toilet like the problem cases are, only at a slower rate. One would hope that the next administration would reform their finances and rescue them before they begin failing in really large numbers, but the likely reality is that Labour ministers will enjoy using them as human shields for their own total uselessness in the same manner as their Tory counterparts do at the moment. It's just that they'll doubtless choose to highlight the failure of Conservative shire councils rather than Labour urban ones when they want to score cheap points. It's as predictable as it is pathetic. These people are all the same, really.
  • SelebianSelebian Posts: 8,806
    edited March 5
    MaxPB said:

    Here's a time sink that I recently learned about. My sister works for a major university in London and she's attempting to recruit a junior to mid level finance analyst in her division. They had 143 applications for the job and because of some insane rules she has to read every single application to give feedback on why they're unsuitable. It's taken her hours and hours to do it and she's said she found the person she wanted by the 5th application, set up the interview and is moving to offer stage. Yet due to the odd rules of the public sector she couldn't shut the process down until the originally stated date and she can't just reply to the rest saying the job has been filled already.

    As someone who has hired many, many people the thought of having to reply to every applicant would make me never bother with it. One of the jobs we put out there "Junior Investment Analyst -no degree required" had over 500 applications just from one partner. We used a machine learning sorting system to get through it, iirc by the end of the week there were something like 2000 applications across all partners.

    We don't respond to all applications at my university, but all are read by someone (not necessarily in full - you can screen them out as soon as you can see not suitable). Online system and HR or an automated process informs those rejected.

    Some academics give feedback to all interviewees, but not all - I normally say they can ask for if they like. If someone was particularly good and I would like to hire them in future I let them know.

    ETA: As rottenborough says, we don't tend to look at applications until after the closing date, although we are able to. Shortlisting is always after the closing date.
  • rottenboroughrottenborough Posts: 62,965
    MaxPB said:

    Here's a time sink that I recently learned about. My sister works for a major university in London and she's attempting to recruit a junior to mid level finance analyst in her division. They had 143 applications for the job and because of some insane rules she has to read every single application to give feedback on why they're unsuitable. It's taken her hours and hours to do it and she's said she found the person she wanted by the 5th application, set up the interview and is moving to offer stage. Yet due to the odd rules of the public sector she couldn't shut the process down until the originally stated date and she can't just reply to the rest saying the job has been filled already.

    As someone who has hired many, many people the thought of having to reply to every applicant would make me never bother with it. One of the jobs we put out there "Junior Investment Analyst -no degree required" had over 500 applications just from one partner. We used a machine learning sorting system to get through it, iirc by the end of the week there were something like 2000 applications across all partners.

    It is ludicrous she has to respond to every applicant.

    I worked at a uni and had similar numbers applying for jobs but no need to give any feedback except for internal applications and then only after interview stage. I think at actual interview HR person made some notes on each interview and they were able to feed back when they told them the result.

    However we were not given the applications and CVs until the day after the closing of applications so there was no advanced picking and no advantage to getting an application in early. This sounds bad policy if to me that your sisters place allows that.

    Twenty years ago though and the world has changed.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,660

    The Republicans look to have the presidential election in the bag

    image

    https://x.com/iapolls2022/status/1765138976405409839

    Who are you supporting for the presidency?

    (I know you don’t have a vote, but if you did, for whom would you vote?)
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,765
    edited March 5
    FPT:

    kle4 said:

    TimS said:

    .

    DavidL said:

    One of the multitude of reasons that I think that May is a non starter for an election is that the economy seems to be recovering rather well from its technical recession last year (which I expect to be revised away long after this government is burnt toast). Services continued to grow strongly in February with new orders particularly strong. A few months of that will paint a much better picture than the government could demonstrate right now. Technical recession or not, growth last year was truly abysmal.

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/newslondon/uk-economy-turned-a-corner-as-service-industry-continued-growth-in-february/ar-BB1jlSHN?ocid=msedgntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=40057517a8ee4e149b7af75fa4f0fac9&ei=19

    Why would the Tories want to give Labour a flying start? Why would they want to deny themselves a sliver of good news along with all the crud they have delivered?

    But is it just a "technical recovery?"
    My company thinks the economic situation is overblown and we will return to 1.8-1.9% GDP growth next year, and over 2% in London and the SE.

    This isn't enough but it's much better than what we've had recently.
    It feels that way. Activity is cautiously on the up across most of the economy.
    People anticipating a Labour government and the return to economic competence ;-)
    I think that's Trump's line about stronger growth in the US.
    Thanks, that's spoiled it for me.

    Which reminds me has anyone listened to Anthony Saramucci eviscerating Trump on the Campbell and Stewart podcast Leading?

    He's brilliant.
    Did Scaramouche (sp) happen to mention WHY he signed on with Trump (for 15 minutes or thereabouts) in the first place?

    Other than wanting to set himself up as a semi-celebrity and media-monger, that is?

    For me, he's in same ring as Chris Christie . . . except that he's a lightweight compared (even) to the Jersey Big Boy.
    He (Scaramucci) said it was his own inflated ego that caused him to sign on for Trump.

    He's also confident Trump won't be re-elected and explains why. Worth a listen

    https://open.spotify.com/episode/4MkZdVG2pZ3Pzir8wp0X7q?si=Kd2Ytj1-SC2eQAiJMCHYSA
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,351
    edited March 5

    Whatever tax cuts Hunt delivers, Rachel will keep them. She’ll find other ways to raise the cash: freezing the thresholds being one such mechanism. Don’t expect much in the way of scrutiny in that regard from the media.

    They're already frozen to 2028; it's the only way Hunt could make the graph (eventually) go the right way.
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    NYT live blog - In North Carolina, this is the first statewide primary where a contentious photo ID law is in effect — it was upheld last year by the Republican-controlled state Supreme Court. The state Board of Elections recently sent voters a postcard reminding them to bring their driver’s license or other approved photo IDs with them to the polls. Voters who don’t have an ID must fill out a provisional ballot and a form explaining why they don’t have it or can return with their ID before a county canvass.
  • Scott_xPScott_xP Posts: 36,050
    ...
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,660

    Whatever tax cuts Hunt delivers, Rachel will keep them. She’ll find other ways to raise the cash: freezing the thresholds being one such mechanism. Don’t expect much in the way of scrutiny in that regard from the media.

    They're already frozen to 2028; it's the only way Hunt could make the graph (eventually) go the right way.
    Sure, but my point is there are ways and means of raising the money.
  • williamglennwilliamglenn Posts: 51,977

    The Republicans look to have the presidential election in the bag

    image

    https://x.com/iapolls2022/status/1765138976405409839

    Who are you supporting for the presidency?

    (I know you don’t have a vote, but if you did, for whom would you vote?)
    I think you have to take seriously the view of our greatest living Prime Minister Liz Truss which makes it hard to vote against Trump.
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,340
    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    I wasn't sure about Angiolini when she was Lord Advocate in Scotland. There were, it has to be said, a lot of sniggers around Parliament House about her lack of actual court experience and the quality of her performances when she did appear, no matter how much support she got. Some of these comments had more than an edge of misogyny to them.

    Last year, I attended a Crown Office training weekend and Angiolini was a guest speaker. Sher was also on my table. Both her courtesy at the table and her speech gave me a very different impression and, I must say, a much more favourable one. She is a very serious and intelligent person. She is, so far, unique in retaining the post of Lord Advocate when there was a change of administration and I began to appreciate why. It would be very unfortunate if this perceptive report ended up gathering the same dust as all the others.

    Lessons Will Be Learned*

    I do not want lessons to be learned. I want several senior people to lose their jobs, and be unable to ever work in the police service, ever again. In any shape or form.

    image

    *May not include lessons. May not include learning. May not include Will. May not include anything except pathetic excuses.
    I completely agree. It is like the Post Office scandal. Until people are held directly accountable and their incompetence and wilful blindness has consequences things will continue as they always have.
    The idea that any kind of real consequence for failure and/or incompetence is unreasonable or disproportionate is bizarrely widespread.

    Along with the old chestbut of not going looking for problems in case you find them.

    But people and systems can be very good at saying the right things paying on lip service to appropriate standards, hence the absolute joke that 'lessons will be learned' has become. People know they should learn lessons, so they say they do, even when usually there's no will.
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,318
    I am sorry to disappoint @DavidL but the Angiolini Report will almost certainly be ignored.

    Just as the IICSA Final Report & its recommendations were ostentatiously ignored by the government. As we know - from yet another report - the Met's behaviour in relation to child abuse is as bad as its behaviour to women.

    Some recent examples:

    1. On 1 March a 29 year old doctor working in a Warwickshire hospital, who had pleaded guilty to 3 counts of making indecent images of children, was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment, suspended for 2 years. He was in possession of more than 50 images, over half in the most extreme category, some of children as young as 5. He also searched for such images.

    February

    2. A Derbyshire teacher aged 44, found guilty of two counts of rape of an under-age girl pupil he groomed while in a position of trust, was given a 1-year sentence, suspended for 2 years.

    3. A 21 year old actor who downloaded 848 child abuse images, 165 in the worst category, was told this by the judge:

    The images I have seen are sickening. Each of them is a real child being abused for the pleasure of someone like you watching. It is made worse because of the number of them – there were 848 indecent images – and it is made worse by the length of time you were doing it. You told the probation officer you do not have a sexual interest in children. I don’t accept that.

    Despite these strong words, he was given an 8 month sentence, suspended for 2 years. He had been downloading such images since he was 17.

    4. A 43-year old man in Warrington convicted of 4 offences of attempting to communicate with a child, possession of child porn & extreme pornography was given an 18 months sentence, suspended for 2 years. Defence counsel argued in mitigation that: “He has perhaps had more than his fair share of problems in his life to overcome.” (This seems to have related to problems with alcohol though since he was also in full-time good employment, it is not entirely clear why these justified such a light sentence, especially as the judge commented that he was in denial about his activities, his sexual interest in children & had not truly shown remorse.) Never mind. He too left court.

    5. A 39 year old Stoke man with 78 indecent images of children (described as “disgusting”) was convicted of 3 charges of making indecent images of children, possession of extreme pornography & prohibited images & given a 3-year community order because he had shown remorse despite, once again, the judge pointing out: “These are real children suffering disgraceful, horrible behaviour committed on them by adults.

    6. A 75 year old Dundee banker convicted of having thousands of child abuse images was given a suspended sentence though had his access to the internet restricted.

    8. A 71 year old man in Worcester, convicted of having child abuse images for the second time was given a community order.

    I could go on.


  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,340

    The Republicans look to have the presidential election in the bag

    image

    https://x.com/iapolls2022/status/1765138976405409839

    Who are you supporting for the presidency?

    (I know you don’t have a vote, but if you did, for whom would you vote?)
    I think you have to take seriously the view of our greatest living Prime Minister Liz Truss which makes it hard to vote against Trump.
    It's a quality bunch to pick from

  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,351

    Whatever tax cuts Hunt delivers, Rachel will keep them. She’ll find other ways to raise the cash: freezing the thresholds being one such mechanism. Don’t expect much in the way of scrutiny in that regard from the media.

    They're already frozen to 2028; it's the only way Hunt could make the graph (eventually) go the right way.
    Sure, but my point is there are ways and means of raising the money.
    There are, but this government has already found and spent quite a lot of them, going pretty much up to the election after this one.

    Which is why their "ooh look at our super tax cuts vote for us" spiel is so vomit inducing.
  • dixiedeandixiedean Posts: 29,423
    MaxPB said:

    Here's a time sink that I recently learned about. My sister works for a major university in London and she's attempting to recruit a junior to mid level finance analyst in her division. They had 143 applications for the job and because of some insane rules she has to read every single application to give feedback on why they're unsuitable. It's taken her hours and hours to do it and she's said she found the person she wanted by the 5th application, set up the interview and is moving to offer stage. Yet due to the odd rules of the public sector she couldn't shut the process down until the originally stated date and she can't just reply to the rest saying the job has been filled already.

    As someone who has hired many, many people the thought of having to reply to every applicant would make me never bother with it. One of the jobs we put out there "Junior Investment Analyst -no degree required" had over 500 applications just from one partner. We used a machine learning sorting system to get through it, iirc by the end of the week there were something like 2000 applications across all partners.

    If she's decided who she wants, why the need for an interview?
  • kle4kle4 Posts: 96,340
    HYUFD said:

    Three quarters of Tory members want Hunt to prioritise increased defence spending over tax cuts

    "Our survey. Three-quarters of Conservative members back defence spending over tax cuts in the Budget. | Conservative Home" https://conservativehome.com/2024/03/05/our-survey-three-quarters-of-conservative-members-back-defence-spending-over-tax-cuts-in-the-budget/

    But the Tory media is yelling at him to do tax cuts all the time. And those members will probably moan if they don't get tax cuts even if they say they prioritise defence over them. If actually done the gratitude for doing the former would not outweigh the desire for the latter.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,660

    The Republicans look to have the presidential election in the bag

    image

    https://x.com/iapolls2022/status/1765138976405409839

    Who are you supporting for the presidency?

    (I know you don’t have a vote, but if you did, for whom would you vote?)
    I think you have to take seriously the view of our greatest living Prime Minister Liz Truss which makes it hard to vote against Trump.
    Yes, I did suspect that the Truss Update (3.12) rather commits you to it William. See also: Marine La Pen and Victor Orban.
  • SeaShantyIrish2SeaShantyIrish2 Posts: 17,559
    kle4 said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    I wasn't sure about Angiolini when she was Lord Advocate in Scotland. There were, it has to be said, a lot of sniggers around Parliament House about her lack of actual court experience and the quality of her performances when she did appear, no matter how much support she got. Some of these comments had more than an edge of misogyny to them.

    Last year, I attended a Crown Office training weekend and Angiolini was a guest speaker. Sher was also on my table. Both her courtesy at the table and her speech gave me a very different impression and, I must say, a much more favourable one. She is a very serious and intelligent person. She is, so far, unique in retaining the post of Lord Advocate when there was a change of administration and I began to appreciate why. It would be very unfortunate if this perceptive report ended up gathering the same dust as all the others.

    Lessons Will Be Learned*

    I do not want lessons to be learned. I want several senior people to lose their jobs, and be unable to ever work in the police service, ever again. In any shape or form.

    image

    *May not include lessons. May not include learning. May not include Will. May not include anything except pathetic excuses.
    I completely agree. It is like the Post Office scandal. Until people are held directly accountable and their incompetence and wilful blindness has consequences things will continue as they always have.
    The idea that any kind of real consequence for failure and/or incompetence is unreasonable or disproportionate is bizarrely widespread.

    Along with the old chestbut of not going looking for problems in case you find them.

    But people and systems can be very good at saying the right things paying on lip service to appropriate standards, hence the absolute joke that 'lessons will be learned' has become. People know they should learn lessons, so they say they do, even when usually there's no will.
    We incompetents stick together, by instinct. Incompetently, obviously, but that's a given.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,660

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/05/uk-science-minister-michelle-donelan-apologises-and-pays-damages-after-academics-libel-action

    I think this story more or less sums up the government. A minister, picking up on some half arsed nonsense from one of its client right wing AstroTurf outfits, casually libels a couple of academics in the name of owning the Libz. And then when they sue her for defamation the taxpayer is somehow on the hook for the resulting damages. While she somehow keeps her job. Please, in the Name of God, can these clowns just go?

    I think the similar aphorism “Go, and go now” is also appropriate here.
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,318
    edited March 5
    Cyclefree said:

    I am sorry to disappoint @DavidL but the Angiolini Report will almost certainly be ignored.

    Just as the IICSA Final Report & its recommendations were ostentatiously ignored by the government. As we know - from yet another report - the Met's behaviour in relation to child abuse is as bad as its behaviour to women.

    Some recent examples:

    1. On 1 March a 29 year old doctor working in a Warwickshire hospital, who had pleaded guilty to 3 counts of making indecent images of children, was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment, suspended for 2 years. He was in possession of more than 50 images, over half in the most extreme category, some of children as young as 5. He also searched for such images.

    February

    2. A Derbyshire teacher aged 44, found guilty of two counts of rape of an under-age girl pupil he groomed while in a position of trust, was given a 1-year sentence, suspended for 2 years.

    3. A 21 year old actor who downloaded 848 child abuse images, 165 in the worst category, was told this by the judge:

    The images I have seen are sickening. Each of them is a real child being abused for the pleasure of someone like you watching. It is made worse because of the number of them – there were 848 indecent images – and it is made worse by the length of time you were doing it. You told the probation officer you do not have a sexual interest in children. I don’t accept that.

    Despite these strong words, he was given an 8 month sentence, suspended for 2 years. He had been downloading such images since he was 17.

    4. A 43-year old man in Warrington convicted of 4 offences of attempting to communicate with a child, possession of child porn & extreme pornography was given an 18 months sentence, suspended for 2 years. Defence counsel argued in mitigation that: “He has perhaps had more than his fair share of problems in his life to overcome.” (This seems to have related to problems with alcohol though since he was also in full-time good employment, it is not entirely clear why these justified such a light sentence, especially as the judge commented that he was in denial about his activities, his sexual interest in children & had not truly shown remorse.) Never mind. He too left court.

    5. A 39 year old Stoke man with 78 indecent images of children (described as “disgusting”) was convicted of 3 charges of making indecent images of children, possession of extreme pornography & prohibited images & given a 3-year community order because he had shown remorse despite, once again, the judge pointing out: “These are real children suffering disgraceful, horrible behaviour committed on them by adults.

    6. A 75 year old Dundee banker convicted of having thousands of child abuse images was given a suspended sentence though had his access to the internet restricted.

    8. A 71 year old man in Worcester, convicted of having child abuse images for the second time was given a community order.

    I could go on.


    We do not take child abuse seriously. We do not treat the men who view child abuse images seriously. We give them a suspended sentence and they walk free from court. Then we are horrified when men like these abuse children and, often, women.

    It takes years to catch these men and bring them to court: the average time in the cases listed above was 2 years. Probably the lack of prison places is one reason sentences are suspended. We don't want to fund the criminal justice system or the prison system properly. Nor do we know whether any of the classes on Why Sex Offences Are A Bad Thing they are required to go to work.

    Help for the victims is patchy at best. Social workers as @tyson describes above are overstretched.

    Still, 2p off NI, eh!

    And to answer the question in my own header, as Tom Little KC said in the programme, the position for women since the time of Sarah's death has got worse. And not just because of the police.

  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,351

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/05/uk-science-minister-michelle-donelan-apologises-and-pays-damages-after-academics-libel-action

    I think this story more or less sums up the government. A minister, picking up on some half arsed nonsense from one of its client right wing AstroTurf outfits, casually libels a couple of academics in the name of owning the Libz. And then when they sue her for defamation the taxpayer is somehow on the hook for the resulting damages. While she somehow keeps her job. Please, in the Name of God, can these clowns just go?

    What? The government is paying the costs?

    Da fucq?
  • MalmesburyMalmesbury Posts: 50,711
    kle4 said:

    DavidL said:

    DavidL said:

    I wasn't sure about Angiolini when she was Lord Advocate in Scotland. There were, it has to be said, a lot of sniggers around Parliament House about her lack of actual court experience and the quality of her performances when she did appear, no matter how much support she got. Some of these comments had more than an edge of misogyny to them.

    Last year, I attended a Crown Office training weekend and Angiolini was a guest speaker. Sher was also on my table. Both her courtesy at the table and her speech gave me a very different impression and, I must say, a much more favourable one. She is a very serious and intelligent person. She is, so far, unique in retaining the post of Lord Advocate when there was a change of administration and I began to appreciate why. It would be very unfortunate if this perceptive report ended up gathering the same dust as all the others.

    Lessons Will Be Learned*

    I do not want lessons to be learned. I want several senior people to lose their jobs, and be unable to ever work in the police service, ever again. In any shape or form.

    image

    *May not include lessons. May not include learning. May not include Will. May not include anything except pathetic excuses.
    I completely agree. It is like the Post Office scandal. Until people are held directly accountable and their incompetence and wilful blindness has consequences things will continue as they always have.
    The idea that any kind of real consequence for failure and/or incompetence is unreasonable or disproportionate is bizarrely widespread.

    Along with the old chestbut of not going looking for problems in case you find them.

    But people and systems can be very good at saying the right things paying on lip service to appropriate standards, hence the absolute joke that 'lessons will be learned' has become. People know they should learn lessons, so they say they do, even when usually there's no will.
    “The idea that any kind of real consequence for failure and/or incompetence is unreasonable or disproportionate is bizarrely widespread.”

    Nonsense

    The idea that any kind of real consequence for failure and/or incompetence is unreasonable or disproportionate, for those of a high position is bizarrely widespread.

    Fixed that for you
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,660

    Whatever tax cuts Hunt delivers, Rachel will keep them. She’ll find other ways to raise the cash: freezing the thresholds being one such mechanism. Don’t expect much in the way of scrutiny in that regard from the media.

    They're already frozen to 2028; it's the only way Hunt could make the graph (eventually) go the right way.
    Sure, but my point is there are ways and means of raising the money.
    There are, but this government has already found and spent quite a lot of them, going pretty much up to the election after this one.

    Which is why their "ooh look at our super tax cuts vote for us" spiel is so vomit inducing.
    Agreed, oh yes, fully agreed.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 59,979

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/05/uk-science-minister-michelle-donelan-apologises-and-pays-damages-after-academics-libel-action

    I think this story more or less sums up the government. A minister, picking up on some half arsed nonsense from one of its client right wing AstroTurf outfits, casually libels a couple of academics in the name of owning the Libz. And then when they sue her for defamation the taxpayer is somehow on the hook for the resulting damages. While she somehow keeps her job. Please, in the Name of God, can these clowns just go?

    What? The government is paying the costs?

    Da fucq?
    I assume she personally is, not the government.
  • pigeonpigeon Posts: 4,839

    Whatever tax cuts Hunt delivers, Rachel will keep them. She’ll find other ways to raise the cash: freezing the thresholds being one such mechanism. Don’t expect much in the way of scrutiny in that regard from the media.

    She could sort out CGT for one.

    But she has stupidly ruled that out already.
    She is not going to go into an election committed to raising any particular tax. She would be stupid to do so, in fact, as it just gives the Tories a free hit. She can find other ways of raising the money once inside No. 11, when she has looked at the books.
    And what do we think Reeves is going to find that will magically facilitate the restoration of the entire collapsing public realm, given that she has gone to pains to demonstrate her determination to leave virtually every existing major lever for raising revenue unpulled? Window Tax, or possibly Ship Money? Come off it!

    There are two possibilities: Labour is telling the truth and intends to implement more austerity rather than soaking the wealthy; or Labour intends to get elected on a total raft of lies, pretend that they were too thick to understand how bad things were before they got hold of the keys to the Treasury, and rip up their manifesto at some point in the first week after winning. Either course of action is liable to destroy any miniscule residuum of public faith in politicians, albeit for slightly different reasons (either the notion that Parliament doesn't give a shit about anyone but the rich, or that MPs lie about absolutely everything, having been definitively proven.) I'm not convinced that this will improve matters.
  • eekeek Posts: 28,465
    edited March 5
    pigeon said:

    Whatever tax cuts Hunt delivers, Rachel will keep them. She’ll find other ways to raise the cash: freezing the thresholds being one such mechanism. Don’t expect much in the way of scrutiny in that regard from the media.

    She could sort out CGT for one.

    But she has stupidly ruled that out already.
    She is not going to go into an election committed to raising any particular tax. She would be stupid to do so, in fact, as it just gives the Tories a free hit. She can find other ways of raising the money once inside No. 11, when she has looked at the books.
    And what do we think Reeves is going to find that will magically facilitate the restoration of the entire collapsing public realm, given that she has gone to pains to demonstrate her determination to leave virtually every existing major lever for raising revenue unpulled? Window Tax, or possibly Ship Money? Come off it!

    There are two possibilities: Labour is telling the truth and intends to implement more austerity rather than soaking the wealthy; or Labour intends to get elected on a total raft of lies, pretend that they were too thick to understand how bad things were before they got hold of the keys to the Treasury, and rip up their manifesto at some point in the first week after winning. Either course of action is liable to destroy any miniscule residuum of public faith in politicians, albeit for slightly different reasons (either the notion that Parliament doesn't give a shit about anyone but the rich, or that MPs lie about absolutely everything, having been definitively proven.) I'm not convinced that this will improve matters.
    It's likely to be the latter - because there is no way the current budget is built in anything beyond lies, statistics and utterly implausible budgetary and economic forecasts...

    Heck even the people I know at the Treasury don't believe there is any money to cover tomorrow's tax cuts...
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 52,010

    On topic - police culture featuring "vile behaviour and deeply abusive language" is certainly NOT limited to London or UK.

    For example

    ABC News - Investigation opened after Seattle officer heard joking about pedestrian's death
    https://abcnews.go.com/US/seattle-officer-joking-pedestrian-death/story?id=103130361

    After discussing whether she was in the crosswalk and how far she was thrown, [SPD Officer] Auderer [who investigated the incident shortly after it occured] says, "But she is dead," and laughs several seconds later.

    Toward the end of the 2 1/2-minute video, Auderer says, "Yeah, just write a check," followed by laughter.

    "Eleven thousand dollars. She was 26, anyway," he said, misstating Kandula's age. "She had limited value."

    SSI - Note that Officer Auderer is (or at least was back then) the vice president of the Seattle Police Guild (union).

    @SeaShantyIrish2

    I have a beautiful model from Seattle in my bedroom right now.
    Airfix?
    Not quite!


  • eekeek Posts: 28,465
    dixiedean said:

    MaxPB said:

    Here's a time sink that I recently learned about. My sister works for a major university in London and she's attempting to recruit a junior to mid level finance analyst in her division. They had 143 applications for the job and because of some insane rules she has to read every single application to give feedback on why they're unsuitable. It's taken her hours and hours to do it and she's said she found the person she wanted by the 5th application, set up the interview and is moving to offer stage. Yet due to the odd rules of the public sector she couldn't shut the process down until the originally stated date and she can't just reply to the rest saying the job has been filled already.

    As someone who has hired many, many people the thought of having to reply to every applicant would make me never bother with it. One of the jobs we put out there "Junior Investment Analyst -no degree required" had over 500 applications just from one partner. We used a machine learning sorting system to get through it, iirc by the end of the week there were something like 2000 applications across all partners.

    If she's decided who she wants, why the need for an interview?
    Sanity check she is the person they want and allow the interviewee to ask the questions they need before they decide it's the job for them...
  • Sunil_PrasannanSunil_Prasannan Posts: 52,010

    The Republicans look to have the presidential election in the bag

    image

    https://x.com/iapolls2022/status/1765138976405409839

    Who are you supporting for the presidency?

    (I know you don’t have a vote, but if you did, for whom would you vote?)
    I think you have to take seriously the view of our greatest living Prime Minister Liz Truss which makes it hard to vote against Trump.
    Yes, I did suspect that the Truss Update (3.12) rather commits you to it William. See also: Marine La Pen and Victor Orban.
    "The Hungarians have always been poseurs."
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,839
    RobD said:

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/05/uk-science-minister-michelle-donelan-apologises-and-pays-damages-after-academics-libel-action

    I think this story more or less sums up the government. A minister, picking up on some half arsed nonsense from one of its client right wing AstroTurf outfits, casually libels a couple of academics in the name of owning the Libz. And then when they sue her for defamation the taxpayer is somehow on the hook for the resulting damages. While she somehow keeps her job. Please, in the Name of God, can these clowns just go?

    What? The government is paying the costs?

    Da fucq?
    I assume she personally is, not the government.
    No the government, ie you and me, are paying.

    From the article:

    "Donelan’s department said that it had paid the damages and legal costs when asked who had done so, adding: “This was subject to all the usual cross-government processes and aims to reduce the overall costs to the taxpayer that could result from protracted legal action.”

    A No 10 source said Rishi Sunak had full confidence in Donelan, calling her “an excellent minister”."
  • kle4 said:

    The Republicans look to have the presidential election in the bag

    image

    https://x.com/iapolls2022/status/1765138976405409839

    Who are you supporting for the presidency?

    (I know you don’t have a vote, but if you did, for whom would you vote?)
    I think you have to take seriously the view of our greatest living Prime Minister Liz Truss which makes it hard to vote against Trump.
    It's a quality bunch to pick from

    Well all of our living ex prime ministers are younger than Biden.

    Perhaps Sir John Major should become prime minister again?
  • OnlyLivingBoyOnlyLivingBoy Posts: 15,839

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/05/uk-science-minister-michelle-donelan-apologises-and-pays-damages-after-academics-libel-action

    I think this story more or less sums up the government. A minister, picking up on some half arsed nonsense from one of its client right wing AstroTurf outfits, casually libels a couple of academics in the name of owning the Libz. And then when they sue her for defamation the taxpayer is somehow on the hook for the resulting damages. While she somehow keeps her job. Please, in the Name of God, can these clowns just go?

    What? The government is paying the costs?

    Da fucq?
    Indeed.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,765
    pigeon said:

    Whatever tax cuts Hunt delivers, Rachel will keep them. She’ll find other ways to raise the cash: freezing the thresholds being one such mechanism. Don’t expect much in the way of scrutiny in that regard from the media.

    She could sort out CGT for one.

    But she has stupidly ruled that out already.
    She is not going to go into an election committed to raising any particular tax. She would be stupid to do so, in fact, as it just gives the Tories a free hit. She can find other ways of raising the money once inside No. 11, when she has looked at the books.
    And what do we think Reeves is going to find that will magically facilitate the restoration of the entire collapsing public realm, given that she has gone to pains to demonstrate her determination to leave virtually every existing major lever for raising revenue unpulled? Window Tax, or possibly Ship Money? Come off it!

    There are two possibilities: Labour is telling the truth and intends to implement more austerity rather than soaking the wealthy; or Labour intends to get elected on a total raft of lies, pretend that they were too thick to understand how bad things were before they got hold of the keys to the Treasury, and rip up their manifesto at some point in the first week after winning. Either course of action is liable to destroy any miniscule residuum of public faith in politicians, albeit for slightly different reasons (either the notion that Parliament doesn't give a shit about anyone but the rich, or that MPs lie about absolutely everything, having been definitively proven.) I'm not convinced that this will improve matters.
    As far as I know they've not ruled out extending NI to all income. There are plenty of other changes they could make to raise more revenue without breaching their stated positions.

    In any event, they will most certainly will get a free pass in the early months using the line "now we have seen first hand the terrible state of public finances".

    If you don't like that idea, don't vote for Labour, but the Tories are the unchallenged masters of breaching their own manifesto.
  • ohnotnowohnotnow Posts: 3,893

    Will it be any different in a year or two from now?
    No.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,765

    On topic - police culture featuring "vile behaviour and deeply abusive language" is certainly NOT limited to London or UK.

    For example

    ABC News - Investigation opened after Seattle officer heard joking about pedestrian's death
    https://abcnews.go.com/US/seattle-officer-joking-pedestrian-death/story?id=103130361

    After discussing whether she was in the crosswalk and how far she was thrown, [SPD Officer] Auderer [who investigated the incident shortly after it occured] says, "But she is dead," and laughs several seconds later.

    Toward the end of the 2 1/2-minute video, Auderer says, "Yeah, just write a check," followed by laughter.

    "Eleven thousand dollars. She was 26, anyway," he said, misstating Kandula's age. "She had limited value."

    SSI - Note that Officer Auderer is (or at least was back then) the vice president of the Seattle Police Guild (union).

    @SeaShantyIrish2

    I have a beautiful model from Seattle in my bedroom right now.
    Airfix?
    Not quite!


    Have you checked all the doors?
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,318

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/05/uk-science-minister-michelle-donelan-apologises-and-pays-damages-after-academics-libel-action

    I think this story more or less sums up the government. A minister, picking up on some half arsed nonsense from one of its client right wing AstroTurf outfits, casually libels a couple of academics in the name of owning the Libz. And then when they sue her for defamation the taxpayer is somehow on the hook for the resulting damages. While she somehow keeps her job. Please, in the Name of God, can these clowns just go?

    What? The government is paying the costs?

    Da fucq?
    It paid the costs (some £200K) for Boris's lawyers over Partygate. Christ knows why.
  • BenpointerBenpointer Posts: 34,765

    RobD said:

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/05/uk-science-minister-michelle-donelan-apologises-and-pays-damages-after-academics-libel-action

    I think this story more or less sums up the government. A minister, picking up on some half arsed nonsense from one of its client right wing AstroTurf outfits, casually libels a couple of academics in the name of owning the Libz. And then when they sue her for defamation the taxpayer is somehow on the hook for the resulting damages. While she somehow keeps her job. Please, in the Name of God, can these clowns just go?

    What? The government is paying the costs?

    Da fucq?
    I assume she personally is, not the government.
    No the government, ie you and me, are paying.

    From the article:

    "Donelan’s department said that it had paid the damages and legal costs when asked who had done so, adding: “This was subject to all the usual cross-government processes and aims to reduce the overall costs to the taxpayer that could result from protracted legal action.”

    A No 10 source said Rishi Sunak had full confidence in Donelan, calling her “an excellent minister”."
    That's an absolute outrage. I hope Starmer raises it at PMQs
  • MexicanpeteMexicanpete Posts: 28,648

    The Republicans look to have the presidential election in the bag

    image
    image

    https://x.com/iapolls2022/status/1765138976405409839

    You really are a tiresome ramper.

    Yes the polls are not looking great at the moment but we have eight months to go. So there remains much to play for.

    Many of us feel physically sick at the thought of a Trump Presidency, and "the Republicans look to have the Presidential election in the bag" really isn't true. If the polls remain the same come the Autumn, yes a Dictatorship will look highly likely. So for the moment at least, enough of your trolling.
  • AnabobazinaAnabobazina Posts: 23,660
    pigeon said:

    Whatever tax cuts Hunt delivers, Rachel will keep them. She’ll find other ways to raise the cash: freezing the thresholds being one such mechanism. Don’t expect much in the way of scrutiny in that regard from the media.

    She could sort out CGT for one.

    But she has stupidly ruled that out already.
    She is not going to go into an election committed to raising any particular tax. She would be stupid to do so, in fact, as it just gives the Tories a free hit. She can find other ways of raising the money once inside No. 11, when she has looked at the books.
    And what do we think Reeves is going to find that will magically facilitate the restoration of the entire collapsing public realm, given that she has gone to pains to demonstrate her determination to leave virtually every existing major lever for raising revenue unpulled? Window Tax, or possibly Ship Money? Come off it!

    There are two possibilities: Labour is telling the truth and intends to implement more austerity rather than soaking the wealthy; or Labour intends to get elected on a total raft of lies, pretend that they were too thick to understand how bad things were before they got hold of the keys to the Treasury, and rip up their manifesto at some point in the first week after winning. Either course of action is liable to destroy any miniscule residuum of public faith in politicians, albeit for slightly different reasons (either the notion that Parliament doesn't give a shit about anyone but the rich, or that MPs lie about absolutely everything, having been definitively proven.) I'm not convinced that this will improve matters.
    Do you think Rachel will get into No. 11 and find well organised accounts based on sound money?
  • NigelbNigelb Posts: 71,705
    tyson said:

    I've been back now in frontline hardcore social work now for six years since my long sabbatical in Italy...I've not encountered one diversity officer, been invited to a single diversity training event, or been advised on anything diversity related....

    I have though witnessed just how committed my colleagues are in dealing with just what we deal with....and which is becoming worse...

    I don't even speak to my wife about what happens during my working day because it is so remorselessly depressing...drugs, mental health, self harming, homelessness, poverty, violence, and abuse.....rinse and repeat....

    Someone brought up WFH as a productivity issue....I logged in a couple of weeks ago at 2.00 in the morning...and I could see that 3 of my colleagues (in a small team) were logged in.

    If we get hit with more cuts I cannot see how our job is at all sustainable. I feel so sorry for the young social workers now just starting, all with student debts. And you have the likes of Hunt telling us that the problems with Councils is spending on diversity. I would imagine that at some point he will look himself in the mirror and feel utterly ashamed.

    Yes, that was pitiful stuff from Hunt.
    Someone calculated that “DEI officers” salaries account for 0.02% of Birmingham’s budget. As an example of “how they might cut spending”, it’s not even risible.
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,318
    Anyway this has gone off topic already - which rather makes my point for me.

    So off to bed.

    Here's some photos of where I was today - complete with dog for scale.



  • nico679nico679 Posts: 6,277

    RobD said:

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/05/uk-science-minister-michelle-donelan-apologises-and-pays-damages-after-academics-libel-action

    I think this story more or less sums up the government. A minister, picking up on some half arsed nonsense from one of its client right wing AstroTurf outfits, casually libels a couple of academics in the name of owning the Libz. And then when they sue her for defamation the taxpayer is somehow on the hook for the resulting damages. While she somehow keeps her job. Please, in the Name of God, can these clowns just go?

    What? The government is paying the costs?

    Da fucq?
    I assume she personally is, not the government.
    No the government, ie you and me, are paying.

    From the article:

    "Donelan’s department said that it had paid the damages and legal costs when asked who had done so, adding: “This was subject to all the usual cross-government processes and aims to reduce the overall costs to the taxpayer that could result from protracted legal action.”

    A No 10 source said Rishi Sunak had full confidence in Donelan, calling her “an excellent minister”."
    That’s outrageous. Why should tax payers be responsible for the clueless minister who decided to libel those academics.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,635
    Cyclefree said:

    I am sorry to disappoint @DavidL but the Angiolini Report will almost certainly be ignored.

    Just as the IICSA Final Report & its recommendations were ostentatiously ignored by the government. As we know - from yet another report - the Met's behaviour in relation to child abuse is as bad as its behaviour to women.

    Some recent examples:

    1. On 1 March a 29 year old doctor working in a Warwickshire hospital, who had pleaded guilty to 3 counts of making indecent images of children, was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment, suspended for 2 years. He was in possession of more than 50 images, over half in the most extreme category, some of children as young as 5. He also searched for such images.

    February

    2. A Derbyshire teacher aged 44, found guilty of two counts of rape of an under-age girl pupil he groomed while in a position of trust, was given a 1-year sentence, suspended for 2 years.

    3. A 21 year old actor who downloaded 848 child abuse images, 165 in the worst category, was told this by the judge:

    The images I have seen are sickening. Each of them is a real child being abused for the pleasure of someone like you watching. It is made worse because of the number of them – there were 848 indecent images – and it is made worse by the length of time you were doing it. You told the probation officer you do not have a sexual interest in children. I don’t accept that.

    Despite these strong words, he was given an 8 month sentence, suspended for 2 years. He had been downloading such images since he was 17.

    4. A 43-year old man in Warrington convicted of 4 offences of attempting to communicate with a child, possession of child porn & extreme pornography was given an 18 months sentence, suspended for 2 years. Defence counsel argued in mitigation that: “He has perhaps had more than his fair share of problems in his life to overcome.” (This seems to have related to problems with alcohol though since he was also in full-time good employment, it is not entirely clear why these justified such a light sentence, especially as the judge commented that he was in denial about his activities, his sexual interest in children & had not truly shown remorse.) Never mind. He too left court.

    5. A 39 year old Stoke man with 78 indecent images of children (described as “disgusting”) was convicted of 3 charges of making indecent images of children, possession of extreme pornography & prohibited images & given a 3-year community order because he had shown remorse despite, once again, the judge pointing out: “These are real children suffering disgraceful, horrible behaviour committed on them by adults.

    6. A 75 year old Dundee banker convicted of having thousands of child abuse images was given a suspended sentence though had his access to the internet restricted.

    8. A 71 year old man in Worcester, convicted of having child abuse images for the second time was given a community order.

    I could go on.


    It is judges who sentence child sex abuse viewing offenders not the police and those sentences are not far from the CPS sentencing guidance. Of course sentences of less than 2 years can be suspended and mostly will be if a guilty plea and/or first offence
  • ohnotnowohnotnow Posts: 3,893

    The Republicans look to have the presidential election in the bag

    image
    image

    https://x.com/iapolls2022/status/1765138976405409839

    You really are a tiresome ramper.

    Yes the polls are not looking great at the moment but we have eight months to go. So there remains much to play for.

    Many of us feel physically sick at the thought of a Trump Presidency, and "the Republicans look to have the Presidential election in the bag" really isn't true. If the polls remain the same come the Autumn, yes a Dictatorship will look highly likely. So for the moment at least, enough of your trolling.
    Dictatorship is a very prejudicial way of looking at the bejewelled forever-more reign of the Trump clan.
  • TazTaz Posts: 14,656

    The Republicans look to have the presidential election in the bag

    image
    image

    https://x.com/iapolls2022/status/1765138976405409839

    You really are a tiresome ramper.

    Yes the polls are not looking great at the moment but we have eight months to go. So there remains much to play for.

    Many of us feel physically sick at the thought of a Trump Presidency, and "the Republicans look to have the Presidential election in the bag" really isn't true. If the polls remain the same come the Autumn, yes a Dictatorship will look highly likely. So for the moment at least, enough of your trolling.
    Is this any more tiresome ramping than people posting U.K. electoral polling ?

    I don’t see how it’s trolling at all.
  • StuartinromfordStuartinromford Posts: 17,351
    Cyclefree said:

    MaxPB said:

    Here's a time sink that I recently learned about. My sister works for a major university in London and she's attempting to recruit a junior to mid level finance analyst in her division. They had 143 applications for the job and because of some insane rules she has to read every single application to give feedback on why they're unsuitable. It's taken her hours and hours to do it and she's said she found the person she wanted by the 5th application, set up the interview and is moving to offer stage. Yet due to the odd rules of the public sector she couldn't shut the process down until the originally stated date and she can't just reply to the rest saying the job has been filled already.

    As someone who has hired many, many people the thought of having to reply to every applicant would make me never bother with it. One of the jobs we put out there "Junior Investment Analyst -no degree required" had over 500 applications just from one partner. We used a machine learning sorting system to get through it, iirc by the end of the week there were something like 2000 applications across all partners.

    Let me put another view. My son has been applying for positions - in a different sector to yours.So often he barely gets an acknowledgment let alone a reply. Some employers say nothing at all. Some don't bother replying even after interview. It is incredibly disheartening.

    The sector he is looking at is always complaining that it can't get staff. Well I'm not surprised if that is how they treat applicants. So he is looking elsewhere and facing the "you don't have enough experience" roadblock.
    There are times when efficiency and convenience collide with "there's an actual human being on the other end of this process". Humanity ought to win, but doesn't do so a lot of the time. Which is one of the reasons for all this (gestures expansively).

    Besides, remember Parkinson's Law of job adverts. If the demands and rewards are properly calibrated against each other, an optimal job advert should bring forth one applicant who can then be appointed without further ado.
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