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Pitched Out – politicalbetting.com
Pitched Out – politicalbetting.com
Andy Malkinson, who spent 17 years in jail for a rape he did not commit, has welcomed the resignation of the chair of the miscarriages of justice review body.But he reveals to @justinonweb that he's still not received any compensation from the government. #R4Today
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Back of the Net !!!!
Although such triumphalism feels inappropriate given the content above !!!
Ethical adviser to the Met, perhaps?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/01/15/starmer-drops-sign-chagos-deal-trump-administration/
Sir Keir’s spokesman said on Wednesday: “We will only agree to a deal that is in the UK’s best interests and protect our national security.
“It is obviously now right that the new US administration has the chance to consider this and discuss this once they are in office.”
A significant change of tone.
He is representing Greater Manchester Police in the Malkinson inquiry.
He will try and defend & excuse the indefensible.
Surely someone should be held to account for this.
Misconduct in Public Office, Perverting the Course of Justice ?
In fact, they'd be better advised to try vodka.
Ta muchly
(Tho I do agree with the argument)
https://news.sky.com/story/tulip-siddiq-named-in-third-bangladesh-inquiry-into-money-laundering-and-power-misuse-13289353
(No, me neither, but it would be a masterstroke.)
Also, Starmer has burned an enormous amount of political capital to get this deal, and earned the scorn and hatred of people who couldn’t even place Diego Garcia on a map, so it makes no sense politically, either. He genuinely wanted this, and thought it was worth a lot of effort and all our money even if it made him even more loathsome
These multiple part-time roles are clearly an issue in both the public and private sector, as with the example of Rick Haythornthwaite that Cyclefree gives. I am also reminded of Elon Musk, who is CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX, CEO and product architect of Tesla, CTO and executive chairman of Twitter, president of the charitable Musk Foundation, and co-running the Presidential Advisory Commission known as DOGE, while spending 14 hours a day tweeting.
NU10K - “I may have presided over and been responsible for an utter mess which has ruined other’s lives but if you think I am going to be forced out without a fight and a gigantic pay-off, think again”.
On point I would disagree with. The Lord Carrington resignation covered up the actions of permanent officials in the Foreign Office.
In the run up to the invasion, they worked to wreck the career of the MI6 guy in Argentina. Who kept reporting the Argentine military build up. This went against the Departmental Policy - that negotaitions. with Argentina about handing over the Falklands were the way to go.
In the end he left MI6. Apparently, the Foreign Office types found him a "divisive influence". Presumably he wasn't a Team Player, as well.
The Sir Jasper Quigley* was strong with them.
*In the book of the Day of The Jackal, Sir Jasper Quigley is a Foreign Office mandarin who has been disastrously wrong in every policy he has ever espoused. Starting with Munich. But equally steadily promoted.
Eg in between tweets he manages to fire up more space rockets than any nation on earth, in all history. Also he’s building an AI to rival OpenAI. And he runs one of the world’s biggest car companies. And he’s possibly putting humans on Mars. And he’s taking giant steps towards the first human-machine hybrid with Neuralink. But still, he’s obviously a fool, he tweets, blah blah, says total no-mark centrist twat in north London
"We are into the third day of the enquiry into the actions of CCRC. To day we are hearing evidence from lawyers for the prosecutors of Adolph Himmler Hitler. The new-fascist terrorist, who legally changed his name from Paul Pacton, was convicted of terrorism on the basis of 386 pieces of forensic evidence, his public manifesto and 17 eye witness to his crimes.
The counsel for the CCRC admits that none of this evidence was shown to be problematic and declared that setting him free on the basis that the prosecutors eyes were a bit close together was sound legal reasoning. They further denied that the bonus per prisoner exonerated was in any way connected with the case."
Suez:
Britain - We will assert our control over strategic territory.
US - No you won't.
Chagos
Britain - We will give up our control over strategic territory.
US - No you won't.
Some of these examples, while not being totally germane, are quite startling. So perhaps the fine detail is justified?
Still reads like a PB Sunday threader, rather than weekday clickbait
But yes, give her upcoming book a good going over.
(Maybe Haythorthwaite could have ended up on the cutting room floor - a deserved fate.)
Really, how could you say such a thing?
There were two of them.
But, we should not be reacting to these miscarriages we should be looking, at a higher level as to what caused the events that led to the wrong. In this case surely the question is why was this person ever appointed to the position where she performed so poorly. There must have been some wrongdoing by the person who appointed her.
Having said that another wrong, and one the present government front bench is relying upon to such an extent it has never even crossed their vile vindictive minds, is How are they going to be held to account. There has never been any serious attempt at holding Gordon Brown to task for selling off the gold. I know that even if he and Tony Blair were made bankrupt the money raised would be negligible against the loss. But if they had been then the present even more incompetent bench of chancers might have been put off seeking high office and so there would have been a monetary as well as emotional saving to the nation that would have been of a similar magnitude.
The obvious example I have to say is the Post Office Horizon scandal. Now Mrs Jack Straw deserves all the punishment she will be dealt, but what about Jack Straw himself who appointed her and what about the courts who convicted these innocent people when the evidence against them was so manifestly concocted and untrue.
I specifically wanted to make the point about the NatWest and PO Chairs. This case is not a one-off. It's endemic, entitled & one of the reasons we keep having such badly run organisations.
Lab 26%
Ref 24%
Con 23%
LD 12%
Grn 9%
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election
..“It feels unfair that I, who was fully supportive of that reference to the Court of Appeal, have been singled out but the others have not been the subject of similar proceedings.”
Malkinson said that Pitcher’s description of herself as a scapegoat was “shameless” but agreed that others should be accountable and called on all of the CCRC’s leadership to resign.
“I am astonished that the outgoing chair claims that the CCRC was able to ‘resolve the situation’ and set me free. That work was done by my team at APPEAL, not the CCRC, who were considering rejecting my case for a third time...
Not that she oughtn't to have been booted out unceremoniously, which she richly deserved, but the "others" involved should indeed be the subject of similar proceedings.
But it's decidely rich for her to complain about the conclusions of a process she herself set up.
Is she still chairing the Judicial Appointments Commission ?
Heaven help the judiciary. She is unlikely to.
Rather than crashing the price of gold by dumping. The South African government (whose budget depends in a large part on the price from the sale of gold) asked why we waging economic warfare against gold producers!
On the Post Office scandal, the courts (mostly) used the evidence they were given. The problem was the lying to the courts. And, to an extent, a law passed that made a presumption that computer systems were AOK.
Ignore all my complaints. You can be a bit wordy, however articulate. But in this case it was justified (tho as an editor I would still have saved it for a weekend)
Right, now to watch Vikings Valhalla. Back to the flints tomorrrow
I wonder his Waterloo will be? The sack of Panama? Or would that be Morgan he can do?
The stereotype recurs, unfailingly.
We need to label them. Ridicule them. Scapegoat them. Until they are a byword for the shameful incompetence they so adore.
At Panama, The Donald did surrender
Because then, Proper People might not take on the job.
That resignation letter is embarrassing.
Bournmouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority is having a vote this evening on which regional grouping it would like to join. The alternatives are to go East and join Hampshire and the Solent or to go West and join the Heart of Wessex (Wiltshire, Somerset and the rest of Dorset).
As the Labour Government would like a complete map without any missed out areas, it would need to join one of the proposals as BCP is too small (400k population) to go it alone as a mayoral authority (proposed size at least 1.5m).
Another interesting area is Milton Keynes, which has put forward a joint bid with Bedford and Luton. Last year there were serious discussions to include Northamptonshire in the proposal, but Northamptonshire has been left out at the last minute.
Some areas in the forefront of change will be allowed not to have county council elections in May 2025.
My local area Hertfordshire (population 1.2m) appears to be a bit small to meet the criteria of being a mayoral authority, but it is running out of next door neighbours to join up (unless it could persuade Harlow and Uttlesford to leave Essex).
Not exactly a visit from the Operative, is it?
The Operative : You know, in certain older civilized cultures, when men failed as entirely as you have, they would throw themselves on their swords.
Dr. Mathias : Well, unfortunately, I forgot to bring a sword.
Dr. Mathias : [as the Operative pulls out his sword]...
“The Attorney General will not say whether he stands to gain financially if the government pay out to Gerry Adams.
Nor has he said whether he was involved in decisions which benefit his former client.
Remarkable.”
https://x.com/robertjenrick/status/1879522224551657973?s=61&t=GGp3Vs1t1kTWDiyA-odnZg
For a start, who knew that our Labour Attorney General was Gerry Adams’ lawyer?
For the umpteenth time, Starmer is a lawyer not a politician. There was a legal problem with the status of the base, so Starmer feels obliged to resolve it. And remember, all this started under the Conservative government.
From Hansard, Tuesday 13 December 2022:-
The Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs
(James Cleverly)
I can confirm that negotiations have begun. Officials from the UK and Mauritius met at the end of last month and had constructive discussions. The UK and Mauritius have reiterated that any agreement will ensure the continued effective operation of the joint UK-US defence facility on Diego Garcia, and we will be meeting again to continue negotiations shortly.
https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2022-12-13/debates/BE7D0031-A290-4B94-8A55-DFEA3F1E6AA9/BritishIndianOceanTerritory#contribution-3946DC2A-6C88-4C02-9659-6E2BD3E8BDAA
(*Me, for example.)
I can't imagine any sensible system, i.e. one that can't be corrupted by partisan interests, whereby you punish ex-PMs for poor decisions. I'm not saying we should go full US Supreme Court decision and give our leaders immunity from prosecution for criminal acts, but it is the voters who judge political decisions and the punishment is you get voted out.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0jn1zg1ew9o
You see it in all walks of life. People who lack any ability, save the all-important ones of ingratiating themselves with superiors, repeating orthodoxy, and doing down rivals whose focus is on trying to make things work effectively.
It’s how you end up with military leaders, like Cadorna, Chelmsford, or Conrad, who would be better employed digging latrines.
A latrine dug by Cadorna would fail utterly, 11 times in a row, in the same place, and kill vast numbers of people doing it.
Chelmsford would fuck up the initial khazi. Subsequently he would dig fairly usable ones.
Conrad would design an epic shitter. Then fuck up the execution of it.
There are tanks in Epping on permanent standby.
Put them all into call centre work - teach some humility!
If there's also a potential conflict of interest, then still worse.
Luck runs out
Crawl from the wreckage one more time
Horrific memory twists the mind
Dark, rutted, cold and hard to turn
Path of destruction, feel and burn
Still life, incarnation
Still life, infamy
Hallucination, heresy
Still, you run, what's to come? What's to be?
'Cause we hunt you down without mercy
Hunt you down all nightmare long
Feel us breathe upon your face
Feel us shift, every move we trace
Hunt you down without mercy
Hunt you down all nightmare long, yeah
Luck runs out
You crawl back in, but your luck runs out
I know Donald "Felonius Maximus" Trump won on Nov 5th but still.
Remember that "disrespecting the law" was used as an excuse not to question the Post Office convictions.
Edit: Do you mean "Maximus Scelestus"??
During Trump 1, two leaders did surprisingly well: Mexico and Japan. The Japanese PM sucked up like crazy (learning golf so he could play with Trump), the Mexico PM was blunter. But both took care to root their arguments in realpolitik and it worked. I've characterised the Russians as "brutal realists" and similarly for Trump: it's transactional and you have to give them something, even if that "something" is the removal of a credible threat.
For Starmer, being nice, or lawful, or appealing to their better nature isn't relevant to these discussions (and will lead to their contempt). He may simply not have the skillset to deal with such disinterested hatred.
If I was locked up for so long for a crime I didn’t commit and my parents died knowing my name wasn’t cleared I would go all Michael Douglas in Falling Down upon release.
Starch-rich plant foods 780,000 y ago: Evidence from Acheulian percussive stone tools
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2418661121
In contrast to animal foods, wild plants often require long, multistep processing techniques that involve significant cognitive skills and advanced toolkits to perform. These costs are thought to have hindered how hominins used these foods and delayed their adoption into our diets. Through the analysis of starch grains preserved on basalt anvils and percussors, we demonstrate that a wide variety of plants were processed by Middle Pleistocene hominins at the site of Gesher Benot Ya’aqov in Israel, at least 780,000 y ago. These results further indicate the advanced cognitive abilities of our early ancestors, including their ability to collect plants from varying distances and from a wide range of habitats and to mechanically process them using percussive tools...
But can anyone pinpoint when EDI became DEI? And does anyone other than me have an issue with this as it is rather adjacent to the Latin for God?
He has to recuse himself.
Then there is the politics of it all. No money for any number of deserving causes. But money for a terrorist leader .....