The “guests” to our country don’t pay for their tickets. Cheshunt stop especially - from the Marriott there.
They’ll jump the barrier or follow someone through at Livwrpool Street. The “guards” couldn’t care less Happens everyday. And it does. Sometimes I wonder about this site - is anyone living in the real world?
Wow. The fiasco with the freed prisoner is mind blowing. This is probably the most infamous detainee in the country right now. Why wasn't everyone on the staff from the governor downwards overseeing every millisecond of the handover? (When I worked for the Benefits Agency we'd pull out all the stops just to ensure that the old pensioner who'd turned a hundred hadn't croaked before he received his telegram from the Queen.) Lammy (or even Sir Keir for that matter) should fall on his sword, if only to give an inkling that someone somewhere has a scrap of pride.
Why's is anyone surprised he had money? He almost certainly had some kind of card - prepay credit card? - from his life before prison. He will have been working illegally - cash in hand, etc.
This story is going to run and run. As others have said, the media have now picked up the narrative of this being a wider problem re accidental release.
This is exactly one of those stories that cuts through.
The escaped Asylum seeker boarded the 12.41 Chelmsford to London train
This is absurd
How did he get the money for a ticket? Was he given cash when he was released? He’d be in Liverpool St., London soon after 1pm.
Maybe the producers of the Channel 4 programme "Hunted" are performing some sort of real life experiment. Having honed their skills on the slightly faux chasing of Joe Public...
The original version of that show (hosted by Richard Littlejohn), for the live show they had to stay in a public phone box (remember those) for the hour while the hunters attempted to identify where they were and get to them.
I remember one couple genius play. They went to a phone box up a mountain where they were only one road up to the top and the land at the bottom was farmed. They got a farmer to leave his farm equipment blocking the road all the way up. They knew even if the hunter left their car at the bottom they couldn't run up the track to get to them in the hour.
They literally told everybody where they were and just stood there laughing for the whole hour.
The escaped Asylum seeker boarded the 12.41 Chelmsford to London train
This is absurd
How did he get the money for a ticket? Was he given cash when he was released? He’d be in Liverpool St., London soon after 1pm.
Maybe the producers of the Channel 4 programme "Hunted" are performing some sort of real life experiment. Having honed their skills on the slightly faux chasing of Joe Public...
The original version of that show (hosted by Richard Littlejohn), for the live show they had to stay in a public phone box (remember those) for the hour while the hunters attempted to identify where they were and get to them.
I remember one couple genius play. They went to a phone box up a mountain where they were only one road up to the top and the land at the bottom was farmed. They got a farmer to leave his farm equipment blocking the road all the way up. They knew even if the hunter left their car at the bottom they couldn't run up the track to get to them in the hour.
They literally told everybody where they were and just stood there laughing for the whole hour.
Hmmm
One of my favourite variations of the Arnie catchphrase.
The escaped Asylum seeker boarded the 12.41 Chelmsford to London train
This is absurd
How did he get the money for a ticket? Was he given cash when he was released? He’d be in Liverpool St., London soon after 1pm.
Maybe the producers of the Channel 4 programme "Hunted" are performing some sort of real life experiment. Having honed their skills on the slightly faux chasing of Joe Public...
The original version of that show (hosted by Richard Littlejohn), for the live show they had to stay in a public phone box (remember those) for the hour while the hunters attempted to identify where they were and get to them.
I remember one couple genius play. They went to a phone box up a mountain where they were only one road up to the top and the land at the bottom was farmed. They got a farmer to leave his farm equipment blocking the road all the way up. They knew even if the hunter left their car at the bottom they couldn't run up the track to get to them in the hour.
They literally told everybody where they were and just stood there laughing for the whole hour.
Regarding the subject of the header, as people here know, I don't subscribe to the cultural reason for the grooming gangs phenomena.
I don't care how mediaeval your cultural hinterland is, if you step over the mark and get very harshly punished, you stop.
Look at the recent epidemic of shoplifting. We don't need to go raking through our culture for a history of shoplifting - shoplifting happens because of the absence of consequences.
I believe that if the enquiry is genuine, the blame will be placed overwhelmingly on the police, and others in authority, whose inaction or collusion led this to reach massive proportions.
I think that is why the authorities would like to widen the enquiry's scope - not to avoid the finger of blame being pointed at minorities, but to avoid it being pointed at themselves. Indeed, if push comes to shove, I firmly believe the Jess Phillips of this world will stab community relations in the back and blame it all on culture.
I don't think most people on here realise how fundamentally broken the care system is in the UK.
Kids don't get easily taken from their parents. And if they do, they mostly get sent to other family members,
If you end up in the care system proper, then you are almost certainly the victim of abuse and neglect. You will probably have been excluded from school. You will likely have substance issues.
Social services does their best, but these are exceptionally damaged kids, who have been fucked over by every adult they've ever gotten close to. Not to mention the fact that the girls are regularly sexually abused by the boys.
I knew a kid at Cambridge who had come out the care system. He was one of the most traumatised people I've ever known. His stories would be unbelievable to anyone on here who doesn't know social care.
He was the exception. I doubt a fraction of 1% of people in the care system make it to any kind of university. Most reach 18 and graduate from these homes go straight into a life of benefits and petty crime.
This is still going on today.
The police know how fucked up social care is. They know that the girls have been abused and some have been picked up for soliciting. They know they are inarticulate and make poor witnesses. Even without the ethnic element, they were lazy because these were not easy cases to make.
I would love it if - now we know about the grooming gangs - that kids (particularly girls) in care were less likely to be raped and abused. Sadly, I think it is hghly unlikely. As a society, we've chosen to pretend these problems don't exist, because they are really difficult problems to solve.
Second, I think we should not neglect the cases of abuse against boys. An example:
Background: The O.K. Boys Ranch was a group home in Olympia, Washington, sponsored by the local Kiwanis Club, that operated from 1971 to 1994. Closure: The ranch was shut down in 1994 after numerous allegations of severe and ongoing physical, sexual, and emotional abuse by staff members.
(Copied from a Google AI summary using a search on "O. K. Boys Ranch".)
Why not Wikipedia? Because Wikipedia does not have an entry for the ranch -- and Wikipedia's "Kiwanis" entry is just a stub.
You should have been to a British public school in the seventies, Jim.
At mine they discovered four teachers were molesting boys, got them to leave quietly, and gave them references for another school.
A decade or so later, they were jailed for offences at that one.
Can't find their cases online anymore; right to be forgotten data removal.
Wow. The fiasco with the freed prisoner is mind blowing. This is probably the most infamous detainee in the country right now. Why wasn't everyone on the staff from the governor downwards overseeing every millisecond of the handover? (When I worked for the Benefits Agency we'd pull out all the stops just to ensure that the old pensioner who'd turned a hundred hadn't croaked before he received his telegram from the Queen.) Lammy (or even Sir Keir for that matter) should fall on his sword, if only to give an inkling that someone somewhere has a scrap of pride.
Axel Rudabakana aside, in PR terms this is probably the last prisoner the government would want to be mistakenly released
Regarding the subject of the header, as people here know, I don't subscribe to the cultural reason for the grooming gangs phenomena.
I don't care how mediaeval your cultural hinterland is, if you step over the mark and get very harshly punished, you stop.
Look at the recent epidemic of shoplifting. We don't need to go raking through our culture for a history of shoplifting - shoplifting happens because of the absence of consequences.
I believe that if the enquiry is genuine, the blame will be placed overwhelmingly on the police, and others in authority, whose inaction or collusion led this to reach massive proportions.
I think that is why the authorities would like to widen the enquiry's scope - not to avoid the finger of blame being pointed at minorities, but to avoid it being pointed at themselves. Indeed, if push comes to shove, I firmly believe the Jess Phillips of this world will stab community relations in the back and blame it all on culture.
I don't think most people on here realise how fundamentally broken the care system is in the UK.
Kids don't get easily taken from their parents. And if they do, they mostly get sent to other family members,
If you end up in the care system proper, then you are almost certainly the victim of abuse and neglect. You will probably have been excluded from school. You will likely have substance issues.
Social services does their best, but these are exceptionally damaged kids, who have been fucked over by every adult they've ever gotten close to. Not to mention the fact that the girls are regularly sexually abused by the boys.
I knew a kid at Cambridge who had come out the care system. He was one of the most traumatised people I've ever known. His stories would be unbelievable to anyone on here who doesn't know social care.
He was the exception. I doubt a fraction of 1% of people in the care system make it to any kind of university. Most reach 18 and graduate from these homes go straight into a life of benefits and petty crime.
This is still going on today.
The police know how fucked up social care is. They know that the girls have been abused and some have been picked up for soliciting. They know they are inarticulate and make poor witnesses. Even without the ethnic element, they were lazy because these were not easy cases to make.
I would love it if - now we know about the grooming gangs - that kids (particularly girls) in care were less likely to be raped and abused. Sadly, I think it is hghly unlikely. As a society, we've chosen to pretend these problems don't exist, because they are really difficult problems to solve.
It seems wrong to 'like' that post, but very well written and wholeheartedly agree.
Have been hitting up some of my old poker contacts about the big FBI case of the rigged poker / gambling scandal. Some absolutely wild stories of Israeli mob, porn industry, Justin Bieber's mansion....
Apparently the case all kicked off because a guy lost $1 million in a game, wouldn't pay and was then threatened with being blown up by grenade attack. He went to the police, who busted on game, the guy who was running it then slipped the beans on the really big game.
But criminals aren't very bright. One NBA player who makes $25 million a year was throwing games for $25k. And the central case was allegedly 30 people to run the rigged poker games which they made $7 million out it. Sounds good until you find out the central guy was an superstar NBA player / coach who has made $100 million and still making millions a year coaching. 7 million split 30 ways...
Even if like so many sports stars he wasted his cut of $100 million, still making millions a year as a coach versus cutting a million 30 ways....
Wow. The fiasco with the freed prisoner is mind blowing. This is probably the most infamous detainee in the country right now. Why wasn't everyone on the staff from the governor downwards overseeing every millisecond of the handover? (When I worked for the Benefits Agency we'd pull out all the stops just to ensure that the old pensioner who'd turned a hundred hadn't croaked before he received his telegram from the Queen.) Lammy (or even Sir Keir for that matter) should fall on his sword, if only to give an inkling that someone somewhere has a scrap of pride.
They’ll do absolutely everything they can to avoid resignations on this topic. They’ll say it’s an operational issue, and play the “I’m staying to fix it” gambit. They have some justification that it’s not exactly the fault of ministers here, but resignation or no it’s hard to think of something much more toxic for this government and this PM.
It plays directly into the Reform narrative that Labour aren’t serious about fixing the system, they’re incompetent, they can’t get a grip on anything to do with asylum and Starmer is too weak. Labour know this is all coming. See how quickly Lammy came out with a statement and Starmer took to twitter to plaintively cry “deport! deport!”
He's still to explain, as far as I'm aware, why that's relevant when the alleged offences were committed before Starmer was in government.
Anyone ?
Because the issue isn't that offences were committed, but the reason why the prosecution collapsed.
He says prosecutors were asking 'not what the then Government was prepared to do, or did, say in public about China (whether framed as its policy or otherwise, and whether as a matter of fact true or not), but rather whether China was - as a matter of fact - an active threat to national security'
Regarding the subject of the header, as people here know, I don't subscribe to the cultural reason for the grooming gangs phenomena.
I don't care how mediaeval your cultural hinterland is, if you step over the mark and get very harshly punished, you stop.
Look at the recent epidemic of shoplifting. We don't need to go raking through our culture for a history of shoplifting - shoplifting happens because of the absence of consequences.
I believe that if the enquiry is genuine, the blame will be placed overwhelmingly on the police, and others in authority, whose inaction or collusion led this to reach massive proportions.
I think that is why the authorities would like to widen the enquiry's scope - not to avoid the finger of blame being pointed at minorities, but to avoid it being pointed at themselves. Indeed, if push comes to shove, I firmly believe the Jess Phillips of this world will stab community relations in the back and blame it all on culture.
I don't think most people on here realise how fundamentally broken the care system is in the UK.
Kids don't get easily taken from their parents. And if they do, they mostly get sent to other family members,
If you end up in the care system proper, then you are almost certainly the victim of abuse and neglect. You will probably have been excluded from school. You will likely have substance issues.
Social services does their best, but these are exceptionally damaged kids, who have been fucked over by every adult they've ever gotten close to. Not to mention the fact that the girls are regularly sexually abused by the boys.
I knew a kid at Cambridge who had come out the care system. He was one of the most traumatised people I've ever known. His stories would be unbelievable to anyone on here who doesn't know social care.
He was the exception. I doubt a fraction of 1% of people in the care system make it to any kind of university. Most reach 18 and graduate from these homes go straight into a life of benefits and petty crime.
This is still going on today.
The police know how fucked up social care is. They know that the girls have been abused and some have been picked up for soliciting. They know they are inarticulate and make poor witnesses. Even without the ethnic element, they were lazy because these were not easy cases to make.
I would love it if - now we know about the grooming gangs - that kids (particularly girls) in care were less likely to be raped and abused. Sadly, I think it is hghly unlikely. As a society, we've chosen to pretend these problems don't exist, because they are really difficult problems to solve.
Worth noting though that not all the girls who were victims of these gangs were in care. In many cases, their parents tried to intervene and help and report matters to the police and were fobbed off by them. In one case, the father was threatened with arrest.
What were schools doing, for instance?
When I was a teenager my uncle was staying with us. He was much younger than my mother and a very handsome Italian. He walked me to school one morning and kissed me goodbye (normal peck on the cheek) before I went in. A teacher must have seen as I was called in to be asked who he was etc and the school then checked with my mother to make sure that what I had told them was correct. It all seemed perfectly normal to me - that adults would be noticing what children they were responsible for were doing and checking that it was all ok.
Did no-one notice that young girls were going round with men old enough to be their fathers? Adults in this country need to learn to behave like adults. I realise this may seem a hideously old-fashioned view. But I don't care. Too many adults have forgotten this and behave like petulant teenagers instead. We need some grown ups in charge everywhere. See also the evidence which has come out today in the Southport murders case - which is really chilling. An experienced teacher did her job and was shut down by some idiot who failed to engage brain and think.
The escaped Asylum seeker boarded the 12.41 Chelmsford to London train
This is absurd
How did he get the money for a ticket? Was he given cash when he was released? He’d be in Liverpool St., London soon after 1pm.
Maybe the producers of the Channel 4 programme "Hunted" are performing some sort of real life experiment. Having honed their skills on the slightly faux chasing of Joe Public...
The original version of that show (hosted by Richard Littlejohn), for the live show they had to stay in a public phone box (remember those) for the hour while the hunters attempted to identify where they were and get to them.
I remember one couple genius play. They went to a phone box up a mountain where they were only one road up to the top and the land at the bottom was farmed. They got a farmer to leave his farm equipment blocking the road all the way up. They knew even if the hunter left their car at the bottom they couldn't run up the track to get to them in the hour.
They literally told everybody where they were and just stood there laughing for the whole hour.
Hmmm
The only thing they got wrong was which term...
From Wiki, the plot of Running Man
By 2017, following a worldwide economic collapse and resource scarcity, the United States has become a totalitarian police state. The government maintains control through propaganda, censoring unsanctioned art, music, and communications.
He's still to explain, as far as I'm aware, why that's relevant when the alleged offences were committed before Starmer was in government.
Anyone ?
Because the issue isn't that offences were committed, but the reason why the prosecution collapsed.
He says prosecutors were asking 'not what the then Government was prepared to do, or did, say in public about China (whether framed as its policy or otherwise, and whether as a matter of fact true or not), but rather whether China was - as a matter of fact - an active threat to national security'
And as @DavidL pointed out, and we followed up earlier, the procession under 1 (1) (c) of the Official Secrets Act is about providing secret information to *anyone* that might assist an enemy. So if you give secret information to an actual saint, you are still on the hook.
Wow. The fiasco with the freed prisoner is mind blowing. This is probably the most infamous detainee in the country right now. Why wasn't everyone on the staff from the governor downwards overseeing every millisecond of the handover? (When I worked for the Benefits Agency we'd pull out all the stops just to ensure that the old pensioner who'd turned a hundred hadn't croaked before he received his telegram from the Queen.) Lammy (or even Sir Keir for that matter) should fall on his sword, if only to give an inkling that someone somewhere has a scrap of pride.
They’ll do absolutely everything they can to avoid resignations on this topic. They’ll say it’s an operational issue, and play the “I’m staying to fix it” gambit. They have some justification that it’s not exactly the fault of ministers here, but resignation or no it’s hard to think of something much more toxic for this government and this PM.
It plays directly into the Reform narrative that Labour aren’t serious about fixing the system, they’re incompetent, they can’t get a grip on anything to do with asylum and Starmer is too weak. Labour know this is all coming. See how quickly Lammy came out with a statement and Starmer took to twitter to plaintively cry “deport! deport!”
Not really a valid attack, but an attack that could be used none the less; one of the first things Labour did after gaining power was to appoint someone as Prisons Minister someone who thought half of the prison population shouldn't be locked up
The latest YouGov MRP for Caerphilly had the following figures
Ref 32% PC 24% Lab 22% Con 8% LD 6% Grn 6% Oth 2%
So Ref win the seat with 4% less than what they just got at the by-election, which seems very plausible, since Labour are going to do better than 11% at a GE compared to a bye.
I know that Labour will do better than 11% at a general election.
How do you know ?
They may but they have been in office ever since devolution and it is looking very similar to Labour's collapse to the SNP in Scotland
Labour have been in opposition for 14 years in Scotland though, in government in Wales since 1999 and are in power in the UK now.
Ironically Labour probably have their best chance of winning most seats in Holyrood at the moment, even if slim. Purely because there they will be the party of change from the SNP (and as the Hamilton by election earlier this year showed they can win in Scotland in SNP held constituencies with Tory and LD tactical votes currently going to Plaid and Reform in Wales and Reform and LD in England)
You have discounted the fact that Scottish Labour, and particularly Anas Sarwar, have been spectacularly useless since Hamilton, and have not attempted to protect Scottish interests, for example over the closure of Grangemouth. To gain tactical votes they need to show some degree of competence. Otherwise they will fall to Welsh levels of support.
The SNP are at least as useless and as Hamilton showed have leaked some of their 2021 votes to Reform. Scottish Tory and LD Unionists would also hold their nose and tactically vote for unionist Scottish Labour to beat the SNP.
Labour were down just 2% in Hamilton on the 2021 Holyrood election, compared to down 14% in Runcorn on the last UK GE in 2024 and down a massive 34% in Caerphilly on the 2021 Senedd election.
The SNP were down 16% on 2021 in Hamilton, Plaid though up 19% in Caerphilly on 2021 and Reform up 20% in Runcorn on 2024
I’m surprised and disappointed that you seem to have given up on your own party aiming to be the recipient of tactical votes from anti-reform unionists.
In Scotland, like London Reform are not really a big factor and generally poll third, as opposed to first UK wide and at least second in Wales.
So in Scotland Labour will hope to benefit from unionist tactical votes to unseat SNP constituency MSPs, while Conservatives would at least hope to win unionist tactical votes to hold their seats from the SNP
"Police are investigating "irregularities" in the finances of the Alba Party after a complaint was raised by the party's leadership in May.
It follows a row between the party and its former general secretary, Chris McEleny, who was dismissed earlier this year after initially being suspended for alleged gross misconduct.
A source close to McEleny said he was "completely content that the finances of the party under the leadership of Alex Salmond were both sound and compliant".
But an Alba Party spokesperson said Salmond had "concerns about the management of the party"."
So if the total of Alba's voters shift their choice - that's another dozen or so votes for Labour or the SNP.
A hotel migrant who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl in Epping was apparently seen walking around a town centre hours after he was released from prison by mistake.
Regarding the subject of the header, as people here know, I don't subscribe to the cultural reason for the grooming gangs phenomena.
I don't care how mediaeval your cultural hinterland is, if you step over the mark and get very harshly punished, you stop.
Look at the recent epidemic of shoplifting. We don't need to go raking through our culture for a history of shoplifting - shoplifting happens because of the absence of consequences.
I believe that if the enquiry is genuine, the blame will be placed overwhelmingly on the police, and others in authority, whose inaction or collusion led this to reach massive proportions.
I think that is why the authorities would like to widen the enquiry's scope - not to avoid the finger of blame being pointed at minorities, but to avoid it being pointed at themselves. Indeed, if push comes to shove, I firmly believe the Jess Phillips of this world will stab community relations in the back and blame it all on culture.
I don't think most people on here realise how fundamentally broken the care system is in the UK.
Kids don't get easily taken from their parents. And if they do, they mostly get sent to other family members,
If you end up in the care system proper, then you are almost certainly the victim of abuse and neglect. You will probably have been excluded from school. You will likely have substance issues.
Social services does their best, but these are exceptionally damaged kids, who have been fucked over by every adult they've ever gotten close to. Not to mention the fact that the girls are regularly sexually abused by the boys.
I knew a kid at Cambridge who had come out the care system. He was one of the most traumatised people I've ever known. His stories would be unbelievable to anyone on here who doesn't know social care.
He was the exception. I doubt a fraction of 1% of people in the care system make it to any kind of university. Most reach 18 and graduate from these homes go straight into a life of benefits and petty crime.
This is still going on today.
The police know how fucked up social care is. They know that the girls have been abused and some have been picked up for soliciting. They know they are inarticulate and make poor witnesses. Even without the ethnic element, they were lazy because these were not easy cases to make.
I would love it if - now we know about the grooming gangs - that kids (particularly girls) in care were less likely to be raped and abused. Sadly, I think it is hghly unlikely. As a society, we've chosen to pretend these problems don't exist, because they are really difficult problems to solve.
At my rowing club, we do school holidays rowing camps for the local kids. Some have trouble turning up - because they are the one vaguely responsible person in their "family" and need to arrange child care for their siblings. Rowing on the Tideway is their couple of hours of release from that. A team in a boat, something that actually works.
And those are the ones who haven't fallen to the very bottom of the heap.
On topic, this mess shows why granting a second national inquiry (against their better judgement) was a bad idea. There are a series of local scandals with different characteristics, that the new inquiry is struggling to mesh together. Better would have been a national review of the local inquiries.
Regarding the subject of the header, as people here know, I don't subscribe to the cultural reason for the grooming gangs phenomena.
I don't care how mediaeval your cultural hinterland is, if you step over the mark and get very harshly punished, you stop.
Look at the recent epidemic of shoplifting. We don't need to go raking through our culture for a history of shoplifting - shoplifting happens because of the absence of consequences.
I believe that if the enquiry is genuine, the blame will be placed overwhelmingly on the police, and others in authority, whose inaction or collusion led this to reach massive proportions.
I think that is why the authorities would like to widen the enquiry's scope - not to avoid the finger of blame being pointed at minorities, but to avoid it being pointed at themselves. Indeed, if push comes to shove, I firmly believe the Jess Phillips of this world will stab community relations in the back and blame it all on culture.
I don't think most people on here realise how fundamentally broken the care system is in the UK.
Kids don't get easily taken from their parents. And if they do, they mostly get sent to other family members,
If you end up in the care system proper, then you are almost certainly the victim of abuse and neglect. You will probably have been excluded from school. You will likely have substance issues.
Social services does their best, but these are exceptionally damaged kids, who have been fucked over by every adult they've ever gotten close to. Not to mention the fact that the girls are regularly sexually abused by the boys.
I knew a kid at Cambridge who had come out the care system. He was one of the most traumatised people I've ever known. His stories would be unbelievable to anyone on here who doesn't know social care.
He was the exception. I doubt a fraction of 1% of people in the care system make it to any kind of university. Most reach 18 and graduate from these homes go straight into a life of benefits and petty crime.
This is still going on today.
The police know how fucked up social care is. They know that the girls have been abused and some have been picked up for soliciting. They know they are inarticulate and make poor witnesses. Even without the ethnic element, they were lazy because these were not easy cases to make.
I would love it if - now we know about the grooming gangs - that kids (particularly girls) in care were less likely to be raped and abused. Sadly, I think it is hghly unlikely. As a society, we've chosen to pretend these problems don't exist, because they are really difficult problems to solve.
Worth noting though that not all the girls who were victims of these gangs were in care. In many cases, their parents tried to intervene and help and report matters to the police and were fobbed off by them. In one case, the father was threatened with arrest.
What were schools doing, for instance?
When I was a teenager my uncle was staying with us. He was much younger than my mother and a very handsome Italian. He walked me to school one morning and kissed me goodbye (normal peck on the cheek) before I went in. A teacher must have seen as I was called in to be asked who he was etc and the school then checked with my mother to make sure that what I had told them was correct. It all seemed perfectly normal to me - that adults would be noticing what children they were responsible for were doing and checking that it was all ok.
Did no-one notice that young girls were going round with men old enough to be their fathers? Adults in this country need to learn to behave like adults. I realise this may seem a hideously old-fashioned view. But I don't care. Too many adults have forgotten this and behave like petulant teenagers instead. We need some grown ups in charge everywhere. See also the evidence which has come out today in the Southport murders case - which is really chilling. An experienced teacher did her job and was shut down by some idiot who failed to engage brain and think.
He tells you how it works - the care staff had to watch as these girls went out to meet their "friends". It was (and is) illegal to restrain them. If he even grabbed an arm, he (Winston Smith() would be dobbed in by his manager and charged with assaulting a child.
The escaped Asylum seeker boarded the 12.41 Chelmsford to London train
This is absurd
How did he get the money for a ticket? Was he given cash when he was released? He’d be in Liverpool St., London soon after 1pm.
Maybe the producers of the Channel 4 programme "Hunted" are performing some sort of real life experiment. Having honed their skills on the slightly faux chasing of Joe Public...
The original version of that show (hosted by Richard Littlejohn), for the live show they had to stay in a public phone box (remember those) for the hour while the hunters attempted to identify where they were and get to them.
I remember one couple genius play. They went to a phone box up a mountain where they were only one road up to the top and the land at the bottom was farmed. They got a farmer to leave his farm equipment blocking the road all the way up. They knew even if the hunter left their car at the bottom they couldn't run up the track to get to them in the hour.
They literally told everybody where they were and just stood there laughing for the whole hour.
Hmmm
The upcoming remake doesn't look that bad. It's a vehicle for Glen Powell, the guy who played Hangman in Top Gun: Maverick, and it seems to trot along happily. Often remakes of classics/cult classics don't work, but the 1980s original with Arnie wasn't that great, so hopefully the new one directed by Edgar Wright should be OK
Regarding the subject of the header, as people here know, I don't subscribe to the cultural reason for the grooming gangs phenomena.
I don't care how mediaeval your cultural hinterland is, if you step over the mark and get very harshly punished, you stop.
Look at the recent epidemic of shoplifting. We don't need to go raking through our culture for a history of shoplifting - shoplifting happens because of the absence of consequences.
I believe that if the enquiry is genuine, the blame will be placed overwhelmingly on the police, and others in authority, whose inaction or collusion led this to reach massive proportions.
I think that is why the authorities would like to widen the enquiry's scope - not to avoid the finger of blame being pointed at minorities, but to avoid it being pointed at themselves. Indeed, if push comes to shove, I firmly believe the Jess Phillips of this world will stab community relations in the back and blame it all on culture.
I don't think most people on here realise how fundamentally broken the care system is in the UK.
Kids don't get easily taken from their parents. And if they do, they mostly get sent to other family members,
If you end up in the care system proper, then you are almost certainly the victim of abuse and neglect. You will probably have been excluded from school. You will likely have substance issues.
Social services does their best, but these are exceptionally damaged kids, who have been fucked over by every adult they've ever gotten close to. Not to mention the fact that the girls are regularly sexually abused by the boys.
I knew a kid at Cambridge who had come out the care system. He was one of the most traumatised people I've ever known. His stories would be unbelievable to anyone on here who doesn't know social care.
He was the exception. I doubt a fraction of 1% of people in the care system make it to any kind of university...
Google says it's just under 15%. It's a bit too easy to write off all kids in care like that.
But you're right that many are damaged or deeply traumatised, and dealing with kids in care is one of the harder ways to earn a living.
How many PBers are social workers, foster carers, or even independent visitors ?
He's still to explain, as far as I'm aware, why that's relevant when the alleged offences were committed before Starmer was in government.
Anyone ?
Because the issue isn't that offences were committed, but the reason why the prosecution collapsed.
He says prosecutors were asking 'not what the then Government was prepared to do, or did, say in public about China (whether framed as its policy or otherwise, and whether as a matter of fact true or not), but rather whether China was - as a matter of fact - an active threat to national security'
A hotel migrant who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl in Epping was apparently seen walking around a town centre hours after he was released from prison by mistake.
It’s ok though. According to posters like Tres on this very site, this isn’t a child molestor. They only touched a knee (lol!). And were only prosecuted and subsequently jailed due purely to the colour of their skin and the inherent prejudice of the judicial system.
It must be a “cultural” thing I’m unaware of and I must understand and be educated more to alleviate my unconscious bias against child abuse.
The escaped Asylum seeker boarded the 12.41 Chelmsford to London train
This is absurd
How did he get the money for a ticket? Was he given cash when he was released? He’d be in Liverpool St., London soon after 1pm.
Maybe the producers of the Channel 4 programme "Hunted" are performing some sort of real life experiment. Having honed their skills on the slightly faux chasing of Joe Public...
The original version of that show (hosted by Richard Littlejohn), for the live show they had to stay in a public phone box (remember those) for the hour while the hunters attempted to identify where they were and get to them.
I remember one couple genius play. They went to a phone box up a mountain where they were only one road up to the top and the land at the bottom was farmed. They got a farmer to leave his farm equipment blocking the road all the way up. They knew even if the hunter left their car at the bottom they couldn't run up the track to get to them in the hour.
They literally told everybody where they were and just stood there laughing for the whole hour.
Hmmm
The upcoming remake doesn't look that bad. It's a vehicle for the guy who played Hangman in Top Gun: Maverick, and it seems to trot along happily. Often remakes of classics/cult classics don't work, but the 1980s original with Arnie wasn't that great, so hopefully the new one directed by Edgar Wright should be OK
The remake sounds interesting in that (as I understand it, anyway - could be wrong) it's much more along the lines of the Bachman/King novel and a giant game of Hunted across the continent than it is the awesome but schlocky uber-violent-Crystal-Maze that the 80's film was.
The Metropolitan Police is reviewing 9,000 cases in a huge new grooming gangs probe despite Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s previous denials any operated in the capital.
The announcement comes after an Express/MyLondon investigation exposed several potential grooming gang cases in London appeared to have been overlooked. Khan has repeatedly stated there were “no reports” or “indications” that London was blighted by the type of abuse that affected towns like Rochdale and Rotherham.
But on Friday evening, the Met revealed it has 9,000 cases to reassess.
In a letter from Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to the Mayor, London’s top cop tells Khan he is “responding to questions about child sexual exploitation” adding that “any sexual offending against children is abhorrent but group-based offending, including that characterised as ‘Grooming Gangs’, is particularly insidious. And devastating in its profound impact on the children affected.”
The escaped Asylum seeker boarded the 12.41 Chelmsford to London train
This is absurd
How did he get the money for a ticket? Was he given cash when he was released? He’d be in Liverpool St., London soon after 1pm.
Maybe the producers of the Channel 4 programme "Hunted" are performing some sort of real life experiment. Having honed their skills on the slightly faux chasing of Joe Public...
The original version of that show (hosted by Richard Littlejohn), for the live show they had to stay in a public phone box (remember those) for the hour while the hunters attempted to identify where they were and get to them.
I remember one couple genius play. They went to a phone box up a mountain where they were only one road up to the top and the land at the bottom was farmed. They got a farmer to leave his farm equipment blocking the road all the way up. They knew even if the hunter left their car at the bottom they couldn't run up the track to get to them in the hour.
They literally told everybody where they were and just stood there laughing for the whole hour.
Hmmm
The only thing they got wrong was which term...
From Wiki, the plot of Running Man
By 2017, following a worldwide economic collapse and resource scarcity, the United States has become a totalitarian police state. The government maintains control through propaganda, censoring unsanctioned art, music, and communications.
Very annoying for those of us saving for a house deposit!
Luckily they will have built no new houses so you're saved from disappointment on that score as well as saving on bothering to save! Winning all round!
No denial that it was a corrupt act. And btw, the felon pled guilty.
Reporter: On the pardon, Binance has significant business interests with the President’s family’s crypto company. How do you respond to allegations that this is a corrupt act?
Leavitt: The President is exercising his constitutional authority to grant clemency requests. This was an overly prosecuted case by the Biden administration. https://x.com/Acyn/status/1981417027442266367
No denial that it was a corrupt act. And btw, the felon pled guilty.
Reporter: On the pardon, Binance has significant business interests with the President’s family’s crypto company. How do you respond to allegations that this is a corrupt act?
Leavitt: The President is exercising his constitutional authority to grant clemency requests. This was an overly prosecuted case by the Biden administration. https://x.com/Acyn/status/1981417027442266367
I never understood why this power even exists. Its is just open for corruption and has been repeatedly.
The latest YouGov MRP for Caerphilly had the following figures
Ref 32% PC 24% Lab 22% Con 8% LD 6% Grn 6% Oth 2%
So Ref win the seat with 4% less than what they just got at the by-election, which seems very plausible, since Labour are going to do better than 11% at a GE compared to a bye.
I know that Labour will do better than 11% at a general election.
How do you know ?
They may but they have been in office ever since devolution and it is looking very similar to Labour's collapse to the SNP in Scotland
Labour have been in opposition for 14 years in Scotland though, in government in Wales since 1999 and are in power in the UK now.
Ironically Labour probably have their best chance of winning most seats in Holyrood at the moment, even if slim. Purely because there they will be the party of change from the SNP (and as the Hamilton by election earlier this year showed they can win in Scotland in SNP held constituencies with Tory and LD tactical votes currently going to Plaid and Reform in Wales and Reform and LD in England)
You have discounted the fact that Scottish Labour, and particularly Anas Sarwar, have been spectacularly useless since Hamilton, and have not attempted to protect Scottish interests, for example over the closure of Grangemouth. To gain tactical votes they need to show some degree of competence. Otherwise they will fall to Welsh levels of support.
The SNP are at least as useless and as Hamilton showed have leaked some of their 2021 votes to Reform. Scottish Tory and LD Unionists would also hold their nose and tactically vote for unionist Scottish Labour to beat the SNP.
Labour were down just 2% in Hamilton on the 2021 Holyrood election, compared to down 14% in Runcorn on the last UK GE in 2024 and down a massive 34% in Caerphilly on the 2021 Senedd election.
The SNP were down 16% on 2021 in Hamilton, Plaid though up 19% in Caerphilly on 2021 and Reform up 20% in Runcorn on 2024
I’m surprised and disappointed that you seem to have given up on your own party aiming to be the recipient of tactical votes from anti-reform unionists.
In Scotland, like London Reform are not really a big factor and generally poll third, as opposed to first UK wide and at least second in Wales.
So in Scotland Labour will hope to benefit from unionist tactical votes to unseat SNP constituency MSPs, while Conservatives would at least hope to win unionist tactical votes to hold their seats from the SNP
"Police are investigating "irregularities" in the finances of the Alba Party after a complaint was raised by the party's leadership in May.
It follows a row between the party and its former general secretary, Chris McEleny, who was dismissed earlier this year after initially being suspended for alleged gross misconduct.
A source close to McEleny said he was "completely content that the finances of the party under the leadership of Alex Salmond were both sound and compliant".
But an Alba Party spokesperson said Salmond had "concerns about the management of the party"."
So if the total of Alba's voters shift their choice - that's another dozen or so votes for Labour or the SNP.
Alba voters are nationalist fanatics unlikely to go elsewhere. If they do most would likely go Reform, they hate the SNP as woke sell outs in their eyes almost as much as they hate Starmer Labour and Farage is at least an anti woke nationalist like them
No denial that it was a corrupt act. And btw, the felon pled guilty.
Reporter: On the pardon, Binance has significant business interests with the President’s family’s crypto company. How do you respond to allegations that this is a corrupt act?
Leavitt: The President is exercising his constitutional authority to grant clemency requests. This was an overly prosecuted case by the Biden administration. https://x.com/Acyn/status/1981417027442266367
Gosh, don’t you just hate it when things get overly prosecuted?
It’s not a terrible reform, really, if they’re just limiting the cash saving to £10k and everything else has to go in a stocks and shares wrapper (you can invest in less risky things like bonds, gilts etc in those wrappers if you’re worried about being exposed to equities short term). I don’t quite know why they had to be so hokey-cokey about it though, they’ve been ruling it out and briefing its back on for months and months now.
Regarding the subject of the header, as people here know, I don't subscribe to the cultural reason for the grooming gangs phenomena.
I don't care how mediaeval your cultural hinterland is, if you step over the mark and get very harshly punished, you stop.
Look at the recent epidemic of shoplifting. We don't need to go raking through our culture for a history of shoplifting - shoplifting happens because of the absence of consequences.
I believe that if the enquiry is genuine, the blame will be placed overwhelmingly on the police, and others in authority, whose inaction or collusion led this to reach massive proportions.
I think that is why the authorities would like to widen the enquiry's scope - not to avoid the finger of blame being pointed at minorities, but to avoid it being pointed at themselves. Indeed, if push comes to shove, I firmly believe the Jess Phillips of this world will stab community relations in the back and blame it all on culture.
I don't think most people on here realise how fundamentally broken the care system is in the UK.
Kids don't get easily taken from their parents. And if they do, they mostly get sent to other family members,
If you end up in the care system proper, then you are almost certainly the victim of abuse and neglect. You will probably have been excluded from school. You will likely have substance issues.
Social services does their best, but these are exceptionally damaged kids, who have been fucked over by every adult they've ever gotten close to. Not to mention the fact that the girls are regularly sexually abused by the boys.
I knew a kid at Cambridge who had come out the care system. He was one of the most traumatised people I've ever known. His stories would be unbelievable to anyone on here who doesn't know social care.
He was the exception. I doubt a fraction of 1% of people in the care system make it to any kind of university. Most reach 18 and graduate from these homes go straight into a life of benefits and petty crime.
This is still going on today.
The police know how fucked up social care is. They know that the girls have been abused and some have been picked up for soliciting. They know they are inarticulate and make poor witnesses. Even without the ethnic element, they were lazy because these were not easy cases to make.
I would love it if - now we know about the grooming gangs - that kids (particularly girls) in care were less likely to be raped and abused. Sadly, I think it is hghly unlikely. As a society, we've chosen to pretend these problems don't exist, because they are really difficult problems to solve.
I certainly do. My grandmother was in a care home for only about 4 years and in that short time most of the value of her house, which was only £85,000 because it was a poorly constructed 1940s council house, was eaten up by fees, and the care home wasn't all that great either.
Very annoying for those of us saving for a house deposit!
If you're saving more than £10k per year I'm not sure you need the tax break tbh. The UK average is about £3k.
(Well done though!)
To get anywhere close to a decent deposit before the ice caps melt you need to be saving more than 10k a year. Just another kneecaping for strivers.
Ah come on. It's not a tax on your savings; just a tax on your unearned income.
I like the principle of ISAs because they encourage people to save. But anything above about £5k per year (or gains on a principle of about £20k in total) is undoubtedly a tax break for people in a pretty good financial position - me included.
It's mad that my earned income is taxed at 40%+ but I can make thousands in gains on my ISA and the Treasury doesn't get a penny.
It’s not a terrible reform, really, if they’re just limiting the cash saving to £10k and everything else has to go in a stocks and shares wrapper (you can invest in less risky things like bonds, gilts etc in those wrappers if you’re worried about being exposed to equities short term). I don’t quite know why they had to be so hokey-cokey about it though, they’ve been ruling it out and briefing its back on for months and months now.
It won't save much for HMT though, assuming the overall limit remains £20k, only to the extent that those who wanted to put £20k in a cash ISA now only put in £10k and won't put the remaining £10k in 'investments'. And as previously pointed out elsewhere, the 'investments' can include money market funds which are only slightly riskier than cash!
Very annoying for those of us saving for a house deposit!
If you're saving more than £10k per year I'm not sure you need the tax break tbh. The UK average is about £3k.
(Well done though!)
To get anywhere close to a decent deposit before the ice caps melt you need to be saving more than 10k a year. Just another kneecaping for strivers.
Ah come on. It's not a tax on your savings; just a tax on your unearned income.
I like the principle of ISAs because they encourage people to save. But anything above about £5k per year (or gains on a principle of about £20k in total) is undoubtedly a tax break for people in a pretty good financial position - me included.
It's mad that my earned income is taxed at 40%+ but I can make thousands in gains on my ISA and the Treasury doesn't get a penny.
I get £1000 free each year from the government in my Lifetime ISA which I don't deserve. I'm not rich, but being self-employed my issue is the mortgage not the deposit... so I really don't need the free cash.
This is not a "striking departure from government procedure"; it's plain illegal.
Pentagon to use $130 million donation from anonymous Trump ‘friend’ to pay military members https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/24/politics/anonymous-donor-military-pay-shutdown The Trump administration plans to funnel a $130 million donation from an anonymous ally of President Donald Trump toward paying military service members during the government shutdown, the Defense Department confirmed on Friday.
“The donation was made on the condition that it be used to offset the cost of Service members’ salaries and benefits,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to CNN, adding that the money was accepted under the department’s “general gift acceptance authority.”
The move marks a striking departure from government procedure for funding the military, which traditionally relies on public funds appropriated by Congress..
It doesn't "traditionally rely" on Congressional appropriations; it does so as required explicitly by law.
No denial that it was a corrupt act. And btw, the felon pled guilty.
Reporter: On the pardon, Binance has significant business interests with the President’s family’s crypto company. How do you respond to allegations that this is a corrupt act?
Leavitt: The President is exercising his constitutional authority to grant clemency requests. This was an overly prosecuted case by the Biden administration. https://x.com/Acyn/status/1981417027442266367
I never understood why this power even exists. Its is just open for corruption and has been repeatedly.
It exists because it's in the constitution.
The framers were not omniscient or infallible, and I guess the idea of Washington issuing pardons in return for massive bribes just didn't even occur to them. It was literally unthinkable.
And anyway, wasn't that why the power to impeach is there ... ?
No denial that it was a corrupt act. And btw, the felon pled guilty.
Reporter: On the pardon, Binance has significant business interests with the President’s family’s crypto company. How do you respond to allegations that this is a corrupt act?
Leavitt: The President is exercising his constitutional authority to grant clemency requests. This was an overly prosecuted case by the Biden administration. https://x.com/Acyn/status/1981417027442266367
I never understood why this power even exists. Its is just open for corruption and has been repeatedly.
It exists because it's in the constitution.
The framers were not omniscient or infallible, and I guess the idea of Washington issuing pardons in return for massive bribes just didn't even occur to them. It was literally unthinkable.
I understand this, but what was the thinking behind it in the first place?
This is not a "striking departure from government procedure"; it's plain illegal.
Pentagon to use $130 million donation from anonymous Trump ‘friend’ to pay military members https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/24/politics/anonymous-donor-military-pay-shutdown The Trump administration plans to funnel a $130 million donation from an anonymous ally of President Donald Trump toward paying military service members during the government shutdown, the Defense Department confirmed on Friday.
“The donation was made on the condition that it be used to offset the cost of Service members’ salaries and benefits,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to CNN, adding that the money was accepted under the department’s “general gift acceptance authority.”
The move marks a striking departure from government procedure for funding the military, which traditionally relies on public funds appropriated by Congress..
It doesn't "traditionally rely" on Congressional appropriations; it does so as required explicitly by law.
Military salaries reliant on Trump's personal friends rather than the state? So beholden to Trump to pay their mortgage.
Wow. The decline of America into a one king ruler state has been way way faster than even the extreme pessimists imagined.
This is not a "striking departure from government procedure"; it's plain illegal.
Pentagon to use $130 million donation from anonymous Trump ‘friend’ to pay military members https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/24/politics/anonymous-donor-military-pay-shutdown The Trump administration plans to funnel a $130 million donation from an anonymous ally of President Donald Trump toward paying military service members during the government shutdown, the Defense Department confirmed on Friday.
“The donation was made on the condition that it be used to offset the cost of Service members’ salaries and benefits,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to CNN, adding that the money was accepted under the department’s “general gift acceptance authority.”
The move marks a striking departure from government procedure for funding the military, which traditionally relies on public funds appropriated by Congress..
It doesn't "traditionally rely" on Congressional appropriations; it does so as required explicitly by law.
But if people complain, they can be branded as hating the troops because "they don't want them to get paid" or something like that.
No denial that it was a corrupt act. And btw, the felon pled guilty.
Reporter: On the pardon, Binance has significant business interests with the President’s family’s crypto company. How do you respond to allegations that this is a corrupt act?
Leavitt: The President is exercising his constitutional authority to grant clemency requests. This was an overly prosecuted case by the Biden administration. https://x.com/Acyn/status/1981417027442266367
I never understood why this power even exists. Its is just open for corruption and has been repeatedly.
It exists because it's in the constitution.
The framers were not omniscient or infallible, and I guess the idea of Washington issuing pardons in return for massive bribes just didn't even occur to them. It was literally unthinkable.
I understand this, but what was the thinking behind it in the first place?
Weren't they copying what our King could do (since the President is sort of an elected King)?
No denial that it was a corrupt act. And btw, the felon pled guilty.
Reporter: On the pardon, Binance has significant business interests with the President’s family’s crypto company. How do you respond to allegations that this is a corrupt act?
Leavitt: The President is exercising his constitutional authority to grant clemency requests. This was an overly prosecuted case by the Biden administration. https://x.com/Acyn/status/1981417027442266367
I never understood why this power even exists. Its is just open for corruption and has been repeatedly.
It exists because it's in the constitution.
The framers were not omniscient or infallible, and I guess the idea of Washington issuing pardons in return for massive bribes just didn't even occur to them. It was literally unthinkable.
I understand this, but what was the thinking behind it in the first place?
The USA was designed as U.K. 2.0
Hence the replacement of the Squirearchy with elected offices (judges, Sheriffs)
The unelected senate was the House of Lords, but appointed by the States.
The President was supposed to be a replaceable Constitutional Monarch. Think George III, but local and elected.
The power of pardon by The King is something from before history.
This is not a "striking departure from government procedure"; it's plain illegal.
Pentagon to use $130 million donation from anonymous Trump ‘friend’ to pay military members https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/24/politics/anonymous-donor-military-pay-shutdown The Trump administration plans to funnel a $130 million donation from an anonymous ally of President Donald Trump toward paying military service members during the government shutdown, the Defense Department confirmed on Friday.
“The donation was made on the condition that it be used to offset the cost of Service members’ salaries and benefits,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to CNN, adding that the money was accepted under the department’s “general gift acceptance authority.”
The move marks a striking departure from government procedure for funding the military, which traditionally relies on public funds appropriated by Congress..
It doesn't "traditionally rely" on Congressional appropriations; it does so as required explicitly by law.
The guy who is famous for bankrupting a casino is using cheques from anonymous donors to keep the lights on.
A hotel migrant who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl in Epping was apparently seen walking around a town centre hours after he was released from prison by mistake.
It’s ok though. According to posters like Tres on this very site, this isn’t a child molestor. They only touched a knee (lol!). And were only prosecuted and subsequently jailed due purely to the colour of their skin and the inherent prejudice of the judicial system.
It must be a “cultural” thing I’m unaware of and I must understand and be educated more to alleviate my unconscious bias against child abuse.
I've been hearing rumours he has actually released on purpose by a RNLI member.
Regarding the subject of the header, as people here know, I don't subscribe to the cultural reason for the grooming gangs phenomena.
I don't care how mediaeval your cultural hinterland is, if you step over the mark and get very harshly punished, you stop.
Look at the recent epidemic of shoplifting. We don't need to go raking through our culture for a history of shoplifting - shoplifting happens because of the absence of consequences.
I believe that if the enquiry is genuine, the blame will be placed overwhelmingly on the police, and others in authority, whose inaction or collusion led this to reach massive proportions.
I think that is why the authorities would like to widen the enquiry's scope - not to avoid the finger of blame being pointed at minorities, but to avoid it being pointed at themselves. Indeed, if push comes to shove, I firmly believe the Jess Phillips of this world will stab community relations in the back and blame it all on culture.
I don't think most people on here realise how fundamentally broken the care system is in the UK.
Kids don't get easily taken from their parents. And if they do, they mostly get sent to other family members,
If you end up in the care system proper, then you are almost certainly the victim of abuse and neglect. You will probably have been excluded from school. You will likely have substance issues.
Social services does their best, but these are exceptionally damaged kids, who have been fucked over by every adult they've ever gotten close to. Not to mention the fact that the girls are regularly sexually abused by the boys.
I knew a kid at Cambridge who had come out the care system. He was one of the most traumatised people I've ever known. His stories would be unbelievable to anyone on here who doesn't know social care.
He was the exception. I doubt a fraction of 1% of people in the care system make it to any kind of university. Most reach 18 and graduate from these homes go straight into a life of benefits and petty crime.
This is still going on today.
The police know how fucked up social care is. They know that the girls have been abused and some have been picked up for soliciting. They know they are inarticulate and make poor witnesses. Even without the ethnic element, they were lazy because these were not easy cases to make.
I would love it if - now we know about the grooming gangs - that kids (particularly girls) in care were less likely to be raped and abused. Sadly, I think it is hghly unlikely. As a society, we've chosen to pretend these problems don't exist, because they are really difficult problems to solve.
I certainly do. My grandmother was in a care home for only about 4 years and in that short time most of the value of her house, which was only £85,000 because it was a poorly constructed 1940s council house, was eaten up by fees, and the care home wasn't all that great either.
That has to be one of the all time great misunderstandings on this website
A hotel migrant who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl in Epping was apparently seen walking around a town centre hours after he was released from prison by mistake.
It’s ok though. According to posters like Tres on this very site, this isn’t a child molestor. They only touched a knee (lol!). And were only prosecuted and subsequently jailed due purely to the colour of their skin and the inherent prejudice of the judicial system.
It must be a “cultural” thing I’m unaware of and I must understand and be educated more to alleviate my unconscious bias against child abuse.
I've been hearing rumours he has actually released on purpose by a RNLI member.
That’s brilliant! Well done you! Let us know on PB the next time you get to fondle a 14 year old. We can inform the authorities accordingly.
Regarding the subject of the header, as people here know, I don't subscribe to the cultural reason for the grooming gangs phenomena.
I don't care how mediaeval your cultural hinterland is, if you step over the mark and get very harshly punished, you stop.
Look at the recent epidemic of shoplifting. We don't need to go raking through our culture for a history of shoplifting - shoplifting happens because of the absence of consequences.
I believe that if the enquiry is genuine, the blame will be placed overwhelmingly on the police, and others in authority, whose inaction or collusion led this to reach massive proportions.
I think that is why the authorities would like to widen the enquiry's scope - not to avoid the finger of blame being pointed at minorities, but to avoid it being pointed at themselves. Indeed, if push comes to shove, I firmly believe the Jess Phillips of this world will stab community relations in the back and blame it all on culture.
I don't think most people on here realise how fundamentally broken the care system is in the UK.
Kids don't get easily taken from their parents. And if they do, they mostly get sent to other family members,
If you end up in the care system proper, then you are almost certainly the victim of abuse and neglect. You will probably have been excluded from school. You will likely have substance issues.
Social services does their best, but these are exceptionally damaged kids, who have been fucked over by every adult they've ever gotten close to. Not to mention the fact that the girls are regularly sexually abused by the boys.
I knew a kid at Cambridge who had come out the care system. He was one of the most traumatised people I've ever known. His stories would be unbelievable to anyone on here who doesn't know social care.
He was the exception. I doubt a fraction of 1% of people in the care system make it to any kind of university. Most reach 18 and graduate from these homes go straight into a life of benefits and petty crime.
This is still going on today.
The police know how fucked up social care is. They know that the girls have been abused and some have been picked up for soliciting. They know they are inarticulate and make poor witnesses. Even without the ethnic element, they were lazy because these were not easy cases to make.
I would love it if - now we know about the grooming gangs - that kids (particularly girls) in care were less likely to be raped and abused. Sadly, I think it is hghly unlikely. As a society, we've chosen to pretend these problems don't exist, because they are really difficult problems to solve.
I certainly do. My grandmother was in a care home for only about 4 years and in that short time most of the value of her house, which was only £85,000 because it was a poorly constructed 1940s council house, was eaten up by fees, and the care home wasn't all that great either.
That has to be one of the all time great misunderstandings on this website
No denial that it was a corrupt act. And btw, the felon pled guilty.
Reporter: On the pardon, Binance has significant business interests with the President’s family’s crypto company. How do you respond to allegations that this is a corrupt act?
Leavitt: The President is exercising his constitutional authority to grant clemency requests. This was an overly prosecuted case by the Biden administration. https://x.com/Acyn/status/1981417027442266367
I never understood why this power even exists. Its is just open for corruption and has been repeatedly.
It exists because it's in the constitution.
The framers were not omniscient or infallible, and I guess the idea of Washington issuing pardons in return for massive bribes just didn't even occur to them. It was literally unthinkable.
I understand this, but what was the thinking behind it in the first place?
Probably derives from the royal prerogative of mercy. The idea that sometimes you let people off (particularly those who are bang to rights legally but society deems have been unfairly punished) because it’s the equitable thing to do.
The latest YouGov MRP for Caerphilly had the following figures
Ref 32% PC 24% Lab 22% Con 8% LD 6% Grn 6% Oth 2%
So Ref win the seat with 4% less than what they just got at the by-election, which seems very plausible, since Labour are going to do better than 11% at a GE compared to a bye.
I know that Labour will do better than 11% at a general election.
How do you know ?
They may but they have been in office ever since devolution and it is looking very similar to Labour's collapse to the SNP in Scotland
Labour have been in opposition for 14 years in Scotland though, in government in Wales since 1999 and are in power in the UK now.
Ironically Labour probably have their best chance of winning most seats in Holyrood at the moment, even if slim. Purely because there they will be the party of change from the SNP (and as the Hamilton by election earlier this year showed they can win in Scotland in SNP held constituencies with Tory and LD tactical votes currently going to Plaid and Reform in Wales and Reform and LD in England)
You have discounted the fact that Scottish Labour, and particularly Anas Sarwar, have been spectacularly useless since Hamilton, and have not attempted to protect Scottish interests, for example over the closure of Grangemouth. To gain tactical votes they need to show some degree of competence. Otherwise they will fall to Welsh levels of support.
The SNP are at least as useless and as Hamilton showed have leaked some of their 2021 votes to Reform. Scottish Tory and LD Unionists would also hold their nose and tactically vote for unionist Scottish Labour to beat the SNP.
Labour were down just 2% in Hamilton on the 2021 Holyrood election, compared to down 14% in Runcorn on the last UK GE in 2024 and down a massive 34% in Caerphilly on the 2021 Senedd election.
The SNP were down 16% on 2021 in Hamilton, Plaid though up 19% in Caerphilly on 2021 and Reform up 20% in Runcorn on 2024
I’m surprised and disappointed that you seem to have given up on your own party aiming to be the recipient of tactical votes from anti-reform unionists.
In Scotland, like London Reform are not really a big factor and generally poll third, as opposed to first UK wide and at least second in Wales.
So in Scotland Labour will hope to benefit from unionist tactical votes to unseat SNP constituency MSPs, while Conservatives would at least hope to win unionist tactical votes to hold their seats from the SNP
"Police are investigating "irregularities" in the finances of the Alba Party after a complaint was raised by the party's leadership in May.
It follows a row between the party and its former general secretary, Chris McEleny, who was dismissed earlier this year after initially being suspended for alleged gross misconduct.
A source close to McEleny said he was "completely content that the finances of the party under the leadership of Alex Salmond were both sound and compliant".
But an Alba Party spokesperson said Salmond had "concerns about the management of the party"."
So if the total of Alba's voters shift their choice - that's another dozen or so votes for Labour or the SNP.
Alba voters are nationalist fanatics unlikely to go elsewhere. If they do most would likely go Reform, they hate the SNP as woke sell outs in their eyes almost as much as they hate Starmer Labour and Farage is at least an anti woke nationalist like them
I see you’ve been following Wings Over Scotland’s journey from Scottish Nationalist to Farage shill.
A hotel migrant who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl in Epping was apparently seen walking around a town centre hours after he was released from prison by mistake.
It’s ok though. According to posters like Tres on this very site, this isn’t a child molestor. They only touched a knee (lol!). And were only prosecuted and subsequently jailed due purely to the colour of their skin and the inherent prejudice of the judicial system.
It must be a “cultural” thing I’m unaware of and I must understand and be educated more to alleviate my unconscious bias against child abuse.
I've been hearing rumours he has actually released on purpose by a RNLI member.
That’s brilliant! Well done you! Let us know on PB the next time you get to fondle a 14 year old. We can inform the authorities accordingly.
It wasn’t just knee fondling. He proposed sex, children, marriage and a move to Nigeria, to a fourteen year old
I’m waiting for the Safeguarding Minister to tell us that it sounds just like a night out in Birmingham
The latest YouGov MRP for Caerphilly had the following figures
Ref 32% PC 24% Lab 22% Con 8% LD 6% Grn 6% Oth 2%
So Ref win the seat with 4% less than what they just got at the by-election, which seems very plausible, since Labour are going to do better than 11% at a GE compared to a bye.
I know that Labour will do better than 11% at a general election.
How do you know ?
They may but they have been in office ever since devolution and it is looking very similar to Labour's collapse to the SNP in Scotland
Labour have been in opposition for 14 years in Scotland though, in government in Wales since 1999 and are in power in the UK now.
Ironically Labour probably have their best chance of winning most seats in Holyrood at the moment, even if slim. Purely because there they will be the party of change from the SNP (and as the Hamilton by election earlier this year showed they can win in Scotland in SNP held constituencies with Tory and LD tactical votes currently going to Plaid and Reform in Wales and Reform and LD in England)
You have discounted the fact that Scottish Labour, and particularly Anas Sarwar, have been spectacularly useless since Hamilton, and have not attempted to protect Scottish interests, for example over the closure of Grangemouth. To gain tactical votes they need to show some degree of competence. Otherwise they will fall to Welsh levels of support.
The SNP are at least as useless and as Hamilton showed have leaked some of their 2021 votes to Reform. Scottish Tory and LD Unionists would also hold their nose and tactically vote for unionist Scottish Labour to beat the SNP.
Labour were down just 2% in Hamilton on the 2021 Holyrood election, compared to down 14% in Runcorn on the last UK GE in 2024 and down a massive 34% in Caerphilly on the 2021 Senedd election.
The SNP were down 16% on 2021 in Hamilton, Plaid though up 19% in Caerphilly on 2021 and Reform up 20% in Runcorn on 2024
I’m surprised and disappointed that you seem to have given up on your own party aiming to be the recipient of tactical votes from anti-reform unionists.
In Scotland, like London Reform are not really a big factor and generally poll third, as opposed to first UK wide and at least second in Wales.
So in Scotland Labour will hope to benefit from unionist tactical votes to unseat SNP constituency MSPs, while Conservatives would at least hope to win unionist tactical votes to hold their seats from the SNP
"Police are investigating "irregularities" in the finances of the Alba Party after a complaint was raised by the party's leadership in May.
It follows a row between the party and its former general secretary, Chris McEleny, who was dismissed earlier this year after initially being suspended for alleged gross misconduct.
A source close to McEleny said he was "completely content that the finances of the party under the leadership of Alex Salmond were both sound and compliant".
But an Alba Party spokesperson said Salmond had "concerns about the management of the party"."
So if the total of Alba's voters shift their choice - that's another dozen or so votes for Labour or the SNP.
Alba voters are nationalist fanatics unlikely to go elsewhere. If they do most would likely go Reform, they hate the SNP as woke sell outs in their eyes almost as much as they hate Starmer Labour and Farage is at least an anti woke nationalist like them
I see you’ve been following Wings Over Scotland’s journey from Scottish Nationalist to Farage shill.
One would say that's not very representative of the average Alba voter, but given how few of them there are now...
No denial that it was a corrupt act. And btw, the felon pled guilty.
Reporter: On the pardon, Binance has significant business interests with the President’s family’s crypto company. How do you respond to allegations that this is a corrupt act?
Leavitt: The President is exercising his constitutional authority to grant clemency requests. This was an overly prosecuted case by the Biden administration. https://x.com/Acyn/status/1981417027442266367
I never understood why this power even exists. Its is just open for corruption and has been repeatedly.
It exists because it's in the constitution.
The framers were not omniscient or infallible, and I guess the idea of Washington issuing pardons in return for massive bribes just didn't even occur to them. It was literally unthinkable.
I understand this, but what was the thinking behind it in the first place?
It is just, I think, a prerogative power they copied from us.
This is not a "striking departure from government procedure"; it's plain illegal.
Pentagon to use $130 million donation from anonymous Trump ‘friend’ to pay military members https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/24/politics/anonymous-donor-military-pay-shutdown The Trump administration plans to funnel a $130 million donation from an anonymous ally of President Donald Trump toward paying military service members during the government shutdown, the Defense Department confirmed on Friday.
“The donation was made on the condition that it be used to offset the cost of Service members’ salaries and benefits,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to CNN, adding that the money was accepted under the department’s “general gift acceptance authority.”
The move marks a striking departure from government procedure for funding the military, which traditionally relies on public funds appropriated by Congress..
It doesn't "traditionally rely" on Congressional appropriations; it does so as required explicitly by law.
Military salaries reliant on Trump's personal friends rather than the state? So beholden to Trump to pay their mortgage.
Wow. The decline of America into a one king ruler state has been way way faster than even the extreme pessimists imagined.
Let this be a warning to us.
See Cato banging on about Caesar recruiting legions beyond that provided by the State - with private funds…
A hotel migrant who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl in Epping was apparently seen walking around a town centre hours after he was released from prison by mistake.
It’s ok though. According to posters like Tres on this very site, this isn’t a child molestor. They only touched a knee (lol!). And were only prosecuted and subsequently jailed due purely to the colour of their skin and the inherent prejudice of the judicial system.
It must be a “cultural” thing I’m unaware of and I must understand and be educated more to alleviate my unconscious bias against child abuse.
I've been hearing rumours he has actually released on purpose by a RNLI member.
That’s brilliant! Well done you! Let us know on PB the next time you get to fondle a 14 year old. We can inform the authorities accordingly.
It wasn’t just knee fondling. He proposed sex, children, marriage and a move to Nigeria, to a fourteen year old
I’m waiting for the Safeguarding Minister to tell us that it sounds just like a night out in Birmingham
A hotel migrant who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl in Epping was apparently seen walking around a town centre hours after he was released from prison by mistake.
It’s ok though. According to posters like Tres on this very site, this isn’t a child molestor. They only touched a knee (lol!). And were only prosecuted and subsequently jailed due purely to the colour of their skin and the inherent prejudice of the judicial system.
It must be a “cultural” thing I’m unaware of and I must understand and be educated more to alleviate my unconscious bias against child abuse.
I've been hearing rumours he has actually released on purpose by a RNLI member.
To smear any RNLI member like that is simply unacceptable and frankly a disgrace
The crews are volunteers who are trained in their spare time to the highest levels of seamanship to save lives at sea
You may not know but my son is a fully trained helm and next week attends a course on navigation for progress to eventually be coming a coxswain
These men and women put their lives at risk often venturing out in storm force seas to save others
They do not deserve your cheap and disgusting comment
The latest YouGov MRP for Caerphilly had the following figures
Ref 32% PC 24% Lab 22% Con 8% LD 6% Grn 6% Oth 2%
So Ref win the seat with 4% less than what they just got at the by-election, which seems very plausible, since Labour are going to do better than 11% at a GE compared to a bye.
I know that Labour will do better than 11% at a general election.
How do you know ?
They may but they have been in office ever since devolution and it is looking very similar to Labour's collapse to the SNP in Scotland
Labour have been in opposition for 14 years in Scotland though, in government in Wales since 1999 and are in power in the UK now.
Ironically Labour probably have their best chance of winning most seats in Holyrood at the moment, even if slim. Purely because there they will be the party of change from the SNP (and as the Hamilton by election earlier this year showed they can win in Scotland in SNP held constituencies with Tory and LD tactical votes currently going to Plaid and Reform in Wales and Reform and LD in England)
You have discounted the fact that Scottish Labour, and particularly Anas Sarwar, have been spectacularly useless since Hamilton, and have not attempted to protect Scottish interests, for example over the closure of Grangemouth. To gain tactical votes they need to show some degree of competence. Otherwise they will fall to Welsh levels of support.
The SNP are at least as useless and as Hamilton showed have leaked some of their 2021 votes to Reform. Scottish Tory and LD Unionists would also hold their nose and tactically vote for unionist Scottish Labour to beat the SNP.
Labour were down just 2% in Hamilton on the 2021 Holyrood election, compared to down 14% in Runcorn on the last UK GE in 2024 and down a massive 34% in Caerphilly on the 2021 Senedd election.
The SNP were down 16% on 2021 in Hamilton, Plaid though up 19% in Caerphilly on 2021 and Reform up 20% in Runcorn on 2024
I’m surprised and disappointed that you seem to have given up on your own party aiming to be the recipient of tactical votes from anti-reform unionists.
In Scotland, like London Reform are not really a big factor and generally poll third, as opposed to first UK wide and at least second in Wales.
So in Scotland Labour will hope to benefit from unionist tactical votes to unseat SNP constituency MSPs, while Conservatives would at least hope to win unionist tactical votes to hold their seats from the SNP
"Police are investigating "irregularities" in the finances of the Alba Party after a complaint was raised by the party's leadership in May.
It follows a row between the party and its former general secretary, Chris McEleny, who was dismissed earlier this year after initially being suspended for alleged gross misconduct.
A source close to McEleny said he was "completely content that the finances of the party under the leadership of Alex Salmond were both sound and compliant".
But an Alba Party spokesperson said Salmond had "concerns about the management of the party"."
So if the total of Alba's voters shift their choice - that's another dozen or so votes for Labour or the SNP.
Alba voters are nationalist fanatics unlikely to go elsewhere. If they do most would likely go Reform, they hate the SNP as woke sell outs in their eyes almost as much as they hate Starmer Labour and Farage is at least an anti woke nationalist like them
I see you’ve been following Wings Over Scotland’s journey from Scottish Nationalist to Farage shill.
Trans got him.
He was always an odd duck for a ScotNat though. He wanted to keep Trident and charge rent. Sensible actually, but out of step with mainstream ScotNat opinion IIRC.
No denial that it was a corrupt act. And btw, the felon pled guilty.
Reporter: On the pardon, Binance has significant business interests with the President’s family’s crypto company. How do you respond to allegations that this is a corrupt act?
Leavitt: The President is exercising his constitutional authority to grant clemency requests. This was an overly prosecuted case by the Biden administration. https://x.com/Acyn/status/1981417027442266367
I never understood why this power even exists. Its is just open for corruption and has been repeatedly.
It exists because it's in the constitution.
The framers were not omniscient or infallible, and I guess the idea of Washington issuing pardons in return for massive bribes just didn't even occur to them. It was literally unthinkable.
I understand this, but what was the thinking behind it in the first place?
Weren't they copying what our King could do (since the President is sort of an elected King)?
Exactly - the US constitution was about reshuffling the U.K. state into a democratic republic.
The Pres. was supposed to be a constitutional monarch with added elections.
A hotel migrant who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl in Epping was apparently seen walking around a town centre hours after he was released from prison by mistake.
It’s ok though. According to posters like Tres on this very site, this isn’t a child molestor. They only touched a knee (lol!). And were only prosecuted and subsequently jailed due purely to the colour of their skin and the inherent prejudice of the judicial system.
It must be a “cultural” thing I’m unaware of and I must understand and be educated more to alleviate my unconscious bias against child abuse.
I've been hearing rumours he has actually released on purpose by a RNLI member.
That’s brilliant! Well done you! Let us know on PB the next time you get to fondle a 14 year old. We can inform the authorities accordingly.
It wasn’t just knee fondling. He proposed sex, children, marriage and a move to Nigeria, to a fourteen year old
I’m waiting for the Safeguarding Minister to tell us that it sounds just like a night out in Birmingham
Just part and parcel of living in a big city (c) Sadiq Khan.
A hotel migrant who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl in Epping was apparently seen walking around a town centre hours after he was released from prison by mistake.
It’s ok though. According to posters like Tres on this very site, this isn’t a child molestor. They only touched a knee (lol!). And were only prosecuted and subsequently jailed due purely to the colour of their skin and the inherent prejudice of the judicial system.
It must be a “cultural” thing I’m unaware of and I must understand and be educated more to alleviate my unconscious bias against child abuse.
I've been hearing rumours he has actually released on purpose by a RNLI member.
That’s brilliant! Well done you! Let us know on PB the next time you get to fondle a 14 year old. We can inform the authorities accordingly.
It wasn’t just knee fondling. He proposed sex, children, marriage and a move to Nigeria, to a fourteen year old
I’m waiting for the Safeguarding Minister to tell us that it sounds just like a night out in Birmingham
Birmingham notwithstanding - and it’s a curious place. But yes. Absolutely. Which makes Tres’s comment earlier all the more reprehensible - and their/his/her attempt to make light of the charges the individual convened was found guilty of and imprisoned for all the more nauseating. And that individual is now roaming who knows where. Laughing at us. Laughing at our judicial system and laughing at our law.
But for Tres he just touched a knee. So what’s the fuss?
A hotel migrant who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl in Epping was apparently seen walking around a town centre hours after he was released from prison by mistake.
It’s ok though. According to posters like Tres on this very site, this isn’t a child molestor. They only touched a knee (lol!). And were only prosecuted and subsequently jailed due purely to the colour of their skin and the inherent prejudice of the judicial system.
It must be a “cultural” thing I’m unaware of and I must understand and be educated more to alleviate my unconscious bias against child abuse.
I've been hearing rumours he has actually released on purpose by a RNLI member.
That’s brilliant! Well done you! Let us know on PB the next time you get to fondle a 14 year old. We can inform the authorities accordingly.
It wasn’t just knee fondling. He proposed sex, children, marriage and a move to Nigeria, to a fourteen year old
I’m waiting for the Safeguarding Minister to tell us that it sounds just like a night out in Birmingham
Birmingham notwithstanding - and it’s a curious place. But yes. Absolutely. Which makes Tres’s comment earlier all the more reprehensible - and their/his/her attempt to make light of the charges the individual convened was found guilty of and imprisoned for all the more nauseating. And that individual is now roaming who knows where. Laughing at us. Laughing at our judicial system and laughing at our law.
But for Tres he just touched a knee. So what’s the fuss?
don't give yourself an aneurysm, it's just words on a screen
No denial that it was a corrupt act. And btw, the felon pled guilty.
Reporter: On the pardon, Binance has significant business interests with the President’s family’s crypto company. How do you respond to allegations that this is a corrupt act?
Leavitt: The President is exercising his constitutional authority to grant clemency requests. This was an overly prosecuted case by the Biden administration. https://x.com/Acyn/status/1981417027442266367
I never understood why this power even exists. Its is just open for corruption and has been repeatedly.
It exists because it's in the constitution.
The framers were not omniscient or infallible, and I guess the idea of Washington issuing pardons in return for massive bribes just didn't even occur to them. It was literally unthinkable.
I understand this, but what was the thinking behind it in the first place?
It is just, I think, a prerogative power they copied from us.
“It is not to be doubted, that a single man of prudence and good sense is better fitted, in delicate conjunctures, to balance the motives which may plead for and against the remission of the punishment, than any numerous body whatever.”
Arnie did a lot of 80's classics: Terminator, Commando, Predator. Total Recall even, if you ignore it was 1990. But Running Man was down there with Red Heat. It's not bad, it's just not very good.
Comments
The “guests” to our country don’t pay for their tickets. Cheshunt stop especially - from the Marriott there.
They’ll jump the barrier or follow someone through at Livwrpool Street. The “guards” couldn’t care less Happens everyday. And it does. Sometimes I wonder about this site - is anyone living in the real world?
This is exactly one of those stories that cuts through.
They’re absolutely screwed.
"I'll be back"
"Only in a re-run!"
Kids don't get easily taken from their parents. And if they do, they mostly get sent to other family members,
If you end up in the care system proper, then you are almost certainly the victim of abuse and neglect. You will probably have been excluded from school. You will likely have substance issues.
Social services does their best, but these are exceptionally damaged kids, who have been fucked over by every adult they've ever gotten close to. Not to mention the fact that the girls are regularly sexually abused by the boys.
I knew a kid at Cambridge who had come out the care system. He was one of the most traumatised people I've ever known. His stories would be unbelievable to anyone on here who doesn't know social care.
He was the exception. I doubt a fraction of 1% of people in the care system make it to any kind of university. Most reach 18 and graduate from these homes go straight into a life of benefits and petty crime.
This is still going on today.
The police know how fucked up social care is. They know that the girls have been abused and some have been picked up for soliciting. They know they are inarticulate and make poor witnesses. Even without the ethnic element, they were lazy because these were not easy cases to make.
I would love it if - now we know about the grooming gangs - that kids (particularly girls) in care were less likely to be raped and abused. Sadly, I think it is hghly unlikely. As a society, we've chosen to pretend these problems don't exist, because they are really difficult problems to solve.
Why not Wikipedia? Because Wikipedia does not have an entry for the ranch -- and Wikipedia's "Kiwanis" entry is just a stub.
You should have been to a British public school in the seventies, Jim.
At mine they discovered four teachers were molesting boys, got them to leave quietly, and gave them references for another school.
A decade or so later, they were jailed for offences at that one.
Can't find their cases online anymore; right to be forgotten data removal.
That is Chelmsford alright, I bought a pair of trainers from that Schuh last week! And they are pointing him towards the station.
This is incredible
Anyone ?
Apparently the case all kicked off because a guy lost $1 million in a game, wouldn't pay and was then threatened with being blown up by grenade attack. He went to the police, who busted on game, the guy who was running it then slipped the beans on the really big game.
But criminals aren't very bright. One NBA player who makes $25 million a year was throwing games for $25k. And the central case was allegedly 30 people to run the rigged poker games which they made $7 million out it. Sounds good until you find out the central guy was an superstar NBA player / coach who has made $100 million and still making millions a year coaching. 7 million split 30 ways...
Even if like so many sports stars he wasted his cut of $100 million, still making millions a year as a coach versus cutting a million 30 ways....
It plays directly into the Reform narrative that Labour aren’t serious about fixing the system, they’re incompetent, they can’t get a grip on anything to do with asylum and Starmer is too weak. Labour know this is all coming. See how quickly Lammy came out with a statement and Starmer took to twitter to plaintively cry “deport! deport!”
He says prosecutors were asking 'not what the then Government was prepared to do, or did, say in public about China (whether framed as its policy or otherwise, and whether as a matter of fact true or not), but rather whether China was - as a matter of fact - an active threat to national security'
What were schools doing, for instance?
When I was a teenager my uncle was staying with us. He was much younger than my mother and a very handsome Italian. He walked me to school one morning and kissed me goodbye (normal peck on the cheek) before I went in. A teacher must have seen as I was called in to be asked who he was etc and the school then checked with my mother to make sure that what I had told them was correct. It all seemed perfectly normal to me - that adults would be noticing what children they were responsible for were doing and checking that it was all ok.
Did no-one notice that young girls were going round with men old enough to be their fathers? Adults in this country need to learn to behave like adults. I realise this may seem a hideously old-fashioned view. But I don't care. Too many adults have forgotten this and behave like petulant teenagers instead. We need some grown ups in charge everywhere. See also the evidence which has come out today in the Southport murders case - which is really chilling. An experienced teacher did her job and was shut down by some idiot who failed to engage brain and think.
From Wiki, the plot of Running Man
By 2017, following a worldwide economic collapse and resource scarcity, the United States has become a totalitarian police state. The government maintains control through propaganda, censoring unsanctioned art, music, and communications.
The "enemies" stuff is garbage.
It seems this is very complex but the select committees will no doubt get to the bottom of why the trial collapsed and who was responsible and why
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgk9xxg982o
"Police are investigating "irregularities" in the finances of the Alba Party after a complaint was raised by the party's leadership in May.
It follows a row between the party and its former general secretary, Chris McEleny, who was dismissed earlier this year after initially being suspended for alleged gross misconduct.
A source close to McEleny said he was "completely content that the finances of the party under the leadership of Alex Salmond were both sound and compliant".
But an Alba Party spokesperson said Salmond had "concerns about the management of the party"."
So if the total of Alba's voters shift their choice - that's another dozen or so votes for Labour or the SNP.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15224639/Manhunt-Epping-hotel-migrant-sex-attacker-accidentally-freed-prison.html
And those are the ones who haven't fallen to the very bottom of the heap.
He tells you how it works - the care staff had to watch as these girls went out to meet their "friends". It was (and is) illegal to restrain them. If he even grabbed an arm, he (Winston Smith() would be dobbed in by his manager and charged with assaulting a child.
https://youtu.be/UsmiRIozzvw?si=tJCrCSZBSMtT2YbX
It's a bit too easy to write off all kids in care like that.
But you're right that many are damaged or deeply traumatised, and dealing with kids in care is one of the harder ways to earn a living.
How many PBers are social workers, foster carers, or even independent visitors ?
It must be a “cultural” thing I’m unaware of and I must understand and be educated more to alleviate my unconscious bias against child abuse.
A well functioning criminal justice system would have seen them in court before Starmer took office, of course.
The Metropolitan Police is reviewing 9,000 cases in a huge new grooming gangs probe despite Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s previous denials any operated in the capital.
The announcement comes after an Express/MyLondon investigation exposed several potential grooming gang cases in London appeared to have been overlooked.
Khan has repeatedly stated there were “no reports” or “indications” that London was blighted by the type of abuse that affected towns like Rochdale and Rotherham.
But on Friday evening, the Met revealed it has 9,000 cases to reassess.
In a letter from Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to the Mayor, London’s top cop tells Khan he is “responding to questions about child sexual exploitation” adding that “any sexual offending against children is abhorrent but group-based offending, including that characterised as ‘Grooming Gangs’, is particularly insidious. And devastating in its profound impact on the children affected.”
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2125659/met-police-grooming-gang-cases-reopen
The Treasury will roughly halve the £20,000 amount that can be shielded from tax in an attempt to encourage savers to invest in stocks and shares.
Lucy Rigby, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, told The Telegraph the reforms could be described as “Thatcherite”.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/10/24/reeves-to-slash-cash-isas-in-budget/
"Asylum seeker seen on the streets of Chelmsford after being handed £76 and allowed to leave jail by accident"
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10/24/epping-migrant-sex-offender-accidentally-released-prison/
And btw, the felon pled guilty.
Reporter: On the pardon, Binance has significant business interests with the President’s family’s crypto company. How do you respond to allegations that this is a corrupt act?
Leavitt: The President is exercising his constitutional authority to grant clemency requests. This was an overly prosecuted case by the Biden administration.
https://x.com/Acyn/status/1981417027442266367
https://www.hl.co.uk/funds/fund-discounts,-prices--and--factsheets/search-results/r/royal-london-short-term-money-market-class-y-accumulation
(Well done though!)
It's a CLASSIC
I like the principle of ISAs because they encourage people to save. But anything above about £5k per year (or gains on a principle of about £20k in total) is undoubtedly a tax break for people in a pretty good financial position - me included.
It's mad that my earned income is taxed at 40%+ but I can make thousands in gains on my ISA and the Treasury doesn't get a penny.
Pentagon to use $130 million donation from anonymous Trump ‘friend’ to pay military members
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/10/24/politics/anonymous-donor-military-pay-shutdown
The Trump administration plans to funnel a $130 million donation from an anonymous ally of President Donald Trump toward paying military service members during the government shutdown, the Defense Department confirmed on Friday.
“The donation was made on the condition that it be used to offset the cost of Service members’ salaries and benefits,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to CNN, adding that the money was accepted under the department’s “general gift acceptance authority.”
The move marks a striking departure from government procedure for funding the military, which traditionally relies on public funds appropriated by Congress..
It doesn't "traditionally rely" on Congressional appropriations; it does so as required explicitly by law.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/royals/37118388/andrew-offered-lavish-abu-dhabi-palace-royals/
The framers were not omniscient or infallible, and I guess the idea of Washington issuing pardons in return for massive bribes just didn't even occur to them. It was literally unthinkable.
And anyway, wasn't that why the power to impeach is there ... ?
Wow. The decline of America into a one king ruler state has been way way faster than even the extreme pessimists imagined.
Let this be a warning to us.
Hence the replacement of the Squirearchy with elected offices (judges, Sheriffs)
The unelected senate was the House of Lords, but appointed by the States.
The President was supposed to be a replaceable Constitutional Monarch. Think George III, but local and elected.
The power of pardon by The King is something from before history.
What could possibly go wrong?
I’m waiting for the Safeguarding Minister to tell us that it sounds just like a night out in Birmingham
But see Hamilton's arguments in Federalist paper 74:
https://billofrightsinstitute.org/primary-sources/federalist-74
The crews are volunteers who are trained in their spare time to the highest levels of seamanship to save lives at sea
You may not know but my son is a fully trained helm and next week attends a course on navigation for progress to eventually be coming a coxswain
These men and women put their lives at risk often venturing out in storm force seas to save others
They do not deserve your cheap and disgusting comment
Shame on you
He was always an odd duck for a ScotNat though. He wanted to keep Trident and charge rent. Sensible actually, but out of step with mainstream ScotNat opinion IIRC.
The Pres. was supposed to be a constitutional monarch with added elections.
But for Tres he just touched a knee. So what’s the fuss?
In before SKS tweets abour how ID Cards and AI will solve this problem.
Arnie did a lot of 80's classics: Terminator, Commando, Predator. Total Recall even, if you ignore it was 1990. But Running Man was down there with Red Heat. It's not bad, it's just not very good.