For gods sake, SKS is on full whine mode. I'm sure he thinks this is a winning like of attack on Kemi, and maybe it is but my word doesn't he sound reduced.
No winners here today, only whiners.
But why didn’t Kemi stand up for herself? Comeback with what Starmer was pushing was spin?
It was like watching a boat in a boat show parade being blown to bits by a sub ☹️
Didn't think she was any good either, but she's not PM.
It was like that Knight from Monty Python, having its arm chopped off, a pause, and then repeating “but what about cost of petrol gone up this week, what are you doing about it. Don’t you realise Everyone’s upset about it?”
And then off was chopped a leg. And then she repeated it again.
I expect it is a very real worry for drivers as pump prices have already risen with who knows how much more
Add in energy and food inflation then the government have a real problem
For gods sake, SKS is on full whine mode. I'm sure he thinks this is a winning like of attack on Kemi, and maybe it is but my word doesn't he sound reduced.
No winners here today, only whiners.
But why didn’t Kemi stand up for herself? Comeback with what Starmer was pushing was spin?
It was like watching a boat in a boat show parade being blown to bits by a sub ☹️
Didn't think she was any good either, but she's not PM.
It was like that Knight from Monty Python, having its arm chopped off, a pause, and then repeating “but what about cost of petrol gone up this week, what are you doing about it. Don’t you realise Everyone’s upset about it?”
And then off was chopped a leg. And then she repeated it again.
I expect it is a very real worry for drivers as pump prices have already risen with who knows how much more
Add in energy and food inflation then the government have a real problem
You're cheering a war
You're praying it lasts
You're desperate to see the UK suffer
You cannot cope with the fact that b4 the war the economy was improving.
"UK wildlife to replace historical figures like Churchill and Shakespeare on banknotes King Charles' portrait will continue to appear on the next series of notes - but they will "showcase the UK's rich and varied wildlife"."
That consultation is news to me, and a sample of 44k seems very low to make such a significant change.
How boring.
Might I suggest that nothing ever gets done in the country because of the attitude that bank note design is “such a significant change” and a consultation with 44,000 is insufficient?
Especially when the proportion of the population who regularly use bank notes is falling precipitously.
It also has the benefit of stopping tiresome culture war debates about who should be on the bank notes every few years.
"UK wildlife to replace historical figures like Churchill and Shakespeare on banknotes King Charles' portrait will continue to appear on the next series of notes - but they will "showcase the UK's rich and varied wildlife"."
The probable curse of the grey area and the procedural policeman.
I've just heard from an acquaintance with Fibromyalgia (a neurological condition where walking any distance is physically painful), who received an electrical assist cycle under a Council backed leasing scheme 6 months ago.
Her mobility aid has now been confiscated by the police after a "wheel speed" test. She has not modified it.
1st complaint has been rejected, and it sounds like it is going to be a nightmare to get it back. Meanwhile, she is more or less stuck at home.
I have advised talking to MP and Police & Crime Commissioner, and the media, to get it our of the "routine" stream.
For gods sake, SKS is on full whine mode. I'm sure he thinks this is a winning like of attack on Kemi, and maybe it is but my word doesn't he sound reduced.
No winners here today, only whiners.
But why didn’t Kemi stand up for herself? Comeback with what Starmer was pushing was spin?
It was like watching a boat in a boat show parade being blown to bits by a sub ☹️
Didn't think she was any good either, but she's not PM.
It was like that Knight from Monty Python, having its arm chopped off, a pause, and then repeating “but what about cost of petrol gone up this week, what are you doing about it. Don’t you realise Everyone’s upset about it?”
Ffs shes not there to respond to Starmers rants and obfuscation. He is there to answer questions. What do you think people will be more exercised about ultimately.... who said what about Iran when or being fucking skint because petrol is 2 quid a litre?
I think it’s the former. All the voters clearly know Kemi backed the war initially, to make hay in clear blue water, and then u turned. And her MPs know it. It is a big deal.
I don't. And it isn't
No point arguing about it now, as we need to see how it pans out.
For gods sake, SKS is on full whine mode. I'm sure he thinks this is a winning like of attack on Kemi, and maybe it is but my word doesn't he sound reduced.
No winners here today, only whiners.
But why didn’t Kemi stand up for herself? Comeback with what Starmer was pushing was spin?
It was like watching a boat in a boat show parade being blown to bits by a sub ☹️
Didn't think she was any good either, but she's not PM.
For gods sake, SKS is on full whine mode. I'm sure he thinks this is a winning like of attack on Kemi, and maybe it is but my word doesn't he sound reduced.
No winners here today, only whiners.
But why didn’t Kemi stand up for herself? Comeback with what Starmer was pushing was spin?
It was like watching a boat in a boat show parade being blown to bits by a sub ☹️
Didn't think she was any good either, but she's not PM.
It was like that Knight from Monty Python, having its arm chopped off, a pause, and then repeating “but what about cost of petrol gone up this week, what are you doing about it. Don’t you realise Everyone’s upset about it?”
And then off was chopped a leg. And then she repeated it again.
I expect it is a very real worry for drivers as pump prices have already risen with who knows how much more
Add in energy and food inflation then the government have a real problem
For gods sake, SKS is on full whine mode. I'm sure he thinks this is a winning like of attack on Kemi, and maybe it is but my word doesn't he sound reduced.
No winners here today, only whiners.
But why didn’t Kemi stand up for herself? Comeback with what Starmer was pushing was spin?
It was like watching a boat in a boat show parade being blown to bits by a sub ☹️
Didn't think she was any good either, but she's not PM.
It was like that Knight from Monty Python, having its arm chopped off, a pause, and then repeating “but what about cost of petrol gone up this week, what are you doing about it. Don’t you realise Everyone’s upset about it?”
And then off was chopped a leg. And then she repeated it again.
I expect it is a very real worry for drivers as pump prices have already risen with who knows how much more
Add in energy and food inflation then the government have a real problem
You're cheering a war
You're praying it lasts
You're desperate to see the UK suffer
You cannot cope with the fact that b4 the war the economy was improving.
Same old Tories
Patriots my fucking backside
Snide sneering traitors
You're embarrassing yourself now Lunchtime drinking is so 90s.
"UK wildlife to replace historical figures like Churchill and Shakespeare on banknotes King Charles' portrait will continue to appear on the next series of notes - but they will "showcase the UK's rich and varied wildlife"."
That consultation is news to me, and a sample of 44k seems very low to make such a significant change.
How boring.
Might I suggest that nothing ever gets done in the country because of the attitude that bank note design is “such a significant change” and a consultation with 44,000 is insufficient?
Might I suggest that you're a pompous tedious timewasting twat?
The probable curse of the grey area and the procedural policeman.
I've just heard from an acquaintance with Fibromyalgia (a neurological condition where walking any distance is physically painful), who received an electrical assist cycle under a Council backed leasing scheme 6 months ago.
Her mobility aid has now been seized by the police after a "wheel speed" test. She has not modified it. I have no idea whether there is a 10% MOE on these.
1st complaint has been rejected, and it sounds like it is going to be a nightmare to get it back. Meanwhile, she is more or less stuck at home.
I have advised talking to MP and Police & Crime Commissioner, and the media, to get it our of the "routine" stream.
What a f*cking mess. We are seeing more of these.
ACAB
It’s happened to moped riders too.
However the little angels on the sur-Rons with balaclavas proceed with impunity
For gods sake, SKS is on full whine mode. I'm sure he thinks this is a winning like of attack on Kemi, and maybe it is but my word doesn't he sound reduced.
No winners here today, only whiners.
But why didn’t Kemi stand up for herself? Comeback with what Starmer was pushing was spin?
It was like watching a boat in a boat show parade being blown to bits by a sub ☹️
Didn't think she was any good either, but she's not PM.
It was like that Knight from Monty Python, having its arm chopped off, a pause, and then repeating “but what about cost of petrol gone up this week, what are you doing about it. Don’t you realise Everyone’s upset about it?”
And then off was chopped a leg. And then she repeated it again.
I expect it is a very real worry for drivers as pump prices have already risen with who knows how much more
Add in energy and food inflation then the government have a real problem
For gods sake, SKS is on full whine mode. I'm sure he thinks this is a winning like of attack on Kemi, and maybe it is but my word doesn't he sound reduced.
No winners here today, only whiners.
But why didn’t Kemi stand up for herself? Comeback with what Starmer was pushing was spin?
It was like watching a boat in a boat show parade being blown to bits by a sub ☹️
Didn't think she was any good either, but she's not PM.
It was like that Knight from Monty Python, having its arm chopped off, a pause, and then repeating “but what about cost of petrol gone up this week, what are you doing about it. Don’t you realise Everyone’s upset about it?”
And then off was chopped a leg. And then she repeated it again.
I expect it is a very real worry for drivers as pump prices have already risen with who knows how much more
Add in energy and food inflation then the government have a real problem
You're cheering a war
You're praying it lasts
You're desperate to see the UK suffer
You cannot cope with the fact that b4 the war the economy was improving.
Same old Tories
Patriots my fucking backside
Snide sneering traitors
You're embarrassing yourself now Lunchtime drinking is so 90s.
For gods sake, SKS is on full whine mode. I'm sure he thinks this is a winning like of attack on Kemi, and maybe it is but my word doesn't he sound reduced.
No winners here today, only whiners.
But why didn’t Kemi stand up for herself? Comeback with what Starmer was pushing was spin?
It was like watching a boat in a boat show parade being blown to bits by a sub ☹️
Didn't think she was any good either, but she's not PM.
It was like that Knight from Monty Python, having its arm chopped off, a pause, and then repeating “but what about cost of petrol gone up this week, what are you doing about it. Don’t you realise Everyone’s upset about it?”
And then off was chopped a leg. And then she repeated it again.
I expect it is a very real worry for drivers as pump prices have already risen with who knows how much more
Add in energy and food inflation then the government have a real problem
For gods sake, SKS is on full whine mode. I'm sure he thinks this is a winning like of attack on Kemi, and maybe it is but my word doesn't he sound reduced.
No winners here today, only whiners.
But why didn’t Kemi stand up for herself? Comeback with what Starmer was pushing was spin?
It was like watching a boat in a boat show parade being blown to bits by a sub ☹️
Didn't think she was any good either, but she's not PM.
It was like that Knight from Monty Python, having its arm chopped off, a pause, and then repeating “but what about cost of petrol gone up this week, what are you doing about it. Don’t you realise Everyone’s upset about it?”
And then off was chopped a leg. And then she repeated it again.
I expect it is a very real worry for drivers as pump prices have already risen with who knows how much more
Add in energy and food inflation then the government have a real problem
You're cheering a war
You're praying it lasts
You're desperate to see the UK suffer
You cannot cope with the fact that b4 the war the economy was improving.
Same old Tories
Patriots my fucking backside
Snide sneering traitors
You're embarrassing yourself now Lunchtime drinking is so 90s.
For gods sake, SKS is on full whine mode. I'm sure he thinks this is a winning like of attack on Kemi, and maybe it is but my word doesn't he sound reduced.
No winners here today, only whiners.
But why didn’t Kemi stand up for herself? Comeback with what Starmer was pushing was spin?
It was like watching a boat in a boat show parade being blown to bits by a sub ☹️
Didn't think she was any good either, but she's not PM.
It was like that Knight from Monty Python, having its arm chopped off, a pause, and then repeating “but what about cost of petrol gone up this week, what are you doing about it. Don’t you realise Everyone’s upset about it?”
And then off was chopped a leg. And then she repeated it again.
I expect it is a very real worry for drivers as pump prices have already risen with who knows how much more
Add in energy and food inflation then the government have a real problem
For gods sake, SKS is on full whine mode. I'm sure he thinks this is a winning like of attack on Kemi, and maybe it is but my word doesn't he sound reduced.
No winners here today, only whiners.
But why didn’t Kemi stand up for herself? Comeback with what Starmer was pushing was spin?
It was like watching a boat in a boat show parade being blown to bits by a sub ☹️
Didn't think she was any good either, but she's not PM.
It was like that Knight from Monty Python, having its arm chopped off, a pause, and then repeating “but what about cost of petrol gone up this week, what are you doing about it. Don’t you realise Everyone’s upset about it?”
And then off was chopped a leg. And then she repeated it again.
I expect it is a very real worry for drivers as pump prices have already risen with who knows how much more
Add in energy and food inflation then the government have a real problem
You're cheering a war
You're praying it lasts
You're desperate to see the UK suffer
You cannot cope with the fact that b4 the war the economy was improving.
Same old Tories
Patriots my fucking backside
Snide sneering traitors
Your hysteria and abusive language is out of control and indeed verges on being libelous
The probable curse of the grey area and the procedural policeman.
I've just heard from an acquaintance with Fibromyalgia (a neurological condition where walking any distance is physically painful), who received an electrical assist cycle under a Council backed leasing scheme 6 months ago.
Her mobility aid has now been confiscated by the police after a "wheel speed" test. She has not modified it.
1st complaint has been rejected, and it sounds like it is going to be a nightmare to get it back. Meanwhile, she is more or less stuck at home.
I have advised talking to MP and Police & Crime Commissioner, and the media, to get it our of the "routine" stream.
What a f*cking mess. We are seeing more of these.
You know what the test consists of?
The Nottingham police are using a mobile testing rig - a dynamometer - which tests the maximum speed an electric bike is capable of. They have been using them to collar a lot of delivery riders with illegally modified bikes around the city.
The Speaker should enforce the answering of questions .
What’s the point of PMQs if questions are just ignored ?
PMQs has been a joke for years, but this is as bad as it has ever been. Starmer hardly ever answers a question from the opposition benches. He comes across terribly, even Brown was better than this.
I'd bin the whole thing, it rarely enlightens, and it has become mainly opposition gotchas versus government bench ingratiating. It makes the whole institution, and the country by association, look like unserious and worthless.
4 times he told her she was talking about a policy 6 months away from being implemented
Twice he told her it was being monitored along with cost of living issues
She's so fixated on reading her pre prepared lines and smirking, she never listens
Badenoch is not the only person who asked questions. Starmer doesn't really answer any question from any person on the opposition benches, and questions from his own benches are simply "aren't we great".
The whole exercise is a joke. It serves no purpose. It's just a bunch of idiots looking for a soundbite or something to stick on a campaing leaflet. It does not reflect well on the country.
He specifically answered 2 Tory questions, 2 LD questions and 2 Lab questions where he promised to act or get the relevant minister to act..
The probable curse of the grey area and the procedural policeman.
I've just heard from an acquaintance with Fibromyalgia (a neurological condition where walking any distance is physically painful), who received an electrical assist cycle under a Council backed leasing scheme 6 months ago.
Her mobility aid has now been seized by the police after a "wheel speed" test. She has not modified it. I have no idea whether there is a 10% MOE on these.
1st complaint has been rejected, and it sounds like it is going to be a nightmare to get it back. Meanwhile, she is more or less stuck at home.
I have advised talking to MP and Police & Crime Commissioner, and the media, to get it our of the "routine" stream.
What a f*cking mess. We are seeing more of these.
She needs to get the press involved. They will take them apart.
Looks like the venerable and rightly respected David Davis may be about to get his break in the Letby case.
Police and CPS have confirmed that the Prosecution did not disclose that a key witness Professor Hindmarsh who worked at relevant Maternity Unit was himself under investigation for serious allegations of patient neglect and care from a period at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
This must raise ever further very serious doubts about the original conviction
Big bit in Private Eye last week on this. Its potentially massive. And they are still running an inquiry based on how did we miss a murderer on the ward, when there is a chance that there was NO murderer, just poorly babies on an unsafe ward.
No-one has ever explained where the insulin came from.
The inquiry is due to report soon.
The new news is second order stuff. It’s not directly about the evidence against Letby. This doesn’t change the witness evidence about Letby’s behaviour, that Letby stole medical records, the notes Letby wrote to herself, or the other expert witnesses’ statements.it doesn’t change that the babies died when Letby was on duty and not when she wasn’t.
I don’t find the idea that the babies all died because it was an unsafe ward plausible. The deaths were unexpected, not of the illest babies, which is who you would you’d expect to be affected if this was just poor care. The defence at trial accepted that some of the babies must have been killed.
Why is the source of the insulin some big mystery?
I don't disagree with any of this. However, I do think that (a) her defence team made some inexplicable (to me anyway) decisions at the first trial and (b) may be enough to push her under the bar of reasonable doubt. Disclosure failures, particularly in criminal trials, are amongst the most serious procedural failings. You can't have a fair trial without discovery/disclosure. It's impossible.
The Post Office Horizon scandal was not about a shite IT system it was about human malfeasance, of which disclosure failures were amongst the most serious.
The Post Office scandal is a scandal about the legal profession. Every part of it failed: external counsel, in-house counsel, investigators, judges, the Ministry of Justice, the Attorney-General. All of them. It should be an object lesson in why you should never have lawyers making the final decisions in criminal matters, on why it is essential to have ordinary people at the heart of the system. Juries are one of the oldest and most democratic parts of our system. They bring ordinary wisdom into the process. They bring legitimacy and consent. And they bring the fundamental and necessary ability to tell the grand, the powerful, the experts, including lawyers, the self-important to get stuffed when they behave oppressively.
Little wonder Labour dislikes them: their period in government has been marked by contempt for ordinary people.
There were some jury trials in Post Office cases that still found people guilty. Were juries the cure for the Horizon scandal?
Would a judge, a member of the establishment, found otherwise ?
"UK wildlife to replace historical figures like Churchill and Shakespeare on banknotes King Charles' portrait will continue to appear on the next series of notes - but they will "showcase the UK's rich and varied wildlife"."
Looks like the venerable and rightly respected David Davis may be about to get his break in the Letby case.
Police and CPS have confirmed that the Prosecution did not disclose that a key witness Professor Hindmarsh who worked at relevant Maternity Unit was himself under investigation for serious allegations of patient neglect and care from a period at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
This must raise ever further very serious doubts about the original conviction
Big bit in Private Eye last week on this. Its potentially massive. And they are still running an inquiry based on how did we miss a murderer on the ward, when there is a chance that there was NO murderer, just poorly babies on an unsafe ward.
No-one has ever explained where the insulin came from.
The inquiry is due to report soon.
The new news is second order stuff. It’s not directly about the evidence against Letby. This doesn’t change the witness evidence about Letby’s behaviour, that Letby stole medical records, the notes Letby wrote to herself, or the other expert witnesses’ statements.it doesn’t change that the babies died when Letby was on duty and not when she wasn’t.
I don’t find the idea that the babies all died because it was an unsafe ward plausible. The deaths were unexpected, not of the illest babies, which is who you would you’d expect to be affected if this was just poor care. The defence at trial accepted that some of the babies must have been killed.
Why is the source of the insulin some big mystery?
I don't disagree with any of this. However, I do think that (a) her defence team made some inexplicable (to me anyway) decisions at the first trial and (b) may be enough to push her under the bar of reasonable doubt. Disclosure failures, particularly in criminal trials, are amongst the most serious procedural failings. You can't have a fair trial without discovery/disclosure. It's impossible.
The Post Office Horizon scandal was not about a shite IT system it was about human malfeasance, of which disclosure failures were amongst the most serious.
The Post Office scandal is a scandal about the legal profession. Every part of it failed: external counsel, in-house counsel, investigators, judges, the Ministry of Justice, the Attorney-General. All of them. It should be an object lesson in why you should never have lawyers making the final decisions in criminal matters, on why it is essential to have ordinary people at the heart of the system. Juries are one of the oldest and most democratic parts of our system. They bring ordinary wisdom into the process. They bring legitimacy and consent. And they bring the fundamental and necessary ability to tell the grand, the powerful, the experts, including lawyers, the self-important to get stuffed when they behave oppressively.
Little wonder Labour dislikes them: their period in government has been marked by contempt for ordinary people.
Modern Labour has been completely captured by a segment of the legal profession. One that has an obsession with removing ordinary people from the process.
In the Blair years, they tried, repeatedly to get rid of magistrates. Jury trials came up then as well, but it was considered too controversial to put a proposal forward.
The probable curse of the grey area and the procedural policeman.
I've just heard from an acquaintance with Fibromyalgia (a neurological condition where walking any distance is physically painful), who received an electrical assist cycle under a Council backed leasing scheme 6 months ago.
Her mobility aid has now been seized by the police after a "wheel speed" test. She has not modified it. I have no idea whether there is a 10% MOE on these.
1st complaint has been rejected, and it sounds like it is going to be a nightmare to get it back. Meanwhile, she is more or less stuck at home.
I have advised talking to MP and Police & Crime Commissioner, and the media, to get it our of the "routine" stream.
What a f*cking mess. We are seeing more of these.
The airport scene from Airplane comes to mind.
I will bet, that while she was having her mobility aid seized a convoy of Deliveroo riders hammered past, doing 30 in a 20 zone,
For gods sake, SKS is on full whine mode. I'm sure he thinks this is a winning like of attack on Kemi, and maybe it is but my word doesn't he sound reduced.
No winners here today, only whiners.
But why didn’t Kemi stand up for herself? Comeback with what Starmer was pushing was spin?
It was like watching a boat in a boat show parade being blown to bits by a sub ☹️
Didn't think she was any good either, but she's not PM.
It was like that Knight from Monty Python, having its arm chopped off, a pause, and then repeating “but what about cost of petrol gone up this week, what are you doing about it. Don’t you realise Everyone’s upset about it?”
And then off was chopped a leg. And then she repeated it again.
I expect it is a very real worry for drivers as pump prices have already risen with who knows how much more
Add in energy and food inflation then the government have a real problem
For gods sake, SKS is on full whine mode. I'm sure he thinks this is a winning like of attack on Kemi, and maybe it is but my word doesn't he sound reduced.
No winners here today, only whiners.
But why didn’t Kemi stand up for herself? Comeback with what Starmer was pushing was spin?
It was like watching a boat in a boat show parade being blown to bits by a sub ☹️
Didn't think she was any good either, but she's not PM.
It was like that Knight from Monty Python, having its arm chopped off, a pause, and then repeating “but what about cost of petrol gone up this week, what are you doing about it. Don’t you realise Everyone’s upset about it?”
And then off was chopped a leg. And then she repeated it again.
I expect it is a very real worry for drivers as pump prices have already risen with who knows how much more
Add in energy and food inflation then the government have a real problem
You're cheering a war
You're praying it lasts
You're desperate to see the UK suffer
You cannot cope with the fact that b4 the war the economy was improving.
Same old Tories
Patriots my fucking backside
Snide sneering traitors
It is going to last, it is going to endure.
Trump and Bibi have fucked up badly and we will all pay the price.
Sooner we get used to less supply and demand destruction the better
Iran shows no signs of stopping and are widening the scope to US tech companies
The Speaker should enforce the answering of questions .
What’s the point of PMQs if questions are just ignored ?
PMQs has been a joke for years, but this is as bad as it has ever been. Starmer hardly ever answers a question from the opposition benches. He comes across terribly, even Brown was better than this.
I'd bin the whole thing, it rarely enlightens, and it has become mainly opposition gotchas versus government bench ingratiating. It makes the whole institution, and the country by association, look like unserious and worthless.
4 times he told her she was talking about a policy 6 months away from being implemented
Twice he told her it was being monitored along with cost of living issues
She's so fixated on reading her pre prepared lines and smirking, she never listens
Badenoch is not the only person who asked questions. Starmer doesn't really answer any question from any person on the opposition benches, and questions from his own benches are simply "aren't we great".
The whole exercise is a joke. It serves no purpose. It's just a bunch of idiots looking for a soundbite or something to stick on a campaing leaflet. It does not reflect well on the country.
I largely agree, though I think it’s the sort of thing we’d miss if we did away with it entirely. The fact that our PM regularly has to present themselves before Parliament and subject themselves to a weekly Q&A session is I think useful.
It doesn’t need tremendous changes to be much better. Giving the speaker the ability to require answers to be on topic, restrictions on the baying/heckling (this one has got worse and they now all play into it - listen to a session from the 80s or 90s and it was nowhere near as bad), and pulling people up for bad behaviour (the insults are childish) would make it immeasurably better.
The next speaker should really try and push a few of these innovations through the House. There’s no reason Parliament has to be like this.
Looks like the venerable and rightly respected David Davis may be about to get his break in the Letby case.
Police and CPS have confirmed that the Prosecution did not disclose that a key witness Professor Hindmarsh who worked at relevant Maternity Unit was himself under investigation for serious allegations of patient neglect and care from a period at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
This must raise ever further very serious doubts about the original conviction
Big bit in Private Eye last week on this. Its potentially massive. And they are still running an inquiry based on how did we miss a murderer on the ward, when there is a chance that there was NO murderer, just poorly babies on an unsafe ward.
No-one has ever explained where the insulin came from.
The inquiry is due to report soon.
The new news is second order stuff. It’s not directly about the evidence against Letby. This doesn’t change the witness evidence about Letby’s behaviour, that Letby stole medical records, the notes Letby wrote to herself, or the other expert witnesses’ statements.it doesn’t change that the babies died when Letby was on duty and not when she wasn’t.
I don’t find the idea that the babies all died because it was an unsafe ward plausible. The deaths were unexpected, not of the illest babies, which is who you would you’d expect to be affected if this was just poor care. The defence at trial accepted that some of the babies must have been killed.
Why is the source of the insulin some big mystery?
I don't disagree with any of this. However, I do think that (a) her defence team made some inexplicable (to me anyway) decisions at the first trial and (b) may be enough to push her under the bar of reasonable doubt. Disclosure failures, particularly in criminal trials, are amongst the most serious procedural failings. You can't have a fair trial without discovery/disclosure. It's impossible.
The Post Office Horizon scandal was not about a shite IT system it was about human malfeasance, of which disclosure failures were amongst the most serious.
Maybe her defence team were privy to a lot more information than we have…?
I know we disagree on this (to the extent that I am more open to this being a miscarriage of justice then you, I think). Have you read MD's reports on this in Private Eye? There is an awful lot that we DO know about how the trial unfolded and indeed on how the case against her came to be. The media at the time portrayed the Letby shifts vs deaths chart as a slam dunk. It may not have been in the court room (I wasn't there). However the simple story of X babies' deaths were thought to be murder, the roster was checked and Lo! only Letby was on shift for all is not correct. When the case was being assembled deaths were added and removed, and ISTR some were removed because Letby wasn't on shift.
Time will tell and I hope for all concerned that justice is done. I don't think we are there yet, though. Cases like this are hard. There is an example from the Netherlands were a nurse was convicted of multiple accounts of murder and then later exonerated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucia_de_Berk_case
It’s very easy to sit here and go, ‘what about this, what about that, cases like this are hard,’ but at some point you have to make a decision. Guilty or not guilty. The way we do that is with a trial. Letby had a trial (and a second trial and multiple appeals). The (first) trial was of record length, about 10 months. The defence were able to challenge the list of babies thought to be murdered. As I understand it, the initial list of suspicious deaths was assembled blind to whether Letby was on shift and showed a clear pattern, backing up what local clinical staff had been saying for months, but of course you’re not going to charge Letby with murder in cases where you know she wasn’t there. The jury found her innocent with respect to some babies, so they clearly thought about the list of babies and the specifics of each charge.
The de Berk case involved the presentation, and misrepresentation, of statistical evidence. No statistical evidence was presented in Letby’s case. There are other similarities and dissimilarities, but ultimately Letby’s guilt or innocent has to be judged on her case, not on someone else’s.
Private Eye, or the Telegraph or the New Yorker are under no requirement to present the case fairly. I think a more interesting read is “Unmasking Lucy Letby” by Jonathan Coffey and Judith Moritz. They attended the trial. One of them thinks she’s guilty, the other has doubts. I think the resulting book gets closer to a fair representation of events.
The Speaker should enforce the answering of questions .
What’s the point of PMQs if questions are just ignored ?
PMQs has been a joke for years, but this is as bad as it has ever been. Starmer hardly ever answers a question from the opposition benches. He comes across terribly, even Brown was better than this.
I'd bin the whole thing, it rarely enlightens, and it has become mainly opposition gotchas versus government bench ingratiating. It makes the whole institution, and the country by association, look like unserious and worthless.
4 times he told her she was talking about a policy 6 months away from being implemented
Twice he told her it was being monitored along with cost of living issues
She's so fixated on reading her pre prepared lines and smirking, she never listens
Badenoch is not the only person who asked questions. Starmer doesn't really answer any question from any person on the opposition benches, and questions from his own benches are simply "aren't we great".
The whole exercise is a joke. It serves no purpose. It's just a bunch of idiots looking for a soundbite or something to stick on a campaing leaflet. It does not reflect well on the country.
He specifically answered 2 Tory questions, 2 LD questions and 2 Lab questions where he promised to act or get the relevant minister to act..
So another tone deaf tory bare faced lie
Those are more like requests, I don't know why such questions are even delivered at PMQs, you can ask for meetings or for information to be passed on outside of PMQs. They are more of publicity exercise than actually asking for a meaningful response in the chamber. Questions of policy, judgement, or to justify his actions simply get met with "14 year of Tory rule", "austerity" and other blather. How often does someone asking a sincere challenging question of the PM and get a meaningful response? Essentially never. Does the Speaker ever say "answer the question" to the PM? Not that I can recall.
So all you have to do at PMQs is slag off the opposition record, agree you're great when your own benches throw you a softball, and say you might pass on some information or see that a meeting is held.
It's genuinely absurd that PMQs is held up as an example of Britain's vibrant democracy. Almost any idiot could stand there for 30 minutes going through the motions.
"UK wildlife to replace historical figures like Churchill and Shakespeare on banknotes King Charles' portrait will continue to appear on the next series of notes - but they will "showcase the UK's rich and varied wildlife"."
That consultation is news to me, and a sample of 44k seems very low to make such a significant change.
How boring.
Might I suggest that nothing ever gets done in the country because of the attitude that bank note design is “such a significant change” and a consultation with 44,000 is insufficient?
Might I suggest that you're a pompous tedious timewasting twat?
Personally, I would say that Starmer has proven to be closer to my position on this than any of the leaders. If he wasn't so woolly, incoherent and inconsistent he might be doing even better.
He should take the flack from Trump and wear it with pride, it will do him more political good than anything else he or his government has done, well, ever actually.
My critique of Starmer and indeed the other European nations is that they have not gone far enough. They should have made it clear that there was no legal basis for this war, that it was and is a criminal act and that they disapprove of what both the US and Israel have done. After the Greenland fiasco Europe needs to stop aligning with the US by default. If they want a rules based system to survive they need to speak up for it. And that includes calling out your erstwhile friends when they act badly.
It is absolutely farcical to suggest there is no legal basis for war. Iran has been literally attacked Israel directly and indirectly and threatens their security, that is classic self-defence as has been the casus belli for plenty of wars over decades.
Some here have argued we should not join in as we are not Israel's ally, which I would dispute. But Israel absolutely has the right to fight Iran as part of its self-defence, and America is Israel's ally so has every right to assist them.
Has either Israel or the United States actually declared war? Odd that.
AFAIK America has never declared war since World War II so that is rather moot. Literally every single President since WWII has taken offensive actions abroad with their military, without seeking Congressional approval for doing so.
Similarly Iran and Israel have been fighting a shadow war since 1979 but formal declarations of war have fallen out of common practice globally post-WWII.
That's not true. There was a huge debate over the constitutional legality of Truman's actions in Korea, which was muddied by the US obtaining a UN resolution for the "police action". It wasn't satisfactorily resolved, since it was never adjudicated.
The brouhaha over the Pentagon Papers was because they revealed LBJ had consistently lied to both Congress and the American people about the escalation of US military action in Vietnam. The controversy led directly to Congress legislating to put explicit checks on Presidential war powers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Powers_Resolution
It's sleight of hand to claim that the ongoing debate over this means that Presidents have unchecked powers. They don't. A Congress less supine could decide to further limit them considerably.
It is true.
Yes, sometimes, Presidents have obtained Congressional approval, but not every time and 100% of POTUS's post-WWII have taken action without prior approval.
It is very easy to disprove that claim if you think it is false. I challenge you to name me one POTUS who never took action without prior approval, and I will either be able to say when they did or admit I was wrong.
William Henry Harrison.
He was President for three weeks in 1841 before catching pneumonia and dying.
He spent pretty much his whole Presidency surrounded by, and dealing with, office seekers, so didn't really have time to order military action, with or without Congressional approval.
The Speaker should enforce the answering of questions .
What’s the point of PMQs if questions are just ignored ?
PMQs has been a joke for years, but this is as bad as it has ever been. Starmer hardly ever answers a question from the opposition benches. He comes across terribly, even Brown was better than this.
I'd bin the whole thing, it rarely enlightens, and it has become mainly opposition gotchas versus government bench ingratiating. It makes the whole institution, and the country by association, look like unserious and worthless.
4 times he told her she was talking about a policy 6 months away from being implemented
Twice he told her it was being monitored along with cost of living issues
She's so fixated on reading her pre prepared lines and smirking, she never listens
Badenoch is not the only person who asked questions. Starmer doesn't really answer any question from any person on the opposition benches, and questions from his own benches are simply "aren't we great".
The whole exercise is a joke. It serves no purpose. It's just a bunch of idiots looking for a soundbite or something to stick on a campaing leaflet. It does not reflect well on the country.
I largely agree, though I think it’s the sort of thing we’d miss if we did away with it entirely. The fact that our PM regularly has to present themselves before Parliament and subject themselves to a weekly Q&A session is I think useful.
It doesn’t need tremendous changes to be much better. Giving the speaker the ability to require answers to be on topic, restrictions on the baying/heckling (this one has got worse and they now all play into it - listen to a session from the 80s or 90s and it was nowhere near as bad), and pulling people up for bad behaviour (the insults are childish) would make it immeasurably better.
The next speaker should really try and push a few of these innovations through the House. There’s no reason Parliament has to be like this.
The alternative would be to scrap PMQs, replace them with written questions, and require the PM to attend a beefed up Liaison Committee monthly rather than every four months.
That might offer far more effective scrutiny of the executive.
The probable curse of the grey area and the procedural policeman.
I've just heard from an acquaintance with Fibromyalgia (a neurological condition where walking any distance is physically painful), who received an electrical assist cycle under a Council backed leasing scheme 6 months ago.
Her mobility aid has now been seized by the police after a "wheel speed" test. She has not modified it. I have no idea whether there is a 10% MOE on these.
1st complaint has been rejected, and it sounds like it is going to be a nightmare to get it back. Meanwhile, she is more or less stuck at home.
I have advised talking to MP and Police & Crime Commissioner, and the media, to get it our of the "routine" stream.
What a f*cking mess. We are seeing more of these.
She needs to get the press involevd. They will take them apart.
Yes - I've said local paper and local TV. Most of this issue is about training the police by embarrassment to force change, as there are a whole series of questions which arise.
One is a tension between "what can this do" (capability) and "what was this person doing" (behaviour). They are I think perhaps seizing on an evaluation of "what could this thing do" being presumably 16+ mph or similar * using their meter; a woman with fibromyalgia is not going to be hooning around dangerously. Imagine the fun if we started seizing and crushing all the motor vehicles physically capable of doing 71mph.
In a sense it's slightly like the Council Enforcement Officers in Scunthorpe targeting pensioners in their town centre under measures designed to target ASBO youth, because enforcement against minors is more difficult.
My own e-Brompton has a 20mph option because it can be switched to the "USA" setting. My e-Boardman has no limit at all, since it is grandfathered in from before 2014.
The Speaker should enforce the answering of questions .
What’s the point of PMQs if questions are just ignored ?
PMQs has been a joke for years, but this is as bad as it has ever been. Starmer hardly ever answers a question from the opposition benches. He comes across terribly, even Brown was better than this.
I'd bin the whole thing, it rarely enlightens, and it has become mainly opposition gotchas versus government bench ingratiating. It makes the whole institution, and the country by association, look like unserious and worthless.
4 times he told her she was talking about a policy 6 months away from being implemented
Twice he told her it was being monitored along with cost of living issues
She's so fixated on reading her pre prepared lines and smirking, she never listens
Badenoch is not the only person who asked questions. Starmer doesn't really answer any question from any person on the opposition benches, and questions from his own benches are simply "aren't we great".
The whole exercise is a joke. It serves no purpose. It's just a bunch of idiots looking for a soundbite or something to stick on a campaing leaflet. It does not reflect well on the country.
I largely agree, though I think it’s the sort of thing we’d miss if we did away with it entirely. The fact that our PM regularly has to present themselves before Parliament and subject themselves to a weekly Q&A session is I think useful.
It doesn’t need tremendous changes to be much better. Giving the speaker the ability to require answers to be on topic, restrictions on the baying/heckling (this one has got worse and they now all play into it - listen to a session from the 80s or 90s and it was nowhere near as bad), and pulling people up for bad behaviour (the insults are childish) would make it immeasurably better.
The next speaker should really try and push a few of these innovations through the House. There’s no reason Parliament has to be like this.
I think PMQs are really important. If the US, had PMQs, Trump would never have been re-elected and Biden would’ve been retired much sooner.
Looks like the venerable and rightly respected David Davis may be about to get his break in the Letby case.
Police and CPS have confirmed that the Prosecution did not disclose that a key witness Professor Hindmarsh who worked at relevant Maternity Unit was himself under investigation for serious allegations of patient neglect and care from a period at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
This must raise ever further very serious doubts about the original conviction
Big bit in Private Eye last week on this. Its potentially massive. And they are still running an inquiry based on how did we miss a murderer on the ward, when there is a chance that there was NO murderer, just poorly babies on an unsafe ward.
No-one has ever explained where the insulin came from.
The inquiry is due to report soon.
The new news is second order stuff. It’s not directly about the evidence against Letby. This doesn’t change the witness evidence about Letby’s behaviour, that Letby stole medical records, the notes Letby wrote to herself, or the other expert witnesses’ statements.it doesn’t change that the babies died when Letby was on duty and not when she wasn’t.
I don’t find the idea that the babies all died because it was an unsafe ward plausible. The deaths were unexpected, not of the illest babies, which is who you would you’d expect to be affected if this was just poor care. The defence at trial accepted that some of the babies must have been killed.
Why is the source of the insulin some big mystery?
I don't disagree with any of this. However, I do think that (a) her defence team made some inexplicable (to me anyway) decisions at the first trial and (b) may be enough to push her under the bar of reasonable doubt. Disclosure failures, particularly in criminal trials, are amongst the most serious procedural failings. You can't have a fair trial without discovery/disclosure. It's impossible.
The Post Office Horizon scandal was not about a shite IT system it was about human malfeasance, of which disclosure failures were amongst the most serious.
The Post Office scandal is a scandal about the legal profession. Every part of it failed: external counsel, in-house counsel, investigators, judges, the Ministry of Justice, the Attorney-General. All of them. It should be an object lesson in why you should never have lawyers making the final decisions in criminal matters, on why it is essential to have ordinary people at the heart of the system. Juries are one of the oldest and most democratic parts of our system. They bring ordinary wisdom into the process. They bring legitimacy and consent. And they bring the fundamental and necessary ability to tell the grand, the powerful, the experts, including lawyers, the self-important to get stuffed when they behave oppressively.
Little wonder Labour dislikes them: their period in government has been marked by contempt for ordinary people.
Modern Labour has been completely captured by a segment of the legal profession. One that has an obsession with removing ordinary people from the process.
In the Blair years, they tried, repeatedly to get rid of magistrates. Jury trials came up then as well, but it was considered too controversial to put a proposal forward.
There is a long trend of not trusting people. Which i get, but is very defeatist. It extends the other way where we don't trust politicians so pressure to have courts or unelected quangos decide things, which is often not an improvement.
Listening to the news of continuing attacks by Iran, and Israel into Beirut, together with the highly dangerous straits I just cannot see an early end to the crisis
It is a dreadful position that is going to impact all of us and Starmer is finding out the hard way that the government of the day is held responsible for both the safety of its citizens and the economic effects
"UK wildlife to replace historical figures like Churchill and Shakespeare on banknotes King Charles' portrait will continue to appear on the next series of notes - but they will "showcase the UK's rich and varied wildlife"."
That consultation is news to me, and a sample of 44k seems very low to make such a significant change.
How boring.
Might I suggest that nothing ever gets done in the country because of the attitude that bank note design is “such a significant change” and a consultation with 44,000 is insufficient?
The Speaker should enforce the answering of questions .
What’s the point of PMQs if questions are just ignored ?
PMQs has been a joke for years, but this is as bad as it has ever been. Starmer hardly ever answers a question from the opposition benches. He comes across terribly, even Brown was better than this.
I'd bin the whole thing, it rarely enlightens, and it has become mainly opposition gotchas versus government bench ingratiating. It makes the whole institution, and the country by association, look like unserious and worthless.
4 times he told her she was talking about a policy 6 months away from being implemented
Twice he told her it was being monitored along with cost of living issues
She's so fixated on reading her pre prepared lines and smirking, she never listens
Badenoch is not the only person who asked questions. Starmer doesn't really answer any question from any person on the opposition benches, and questions from his own benches are simply "aren't we great".
The whole exercise is a joke. It serves no purpose. It's just a bunch of idiots looking for a soundbite or something to stick on a campaing leaflet. It does not reflect well on the country.
I largely agree, though I think it’s the sort of thing we’d miss if we did away with it entirely. The fact that our PM regularly has to present themselves before Parliament and subject themselves to a weekly Q&A session is I think useful.
It doesn’t need tremendous changes to be much better. Giving the speaker the ability to require answers to be on topic, restrictions on the baying/heckling (this one has got worse and they now all play into it - listen to a session from the 80s or 90s and it was nowhere near as bad), and pulling people up for bad behaviour (the insults are childish) would make it immeasurably better.
The next speaker should really try and push a few of these innovations through the House. There’s no reason Parliament has to be like this.
The alternative would be to scrap PMQs, replace them with written questions, and require the PM to attend a beefed up Liaison Committee monthly rather than every four months.
That might offer far more effective scrutiny of the executive.
Worth doing, but i don't believe that most people object to the braying absurdity of PMQs. They say they do, but if it was truly a negative the parties would stop.
The Speaker should enforce the answering of questions .
What’s the point of PMQs if questions are just ignored ?
PMQs has been a joke for years, but this is as bad as it has ever been. Starmer hardly ever answers a question from the opposition benches. He comes across terribly, even Brown was better than this.
I'd bin the whole thing, it rarely enlightens, and it has become mainly opposition gotchas versus government bench ingratiating. It makes the whole institution, and the country by association, look like unserious and worthless.
4 times he told her she was talking about a policy 6 months away from being implemented
Twice he told her it was being monitored along with cost of living issues
She's so fixated on reading her pre prepared lines and smirking, she never listens
Badenoch is not the only person who asked questions. Starmer doesn't really answer any question from any person on the opposition benches, and questions from his own benches are simply "aren't we great".
The whole exercise is a joke. It serves no purpose. It's just a bunch of idiots looking for a soundbite or something to stick on a campaing leaflet. It does not reflect well on the country.
I largely agree, though I think it’s the sort of thing we’d miss if we did away with it entirely. The fact that our PM regularly has to present themselves before Parliament and subject themselves to a weekly Q&A session is I think useful.
It doesn’t need tremendous changes to be much better. Giving the speaker the ability to require answers to be on topic, restrictions on the baying/heckling (this one has got worse and they now all play into it - listen to a session from the 80s or 90s and it was nowhere near as bad), and pulling people up for bad behaviour (the insults are childish) would make it immeasurably better.
The next speaker should really try and push a few of these innovations through the House. There’s no reason Parliament has to be like this.
I think PMQs are really important. If the US, had PMQs, Trump would never have been re-elected and Biden would’ve been retired much sooner.
Agreed. And, from the opposition's pov the point is absolutely not the answers which rarely have anything to do with the question (under any PM, let alone the current one) but the questions themselves which give them a chance to shape the agenda and the news narrative.
When you are cross examining a witness, specifically an accused, the job is to highlight the lack of answers to the inconsistencies and incredible aspects of their case; to plant the idea that these exist so that when you come to them in your jury speech (or a TV studio for a politician) these points are familiar and something your audience is already thinking about.
Looks like the venerable and rightly respected David Davis may be about to get his break in the Letby case.
Police and CPS have confirmed that the Prosecution did not disclose that a key witness Professor Hindmarsh who worked at relevant Maternity Unit was himself under investigation for serious allegations of patient neglect and care from a period at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
This must raise ever further very serious doubts about the original conviction
Big bit in Private Eye last week on this. Its potentially massive. And they are still running an inquiry based on how did we miss a murderer on the ward, when there is a chance that there was NO murderer, just poorly babies on an unsafe ward.
No-one has ever explained where the insulin came from.
The inquiry is due to report soon.
The new news is second order stuff. It’s not directly about the evidence against Letby. This doesn’t change the witness evidence about Letby’s behaviour, that Letby stole medical records, the notes Letby wrote to herself, or the other expert witnesses’ statements.it doesn’t change that the babies died when Letby was on duty and not when she wasn’t.
I don’t find the idea that the babies all died because it was an unsafe ward plausible. The deaths were unexpected, not of the illest babies, which is who you would you’d expect to be affected if this was just poor care. The defence at trial accepted that some of the babies must have been killed.
Why is the source of the insulin some big mystery?
I don't disagree with any of this. However, I do think that (a) her defence team made some inexplicable (to me anyway) decisions at the first trial and (b) may be enough to push her under the bar of reasonable doubt. Disclosure failures, particularly in criminal trials, are amongst the most serious procedural failings. You can't have a fair trial without discovery/disclosure. It's impossible.
The Post Office Horizon scandal was not about a shite IT system it was about human malfeasance, of which disclosure failures were amongst the most serious.
Maybe her defence team were privy to a lot more information than we have…?
I know we disagree on this (to the extent that I am more open to this being a miscarriage of justice then you, I think). Have you read MD's reports on this in Private Eye? There is an awful lot that we DO know about how the trial unfolded and indeed on how the case against her came to be. The media at the time portrayed the Letby shifts vs deaths chart as a slam dunk. It may not have been in the court room (I wasn't there). However the simple story of X babies' deaths were thought to be murder, the roster was checked and Lo! only Letby was on shift for all is not correct. When the case was being assembled deaths were added and removed, and ISTR some were removed because Letby wasn't on shift.
Time will tell and I hope for all concerned that justice is done. I don't think we are there yet, though. Cases like this are hard. There is an example from the Netherlands were a nurse was convicted of multiple accounts of murder and then later exonerated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucia_de_Berk_case
It’s very easy to sit here and go, ‘what about this, what about that, cases like this are hard,’ but at some point you have to make a decision. Guilty or not guilty. The way we do that is with a trial. Letby had a trial (and a second trial and multiple appeals). The (first) trial was of record length, about 10 months. The defence were able to challenge the list of babies thought to be murdered. As I understand it, the initial list of suspicious deaths was assembled blind to whether Letby was on shift and showed a clear pattern, backing up what local clinical staff had been saying for months, but of course you’re not going to charge Letby with murder in cases where you know she wasn’t there. The jury found her innocent with respect to some babies, so they clearly thought about the list of babies and the specifics of each charge.
The de Berk case involved the presentation, and misrepresentation, of statistical evidence. No statistical evidence was presented in Letby’s case. There are other similarities and dissimilarities, but ultimately Letby’s guilt or innocent has to be judged on her case, not on someone else’s.
Private Eye, or the Telegraph or the New Yorker are under no requirement to present the case fairly. I think a more interesting read is “Unmasking Lucy Letby” by Jonathan Coffey and Judith Moritz. They attended the trial. One of them thinks she’s guilty, the other has doubts. I think the resulting book gets closer to a fair representation of events.
A well reasoned response, thank you. The only quibble I have is that the chart IS statistical evidence (albeit by the back door). As in how likely is it that she would be the only one present for all these deaths?
I will look out the book. Are Coffey and Moritz under requirement to present the case fairly?
Fifa would feel extremely stupid right now about all their guff about football and peace to justify their bootlicking of Trump, if they were capable of shame.
The Speaker should enforce the answering of questions .
What’s the point of PMQs if questions are just ignored ?
PMQs has been a joke for years, but this is as bad as it has ever been. Starmer hardly ever answers a question from the opposition benches. He comes across terribly, even Brown was better than this.
I'd bin the whole thing, it rarely enlightens, and it has become mainly opposition gotchas versus government bench ingratiating. It makes the whole institution, and the country by association, look like unserious and worthless.
4 times he told her she was talking about a policy 6 months away from being implemented
Twice he told her it was being monitored along with cost of living issues
She's so fixated on reading her pre prepared lines and smirking, she never listens
Badenoch is not the only person who asked questions. Starmer doesn't really answer any question from any person on the opposition benches, and questions from his own benches are simply "aren't we great".
The whole exercise is a joke. It serves no purpose. It's just a bunch of idiots looking for a soundbite or something to stick on a campaing leaflet. It does not reflect well on the country.
I largely agree, though I think it’s the sort of thing we’d miss if we did away with it entirely. The fact that our PM regularly has to present themselves before Parliament and subject themselves to a weekly Q&A session is I think useful.
It doesn’t need tremendous changes to be much better. Giving the speaker the ability to require answers to be on topic, restrictions on the baying/heckling (this one has got worse and they now all play into it - listen to a session from the 80s or 90s and it was nowhere near as bad), and pulling people up for bad behaviour (the insults are childish) would make it immeasurably better.
The next speaker should really try and push a few of these innovations through the House. There’s no reason Parliament has to be like this.
I think PMQs are really important. If the US, had PMQs, Trump would never have been re-elected and Biden would’ve been retired much sooner.
What do they offer that an upgraded Liaison Committee wouldn't ?
Fifa would feel extremely stupid right now about all their guff about football and peace to justify their bootlicking of Trump, if they were capable of shame.
Looks like the venerable and rightly respected David Davis may be about to get his break in the Letby case.
Police and CPS have confirmed that the Prosecution did not disclose that a key witness Professor Hindmarsh who worked at relevant Maternity Unit was himself under investigation for serious allegations of patient neglect and care from a period at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
This must raise ever further very serious doubts about the original conviction
Big bit in Private Eye last week on this. Its potentially massive. And they are still running an inquiry based on how did we miss a murderer on the ward, when there is a chance that there was NO murderer, just poorly babies on an unsafe ward.
No-one has ever explained where the insulin came from.
The inquiry is due to report soon.
The new news is second order stuff. It’s not directly about the evidence against Letby. This doesn’t change the witness evidence about Letby’s behaviour, that Letby stole medical records, the notes Letby wrote to herself, or the other expert witnesses’ statements.it doesn’t change that the babies died when Letby was on duty and not when she wasn’t.
I don’t find the idea that the babies all died because it was an unsafe ward plausible. The deaths were unexpected, not of the illest babies, which is who you would you’d expect to be affected if this was just poor care. The defence at trial accepted that some of the babies must have been killed.
Why is the source of the insulin some big mystery?
I don't disagree with any of this. However, I do think that (a) her defence team made some inexplicable (to me anyway) decisions at the first trial and (b) may be enough to push her under the bar of reasonable doubt. Disclosure failures, particularly in criminal trials, are amongst the most serious procedural failings. You can't have a fair trial without discovery/disclosure. It's impossible.
The Post Office Horizon scandal was not about a shite IT system it was about human malfeasance, of which disclosure failures were amongst the most serious.
Maybe her defence team were privy to a lot more information than we have…?
I know we disagree on this (to the extent that I am more open to this being a miscarriage of justice then you, I think). Have you read MD's reports on this in Private Eye? There is an awful lot that we DO know about how the trial unfolded and indeed on how the case against her came to be. The media at the time portrayed the Letby shifts vs deaths chart as a slam dunk. It may not have been in the court room (I wasn't there). However the simple story of X babies' deaths were thought to be murder, the roster was checked and Lo! only Letby was on shift for all is not correct. When the case was being assembled deaths were added and removed, and ISTR some were removed because Letby wasn't on shift.
Time will tell and I hope for all concerned that justice is done. I don't think we are there yet, though. Cases like this are hard. There is an example from the Netherlands were a nurse was convicted of multiple accounts of murder and then later exonerated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucia_de_Berk_case
It’s very easy to sit here and go, ‘what about this, what about that, cases like this are hard,’ but at some point you have to make a decision. Guilty or not guilty. The way we do that is with a trial. Letby had a trial (and a second trial and multiple appeals). The (first) trial was of record length, about 10 months. The defence were able to challenge the list of babies thought to be murdered. As I understand it, the initial list of suspicious deaths was assembled blind to whether Letby was on shift and showed a clear pattern, backing up what local clinical staff had been saying for months, but of course you’re not going to charge Letby with murder in cases where you know she wasn’t there. The jury found her innocent with respect to some babies, so they clearly thought about the list of babies and the specifics of each charge.
The de Berk case involved the presentation, and misrepresentation, of statistical evidence. No statistical evidence was presented in Letby’s case. There are other similarities and dissimilarities, but ultimately Letby’s guilt or innocent has to be judged on her case, not on someone else’s.
Private Eye, or the Telegraph or the New Yorker are under no requirement to present the case fairly. I think a more interesting read is “Unmasking Lucy Letby” by Jonathan Coffey and Judith Moritz. They attended the trial. One of them thinks she’s guilty, the other has doubts. I think the resulting book gets closer to a fair representation of events.
A well reasoned response, thank you. The only quibble I have is that the chart IS statistical evidence (albeit by the back door). As in how likely is it that she would be the only one present for all these deaths?
I will look out the book. Are Coffey and Moritz under requirement to present the case fairly?
OK, no inferential statistical evidence.
Coffey and Moritz are two BBC journalists and, indeed, under no more requirement to present the case fairly, but they’ve been following it from the beginning and they maybe balance each other out. It’s good that we have a media who are willing to question things and campaign on matters: Private Eye do great good on many subjects. But a lot of people read an article or two on Letby and make up their minds rather quickly.
The real question is whether Brazil, Morocco and Haiti follow suite.
To raise 3 countries entirely at random.
Scotland should withdraw. They were nailed on to be first (home). Now they can withdraw with honour and forever more will say 'we would have won in 26'.
Looks like the venerable and rightly respected David Davis may be about to get his break in the Letby case.
Police and CPS have confirmed that the Prosecution did not disclose that a key witness Professor Hindmarsh who worked at relevant Maternity Unit was himself under investigation for serious allegations of patient neglect and care from a period at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
This must raise ever further very serious doubts about the original conviction
Big bit in Private Eye last week on this. Its potentially massive. And they are still running an inquiry based on how did we miss a murderer on the ward, when there is a chance that there was NO murderer, just poorly babies on an unsafe ward.
No-one has ever explained where the insulin came from.
The inquiry is due to report soon.
The new news is second order stuff. It’s not directly about the evidence against Letby. This doesn’t change the witness evidence about Letby’s behaviour, that Letby stole medical records, the notes Letby wrote to herself, or the other expert witnesses’ statements.it doesn’t change that the babies died when Letby was on duty and not when she wasn’t.
I don’t find the idea that the babies all died because it was an unsafe ward plausible. The deaths were unexpected, not of the illest babies, which is who you would you’d expect to be affected if this was just poor care. The defence at trial accepted that some of the babies must have been killed.
Why is the source of the insulin some big mystery?
I don't disagree with any of this. However, I do think that (a) her defence team made some inexplicable (to me anyway) decisions at the first trial and (b) may be enough to push her under the bar of reasonable doubt. Disclosure failures, particularly in criminal trials, are amongst the most serious procedural failings. You can't have a fair trial without discovery/disclosure. It's impossible.
The Post Office Horizon scandal was not about a shite IT system it was about human malfeasance, of which disclosure failures were amongst the most serious.
Maybe her defence team were privy to a lot more information than we have…?
I know we disagree on this (to the extent that I am more open to this being a miscarriage of justice then you, I think). Have you read MD's reports on this in Private Eye? There is an awful lot that we DO know about how the trial unfolded and indeed on how the case against her came to be. The media at the time portrayed the Letby shifts vs deaths chart as a slam dunk. It may not have been in the court room (I wasn't there). However the simple story of X babies' deaths were thought to be murder, the roster was checked and Lo! only Letby was on shift for all is not correct. When the case was being assembled deaths were added and removed, and ISTR some were removed because Letby wasn't on shift.
Time will tell and I hope for all concerned that justice is done. I don't think we are there yet, though. Cases like this are hard. There is an example from the Netherlands were a nurse was convicted of multiple accounts of murder and then later exonerated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucia_de_Berk_case
It’s very easy to sit here and go, ‘what about this, what about that, cases like this are hard,’ but at some point you have to make a decision. Guilty or not guilty. The way we do that is with a trial. Letby had a trial (and a second trial and multiple appeals). The (first) trial was of record length, about 10 months. The defence were able to challenge the list of babies thought to be murdered. As I understand it, the initial list of suspicious deaths was assembled blind to whether Letby was on shift and showed a clear pattern, backing up what local clinical staff had been saying for months, but of course you’re not going to charge Letby with murder in cases where you know she wasn’t there. The jury found her innocent with respect to some babies, so they clearly thought about the list of babies and the specifics of each charge.
The de Berk case involved the presentation, and misrepresentation, of statistical evidence. No statistical evidence was presented in Letby’s case. There are other similarities and dissimilarities, but ultimately Letby’s guilt or innocent has to be judged on her case, not on someone else’s.
Private Eye, or the Telegraph or the New Yorker are under no requirement to present the case fairly. I think a more interesting read is “Unmasking Lucy Letby” by Jonathan Coffey and Judith Moritz. They attended the trial. One of them thinks she’s guilty, the other has doubts. I think the resulting book gets closer to a fair representation of events.
A well reasoned response, thank you. The only quibble I have is that the chart IS statistical evidence (albeit by the back door). As in how likely is it that she would be the only one present for all these deaths?
I will look out the book. Are Coffey and Moritz under requirement to present the case fairly?
OK, no inferential statistical evidence.
Coffey and Moritz are two BBC journalists and, indeed, under no more requirement to present the case fairly, but they’ve been following it from the beginning and they maybe balance each other out. It’s good that we have a media who are willing to question things and campaign on matters: Private Eye do great good on many subjects. But a lot of people read an article or two on Letby and make up their minds rather quickly.
I've taken very little interest in the case since the original verdict, but I have read the voluminous, seemingly interminable debate on PB. And I still have no opinion either way.
Listening to the news of continuing attacks by Iran, and Israel into Beirut, together with the highly dangerous straits I just cannot see an early end to the crisis
It is a dreadful position that is going to impact all of us and Starmer is finding out the hard way that the government of the day is held responsible for both the safety of its citizens and the economic effects
TWAO was highlighting the ever more serious economic consequences of this disastrous idiocy. Ships in an ever growing region cannot get their bunker fuel which nearly all comes from the Middle East. 3 ships have been damaged. None are getting through Hormuz. Oil production in the ME is grinding to a halt. A variety of essential products are simply not being produced or are being produced in much reduced quantities. Several eastern countries are already restricting the days on which you can use your vehicle. Some are down to a 4 day week. The urgency of bringing this madness to an end grows by the day. Its Washington and Israel that need regime change.
Mandy's 70 grand pay off will go down well with voters. Hope Starmer didnt sign off on it or anything
Never crossed his desk…
(I suspect that contracts for jobs like that specify six months’ notice, so the positive action required from No.10 would be to remove it. If the PM does nothing then the payoff goes through.)
Mandy's 70 grand pay off will go down well with voters. Hope Starmer didnt sign off on it or anything
Never crossed his desk…
(I suspect that contracts for jobs like that specify six months’ notice, so the positive action required from No.10 would be to remove it. If the PM does nothing then the payoff goes through.)
I believe the docs will show there was 'negotiation' in the amount
And this is the 'uncontroversial' stuff, not the juicy stuff at the hiring stage
The real question is whether Brazil, Morocco and Haiti follow suite.
To raise 3 countries entirely at random.
Scotland should withdraw. They were nailed on to be first (home). Now they can withdraw with honour and forever more will say 'we would have won in 26'.
Scotland accused Trump of a war crime at lunchtime. Maybe Sweeney needs a bigger bunker, and a look out for helicopters in the night 🤭
The probable curse of the grey area and the procedural policeman.
I've just heard from an acquaintance with Fibromyalgia (a neurological condition where walking any distance is physically painful), who received an electrical assist cycle under a Council backed leasing scheme 6 months ago.
Her mobility aid has now been seized by the police after a "wheel speed" test. She has not modified it. I have no idea whether there is a 10% MOE on these.
1st complaint has been rejected, and it sounds like it is going to be a nightmare to get it back. Meanwhile, she is more or less stuck at home.
I have advised talking to MP and Police & Crime Commissioner, and the media, to get it our of the "routine" stream.
What a f*cking mess. We are seeing more of these.
She needs to get the press involved. They will take them apart.
The number of times I've heard the comment 'I'm going to the Press' is quite high. The number of times the Press actually did something is quite low. The number of times, the company I worked for actually changed anything is even lower.
The media these days are more of a paper tiger than something of influence. IMHO going through the relevant complaints process and then escalating gets the best results. A by-product of the tick box / process state as the number of complaints actually get noticed even if the results is not necessarily satisfactory.
Fifa would feel extremely stupid right now about all their guff about football and peace to justify their bootlicking of Trump, if they were capable of shame.
Which, obviously, they are not.
It is rare that an individual and organisation are so well matched to each other.
Trump and FIFA are one such - gaudy, tasteless, stupid, ignorant, corrupt, narcissistic, a complete lack of self awareness and no shame.
Looks like the venerable and rightly respected David Davis may be about to get his break in the Letby case.
Police and CPS have confirmed that the Prosecution did not disclose that a key witness Professor Hindmarsh who worked at relevant Maternity Unit was himself under investigation for serious allegations of patient neglect and care from a period at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
This must raise ever further very serious doubts about the original conviction
Big bit in Private Eye last week on this. Its potentially massive. And they are still running an inquiry based on how did we miss a murderer on the ward, when there is a chance that there was NO murderer, just poorly babies on an unsafe ward.
No-one has ever explained where the insulin came from.
The inquiry is due to report soon.
The new news is second order stuff. It’s not directly about the evidence against Letby. This doesn’t change the witness evidence about Letby’s behaviour, that Letby stole medical records, the notes Letby wrote to herself, or the other expert witnesses’ statements.it doesn’t change that the babies died when Letby was on duty and not when she wasn’t.
I don’t find the idea that the babies all died because it was an unsafe ward plausible. The deaths were unexpected, not of the illest babies, which is who you would you’d expect to be affected if this was just poor care. The defence at trial accepted that some of the babies must have been killed.
Why is the source of the insulin some big mystery?
I don't disagree with any of this. However, I do think that (a) her defence team made some inexplicable (to me anyway) decisions at the first trial and (b) may be enough to push her under the bar of reasonable doubt. Disclosure failures, particularly in criminal trials, are amongst the most serious procedural failings. You can't have a fair trial without discovery/disclosure. It's impossible.
The Post Office Horizon scandal was not about a shite IT system it was about human malfeasance, of which disclosure failures were amongst the most serious.
Maybe her defence team were privy to a lot more information than we have…?
I know we disagree on this (to the extent that I am more open to this being a miscarriage of justice then you, I think). Have you read MD's reports on this in Private Eye? There is an awful lot that we DO know about how the trial unfolded and indeed on how the case against her came to be. The media at the time portrayed the Letby shifts vs deaths chart as a slam dunk. It may not have been in the court room (I wasn't there). However the simple story of X babies' deaths were thought to be murder, the roster was checked and Lo! only Letby was on shift for all is not correct. When the case was being assembled deaths were added and removed, and ISTR some were removed because Letby wasn't on shift.
Time will tell and I hope for all concerned that justice is done. I don't think we are there yet, though. Cases like this are hard. There is an example from the Netherlands were a nurse was convicted of multiple accounts of murder and then later exonerated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucia_de_Berk_case
It’s very easy to sit here and go, ‘what about this, what about that, cases like this are hard,’ but at some point you have to make a decision. Guilty or not guilty. The way we do that is with a trial. Letby had a trial (and a second trial and multiple appeals). The (first) trial was of record length, about 10 months. The defence were able to challenge the list of babies thought to be murdered. As I understand it, the initial list of suspicious deaths was assembled blind to whether Letby was on shift and showed a clear pattern, backing up what local clinical staff had been saying for months, but of course you’re not going to charge Letby with murder in cases where you know she wasn’t there. The jury found her innocent with respect to some babies, so they clearly thought about the list of babies and the specifics of each charge.
The de Berk case involved the presentation, and misrepresentation, of statistical evidence. No statistical evidence was presented in Letby’s case. There are other similarities and dissimilarities, but ultimately Letby’s guilt or innocent has to be judged on her case, not on someone else’s.
Private Eye, or the Telegraph or the New Yorker are under no requirement to present the case fairly. I think a more interesting read is “Unmasking Lucy Letby” by Jonathan Coffey and Judith Moritz. They attended the trial. One of them thinks she’s guilty, the other has doubts. I think the resulting book gets closer to a fair representation of events.
A well reasoned response, thank you. The only quibble I have is that the chart IS statistical evidence (albeit by the back door). As in how likely is it that she would be the only one present for all these deaths?
I will look out the book. Are Coffey and Moritz under requirement to present the case fairly?
OK, no inferential statistical evidence.
Coffey and Moritz are two BBC journalists and, indeed, under no more requirement to present the case fairly, but they’ve been following it from the beginning and they maybe balance each other out. It’s good that we have a media who are willing to question things and campaign on matters: Private Eye do great good on many subjects. But a lot of people read an article or two on Letby and make up their minds rather quickly.
Yep - to be honest the only thing I have concluded on the Private Eye stuff is that the Letby legal team had a curious approach to her defence at the first trial. Which even though PE has attempted to explain in the past I am still baffled by it. If she is innocent their approach certainly made it difficult if not impossible to cast doubt on some of the evidence presented. I am glad PE are constantly at it - I suspect will be reopened at some point. But as to which way any additional review / trial will go - who can know.
The real question is whether Brazil, Morocco and Haiti follow suite.
To raise 3 countries entirely at random.
Scotland should withdraw. They were nailed on to be first (home). Now they can withdraw with honour and forever more will say 'we would have won in 26'.
Scotland accused Trump of a war crime at lunchtime. Maybe Sweeney needs a bigger bunker, and a look out for helicopters in the night 🤭
Listening to the news of continuing attacks by Iran, and Israel into Beirut, together with the highly dangerous straits I just cannot see an early end to the crisis
It is a dreadful position that is going to impact all of us and Starmer is finding out the hard way that the government of the day is held responsible for both the safety of its citizens and the economic effects
TWAO was highlighting the ever more serious economic consequences of this disastrous idiocy. Ships in an ever growing region cannot get their bunker fuel which nearly all comes from the Middle East. 3 ships have been damaged. None are getting through Hormuz. Oil production in the ME is grinding to a halt. A variety of essential products are simply not being produced or are being produced in much reduced quantities. Several eastern countries are already restricting the days on which you can use your vehicle. Some are down to a 4 day week. The urgency of bringing this madness to an end grows by the day. Its Washington and Israel that need regime change.
2024 - two years after the Russian invasion of Ukraine precipitated an inflation crisis - was a year where every incumbent government lost re-election, with the sole exception of the FF-FG coalition in Ireland.
On a similar basis I think we should expect every election in 2028 to see the defeat of the incumbent government, save those insulated from economic reality by a massive corporate tax windfall.
The real question is whether Brazil, Morocco and Haiti follow suite.
To raise 3 countries entirely at random.
Scotland should withdraw. They were nailed on to be first (home). Now they can withdraw with honour and forever more will say 'we would have won in 26'.
Scotland accused Trump of a war crime at lunchtime. Maybe Sweeney needs a bigger bunker, and a look out for helicopters in the night 🤭
Maybe the SNP should propose a Scottish boycott. Since he is so morally pure on the matter.
Would they have been able to apply for visa to get to the US? Suspect that a football team, their families, all the ticket holders and the Iran FA staff might have wanted to extend their stay in the US rather than going home to get bombed.
Fifa would feel extremely stupid right now about all their guff about football and peace to justify their bootlicking of Trump, if they were capable of shame.
Which, obviously, they are not.
It is rare that an individual and organisation are so well matched to each other.
Trump and FIFA are one such - gaudy, tasteless, stupid, ignorant, corrupt, narcissistic, a complete lack of self awareness and no shame.
Andrew Mountbatten Windsor would make the ideal FIFA President.
If this is just the first tranche SKS and co are buggered. Its already got enough in to suggest Starmer misled parliament over what he knew about the ongoing friendship before appointing him
Fifa would feel extremely stupid right now about all their guff about football and peace to justify their bootlicking of Trump, if they were capable of shame.
Which, obviously, they are not.
It is rare that an individual and organisation are so well matched to each other.
Trump and FIFA are one such - gaudy, tasteless, stupid, ignorant, corrupt, narcissistic, a complete lack of self awareness and no shame.
Andrew Mountbatten Windsor would make the ideal FIFA President.
Looks like the venerable and rightly respected David Davis may be about to get his break in the Letby case.
Police and CPS have confirmed that the Prosecution did not disclose that a key witness Professor Hindmarsh who worked at relevant Maternity Unit was himself under investigation for serious allegations of patient neglect and care from a period at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
This must raise ever further very serious doubts about the original conviction
Big bit in Private Eye last week on this. Its potentially massive. And they are still running an inquiry based on how did we miss a murderer on the ward, when there is a chance that there was NO murderer, just poorly babies on an unsafe ward.
No-one has ever explained where the insulin came from.
The inquiry is due to report soon.
The new news is second order stuff. It’s not directly about the evidence against Letby. This doesn’t change the witness evidence about Letby’s behaviour, that Letby stole medical records, the notes Letby wrote to herself, or the other expert witnesses’ statements.it doesn’t change that the babies died when Letby was on duty and not when she wasn’t.
I don’t find the idea that the babies all died because it was an unsafe ward plausible. The deaths were unexpected, not of the illest babies, which is who you would you’d expect to be affected if this was just poor care. The defence at trial accepted that some of the babies must have been killed.
Why is the source of the insulin some big mystery?
I don't disagree with any of this. However, I do think that (a) her defence team made some inexplicable (to me anyway) decisions at the first trial and (b) may be enough to push her under the bar of reasonable doubt. Disclosure failures, particularly in criminal trials, are amongst the most serious procedural failings. You can't have a fair trial without discovery/disclosure. It's impossible.
The Post Office Horizon scandal was not about a shite IT system it was about human malfeasance, of which disclosure failures were amongst the most serious.
Maybe her defence team were privy to a lot more information than we have…?
I know we disagree on this (to the extent that I am more open to this being a miscarriage of justice then you, I think). Have you read MD's reports on this in Private Eye? There is an awful lot that we DO know about how the trial unfolded and indeed on how the case against her came to be. The media at the time portrayed the Letby shifts vs deaths chart as a slam dunk. It may not have been in the court room (I wasn't there). However the simple story of X babies' deaths were thought to be murder, the roster was checked and Lo! only Letby was on shift for all is not correct. When the case was being assembled deaths were added and removed, and ISTR some were removed because Letby wasn't on shift.
Time will tell and I hope for all concerned that justice is done. I don't think we are there yet, though. Cases like this are hard. There is an example from the Netherlands were a nurse was convicted of multiple accounts of murder and then later exonerated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucia_de_Berk_case
It’s very easy to sit here and go, ‘what about this, what about that, cases like this are hard,’ but at some point you have to make a decision. Guilty or not guilty. The way we do that is with a trial. Letby had a trial (and a second trial and multiple appeals). The (first) trial was of record length, about 10 months. The defence were able to challenge the list of babies thought to be murdered. As I understand it, the initial list of suspicious deaths was assembled blind to whether Letby was on shift and showed a clear pattern, backing up what local clinical staff had been saying for months, but of course you’re not going to charge Letby with murder in cases where you know she wasn’t there. The jury found her innocent with respect to some babies, so they clearly thought about the list of babies and the specifics of each charge.
The de Berk case involved the presentation, and misrepresentation, of statistical evidence. No statistical evidence was presented in Letby’s case. There are other similarities and dissimilarities, but ultimately Letby’s guilt or innocent has to be judged on her case, not on someone else’s.
Private Eye, or the Telegraph or the New Yorker are under no requirement to present the case fairly. I think a more interesting read is “Unmasking Lucy Letby” by Jonathan Coffey and Judith Moritz. They attended the trial. One of them thinks she’s guilty, the other has doubts. I think the resulting book gets closer to a fair representation of events.
A well reasoned response, thank you. The only quibble I have is that the chart IS statistical evidence (albeit by the back door). As in how likely is it that she would be the only one present for all these deaths?
I will look out the book. Are Coffey and Moritz under requirement to present the case fairly?
OK, no inferential statistical evidence.
Coffey and Moritz are two BBC journalists and, indeed, under no more requirement to present the case fairly, but they’ve been following it from the beginning and they maybe balance each other out. It’s good that we have a media who are willing to question things and campaign on matters: Private Eye do great good on many subjects. But a lot of people read an article or two on Letby and make up their minds rather quickly.
I've taken very little interest in the case since the original verdict, but I have read the voluminous, seemingly interminable debate on PB. And I still have no opinion either way.
guaranteed to be a stitch , the service was utter crap and she was the sacrificial lamb to hide the crap medical people, ie doctors etc
Starmers briefing on Mandelson confirned general reputational risk in appointing him and warned of possible Russia and China links. Mandelson tried to fet a 500 grand pay off. We paid him 75 grand and Olly Robbins covered it up by 'not publishing' it
The probable curse of the grey area and the procedural policeman.
I've just heard from an acquaintance with Fibromyalgia (a neurological condition where walking any distance is physically painful), who received an electrical assist cycle under a Council backed leasing scheme 6 months ago.
Her mobility aid has now been seized by the police after a "wheel speed" test. She has not modified it. I have no idea whether there is a 10% MOE on these.
1st complaint has been rejected, and it sounds like it is going to be a nightmare to get it back. Meanwhile, she is more or less stuck at home.
I have advised talking to MP and Police & Crime Commissioner, and the media, to get it our of the "routine" stream.
What a f*cking mess. We are seeing more of these.
She needs to get the press involved. They will take them apart.
The number of times I've heard the comment 'I'm going to the Press' is quite high. The number of times the Press actually did something is quite low. The number of times, the company I worked for actually changed anything is even lower.
The media these days are more of a paper tiger than something of influence. IMHO going through the relevant complaints process and then escalating gets the best results. A by-product of the tick box / process state as the number of complaints actually get noticed even if the results is not necessarily satisfactory.
Another good one is to email with a named someone in customer service, and use this to work out the format for their email addresses. Then look up the names of the CEO, COO etc, and guess their email addresses. Sometimes you’ll also find them on company reports or LinkedIn.
The CEO will have a PA who reads everything incoming, and will send the complaint straight to the relevant head of department.
Serious question, is there a list who is next in line to fill gaps?
Denmark famously were called back from beach holidays when Serbia were banned… and they won it!
That was the Euros when there were only 16 teams so not as crazy as a team stepping into this huge World Cup from the beach.
It was only 8 teams back then.
It's not really a boycott is it, they're under full air assault by the US, they're hardly going to send a squad and support team. Even before the SMO they'd have needed an armed escort to keep ICE at bay.
Starmers briefing on Mandelson confirned general reputational risk in appointing him and warned of possible Russia and China links. Mandelson tried to fet a 500 grand pay off. We paid him 75 grand and Olly Robbins covered it up by 'not publishing' it
First tranche.... lol
They added that a colleague “did v well to get this settlement down this low with minimal fuss”.
Starmers briefing on Mandelson confirned general reputational risk in appointing him and warned of possible Russia and China links. Mandelson tried to fet a 500 grand pay off. We paid him 75 grand and Olly Robbins covered it up by 'not publishing' it
The probable curse of the grey area and the procedural policeman.
I've just heard from an acquaintance with Fibromyalgia (a neurological condition where walking any distance is physically painful), who received an electrical assist cycle under a Council backed leasing scheme 6 months ago.
Her mobility aid has now been seized by the police after a "wheel speed" test. She has not modified it. I have no idea whether there is a 10% MOE on these.
1st complaint has been rejected, and it sounds like it is going to be a nightmare to get it back. Meanwhile, she is more or less stuck at home.
I have advised talking to MP and Police & Crime Commissioner, and the media, to get it our of the "routine" stream.
What a f*cking mess. We are seeing more of these.
She needs to get the press involved. They will take them apart.
The number of times I've heard the comment 'I'm going to the Press' is quite high. The number of times the Press actually did something is quite low. The number of times, the company I worked for actually changed anything is even lower.
The media these days are more of a paper tiger than something of influence. IMHO going through the relevant complaints process and then escalating gets the best results. A by-product of the tick box / process state as the number of complaints actually get noticed even if the results is not necessarily satisfactory.
Another good one is to email with a named someone in customer service, and use this to work out the format for their email addresses. Then look up the names of the CEO, COO etc, and guess their email addresses. Sometimes you’ll also find them on company reports or LinkedIn.
The CEO will have a PA who reads everything incoming, and will send the complaint straight to the relevant head of department.
One that works really well with NHS trusts is to send a letter/email full of business speak.
The next day, they ran out of chairs in my father’s ward - several senior consultants and all their subordinates appeared simultaneously.
Starmers briefing on Mandelson confirned general reputational risk in appointing him and warned of possible Russia and China links. Mandelson tried to fet a 500 grand pay off. We paid him 75 grand and Olly Robbins covered it up by 'not publishing' it
Listening to the news of continuing attacks by Iran, and Israel into Beirut, together with the highly dangerous straits I just cannot see an early end to the crisis
It is a dreadful position that is going to impact all of us and Starmer is finding out the hard way that the government of the day is held responsible for both the safety of its citizens and the economic effects
TWAO was highlighting the ever more serious economic consequences of this disastrous idiocy. Ships in an ever growing region cannot get their bunker fuel which nearly all comes from the Middle East. 3 ships have been damaged. None are getting through Hormuz. Oil production in the ME is grinding to a halt. A variety of essential products are simply not being produced or are being produced in much reduced quantities. Several eastern countries are already restricting the days on which you can use your vehicle. Some are down to a 4 day week. The urgency of bringing this madness to an end grows by the day. Its Washington and Israel that need regime change.
Another example:
https://x.com/jukan05/status/2031575850932646363 As global logistics tensions escalate in the wake of the Iran crisis, South Korea's semiconductor industry is facing supply instability for helium gas, a critical process material. Ships transporting helium have come under restrictions at the Strait of Hormuz — a key Middle Eastern shipping lane — causing disruptions across the broader supply chain. Industry voices are calling for diversification away from Qatar-dependent supply toward alternative sources such as the United States and Russia.
According to industry sources on the 11th, major chipmakers including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have been closely monitoring their helium gas procurement situation following the outbreak of the U.S.-Iran conflict late last month, and are exploring strategies to expand helium recycling systems.
Helium is an industrial gas essential to semiconductor manufacturing. Inside the process chamber — the enclosed environment where wafer fabrication takes place — helium is used to purge residual gases after each process step. Given that semiconductor circuits are fabricated at the nanometer (nm) scale, ultra-high purity helium with virtually no contaminants is required. Industry sources indicate that helium of up to 99.9999% purity (6N grade) is used in these processes.
The core problem is that South Korea's semiconductor helium supply chain is heavily concentrated in a single region. According to the Korea Customs Service, South Korea's total helium gas imports last year amounted to $226.9 million, of which 64% — or $146.84 million — originated from Qatar. The United States is the second-largest supplier, but at a 28% share, there is a substantial gap relative to Qatar. For high-purity helium used in semiconductor fabrication specifically, industry estimates suggest Qatar's share approaches 80%, with only marginal contributions from U.S. and Australian sources...
While they can second source, with some effort, there is likely to be at the very least a short term effect, and as with LNG supplies, the position of the Gulf as the largest supplier to a number of Asian countries is likely to be under review in the future. That won't make US allies in the region happy.
It also gives China substantial leverage should they decide they want to gain influence and/or project power in the region. Which threatens to recreate the Cold War dynamic, but with China taking the place of Soviet Russia
Would they have been able to apply for visa to get to the US? Suspect that a football team, their families, all the ticket holders and the Iran FA staff might have wanted to extend their stay in the US rather than going home to get bombed.
Yes, team visas are part of the deal with FIFA.
The problem for Iran is that boycotting the WC may mean a ban from international competition for some years.
For gods sake, SKS is on full whine mode. I'm sure he thinks this is a winning like of attack on Kemi, and maybe it is but my word doesn't he sound reduced.
No winners here today, only whiners.
But why didn’t Kemi stand up for herself? Comeback with what Starmer was pushing was spin?
It was like watching a boat in a boat show parade being blown to bits by a sub ☹️
Didn't think she was any good either, but she's not PM.
It was like that Knight from Monty Python, having its arm chopped off, a pause, and then repeating “but what about cost of petrol gone up this week, what are you doing about it. Don’t you realise Everyone’s upset about it?”
And then off was chopped a leg. And then she repeated it again.
I expect it is a very real worry for drivers as pump prices have already risen with who knows how much more
Add in energy and food inflation then the government have a real problem
For gods sake, SKS is on full whine mode. I'm sure he thinks this is a winning like of attack on Kemi, and maybe it is but my word doesn't he sound reduced.
No winners here today, only whiners.
But why didn’t Kemi stand up for herself? Comeback with what Starmer was pushing was spin?
It was like watching a boat in a boat show parade being blown to bits by a sub ☹️
Didn't think she was any good either, but she's not PM.
It was like that Knight from Monty Python, having its arm chopped off, a pause, and then repeating “but what about cost of petrol gone up this week, what are you doing about it. Don’t you realise Everyone’s upset about it?”
And then off was chopped a leg. And then she repeated it again.
I expect it is a very real worry for drivers as pump prices have already risen with who knows how much more
Add in energy and food inflation then the government have a real problem
You're cheering a war
You're praying it lasts
You're desperate to see the UK suffer
You cannot cope with the fact that b4 the war the economy was improving.
Same old Tories
Patriots my fucking backside
Snide sneering traitors
Your hysteria and abusive language is out of control and indeed verges on being libelous
It's very original of him to do his post in the style of Santa Claus is Coming to Town though.
When hundreds or thousands of fans with Tickets are rounded up on arrival at Airports and given the full MAGA welcome and held for deportation for minor domestic offences.
When rival fans mix and mingle and the tradition football behaviour starts and the Yanks retaliate with the MAGA stormtroopers and live bullets.
We are going to need a kind of counter Reformation
“In the last few days, jury trials have been scrapped, Churchill has been taken off bank notes and hereditary peers have been booted. England’s cultural heritage is being gutted terrifyingly quickly.”
“Ok so in the news this week it's quite clear the UK is undergoing a Cultural Revolution.
The Chinese Cultural Revolution attacked "The 4 Olds" in an attempt to destroy the past.
The UK is no different. The 4 Olds of the UK: 1. Old History - removal of historic figures from banknotes 2. Old Legal Rights - Removal of Jury Trials 3. Old Government - Removal of Hereditary Peers 4. Old Alliances - Destroying alliances across Europe, the Middle East and with the US to avoid upsetting "communities" in a handful of constituencies.”
Starmers briefing on Mandelson confirned general reputational risk in appointing him and warned of possible Russia and China links. Mandelson tried to fet a 500 grand pay off. We paid him 75 grand and Olly Robbins covered it up by 'not publishing' it
First tranche.... lol
Depending on exactly what Starmer has said in Parliament, this could be the end of him, as it sounds suspiciously like he has misled Parliament by claiming he didn't know the "extent" of Mandelson's friendship with Epstein.
Starmers briefing on Mandelson confirned general reputational risk in appointing him and warned of possible Russia and China links. Mandelson tried to fet a 500 grand pay off. We paid him 75 grand and Olly Robbins covered it up by 'not publishing' it
First tranche.... lol
Nobody interested.
Old news
The world has moved on.
Extinction level Tories so out of touch
Starmer’s fucked, then. Thanks for confirming.
The papers now rolling out the 'he knew but appointed him anyway' stories Hes screwed. There are thousands more documents left to come.
We are going to need a kind of counter Reformation
“In the last few days, jury trials have been scrapped, Churchill has been taken off bank notes and hereditary peers have been booted. England’s cultural heritage is being gutted terrifyingly quickly.”
“Ok so in the news this week it's quite clear the UK is undergoing a Cultural Revolution.
The Chinese Cultural Revolution attacked "The 4 Olds" in an attempt to destroy the past.
The UK is no different. The 4 Olds of the UK: 1. Old History - removal of historic figures from banknotes 2. Old Legal Rights - Removal of Jury Trials 3. Old Government - Removal of Hereditary Peers 4. Old Alliances - Destroying alliances across Europe, the Middle East and with the US to avoid upsetting "communities" in a handful of constituencies.”
We are going to need a kind of counter Reformation
“In the last few days, jury trials have been scrapped, Churchill has been taken off bank notes and hereditary peers have been booted. England’s cultural heritage is being gutted terrifyingly quickly.”
“Ok so in the news this week it's quite clear the UK is undergoing a Cultural Revolution.
The Chinese Cultural Revolution attacked "The 4 Olds" in an attempt to destroy the past.
The UK is no different. The 4 Olds of the UK: 1. Old History - removal of historic figures from banknotes 2. Old Legal Rights - Removal of Jury Trials 3. Old Government - Removal of Hereditary Peers 4. Old Alliances - Destroying alliances across Europe, the Middle East and with the US to avoid upsetting "communities" in a handful of constituencies.”
We are going to need a kind of counter Reformation
“In the last few days, jury trials have been scrapped, Churchill has been taken off bank notes and hereditary peers have been booted. England’s cultural heritage is being gutted terrifyingly quickly.”
“Ok so in the news this week it's quite clear the UK is undergoing a Cultural Revolution.
The Chinese Cultural Revolution attacked "The 4 Olds" in an attempt to destroy the past.
The UK is no different. The 4 Olds of the UK: 1. Old History - removal of historic figures from banknotes 2. Old Legal Rights - Removal of Jury Trials 3. Old Government - Removal of Hereditary Peers 4. Old Alliances - Destroying alliances across Europe, the Middle East and with the US to avoid upsetting "communities" in a handful of constituencies.”
At present, Iraq are scheduled to play in the FIFA intercontinental play offs for a World cup place at the end of the month.
FIFA could give Irans finals spot to Iraq and promote UAE to the play offs. If Iran are definitely out, FIFA will need to decide what to do in the next few days
We are going to need a kind of counter Reformation
“In the last few days, jury trials have been scrapped, Churchill has been taken off bank notes and hereditary peers have been booted. England’s cultural heritage is being gutted terrifyingly quickly.”
“Ok so in the news this week it's quite clear the UK is undergoing a Cultural Revolution.
The Chinese Cultural Revolution attacked "The 4 Olds" in an attempt to destroy the past.
The UK is no different. The 4 Olds of the UK: 1. Old History - removal of historic figures from banknotes 2. Old Legal Rights - Removal of Jury Trials 3. Old Government - Removal of Hereditary Peers 4. Old Alliances - Destroying alliances across Europe, the Middle East and with the US to avoid upsetting "communities" in a handful of constituencies.”
We are going to need a kind of counter Reformation
“In the last few days, jury trials have been scrapped, Churchill has been taken off bank notes and hereditary peers have been booted. England’s cultural heritage is being gutted terrifyingly quickly.”
“Ok so in the news this week it's quite clear the UK is undergoing a Cultural Revolution.
The Chinese Cultural Revolution attacked "The 4 Olds" in an attempt to destroy the past.
The UK is no different. The 4 Olds of the UK: 1. Old History - removal of historic figures from banknotes 2. Old Legal Rights - Removal of Jury Trials 3. Old Government - Removal of Hereditary Peers 4. Old Alliances - Destroying alliances across Europe, the Middle East and with the US to avoid upsetting "communities" in a handful of constituencies.”
The bank notes is because it’s time to start the next set of security redesigns - and the BoE decided to have a public consultation on it. Surely they remember Boaty McBoatface but clearly they didn’t
Comments
You're praying it lasts
You're desperate to see the UK suffer
You cannot cope with the fact that b4 the war the economy was improving.
Same old Tories
Patriots my fucking backside
Snide sneering traitors
It also has the benefit of stopping tiresome culture war debates about who should be on the bank notes every few years.
No one has pre prepared the answer for her.
Robotic
Deaf
Intellectually challenged
Lunchtime drinking is so 90s.
It’s happened to moped riders too.
However the little angels on the sur-Rons with balaclavas proceed with impunity
So another tone deaf tory bare faced lie
I’d say it’s not likely
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dinosaur_finds_in_the_United_Kingdom
In the Blair years, they tried, repeatedly to get rid of magistrates. Jury trials came up then as well, but it was considered too controversial to put a proposal forward.
Or maybe hes just an angry man generally
I will bet, that while she was having her mobility aid seized a convoy of Deliveroo riders hammered past, doing 30 in a 20 zone,
Trump and Bibi have fucked up badly and we will all pay the price.
Sooner we get used to less supply and demand destruction the better
Iran shows no signs of stopping and are widening the scope to US tech companies
We’re fucked, slowly but inevitably
It doesn’t need tremendous changes to be much better. Giving the speaker the ability to require answers to be on topic, restrictions on the baying/heckling (this one has got worse and they now all play into it - listen to a session from the 80s or 90s and it was nowhere near as bad), and pulling people up for bad behaviour (the insults are childish) would make it immeasurably better.
The next speaker should really try and push a few of these innovations through the House. There’s no reason Parliament has to be like this.
The de Berk case involved the presentation, and misrepresentation, of statistical evidence. No statistical evidence was presented in Letby’s case. There are other similarities and dissimilarities, but ultimately Letby’s guilt or innocent has to be judged on her case, not on someone else’s.
Private Eye, or the Telegraph or the New Yorker are under no requirement to present the case fairly. I think a more interesting read is “Unmasking Lucy Letby” by Jonathan Coffey and Judith Moritz. They attended the trial. One of them thinks she’s guilty, the other has doubts. I think the resulting book gets closer to a fair representation of events.
So all you have to do at PMQs is slag off the opposition record, agree you're great when your own benches throw you a softball, and say you might pass on some information or see that a meeting is held.
It's genuinely absurd that PMQs is held up as an example of Britain's vibrant democracy. Almost any idiot could stand there for 30 minutes going through the motions.
That might offer far more effective scrutiny of the executive.
One is a tension between "what can this do" (capability) and "what was this person doing" (behaviour). They are I think perhaps seizing on an evaluation of "what could this thing do" being presumably 16+ mph or similar * using their meter; a woman with fibromyalgia is not going to be hooning around dangerously. Imagine the fun if we started seizing and crushing all the motor vehicles physically capable of doing 71mph.
In a sense it's slightly like the Council Enforcement Officers in Scunthorpe targeting pensioners in their town centre under measures designed to target ASBO youth, because enforcement against minors is more difficult.
My own e-Brompton has a 20mph option because it can be switched to the "USA" setting. My e-Boardman has no limit at all, since it is grandfathered in from before 2014.
It is a dreadful position that is going to impact all of us and Starmer is finding out the hard way that the government of the day is held responsible for both the safety of its citizens and the economic effects
When you are cross examining a witness, specifically an accused, the job is to highlight the lack of answers to the inconsistencies and incredible aspects of their case; to plant the idea that these exist so that when you come to them in your jury speech (or a TV studio for a politician) these points are familiar and something your audience is already thinking about.
I will look out the book. Are Coffey and Moritz under requirement to present the case fairly?
To raise 3 countries entirely at random.
https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/foxboro-world-cup-security-funding-kraft-group/
The stadium is in a small town and the police sensible want to see the $8m security costs up front before agreeing the matches can take place
Coffey and Moritz are two BBC journalists and, indeed, under no more requirement to present the case fairly, but they’ve been following it from the beginning and they maybe balance each other out. It’s good that we have a media who are willing to question things and campaign on matters: Private Eye do great good on many subjects. But a lot of people read an article or two on Letby and make up their minds rather quickly.
And I still have no opinion either way.
(I suspect that contracts for jobs like that specify six months’ notice, so the positive action required from No.10 would be to remove it. If the PM does nothing then the payoff goes through.)
And this is the 'uncontroversial' stuff, not the juicy stuff at the hiring stage
The media these days are more of a paper tiger than something of influence. IMHO going through the relevant complaints process and then escalating gets the best results. A by-product of the tick box / process state as the number of complaints actually get noticed even if the results is not necessarily satisfactory.
Denmark famously were called back from beach holidays when Serbia were banned… and they won it!
Trump and FIFA are one such - gaudy, tasteless, stupid, ignorant, corrupt, narcissistic, a complete lack of self awareness and no shame.
Was pizza involved?
On a similar basis I think we should expect every election in 2028 to see the defeat of the incumbent government, save those insulated from economic reality by a massive corporate tax windfall.
Its already got enough in to suggest Starmer misled parliament over what he knew about the ongoing friendship before appointing him
Noooooo - not corrupt enough, and too self aware.
Mandelson tried to fet a 500 grand pay off. We paid him 75 grand and Olly Robbins covered it up by 'not publishing' it
First tranche.... lol
The CEO will have a PA who reads everything incoming, and will send the complaint straight to the relevant head of department.
Even before the SMO they'd have needed an armed escort to keep ICE at bay.
Old news
The world has moved on.
Extinction level Tories so out of touch
The next day, they ran out of chairs in my father’s ward - several senior consultants and all their subordinates appeared simultaneously.
https://x.com/jukan05/status/2031575850932646363
As global logistics tensions escalate in the wake of the Iran crisis, South Korea's semiconductor industry is facing supply instability for helium gas, a critical process material. Ships transporting helium have come under restrictions at the Strait of Hormuz — a key Middle Eastern shipping lane — causing disruptions across the broader supply chain. Industry voices are calling for diversification away from Qatar-dependent supply toward alternative sources such as the United States and Russia.
According to industry sources on the 11th, major chipmakers including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have been closely monitoring their helium gas procurement situation following the outbreak of the U.S.-Iran conflict late last month, and are exploring strategies to expand helium recycling systems.
Helium is an industrial gas essential to semiconductor manufacturing. Inside the process chamber — the enclosed environment where wafer fabrication takes place — helium is used to purge residual gases after each process step. Given that semiconductor circuits are fabricated at the nanometer (nm) scale, ultra-high purity helium with virtually no contaminants is required. Industry sources indicate that helium of up to 99.9999% purity (6N grade) is used in these processes.
The core problem is that South Korea's semiconductor helium supply chain is heavily concentrated in a single region. According to the Korea Customs Service, South Korea's total helium gas imports last year amounted to $226.9 million, of which 64% — or $146.84 million — originated from Qatar. The United States is the second-largest supplier, but at a 28% share, there is a substantial gap relative to Qatar. For high-purity helium used in semiconductor fabrication specifically, industry estimates suggest Qatar's share approaches 80%, with only marginal contributions from U.S. and Australian sources...
While they can second source, with some effort, there is likely to be at the very least a short term effect, and as with LNG supplies, the position of the Gulf as the largest supplier to a number of Asian countries is likely to be under review in the future.
That won't make US allies in the region happy.
It also gives China substantial leverage should they decide they want to gain influence and/or project power in the region. Which threatens to recreate the Cold War dynamic, but with China taking the place of Soviet Russia
The problem for Iran is that boycotting the WC may mean a ban from international competition for some years.
When hundreds or thousands of fans with Tickets are rounded up on arrival at Airports and given the full MAGA welcome and held for deportation for minor domestic offences.
When rival fans mix and mingle and the tradition football behaviour starts and the Yanks retaliate with the MAGA stormtroopers and live bullets.
“In the last few days, jury trials have been scrapped, Churchill has been taken off bank notes and hereditary peers have been booted. England’s cultural heritage is being gutted terrifyingly quickly.”
“Ok so in the news this week it's quite clear the UK is undergoing a Cultural Revolution.
The Chinese Cultural Revolution attacked "The 4 Olds" in an attempt to destroy the past.
The UK is no different. The 4 Olds of the UK:
1. Old History - removal of historic figures from banknotes
2. Old Legal Rights - Removal of Jury Trials
3. Old Government - Removal of Hereditary Peers
4. Old Alliances - Destroying alliances across Europe, the Middle East and with the US to avoid upsetting "communities" in a handful of constituencies.”
https://x.com/mr_james_c/status/2031670381254173069?s=46
Depending on exactly what Starmer has said in Parliament, this could be the end of him, as it sounds suspiciously like he has misled Parliament by claiming he didn't know the "extent" of Mandelson's friendship with Epstein.
Hes screwed. There are thousands more documents left to come.
Starmer hiding behind a decent colleague and called out by Ed Davey just now
THAAD redeployment sparks fears of high-altitude defense gap in South Korea
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/defense/20260311/thaad-redeployment-sparks-fears-of-high-altitude-defense-gap-in-south-korea
Is Middle East crisis casting shadow over annual S. Korea-US military drills?
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/defense/20260311/is-middle-east-crisis-casting-shadow-over-annual-s-korea-us-military-drills
FIFA could give Irans finals spot to Iraq and promote UAE to the play offs. If Iran are definitely out, FIFA will need to decide what to do in the next few days
Oops