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Reply | January Transfer Thread
at 13:53 23 Jan 2025
The story about Swansea interest in Luke Cundle leaves me underwhelmed. I thought he was pretty anonymous during his previous loan spell with us. Wolves could well be in the Championship next year, and it seems they have concluded that he is not good enough for their team. |
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Reply | Iraq loses the age of consent to NINE
at 10:01 23 Jan 2025
Hard to escape the thought that when men who espouse a certain faith are found to have sexually abused 12 and 13 years olds that there is a connection to what senior clerics in that religion say about matters like the age of consent. |
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Reply | The Southport attack and Starmer
at 18:42 22 Jan 2025
Couldn't link a reply to Major's post for some reason.
Agree with the last para of this post about the way forward. On the rest I will just say:
1. I never suggested that releasing names was desirable - it was other basic information mentioned in my post that I had in mind.
2. Re Starmer's position, I think he was probably telling the truth about the advice he received, but the CPS and law ministers may have been over-cautious in tendering advice. This is what Lord Macdonald suggested in his radio interview, also adding that he thought the rule about contempt of court may need reviewing.
3. If you search, you will find a couple of articles that purport to give some insight into the tensions between the police and the CPS, including one by a BBC reporter which now seems to be unavailable. Here is another:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/01/21/axel-rudakubana-merseyside-police-ga |
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Reply | Classic car owners beware
at 16:04 22 Jan 2025
Does anybody know a skilled person who does panel beating as a side hustle in the car owner's own garage? I have a classic car with some body work damage. |
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Reply | The Southport attack and Starmer
at 08:23 22 Jan 2025
Lord Kenneth Macdonald, KC, the former DPP has just given an interview on Times Radio in which he came down very much on the side of releasing more information earlier. He feels that more could have been said without prejudicing court proceedings. This from a former human rights lawyer, who was a co-founder of Matrix Chambers. [Post edited 22 Jan 8:42]
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Reply | The Southport attack and Starmer
at 07:12 22 Jan 2025
Personally, I still lean towards the view that certain basic information could have been put into the public domain early on, as indeed it has been in other cases. What was released is illustrated in a BBC report from two days after the arrest. This stated: "The 17-year-old boy, who was arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder after Monday's attack, has no known links to Islam. (...) The suspect, who has not been named because of his age, was born in Cardiff and later moved to Banks in Lancashire, a village that lies a few miles north of Southport." However, eye witnesses' reports of the ethnicity of the arrested person were leaking into social media, and the apparent mismatch with official statements undoubtedly opened the way for conspiracy theories. I do not believe that stating that the suspect came from a Rwandan family that had immigrated to the UK would have prejudiced legal proceedings, and that would have helped explain the apparent discrepancy between accounts of a Welsh suspect and what people at the scene reported on social media.
The MSM have been allowed to publish similar information in other cases. For example, in the Parson's Green case where an 18 year then unnamed suspect was arrested the newspapers were not restrained from printing additional details.
https://www.kentlive.news/news/kent-news/everything-know-troubled-parsons-green-
There is also a question about whether the three referrals to Prevent could have been made public. By way of contrast, in the case of the Reading Park stabbings, the information that the 25 year old adult killer, Khairi Saadallah, was known to MI5 was released very early.
There are also interesting questions about the role of the CPS in delaying the release of information in the Southport case. It is reported that the police wished to proceed with charges relating to the ricin and the Al-Qaeda manual once this was known, and to release the information, but the CPS delayed this until October 28th allegedly causing tensions. In the event, the information about ricin and the manual did emerge before the trial, so this delay did not in fact remove any risk that existed of affecting the proceedings.
I appreciate that many lawyers will agree fully with Starmer's views on release of information, but think others will say the line could have been drawn in a different place. Last year Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism laws, said the Government and police should be more open about criminal cases to avoid an information gap being filled online.
https://www.times-series.co.uk/news/national/24687652.southport-row-continues-wa
It will be interesting to see what the inquiry says. [Post edited 22 Jan 7:17]
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Reply | Swansea City v Sheffield Utd: Match day thread
at 20:40 21 Jan 2025
improved performance, but as usual we haven't been clinical in front of goal, even when we scored, and that may turn out to be our downfall. Key is giving away possession too often; his early season form seems to have deserted him. I fear that we may retreat into our shell in the 2nd half hoping to hang on. [Post edited 21 Jan 20:42]
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Reply | Why is it so hard getting immigration numbers down?
at 15:08 21 Jan 2025
The Republic of Ireland is a prime example. GDP has risen because of the decision of certain multi-national to locate there, but ordinary people still struggle to get access to affordable housing and healthcare. Of course, the RoI government knows that if it taxes the rich - in the shape of the corporations - excessively they will re-locate. It was the low tax regime that attracted them. If the EU tightens the rules on corporation tax and fair competition further then Ireland will struggle. Trump is also taking an interest and the move of US companies to Ireland for the tax advantages, and is muttering about tariffs. |
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Reply | Anthony Fauci pardoned
at 12:40 21 Jan 2025
Translated into US-English, misdemeanours and felonies. Mostly the latter with the named actors I expect.  |
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Reply | Jon Joe Shelvey
at 10:29 21 Jan 2025
Don't disagree with the general point about JJ's psychological stability, but I find the idea that a player would have a kick around with local kids quite appealing. I am reminded of stories from long ago (a different age) when more local lads turned out for football league teams and in their spare time did take part in kick arounds with people in the local community. |
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Reply | The Southport attack and Starmer
at 10:15 21 Jan 2025
Two of the big issues arising out of this case are: (a) are the UK institutional arrangements for predicting attacks like this and letting information flow between agencies adequate? and (b) should the authorities release more information at an early stage to let the public know what has happened? Starmer's response seems to be "no" to both questions, when I think there is a strong case for more information at an early stage. The argument there is over whether release of such information prejudices legal proceedings, but my view is that there are certain baseline facts that could be communicated without compromising a fair trial. |
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Reply | January Transfer Thread
at 18:54 20 Jan 2025
Looking at other transfer business, I see that Burnley have signed JJ Shelvey. Did we miss a trick?  |
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Reply | January Transfer Thread
at 18:51 20 Jan 2025
We seem to use "triangles" more when we try to break the press in our own half than we do in attacking positions. In attack it often doesn't work because our technical ability isn't quite there. Of course, even in our own half our limitations with the tactic has led to more than the odd goal. |
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Reply | Anthony Fauci pardoned
at 18:28 20 Jan 2025
The really controversial pardons came in the last half hour of Biden's term.
https://news.sky.com/story/joe-biden-pardons-public-servants-to-guard-against-po
The interesting question here is whether accepting such a pre-emptive pardon is a tacit admission of guilt. The 1915 U.S. Supreme Court judgement in Burdick v. United States suggested it is, but more recently this has been questioned by lower courts, who say that it may be a way to protect the innocent from capricious proceedings. |
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Reply | Azeem Abdulai
at 09:39 20 Jan 2025
Re skill-set and the idea that Abdulai disappointed because he was played out of position, I am a sceptic. The things that have struck me are not just inability to beat a man and his repeated backward passes, but poor technical ability when it comes to the accuracy of passes and screening the ball to retain possession. As far as I can remember, Azeem scored with one easy chance, but was not clinical when he missed a couple of other chances. So for me, he is no great loss. |
| | AnotherJohn
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