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A gripping and deeply moving documentary will be broadcast on BBC2 at 9.00 pm tonight, and is already viewable on iPlayer. It is the story of how a large number of socially-liberal young people attending a peace and love festival were murdered by terrorists.
The not guilty plea cases in the magistrates courts and more serious ones going to crown court are starting to trickle through. Some posters said that this would be the test of whether there is anything in the claim of "two-tier justice". At the time there were also allegations of "two-tier policing". For example, there was the case of the mob that surrounded the Birmingham pub, hospitalised a customer unwise enough to venture outside, and tried to slash the tyre on a Sky broadcast crew van. Well, one of the few persons charged that day has now appeared in court. The verdict is likely to add grist to the mill.
Trouble brewing in Downing Street? There seems to be widespread anger among some Labour insiders about the power and authoritarian style of Sue Gray, not to mention a salary higher than that of the PM.
The statement just made today in Parliament is the first encouraging development I have seen under the new government. The big plus is that, in addition to an improved redundancy package, there will be an intention to bring back some UK primary steel production to complement the planned electric arc furnaces at Port Talbot and Scunthorpe. I suppose the downside is that the Tata deal does not postpone the closure of the existing blast furnaces, does not reduce the number of lost jobs significantly, and does not push Tata to add a DRI front end to the EAF in the short term. It was a bit rich for the Shadow Business Minister to criticise Labour for this when so little progress had been made by the last government. I will wait with interest to see what those with greater knowledge than me of the plant think.
The discovery of six hostages (including women) found dead in a tunnel in Gaza has provoked protests against the Israel government. However, to me the fact they were killed immediately when rescue became likely shows that no party is worse than Hamas. Basically the only Israelis encountered in that cross-border incursion on October 7th who stayed alive are those that Hamas could use as pawns. Everybody else was murdered on the spot, and if the hostages are no longer of use they too are killed. That looks more like genocide than the admittedly OTT actions of Israel in Gaza. As a general rule Palestinians are not killed on sight.
The CEO of the secure messaging app Telegram, Pavel Durov, has been arrested in France. Telegram is widely used because encrypted messages from senders to recipients are virtually impossible for third parties to read. Fuel for conspiracy theorists who believe that governments are seeking to exert greater control over their populations?
Adama Sidibeh was sent off in the game between St Johnstone and Dundee United today, After receiving his second card there was a further altercation that will lead to an additional penalty. Discipline problems?
From BBC Report:
Sidibeh's red card effectively ended the game as a competitive tie.
His first booking - a handball as he punched the ball away from Walton in a failed 'hand-of-god' re-enactment - was foolish. His second - catching Will Ferry with his hand as he tried to spin away - was perhaps harsh.
His reaction to the dismissal - throwing a hand towards the midriff of Holt - resulted in a further card for violent conduct after a VAR intervention. A lengthier ban awaits.
Some game here. Whittaker scored a cracker to equalise, before Argyle self-destructed and had a man sent off. Thereafter, it was largely one way with the Plymouth keeper MoM. Obefemi came on and had a couple of good moments, without looking that sharp. Amazingly Argyle then had a very strong penalty shout denied. The ref was definitely not their friend and they ended up holding on with 9 men after a rather harsh second dismissal. Ended 1-1.
Somebody is obviously interested in a "paradigm shift", but I wonder how many MSs have read Thomas Kuhn. Personally I would rather challenge the world view where corruption is tolerated, and the race card is accepted as a "get out of jail free" card.
For a while some of us have been expressing concern about rising welfare expenditure against the background of already high tax levels, which however, for many tax payers amount to less contributed than they receive in services and benefits. That picture is worsening according to the latest figures. Covid 19 spending, energy subsidies and the latest benefits inflation uplift have added to the pressure. It is reported that France has a similar problem.
Speaking as somebody who has saved, but is not super rich, I've struggled in recent years to find a savings vehicle that returns anything even close to the rate of inflation. It then seems pretty harsh that interest on savings in ordinary bank accounts, above what is now quite a low limit, gets taxed, meaning that the rate of decline in the real value of one's savings is accelerated. Mr Bell seems to want to take this a step further by clamping down on what is already a quite limited way of shielding some savings from HMRC.
Probably, the publication source and authorship team won't appeal to many, but this report repeats what some of us have been saying for a while on these threads about per capita GDP, net fiscal impact, and pressures on infrastructure. It is hard to deny the core argument.
Just before he died, Henry Kissinger commented on the political impact of large-scale migration into Europe; he talked about the creation of new interest groups that would influence political parties and their policies. The results of the recent council elections, and how Gaza has featured so centrally in the campaigns in some areas, seem to bear that out.
Other recent news headlines say that the Labour Party is working to win back votes in Muslim communities. Some senior party sources say policy will need to change, even after the shift that already happened.. Personally I find that quite worrying. I seem to recall a discourse from years ago whereby people on the Left argued that changing demography would not greatly change existing culture and values, because integration would mean that migrants adopted the values had attracted them to the UK in the first place. Will foreign policy now be shaped increasingly by the reaction of certain "interest groups" to what is happening in far away places? Some will say that demography is destiny.
Residents living in the west of the city may have participated in the recent consultation exercise about planned road "improvements" and a cycle route from Walter Road to Sketty Road and Uplands Crescent. Like me, they may therefore be gobsmacked to hear that the Council went ahead with submitting its funding application for the (first) Walter Road phase even before the consultation was concluded. Here is a video of part of the Council deliberations when this emerged.
I've seen a few mealy-mouthed shysters in action in my time, but Stevens and Stewart take the biscuit. Peter May on the other hand exemplifies the value of an independent councillor, and illustrates why the Uplands group are streets ahead of the party hacks. Seeing Stevens doing his best to obfuscate and finally resorting to an outright fib, before then accusing May of going round in circles was something to behold. Stewart said pretty clearly that the active travel network was a Council strategy that no single ward would be allowed to overturn. To me that signals that the mindset evident in the Senedd that our masters know best, also holds sway in our Council. Who voted in these people? How wonderful it would be to have more independents.
For reference here is some information on the active travel network. No doubt it has some good aspects. but the detail in the west of the city does not look good to me.
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