Off Topic News & Current affairs

So the Gideon Falter video basically showsvheceentnyo that march in order to create an 'incident' to show how anti semitic the anti genocide crowd were. With a large entourage, film crew, minders etc. Lucky we have C4 to investigate and don't rely on GMB to just serve up what Falter wanted. It'd be nice to see him investigated to see if Israel is funding his activities to discredit the police.
Suella Braverman wanted the cheif of the Met sacked. Maybe she could apologise before resigning. She was in Israel when three British aid workers were murdered by the IDF, and cheerfully appeared all over social media exculpating Israel of any blame, before it wasveven known they were repeatedly attacked by precidion weapons in places kilometers apart..
Why a useless back bencher is doing a political visit to Israel to give carte blanche to their disgbombings ombings of civilians is a good question. Is the being paid? Her backing of Falter suggests she is deep in Israeli pockets- strange place for a UK MP to be.

 

Israel is engaged in a propaganda war, so it is possible, although I haven't seen any evidence of it. Now an independent investigation has said that Israel has provided no evidence to back up its claim that the UN aid agency was employing Hamas fighters, or terrorists if you like. Yet this claim was widely believed when it was made. I hope the result of the investigation gets the same publicity as the original lie.

 

The fuller video (13 minutes) was on Sky News a couple of days ago….

https://news.sky.com/story/sky-news...tism-campaigner-called-openly-jewish-13120104

As we’ve agreed before, this was obviously a set-up and not just a case of Falter ‘coming across the March’.

However, what I still maintain is that he was stopped from going where he should be free to go, just because there was a large mob who may have objected to him. And the Police were the ones who stopped him. That is just mob-rule I’m afraid, whatever way you look at it. I don’t care about the rights and wrongs of the situation in Gaza, what I do care about is the fact that a large group of people, causing disruption, shouting offensive slogans and chants and generally taking over the streets, are assisted in doing so in London by the Met Police.

And the Met Police do this by breaking the law, threatening someone that has done nothing criminally wrong with arrest and making up imaginary offences, which clearly haven’t occurred, to justify their actions.

The officers were polite and calm and appeared professional, but they were simply wrong. Gideon Falter WAS NOT guilty of a Breach of the Peace, regardless of his motives for the whole incident.

On one hand the Met say it is safe for Jewish people to go wherever they want in London during these marches and on the other they stop Jewish people from doing so out of fear for their safety. Both of those can’t be right. The evidence from this video proves that the latter is right, so why don’t they come out and say that the former is wrong ?

Because that would mean that they’d have to admit that they should ban these marches due to the potential for violence and it’s THAT they don’t want to do.

Again this isn’t about party politics, Suella Braverman, the Tories etc, it’s about mob rule on the streets of London and the fact that the Police ALWAYS side with the pro-Palestinian groups. They are NOT acting without fear of favour.

And if Mark Rowley still thinks that the officers didn’t do anything wrong then he is either lying or he doesn’t understand the law around Breach of the Peace.

 

It's safe for me to go anywhere I want in london too. So when we next play Millwall, I could put on my Castore shirt, pitch up in a pub full of Millwall fans and start singing? The police are asked to keep the peace. If he'd wanted to walk along the train tracks to top himself, the police would have stopped that too.
The marches I have seen (on TV) have been generally peaceful. There have been reports of offensive language hurled at Israel - but that is as nothing compared to what Israel is perpetrating, with the help of the UK. I agree it's not about party politics. Starmer has cravenly gone along with the line that Israel can defend itself. But I draw the line at Braverman. Ghastly woman.
And the police don't always side with the Palestinian marches. They have to draw a line and banning freedom of speech is something we should cling onto.

And Mark Rowley has rightly stuck with his officers. Falter didn't want to cross the road. He likes the marches as little as you do as he is a member of groups who push a pro Israel line, and he wanted something to post online to push the argument that the marches are violent. He wasn't allowed and no violence occurred.

 

Another non-apology from Susan Crichton the Post Office lawyer at the time of the scandal. "Sorry for your suffering" is not the same as apologising for what you've done wrong. In fact she's been very careful not to admit anything. They are still only concerned with covering their arse.

 

Exactly how I see it. The situation is far from black and white.

 

Is it too late to cadge a lift?

Stop the World - I want to get off!

 

If you wanted to do that and provided that your singing wasn’t offensive, then you’d be entitled to do it and wouldn’t be committing any offences and therefore the Police would have no power to stop you (walking along the train track isn’t a valid comparison because it is an offence to walk along a railway track).

Similarly Falter wasn’t committing any offence so the Police have no right to stop him. But they did and then they made up a false crime against him and physically stopped him from walking where he wanted to walk. That is absolutely black and white and is laid down in law, stated cases and legal precedents.

FALTER WAS NOT COMMITTING A BREACH OF THE PEACE.

He may be a prat, he may be an attention seeker, he may be trying to entrap the Police, he may even be anti-Palestinian, but he wasn’t committing any offences.

And I don’t mind Rowley defending his officer as such, but he cannot explain what exactly Falter was doing, with reference to the law, which justifies any claim that he WAS committing a breach of the peace.

And it’s amazing that not one news reporter has tied him down on this.

So here’s a suggested question for any reporter out there to ask Rowley “Could you please explain to us exactly what action Falter took which means that he was committing a breach of the peace, with specific reference to the actual law of the land, rather than what you’d like the law of the land to be”.

And as for the marches being peaceful. Please ! I suggest you do some googling.

 

A big Thank You to Michael Gove from Generation Rent

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68885243

Well there's a surprise
Gove told Laura Kuenssberg back in February that no-fault evictions would be banned before the next General Election.
Now he has reneged on his word.
Because Tory back-benchers - many of them private landlords - won't vote for his Bill unless the ban on no-fault evictions was removed.
The Nasty Party strikes again.
Cutting their own electoral throats

 

No wonder the majority of 18-34 year-olds are still living at home with their parents, private accommodation is insecure. Not so long ago the majority of them were living with a partner and kids. All the decent council houses have gone, many of them are now owned by private renters. With buy-to-let being so popular (so that someone else can pay your mortgage) you have a landlord who may well want to sell his asset to help his own children get on the property ladder at some point. The Chancellor has 7 properties which he rents ahrt- is that a clue why they've done it?

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-england-london-68888725

 

I hope none of them have to be put down.
Wouldn't want to have to say 'Goodbye Horse'

 

Another reason why this Government is going to lose the General Election;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2lezd59e9lo

One word gradings for schools are obviously wrong.
A school is a complex entity with many facets. Not just educational achievement.
To think it can be summed up in one word is an insult to the intelligence of parents.

The school where head teacher Ruth Perry was seen to be doing well in every aspect that was examined by Ofsted - except one.
And that one perceived failing was enough for them to brand the whole school "Inadequate".
So all the other good attributes and the hard work of staff to achieve them went totally unacknowledged.
Ofsted's one word immediately gave parents the impression that the school was failing in every respect.
And its head teacher was so shamed by this that she committed suicide.

A cross-party Select Committee recommended that one word gradings no longer be used.
But the Government has ignored that advice, saying that one word ratings have "significant benefits".

Where is the "significant benefit" of gross over-simplification?
It does not serve parents who are looking for the best school to send their children too.
It gives them one word - of possibly very misleading - information.

Rishi Sunak shares one fatal character flaw with Boris Johnson.
Neither of them are willing to listen to considered advice given by highly educated experts.
What Johnson has however which Sunak profoundly lacks, is charisma.

Boris Johnson can (or could) charm his way into convincing people to follow his lead.
He could dominate and influence by the sheer force of his personality - which Nigel Farage can also do, to some extent at least.
Rishi Sunak is a charmless robotic character.
As is Keir Starmer.

But Starmer carries almost no baggage with him, apart from being part of Jeremy Corbyn's risible 2019 shadow Cabinet & Election team.
Rishi Sunak now bears in the eyes of many not just the responsibility for all the current crises dragging this Country down.
But for everything that has gone wrong since 2010.
Our Prime Minister has never won a election to be leader - not even among Tory Party members.
And his days in No.10 are numbered.

He may choose never to listen to advice, but he will not be able to ignore the result of the next GE.
And among his own Party, hundreds of whom are already bailing out of their seats before the People kick them out, he will be held responsible for one of the worst drubbings at the ballot box the Conservative Party has ever suffered.

Happy days

 

Lordy, it's all kicking off in the Scottish Parliament

The First Minister faces a vote of No Confidence, having been in power for about ten minutes.
The Greens are Revolting (we all knew that of course)
And now the SNP will have to struggle on with a Minority Government for the next few months.
Sir Keir must be cock-a-hoop.

Call the Cops! Oh yes, somebody already did.

 

And ex-Post Office boss Angela Van der Bogard has had a series of memory lapses...

Call the Cops!

 

Shoplifting reaches a record high

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68896845

I wonder if large stores could put in place an entry card & PIN security system.
Anyone who gets caught shoplifting one time has their card taken away. They never get into the store again.
The same with shopping malls that have entrance doorways.
You get caught thieving one time from one shop, and you never get into that mall again.

I know that wouldn't solve the whole problem, but it might help.
I certainly wouldn't mind having to use a card to get into shops.

 

I only found out yesterday that you don't get prosecuted for stealing goods worth less than £200, so gangs are operating with several members stealing goods worth just under £200. It was introduced during Teresa May's tenure to stop overcrowding in prisons. Seems to be becoming normal behaviour.

 

And another non-apology (for the devastation caused), qualified by saying she did nothing wrong. None of them have apologised for anything they did.
In her evidence she has completely exonerated herself from any blame, which is what they all seem to be doing. If criminal acts are found to have taken place possibly the law of joint enterprise could be used to nail them.

 

Together with the criminal allegations surrounding the last leadership and the utter incompetence of the current leadership, are we witnessing the end of the SNP ?

If so, one person bears the biggest responsibility.

Nicola Sturgeon.

What a thoroughly detestable woman and now, maybe the person who brought down the SNP and killed off Scottish independence for good.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cz5dy15grjnt

 

I'm a bit surprised that a lot is being made in some quarters this morning at the supposed 'gaffe' made by a Government Minister on Question Time last night.
He appeared to be unclear for a moment on whether Rwanda was a different Country from the DRC (Congo) one of it's neighbouring Countries with which it has some border disputes and local fighting of a military or paramilitary nature.

I watched the programme.
Did not envy the Minister, who was the focus of a pretty hostile atmosphere.
It looked to me at the time that he may have mis-heard the question from an audience member, or mis-understood it for a second or two. His initial replies did sound a little confused, but the matter was cleared up in a few seconds - albeit after some derision from the rest of the audience at his hesitation and efforts to clarify the question being asked.

But in my view this was no example of a major blunder or evidence of incompetence on the part of the Minister.
Which is how it is being painted, I am sad to say, on the BBC News. It was not worthy of being highlighted in my opinion.
I want to see the back of this Conservative Government as much as anybody. But I don't like trivial things like this being blown up and made out to be something that they were not.
The atmosphere was charged, everyone was trying to get a word in edgeways, and I can understand completely a second or two of confusion in those circumstances.

Had I not seen the programme myself, I feel I would be being misled by the reporting of this matter.
Not happy about that.