Off Topic Other Stuff (anything you want to share)

Please excuse me for mentioning cricket at this time......but for my sins I followed it online as well as in the newspapers.

In my naivety I hadn't cottoned on to why batsman are now called batters....it just seemed strange...and to me it sounded more american relating to baseball.

Now Geoffrey Boycott ...who is well known for calling a spade a spade....had been ripping apart the dismal batting of our teams total collapse from 68-0 to 124 all out...and mentioned the lack of quality of our batsman....emphasis on the word batsmen....the penny then dropped....it's our old friend political correctness raising its head again....because women play cricket as well....but you cannot call them batswomen....because that picks them out as different to men cricketers.....and we mustn't allow that to happen must we.

So end result is a man cannot be called a batsman....is that clear now.

 

Assuming it happened, she was 17 at the time Sensible, not an offence in this country although highly unsavoury I agree.

This isn't a criminal trial even in the States, she's after money having already had $400k and only has to prove a case to the lower civil standard. That sort of money is a big incentive. It'll be interesting to see if she accepts an out of court monetary settlement as she did before or is really interested in establishing a moral case in public.

 

It has always appalled me that high flyers with quality education behind them on various TV game shows do not know which is further north Blackpool or Brighton for example.

Just been reading the results of a study by an organization called...The Knowledge Academy...the study involved 6,500 people.

The study asked participants to pinpoint 196 countries from all over the globe.

Here are some of the results.

1.....Although both world wars are studied in schools.....32% could not pick out Germany on a map....known as Europes biggest economy.

2.....Almost two thirds (62%) could not find Japan.

3.....73% didn't know were Europes largest country the Ukraine was.

4.....45% did not know were Australia was.

5.....Holiday favourite Spain was a mystery for 25%.

6.....29% did not know were Poland was on a map....900,000 Polish people live in this country...the largest group of migrants.

7.....28% didn't know were France was.....even though the Channel Tunnel is used by millions each year.

8.....20% of those asked didn't know were the worlds largest country Russia was.

9.....The biggest mystery was Indonesia...83% had no idea.

10.....Vietnam was nearly as bad with 81%.......300,000 Britons visit each year.

Basic general knowledge isn't taught in schools....it doesn't get you a job

 

Notdistant I don't care if money is involved or not. It is not acceptable for anyone to have somebody else "provided" for their entertainment in that way and it is even worse when it is somebody of that age whether illegal or not. He is a creep and deserve anything and everything that comes his way. If the Authorities had the balls to prosecute in the US then it would be a criminal matter there where this hearing is taking place. It's not illegal in some countries to marry a 12 year old. I wonder if you think kind of ok as it doesn't break the law there. I believe you have daughters. If one of them was taken on a plane and given to a middle aged man for his amusement and use I wonder how you would feel about it. I do not blame the girl in any way shape or form.

 

Who says any of that is true? Her, that's it. All there is is a picture of her smiling. If there were grounds for a criminal prosecution, I'm sure there would be one. You are naïve as to what people will do for money and notoriety.

 

Good grief sensible how naive can you get....she was well paid and well looked after for her trip.....and she got extras from Epstein years later....and decided the Duke of York was worth a bob or two as well....her representatives are turning the screw to get maximum pay-out ....and probably know to within a penny or two how much he is worth.

 

I typed my reply before I read notDistants comment.....Naive seems to be the in word.

The Duke has no recollection of meeting her.....so why hasn't he mentioned the photo.....which of course in this day and age could have been easily rigged.

I wonder if his sweat glands are working overtime now.

 

So she has probably lied then? Oh come on. The days when you have to touch your forelock and bow have long since gone.

"She was well paid for........." Well that's ok as well then. Just chuck a 17 year old a few quid and do what you like. I cannot believe you both I really can't. The photoo that has been made up by the way has been examined by people who know a damn sight more than you and me about the technicalities of photo doctoring and guess what.......they found it to be genuine. Lying appears to be the in thing with people who are meant to set examples these days. There is no honour and no integrity left. The acceptance of what people of a certain level in life doing what they want to whoever they want clearly hasn't died out though.

 

Crime doesn't pay ?....hold on a minute that might not be true.

News item in todays... Daily Telegraph...(28/01/2022)

Police are solving the lowest proportion of crimes on record as sex offences hit a new high, official figures show.

Just 6% of all crimes resulted in a charge in the year to September 2021, equivalent to one in 17 offences being solved, according to Home Office figures published yesterday.


I do wonder if the Home Office have read their figures correctly....maybe the figures actually showed that 6% of all crimes were committed by Police Officers....from the things we have heard about in the last year or so that could well be a true figure.

 

Who gets charged is of course not the responsibility of the police but of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The courts are in an absolute shambles due to a combination of cuts in Government spending, Covid, obstructive defence lawyers and so on and so on.

I can't help wondering if anything that isn't 100% clear cut are being turned down by the DPP to ease the pressures on courts.

The other question is what's in the denominator. A new crime seems to be created every week ranging from a builder whistling at a girl in the street to somebody calling a person from a minority a "twit" for pinching a parking space being reported for a hate crime.

I read in the Sunday paper that a feminist University professor had her house raided by the boys in blue who threatened her with prosecution for being in possession of I think "terrorist" literature. The literature consisted of learned treatises by other academics on the current controversy between those feminists who don't want to be sharing toilets with "transgender" individuals who are still equipped to urinate from a standing position and transgender extremists who don't believe what was in a child's nappy at birth has no bearing at all on its gender. What were they thinking to wade into that?

 

Oh and to tie up two threads, should the Met really by deploying elite officers to investigate alledged historic partying in Whitehall?

As a retired senior officer pointed out, it was an absolute scandal to divert the very best resources to something which had it been caught at the time would at the most have resulted in a Fixed Penalty Notice carrying a maximum £200 fine.

The damage has been done, credibility shattered, such as this Government ever had any following Brexit.

All the police's involvement will do is delay the publication of the Susan Gray civil service report. The absolutely key issue of whether Johnson lied in the Commons will be of no interest to the Met.

 

Here is a conversation that may or may not have taken place,

"Cresida, you have cocked up so many times and we have backed you so you do sort of owe us a favour" Said Boris.

"Ok Boris what do you want" she replied.

"We could do with burying that damned report due out for a while to buy us more time" said Boris."

"Simple" said Cresida. "All we have to do is have an investigation that people have been crying for ourselves and we can say the report can't come out in full until it's completed".

"Perfect" said Boris. "Can you slow the investigation down for a while and that should make half the plebs forget and go on to something else"

"Sorted" said Cresida. "The plebs never catch on do they".



IT'S A FECKING WHITEWASH WAITING TO HAPPEN ONCE AGAIN.

 

All I will add to the above is have a look at tomorrows headlines in the newspapers. I wrote the above this afternoon and it could have been the front page of almost any of the papers for tomorrow. It's worse than disgusting if they get away with this.

 

I have to say this isn't a phrase I've ever used before nor ever expected to use. I saw a great Turkish proverb posted on Twitter.

When a clown goes into a palace, he does not become a king. Instead, the palace becomes a circus.

How fitting to what's happened at No. 10 and indeed the country since Johnson moved in.

 

Yes I like that description it is very apt.

 

Watched the first 20 minutes of the Senegal game tonight....poor quality...continual falling over for free kicks....passes to none existant players....shots at goal that only worry the corner post......the level throughout the tournament has been diabolical....and the lack of goals from the beginning has been sad to watch.

 

I'm afraid that's true despite some high quality players o show.

TBH Camara was the only one playing proper football for his country,...

 

I watched a small bit of that game as well. Whistle happy Ref who blew for everything. Not only poor football but poor officiating as well. I'm literally glad I haven't bothered with it before.

 

Poor football with a smattering of very good players; that's the odd thing.

 

I wonder how many complete cock ups this Government is capable of making.

Different people have different views on how much pressure should be put on people to take the Covid vaccine. There are concerns about civil freedoms but I look at the success of vaccines in eliminating smallpox and polio. I see the the dangers of measles coming back into circulation because some idiot parents have been taken in by a fraudulent report linking the MMR vaccine and autism.

So I agree people can't be marched into a vaccination centre and gun point but that if individuals take the decision not to do the right thing, then they should bear the consequences and not be allowed into high risk environments like pubs and clubs, planes and trains.

The Government decided that those working in the NHS and social care must be vaccinated if they were to continue to have contact with those who might have Covid and with the vulnerable. You can argue the rights & wrongs but it was certainly questionable on practical grounds given those services are under intense pressure and have already lost significant numbers of staff due to Brexit.

Whatever you think though, surely having made the decisio you have to stick with it. To do otherwise makes you look weak and indecisive. What's far worse, it undermines other efforts to get the reluctant to take the vaccine because they are led to believe if they hang on long emough, you'll be the one to give in.

I despair, both because this Government loves to strike a pose by saying rash things AND because this Government doesn't have the courage of its convictions to carry through.

After years of prevarication by various governments, this lot took the decision to fill the void in social care spending by raising NHI contributions. That was the right decision albeit that most of the money is initially to be diverted to the NHS which acts as a sort of financial black hole. It sucks in money and you never see either it or the light that ought to be generated by it again. So far they've stood by that decision under pressure to change it. But for how long?