How About 'No'!
2 hours ago
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Techie Traumas
I was up til two last night, tweaking a small Microsoft Access application I was prototyping to show to some end-users this morning for their feedback.
<"techie twaddle">I'd built an initial screen with a subform linked to a big union query - 11 unions in fact - which would give the user a snapshot of the project status with all the key statistics on it. Worked perfectly on my Access 2000 setup. But when you open the beast in Access 2002 as used at the client site, something dreadful happens to the query and you show the users a nice blank subform. The query itself seems to be totally trashed and you can't open it in design mode any more. Bad news, because you've lost all your SQL. The fix seems to be to write another (non-union) query which uses the union query as a view, and link the form to the non-union query. You have to rewrite all the SQL first, of course. <"/techie twaddle">
Fired it up, it was bust, a ten o'clock meeting, and I would be demonstrating (to three people who'd driven 80 miles to see it) a broken application that I wouldn't have time to find a fix for before they arrived.
Initial feedback was that it would be nice if the screen wasn't blank.
There were other screens which did work, and while the visitors were checking out the screenprints and writing their comments and suggestions, I was frantically finding a fix - which happily materialised in time for me to show them a kosher front-end.
Not the most stress-free walkthrough I've ever done. I'm somewhat tired. Need a drink.
Or three.
UPDATE - A bad day for me at the office is like yesterday's. A bad day for Susan, a nurse, is working for an hour in the back of an ambulance on someone who's arrested - and not being able to bring them back. Or visiting and talking with a thirtysomething mother of three young children, whose cancer has just been diagnosed as terminal. I need to remind myself of that occasionally. Working in IT isn't exactly Helmand province !
<"techie twaddle">I'd built an initial screen with a subform linked to a big union query - 11 unions in fact - which would give the user a snapshot of the project status with all the key statistics on it. Worked perfectly on my Access 2000 setup. But when you open the beast in Access 2002 as used at the client site, something dreadful happens to the query and you show the users a nice blank subform. The query itself seems to be totally trashed and you can't open it in design mode any more. Bad news, because you've lost all your SQL. The fix seems to be to write another (non-union) query which uses the union query as a view, and link the form to the non-union query. You have to rewrite all the SQL first, of course. <"/techie twaddle">
Fired it up, it was bust, a ten o'clock meeting, and I would be demonstrating (to three people who'd driven 80 miles to see it) a broken application that I wouldn't have time to find a fix for before they arrived.
Initial feedback was that it would be nice if the screen wasn't blank.
There were other screens which did work, and while the visitors were checking out the screenprints and writing their comments and suggestions, I was frantically finding a fix - which happily materialised in time for me to show them a kosher front-end.
Not the most stress-free walkthrough I've ever done. I'm somewhat tired. Need a drink.
Or three.
UPDATE - A bad day for me at the office is like yesterday's. A bad day for Susan, a nurse, is working for an hour in the back of an ambulance on someone who's arrested - and not being able to bring them back. Or visiting and talking with a thirtysomething mother of three young children, whose cancer has just been diagnosed as terminal. I need to remind myself of that occasionally. Working in IT isn't exactly Helmand province !
Monday, February 25, 2008
A Few Snowdrops By The Curate's Brook
"No political party can govern if they upset the Asian vote"
The New Wave of British Jihad gets an unlikely recruit - one Malcolm Hodges, who was a bit miffed when he failed his accountancy exams :
"In November 2006 he sent identical letters to dozens of mosques around the UK claiming that he was a follower of Osama bin Laden, the court heard. He told them: "Brothers, you are right to kill the infidels but you are making a mistake to try to attack planes and other targets."
Most murders in London last year were committed by foreigners :
Britain, which is seeking to overhaul its immigration policy, cannot afford to upset the Asian community because of its increasing electoral clout, says the chairperson of the Indo-British Friendship Society. "No political party can govern if they upset the Asian vote," India-born Rami Ranger, who also heads the Sun Group of Industries, told IANS.
Ranger, who visited India earlier this month as part of a delegation accompanying British Immigration Minister Liam Byrne, was commenting on the controversial set of proposals that could mark the most comprehensive revision of British immigration rules in 45 years.
"We can elect 40 to 50 members of parliament from several inner cities... They cannot afford to go wrong," said Ranger, 60, who migrated to Britain in 1971 and today steers a business empire that exports products and services to 40 countries.
That does tend to presume a two-party system. See my piece on the Tory Choice.The New Wave of British Jihad gets an unlikely recruit - one Malcolm Hodges, who was a bit miffed when he failed his accountancy exams :
"In November 2006 he sent identical letters to dozens of mosques around the UK claiming that he was a follower of Osama bin Laden, the court heard. He told them: "Brothers, you are right to kill the infidels but you are making a mistake to try to attack planes and other targets."
Hodges said the "infidels" were expecting such places to be attacked and they should turn their attentions elsewhere. Instead they should focus their "jihad" on four organisations connected to "the corrupt and Western society which are abhorrent to true believers, which the infidels, in their arrogance, will not expect to be attacked".
These were The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance Accountants.
He wrote: "Brothers, striking at these targets will be striking at the infidels where it hurts most and each of these targets was formed and is led by the Queen of England. These targets are also full of swine and apes as they are crammed full of Jews, so striking against these targets is a strike against Israel and will take us closer to wiping Israel from the map."
Most murders in London last year were committed by foreigners :
Most murders in London this year were committed by foreigners, according to Scotland Yard figures obtained by The Times.
Of 47 killings between April and September where the nationality of the accused is known, 26 of the suspects — 55 per cent — are not Britons. In 19 cases the killer is believed to be British. In a further 23 cases the nationality of the killer has not been determined. At least 23 of the victims were foreign, including Somali, Brazilian, Irish and Vietnamese citizens. The killings over the six months are under investigation by Scotland Yard’s Homicide Command and are subject to change as more cases are solved. But the raw data represents a stark illustration of the problems facing forces nationwide as communities change rapidly because of large-scale immigration.
The accused in the London sample hail from all corners of the world: Peru, China, Albania, Romania, Lithuania, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
"we liberal baby-boomers"
David Goodhart examines the entrails of Jacqui Smith's citizenship proposals.
Last week's green paper on immigration and citizenship used a rhetoric that would have been unthinkable 10 years ago. Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, talked about 'earned citizenship' and restricting certain welfare benefits to those who have achieved full citizenship, after at least six years 'on probation'. This is the same government that has overseen the biggest-ever migration into Britain and has been more positive about minority rights, multiculturalism and an 'open Britain' than any in our history. Grasping this apparent conflict requires an understanding of the learning curve of the liberal, baby-boom generation.
While Mr Goodhart's analysis of what my university generation believed is spot-on, the key word here is 'rhetoric'. I think the changes are driven by their private polls and focus groups rather than anything else.
Interesting paradox. I think we're still (just about) at the stage where the problem is 'us' - i.e. the white liberals in power. It's their idiotic, guilt-driven responses to the various challenges to the just-existing, despised Brit culture which is the problem. They still have the power to do something about that, but one day they won't and power will either be fragmented or have passed elsewhere.
And that's exactly the way the white liberals in power think about 'us' - us being the refuseniks, the unbelievers in the Great Society, the racist lumpen Little Englanders harking back to a golden age that never existed. WE are the problem as far as they're concerned (I'm using the Royal 'we' here - as the son of a Welshwoman and an immigrant who spoke with a strong foreign accent til the day he died my status is obscure). If only those idiots weren't around what a paradise this land would be !
But they are - although millions have left. And large numbers of them were once natural, almost tribal Labour supporters whose identification is loosening fast. Ms Smith's initiative is aimed squarely at them. After all, large numbers of them are just poor souls who believe what they read in the Daily Mail. It's a problem of perception. They need - what's the word ? reassurance.
And if words are what's needed, we couldn't have a better government to provide them.
Last week's green paper on immigration and citizenship used a rhetoric that would have been unthinkable 10 years ago. Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, talked about 'earned citizenship' and restricting certain welfare benefits to those who have achieved full citizenship, after at least six years 'on probation'. This is the same government that has overseen the biggest-ever migration into Britain and has been more positive about minority rights, multiculturalism and an 'open Britain' than any in our history. Grasping this apparent conflict requires an understanding of the learning curve of the liberal, baby-boom generation.
While Mr Goodhart's analysis of what my university generation believed is spot-on, the key word here is 'rhetoric'. I think the changes are driven by their private polls and focus groups rather than anything else.
Interesting paradox. I think we're still (just about) at the stage where the problem is 'us' - i.e. the white liberals in power. It's their idiotic, guilt-driven responses to the various challenges to the just-existing, despised Brit culture which is the problem. They still have the power to do something about that, but one day they won't and power will either be fragmented or have passed elsewhere.
And that's exactly the way the white liberals in power think about 'us' - us being the refuseniks, the unbelievers in the Great Society, the racist lumpen Little Englanders harking back to a golden age that never existed. WE are the problem as far as they're concerned (I'm using the Royal 'we' here - as the son of a Welshwoman and an immigrant who spoke with a strong foreign accent til the day he died my status is obscure). If only those idiots weren't around what a paradise this land would be !
But they are - although millions have left. And large numbers of them were once natural, almost tribal Labour supporters whose identification is loosening fast. Ms Smith's initiative is aimed squarely at them. After all, large numbers of them are just poor souls who believe what they read in the Daily Mail. It's a problem of perception. They need - what's the word ? reassurance.
And if words are what's needed, we couldn't have a better government to provide them.
"Affordable Family Formation"
Steve Sailer on house affordability, family values and voting patterns. In the UK it's always Mr and Mrs Average who get squeezed on the kids front. The wealthy and the tax-funded underclass can have as many as they like, but a couple on average wages pretty much have to keep two incomes coming in to pay the mortgage. And it is the devil's own job raising kids in any quantity when you're both working full time, quite apart from the question of whether a mother who spends more waking hours at work than with her children can be said to be 'raising' them at all.
Neither Jane Austen nor Benjamin Franklin, however, would have found the question of what drives the Red-Blue divide so baffling. Unlike today’s intellectuals, they both thought intensely about the web linking wealth, property, marriage, and children. They would not have been surprised that a state’s voting proclivities are now dominated by the relative presence or absence of affordable family formation.
First-time readers of Pride and Prejudice frequently remark that Austen’s romance novels are, by American standards, not terribly romantic. She possessed a hard-headed understanding of how in traditional English society, wedlock was a luxury that some would never be able to afford, an assumption that often shocks us in our more sentimental 21st century ...
... GOP “family values” resound more in states where people can more afford to have families. In parts of the country where “Families can be easily supported, more Persons marry, and earlier in Life.” And where it is economical to buy a house with a yard in a neighborhood with a decent public (i.e. state - LT) school, you will generally find more conservatives. It’s a stereotype that marriage, mortgage, and kids make people more conservative, but, like most stereotypes, it’s reasonably true. You’ll find fewer Republicans in places where family formation is expensive. Where fewer people can form families, Republican candidates making speeches about family values just sound irrelevant or irritating.
The arrow of causality points in both directions. Some family-oriented people move to more affordable states in order to marry and have children, while people uninterested in marriage and children move in the opposite direction to enjoy adult lifestyles. This population swapping just makes the electorate more divided by geography rather than tipping the national balance toward one party.
Still, for the many Americans whose innate inclinations fall somewhere in the middle, the cost of forming a family in their current state affects how likely they are to start down the path toward married-with-children conservatism and therefore, cumulatively, which party will eventually prevail nationally.
Imagine a young couple considering marriage who live in the San Francisco Bay Area. He makes $60,000 and she makes $40,000 annually. If he could find a job that pays $50,000 in northern Texas, where costs are only half as high, she could stay home and raise the children. But if they can’t bear to leave California, with its inspiring scenery and lovely weather, she will have to keep working. And if she has to work, are children really such a good idea? And if they aren’t going to have children, why get married at all? And if they aren’t married, are they going to appreciate the nagging of socially conservative politicians?
Read the whole thing. UK house prices are such that there's nowhere any more where Joe Average can find "a house with a yard in a neighborhood with a decent state school".
Neither Jane Austen nor Benjamin Franklin, however, would have found the question of what drives the Red-Blue divide so baffling. Unlike today’s intellectuals, they both thought intensely about the web linking wealth, property, marriage, and children. They would not have been surprised that a state’s voting proclivities are now dominated by the relative presence or absence of affordable family formation.
First-time readers of Pride and Prejudice frequently remark that Austen’s romance novels are, by American standards, not terribly romantic. She possessed a hard-headed understanding of how in traditional English society, wedlock was a luxury that some would never be able to afford, an assumption that often shocks us in our more sentimental 21st century ...
... GOP “family values” resound more in states where people can more afford to have families. In parts of the country where “Families can be easily supported, more Persons marry, and earlier in Life.” And where it is economical to buy a house with a yard in a neighborhood with a decent public (i.e. state - LT) school, you will generally find more conservatives. It’s a stereotype that marriage, mortgage, and kids make people more conservative, but, like most stereotypes, it’s reasonably true. You’ll find fewer Republicans in places where family formation is expensive. Where fewer people can form families, Republican candidates making speeches about family values just sound irrelevant or irritating.
The arrow of causality points in both directions. Some family-oriented people move to more affordable states in order to marry and have children, while people uninterested in marriage and children move in the opposite direction to enjoy adult lifestyles. This population swapping just makes the electorate more divided by geography rather than tipping the national balance toward one party.
Still, for the many Americans whose innate inclinations fall somewhere in the middle, the cost of forming a family in their current state affects how likely they are to start down the path toward married-with-children conservatism and therefore, cumulatively, which party will eventually prevail nationally.
Imagine a young couple considering marriage who live in the San Francisco Bay Area. He makes $60,000 and she makes $40,000 annually. If he could find a job that pays $50,000 in northern Texas, where costs are only half as high, she could stay home and raise the children. But if they can’t bear to leave California, with its inspiring scenery and lovely weather, she will have to keep working. And if she has to work, are children really such a good idea? And if they aren’t going to have children, why get married at all? And if they aren’t married, are they going to appreciate the nagging of socially conservative politicians?
Read the whole thing. UK house prices are such that there's nowhere any more where Joe Average can find "a house with a yard in a neighborhood with a decent state school".
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
Carty III
For such an unusual surname I do seem to see it on the news a lot.
A gunman wearing a balaclava burst into a wedding reception and shot the groom, a court has heard. Joshua Mitchell, 20, of Slough, was shot in the thigh in an apparent attempt to "sexually mutilate" him at Skyways Hotel, in Slough, Berkshire.
Jason McInerney, 20, of Romford, Kirk McInerney, 18, of no fixed address, and Martin Carty, 18, of north west London, deny Mr Mitchell's attempted murder.
Hmm. At least it wasn't Martin Carthy.
Reading Crown Court heard that during their break-up, Mary-Ellen Mitchell, then Miss Murphy, started speaking with Jason McInerney, who she said she knew as Paddy Delaney.
I may be wrong, but is this a traveller's tale ? There's a showman's site at Blaxton.
Jason McInerney, Kirk McInerney and Martin Carty, all deny one charge of attempted murder, one charge of robbery and an alternative charge of GBH. The defendants McInerney, 20, of Romford, Essex, brother Kirk, 18, of no fixed address and cousin Carty, 18, of Kingsbury, north west London, were all arrested in Blaxton, near Doncaster.
A gunman wearing a balaclava burst into a wedding reception and shot the groom, a court has heard. Joshua Mitchell, 20, of Slough, was shot in the thigh in an apparent attempt to "sexually mutilate" him at Skyways Hotel, in Slough, Berkshire.
Jason McInerney, 20, of Romford, Kirk McInerney, 18, of no fixed address, and Martin Carty, 18, of north west London, deny Mr Mitchell's attempted murder.
Hmm. At least it wasn't Martin Carthy.
Reading Crown Court heard that during their break-up, Mary-Ellen Mitchell, then Miss Murphy, started speaking with Jason McInerney, who she said she knew as Paddy Delaney.
I may be wrong, but is this a traveller's tale ? There's a showman's site at Blaxton.
Jason McInerney, Kirk McInerney and Martin Carty, all deny one charge of attempted murder, one charge of robbery and an alternative charge of GBH. The defendants McInerney, 20, of Romford, Essex, brother Kirk, 18, of no fixed address and cousin Carty, 18, of Kingsbury, north west London, were all arrested in Blaxton, near Doncaster.
Wroughton Hammer Attack - Verdict 1
They've reached a verdict - but it's a secret.
They're waiting for the trial of the next batch of defendants before releasing the verdict of the first batch.
The defendants are blaming each other.
Who do you think did it ?
"Then I saw the attacker running past me. And he hid his face from me. He had a black hoodie on. He put his hood up and was hiding his face from me. As I glanced at him I saw him hide the hammer in his jacket. At that point I noticed his top. It had a distinctive 'and' sign on it. The symbol was big and took up most of the back of the jacket."
Wasif Khan, 18, of Caversham Close, Amjad Qazi, 19, of Broad Street, a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, have all denied wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
The jury at Bristol Crown Court has heard that when police arrested Wasif Khan in Broad Street, less than half an hour after the attack, he was carrying a plastic bag, containing a black Dolce and Gabbana jacket with a white ampersand logo covering the back.
Dolce and Gabbana ? Just another case of poverty causing crime.
They're waiting for the trial of the next batch of defendants before releasing the verdict of the first batch.
The defendants are blaming each other.
Who do you think did it ?
"Then I saw the attacker running past me. And he hid his face from me. He had a black hoodie on. He put his hood up and was hiding his face from me. As I glanced at him I saw him hide the hammer in his jacket. At that point I noticed his top. It had a distinctive 'and' sign on it. The symbol was big and took up most of the back of the jacket."
Wasif Khan, 18, of Caversham Close, Amjad Qazi, 19, of Broad Street, a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, have all denied wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
The jury at Bristol Crown Court has heard that when police arrested Wasif Khan in Broad Street, less than half an hour after the attack, he was carrying a plastic bag, containing a black Dolce and Gabbana jacket with a white ampersand logo covering the back.
Dolce and Gabbana ? Just another case of poverty causing crime.
Roses Blue
I think of tears, I think of rain on shingles
I think of rain, I think of roses blue
I think of Rose, my heart begins to tremble
To see the place she's lately gotten to
She's got into mysterious devotions
She's got into the zodiac and Zen
She's gotten into tarot cards and potions
She's laying her religion on her friends ...
Who says the Sixties culture is dead ? They would have known what to do with Ms Corkhill (a Type 2/3 hybrid) once upon a time up in Darwen.
The mother of a teenage girl who died from a drugs overdose after taking refuge at the home of a self-styled white witch today blasted sentences given to two people in connection with the death. Sue Strickson spoke out after Sally Corkhill, 41, and her lover Lee Harrison, 31, appeared at Preston Crown Court following the death of her daughter Melissa, 13, in October last year.
Corkill, of Sudell Road, Darwen, pleaded guilty to four abduction charges and two of administering a controlled drug and received a total of two years. Harrison received nine months but was released immediately after serving eight months on remand. Melissa, of Tythebarn Street, Darwen, died after taking a huge dose of co-proxamol. Hours earlier she had watched two of her three friends take half a tablet each after watching Corkhill slip five crushed tablets into Harrison's beer. The three had run away from home and sought refuge at Corkhill's house.
The four girls, three of who cannot be named for legal reasons, turned up at Corkhill's house on October 8 last year and were allowed to stay overnight. Both the police and the Melissa's mother visited the house the night before the teenager's death, but Corkhill denied they were there.
Judge Openshaw said: "I accept that when you invited the girls in there was never any sinister intention but no attempt was made to contact the police or the parents of the girls. Your own undisciplined and use of drink and drugs within your lifestyle attracted them. Strangers have no right to interfere in family matters by harbouring children and you even lied about not knowing where they were. It is right to say that Melissa helped herself to huge quantities of pill but they were in an unlocked cupboard and the girls had seen you get them. Melissa's death is tragic and had she not stayed at your house she may well be alive now. To Melissa's family and friends, no sentence will ever be sufficient for their loss."
Outside court, Mrs Strickson led protests against the sentence, saying: "We need a public inquiry. A lot has gone wrong. If the police were so suspicious that the girls were hiding at Corkhill's house, why didn't they go back again. If they had, my daughter might well still be alive.
You have to admire the police response.
Chief Inspector Neil Smith, who was in court to hear the verdict, said it was inappropriate to comment.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Hmmm ...
The funny thing is I was looking for a story about a native Brit, a disabled middle-aged white self-proclaimed witch somewhere in Lancashire, who kept open house for various children's home inmates - one of whom (12 ? 13 ?) overdosed on the prescription drugs left lying around the house and died. Witch was acquitted of manslaughter. The story came back into my head while listening to Joni Mitchell's 'Roses Blue' on holiday.
Instead I found this. I guess he must have transgressed the unwritten law. I'm not sure this integration thing's fully functional in Jeanette Winterson country.
A terrified schoolboy was bundled into the back of a car by a gang, driven to a remote spot, beaten up and dumped there, a jury heard. Burnley Crown Court was told the 14-year-old, from Nelson, was punched and kicked. He was left injured, bleeding and with a footprint on his forehead. When he took police to the scene of the attack they found his blood on the road.
Five men have admitted assaulting the youngster last April in Nelson. The court heard the victim was said to have been accused of talking to the female cousin of one of the gang at the school they both attended. Prosecutor Jeremy Grout-Smith told the jury: "Whether this was the motive for the attack remains to be seen."
Imran Yousaf, 18, of Howgill Close, Nelson, Zeshan Ali, 22, of Vulcan Close, Padgate, Warrington, Mujahid Ansar, 18, of St Paul's Road, Nelson, Imran Ali, 19, of Carr Road, Nelson and a Nelson 17-year-old all admitted assault occasio-ning actual bodily harm.
Mr Grout-Smith said the boy was pushed into a car as he walked home from a takeaway on Larch Street. He said the victim met Yousaf in the takeaway and was told "I hear you have been talking to my cousin." The boy said he had not and he was told "you're coming with us."
The prosecutor said the teenager was taken to waste land near Lomeshaye Industrial estate. The boy was pulled from the car and punched in the face. He was also struck with a weapon, which the court heard was possibly an anti-theft car lock. Mr Grout-Smith said the youngster was knocked to the ground before being kicked repeatedly to the face, head and stomach.
Meanwhile, on the obverse side of the coin ...
The two latest defendants are charged with two offences of child abduction involving the girls, 12, and 14, who had both been reported missing from home. One of the men, Farooq Ahmed, is also charged with having unlawful sexual intercourse with the 14-year-old-girl. A third man appeared before Blackburn magistrates last month charged with raping the 12-year-old girl at the Travelodge at junction 4 of the M65 at Darwen on January 18. Hardeep Singh, 31, of Barkby Road and Ahmed, 25, of Humberstone Road, both Leicester, were sent in custody to Preston Crown Court when they appeared before Blackburn magistrates this week. The court heard that the defendants were staying at the Travelodge as part of their work as travelling SIM card salesmen.
The man charged with rape, Portuguese national Nelson Claudino, 26, was in this country to take part in care proceedings involving his child. He was described in court as being "resident" at the Travelodge. Claudino faces two charges of rape, one of anal rape, detaining a child and one of indecent assault.
Police said the girls were approached in Blackburn town centre and taken to the hotel where they were plied with Jack Daniels whisky and assaulted.
Portuguese nationals (allegedly) abusing children seems to be a Lancastrian speciality.
Instead I found this. I guess he must have transgressed the unwritten law. I'm not sure this integration thing's fully functional in Jeanette Winterson country.
A terrified schoolboy was bundled into the back of a car by a gang, driven to a remote spot, beaten up and dumped there, a jury heard. Burnley Crown Court was told the 14-year-old, from Nelson, was punched and kicked. He was left injured, bleeding and with a footprint on his forehead. When he took police to the scene of the attack they found his blood on the road.
Five men have admitted assaulting the youngster last April in Nelson. The court heard the victim was said to have been accused of talking to the female cousin of one of the gang at the school they both attended. Prosecutor Jeremy Grout-Smith told the jury: "Whether this was the motive for the attack remains to be seen."
Imran Yousaf, 18, of Howgill Close, Nelson, Zeshan Ali, 22, of Vulcan Close, Padgate, Warrington, Mujahid Ansar, 18, of St Paul's Road, Nelson, Imran Ali, 19, of Carr Road, Nelson and a Nelson 17-year-old all admitted assault occasio-ning actual bodily harm.
Mr Grout-Smith said the boy was pushed into a car as he walked home from a takeaway on Larch Street. He said the victim met Yousaf in the takeaway and was told "I hear you have been talking to my cousin." The boy said he had not and he was told "you're coming with us."
The prosecutor said the teenager was taken to waste land near Lomeshaye Industrial estate. The boy was pulled from the car and punched in the face. He was also struck with a weapon, which the court heard was possibly an anti-theft car lock. Mr Grout-Smith said the youngster was knocked to the ground before being kicked repeatedly to the face, head and stomach.
Meanwhile, on the obverse side of the coin ...
The two latest defendants are charged with two offences of child abduction involving the girls, 12, and 14, who had both been reported missing from home. One of the men, Farooq Ahmed, is also charged with having unlawful sexual intercourse with the 14-year-old-girl. A third man appeared before Blackburn magistrates last month charged with raping the 12-year-old girl at the Travelodge at junction 4 of the M65 at Darwen on January 18. Hardeep Singh, 31, of Barkby Road and Ahmed, 25, of Humberstone Road, both Leicester, were sent in custody to Preston Crown Court when they appeared before Blackburn magistrates this week. The court heard that the defendants were staying at the Travelodge as part of their work as travelling SIM card salesmen.
The man charged with rape, Portuguese national Nelson Claudino, 26, was in this country to take part in care proceedings involving his child. He was described in court as being "resident" at the Travelodge. Claudino faces two charges of rape, one of anal rape, detaining a child and one of indecent assault.
Police said the girls were approached in Blackburn town centre and taken to the hotel where they were plied with Jack Daniels whisky and assaulted.
Portuguese nationals (allegedly) abusing children seems to be a Lancastrian speciality.
News Via Google
I got a hit at 18:33:28 for "Hutton Road shot Handsworth 17 Feb 2008" - yet there's nothing on the news sites.
Most of the time this sort of thing happens there's something behind it. Someone checking to see if it's on the news yet ? Someone who knows something the rest of us don't ?
(maybe he should make a pre-emptive call to these guys. Love the sales pitch.)
Most of the time this sort of thing happens there's something behind it. Someone checking to see if it's on the news yet ? Someone who knows something the rest of us don't ?
(maybe he should make a pre-emptive call to these guys. Love the sales pitch.)
Canterbury Tales 2008
Iowahawk updateth the Canterbury tales. Read the whole thing.
... the hooly Bishop takynge tea
Whilste watching himselfe on BBC.
Heere was a hooly manne of peace
Withe bearyd of snow and wyld brows of fleece
Whilhom stoode athwart the Bush crusades
Withe peace march papier-mache paraydes.
Sayeth the pilgryms to Bishop Rowan,
"Father, we do not like howe thynges are goin'.
You know we are as Lefte as thee,
But of layte have beyn chaunced to see
From Edinburgh to London-towne
The Musslemans in burnoose gowne
Who beat theyr ownselfs with theyr knyves
Than goon home and beat theyr wyves
And slaye theyr daughtyrs in honour killlynge
Howe do we stoppe the bloode fromme spillynge?"
The Bishop sipped upon hys tea
And sayed, "an open mind must we
Keep, for know thee well the Mussel-man
Has hys own laws for hys own clan
So question not hys Muslim reason
And presaerve ye well social cohesion."
Brits Out ! (part 382)
I read a while back that of all OECD countries, Britain has (after Mexico) the second hightest number of its nationals living overseas. Mexico has a much richer neighbour just across the border - whereas the Brits are heading, not only across the channel, but half way across the world - to countries which only allow the (relatively) young and skilled in.
Apparently this trend is accelerating.
That's an awful lot of techies to lose, given the number of non-degrees we're now turning out.
But there's an upside, according to the IPPRs resident immigration promoter, Danny Sriskandarajah.
What could be causing such numbers to leave the paradise that is Nu Britain ?
Apparently the elephant in the drawing room comes under the heading of 'quality of life'. Do I get a hint of 'to escape the frantic lifestyle' ?
Fortunately the Telegraph asked their readers to put them right. As well as complaints about immigration and crime, one other factor arises.
I'm always on at my kids to work hard at school so that they can leave the country if it all goes pearshaped - but there's another reason. Being poor in this country is now much more dangerous than it was - because of where you have to live.
Up to twenty or so years ago, being poor simply meant that you had less money than other people. You could still live in a nice area - you just had a small house. When I left the inner city I found a two-bedroomed cottage in the sticks for £10,000. My wages were £3,000 - and that was a poor wage even in 1980. So I had no money for holidays or luxuries, rode a CB125 to work each day, but lived in a pleasant village.
My old house - now sporting an extra bedroom and bathroom - recently went for over £200,000. Being poor in modern Britain increasingly means having to live where the most unpleasant people live.
"Despite earning close to 100k per annumn, this was a sum that just about qualified me for a small two bedroom home in a dangerous area. As someone who would like to start a family and works hard, I found this unacceptable. The alternatives in North America and many other parts of the EU made the decision to leave a non-brainer."
"There is actually very little pulling us to New Zealand but huge amounts pushing us there; the main one being that we cannot afford to buy a house anywhere in a decent area of London. And with the (in)justice system so completely unfit for purpose there is no way in Hades that we will risk the lives of our children by living in a bad area."
You're surprised there are any teachers left. London teachers must be a masochistic bunch.
"I have been teaching abroad for nine years. I trained in the Uk and worked in Hounslow for two years. I could not afford to pay my rent some months because of the low wages. Add to that the unruly students! I doubled my wages when I first moved abroad and got to teach students who wanted to learn."
"I am a qualified teacher working overseas where I teach beautifully turned out, polite, fun students with supportive parents and a thirst for knowledge. Compare that with the UK where, at my last job interview, I was asked in all seriousness what I would do if a student pulled a gun on me"
Apparently this trend is accelerating.
Britain is experiencing the worst "brain drain" of any country as highly qualified professionals settle abroad, an authoritative international study showed yesterday. Record numbers of Britons are leaving - many of them doctors, teachers and engineers - in the biggest exodus for almost 50 years.
There are now 3.247 million British-born people living abroad, of whom more than 1.1 million are highly-skilled university graduates, say the researchers. More than three quarters of these professionals have settled abroad for more than 10 years, according to the study by the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
No other nation is losing so many qualified people, it points out. Britain has now lost more than one in 10 of its most skilled citizens, while overall only Mexico has had more people emigrate. Britain's exodus is far higher than any of the OECD's other 29 members. Germany has lost only 860,000 highly-skilled workers, America 410,000 and France 370,000. The OECD found that 27.3 per cent of those emigrating had health or education qualifications, 37.7 per cent had humanities or social science degrees and 28.5 per cent were scientists or engineers.
That's an awful lot of techies to lose, given the number of non-degrees we're now turning out.
But there's an upside, according to the IPPRs resident immigration promoter, Danny Sriskandarajah.
"Britain has been lucky - although it has lost substantial numbers of people, it has attracted more than a million skilled immigrants to replace them"
What could be causing such numbers to leave the paradise that is Nu Britain ?
Prof David Coleman, of St John's, Oxford, said the brain drain was "to do with quality of life, laws and bureaucracy, tax and all the rest of it".
Apparently the elephant in the drawing room comes under the heading of 'quality of life'. Do I get a hint of 'to escape the frantic lifestyle' ?
Fortunately the Telegraph asked their readers to put them right. As well as complaints about immigration and crime, one other factor arises.
I'm always on at my kids to work hard at school so that they can leave the country if it all goes pearshaped - but there's another reason. Being poor in this country is now much more dangerous than it was - because of where you have to live.
Up to twenty or so years ago, being poor simply meant that you had less money than other people. You could still live in a nice area - you just had a small house. When I left the inner city I found a two-bedroomed cottage in the sticks for £10,000. My wages were £3,000 - and that was a poor wage even in 1980. So I had no money for holidays or luxuries, rode a CB125 to work each day, but lived in a pleasant village.
My old house - now sporting an extra bedroom and bathroom - recently went for over £200,000. Being poor in modern Britain increasingly means having to live where the most unpleasant people live.
"Despite earning close to 100k per annumn, this was a sum that just about qualified me for a small two bedroom home in a dangerous area. As someone who would like to start a family and works hard, I found this unacceptable. The alternatives in North America and many other parts of the EU made the decision to leave a non-brainer."
"There is actually very little pulling us to New Zealand but huge amounts pushing us there; the main one being that we cannot afford to buy a house anywhere in a decent area of London. And with the (in)justice system so completely unfit for purpose there is no way in Hades that we will risk the lives of our children by living in a bad area."
You're surprised there are any teachers left. London teachers must be a masochistic bunch.
"I have been teaching abroad for nine years. I trained in the Uk and worked in Hounslow for two years. I could not afford to pay my rent some months because of the low wages. Add to that the unruly students! I doubled my wages when I first moved abroad and got to teach students who wanted to learn."
"I am a qualified teacher working overseas where I teach beautifully turned out, polite, fun students with supportive parents and a thirst for knowledge. Compare that with the UK where, at my last job interview, I was asked in all seriousness what I would do if a student pulled a gun on me"
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
The Tension Rises ...
moral panic ...
Daily Mail ...
dastardly ...
knee-jerk ...
xenophobic ...
Neanderthal Daily Telegraph ...
wonderfully diverse ...
fusion food ...
multiple, overlapping and increasing self-defined identities ...
tolerance of differences ...
overwhelmingly decent, hard-working and law-abiding people ...
xenophobic prejudice - HOUSE !
(only those over 18 can play CiF Bingo. All cards to be inspected before prizes are paid. The decision of Guardian Media Group is final.)
Daily Mail ...
dastardly ...
knee-jerk ...
xenophobic ...
Neanderthal Daily Telegraph ...
wonderfully diverse ...
fusion food ...
multiple, overlapping and increasing self-defined identities ...
tolerance of differences ...
overwhelmingly decent, hard-working and law-abiding people ...
xenophobic prejudice - HOUSE !
(only those over 18 can play CiF Bingo. All cards to be inspected before prizes are paid. The decision of Guardian Media Group is final.)
Kosovan Totty Watch
In my lefty days demos were always a good place to make new friends of the opposite sex and there often seemed to be a party when the coach got back. There are three or four other possibles, but I don't think this looks like a place to pull.
(via)
Martin Amis - "It's the demography, stupid"
This Johann Hari interview was picked up by Harry's Place, where David T's piece seems to have an oblique reference to yours truly. As the wires seem to be down between this blog and HP, it looks as if semaphore (or the megaphone) will be the only means of communication. It sure does look like Amis is wading deep into Laban territory - and it's making HP very uncomfortable. No sooner have they got over Amis remarks about giving Muslims a hard time (remarks with which I totally disagree, btw) than he starts quoting Mark Steyn :
Amis tells me Steyn is “a great sayer of the unsayable.” Muslims are indeed reproducing at a faster rate than the rest of us, he says, and they will eventually outbreed us and become a majority. “One of the mathematical beauties of democracy is that you can look at the figures and be pretty sure how it’s going to fall out,” he says. “It’s not PC, it’s so saturated in revulsions that people can’t go near it. [But] we should go near it... Just because of there have been horrible abuses based on this [way of thinking] doesn’t mean that it’s not worth considering, or that it’s so radioactive that you don’t dare go near it. That is the defeat of reason.”
I grimace. I loathe and detest Islamic fundamentalists just as much as Amis - but this is going way beyond criticism of Islamic fundamentalism. It presents each new Muslim child – a Salman Rushdie, or a Salman Rushdie-killer – as a problem. Amis concedes readily that Steyn “writes like a nutter” and is “a very unstable kind of mind,” but quickly adds, “you’ve got to be able to talk about race.” Is this a revealing Freudian slip? Does he mean culture?
It's culture, of course. But in the case of, say, Bangladesh and Pakistan, race is a reasonably proximate cypher for culture - just as 'white' and 'Christian' would have been pretty near interchangeable a hundred years ago.
Amis' slow recognition of facts which others would rather wish away is praiseworthy, given that he has enough money to live wherever he wishes - unlike some poor Brit in Thornton Heath or Rochdale. Just another small sign of change. It may well be that his ideas are completely acceptable among educated Brits of his generation in another 15 years or so - by which time, of course, it will probably be much too late to do anything about it.
Talking of Steyn, here's the man himself discussing multiculturalism. Talks as well as he writes.
Amis tells me Steyn is “a great sayer of the unsayable.” Muslims are indeed reproducing at a faster rate than the rest of us, he says, and they will eventually outbreed us and become a majority. “One of the mathematical beauties of democracy is that you can look at the figures and be pretty sure how it’s going to fall out,” he says. “It’s not PC, it’s so saturated in revulsions that people can’t go near it. [But] we should go near it... Just because of there have been horrible abuses based on this [way of thinking] doesn’t mean that it’s not worth considering, or that it’s so radioactive that you don’t dare go near it. That is the defeat of reason.”
I grimace. I loathe and detest Islamic fundamentalists just as much as Amis - but this is going way beyond criticism of Islamic fundamentalism. It presents each new Muslim child – a Salman Rushdie, or a Salman Rushdie-killer – as a problem. Amis concedes readily that Steyn “writes like a nutter” and is “a very unstable kind of mind,” but quickly adds, “you’ve got to be able to talk about race.” Is this a revealing Freudian slip? Does he mean culture?
It's culture, of course. But in the case of, say, Bangladesh and Pakistan, race is a reasonably proximate cypher for culture - just as 'white' and 'Christian' would have been pretty near interchangeable a hundred years ago.
Amis' slow recognition of facts which others would rather wish away is praiseworthy, given that he has enough money to live wherever he wishes - unlike some poor Brit in Thornton Heath or Rochdale. Just another small sign of change. It may well be that his ideas are completely acceptable among educated Brits of his generation in another 15 years or so - by which time, of course, it will probably be much too late to do anything about it.
Talking of Steyn, here's the man himself discussing multiculturalism. Talks as well as he writes.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
"You've done your great institution and nation a huge disservice"
Via Natalie at Biased BBC, this story.
In an uncommon act of journalistic contrition, the BBC has apologized for equating former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri and Hizbullah terror chief Imad Mughniyeh as "great national leaders."
The BBC took the unusual step after Don Mell, The Associated Press's former photographer in Beirut, lambasted the parallel, drawn by BBC correspondent Humphrey Hawkesley in a BBC World report last Thursday, as "an outrage" and "beyond belief." American journalist Mell was held up at gunpoint by Mughniyeh's men as his colleague Terry Anderson, AP's chief Middle East correspondent, was kidnapped in Beirut in March 1985.
Hawkesley's report on what he called "an amazing day for Lebanon," when a memorial rally for Hariri was followed by Mughniyeh's funeral, concluded: "The army is on full alert as Lebanon remembers two war victims with different visions but both regarded as great national leaders."
In an uncommon act of journalistic contrition, the BBC has apologized for equating former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri and Hizbullah terror chief Imad Mughniyeh as "great national leaders."
The BBC took the unusual step after Don Mell, The Associated Press's former photographer in Beirut, lambasted the parallel, drawn by BBC correspondent Humphrey Hawkesley in a BBC World report last Thursday, as "an outrage" and "beyond belief." American journalist Mell was held up at gunpoint by Mughniyeh's men as his colleague Terry Anderson, AP's chief Middle East correspondent, was kidnapped in Beirut in March 1985.
Hawkesley's report on what he called "an amazing day for Lebanon," when a memorial rally for Hariri was followed by Mughniyeh's funeral, concluded: "The army is on full alert as Lebanon remembers two war victims with different visions but both regarded as great national leaders."
I Told You They Were Bad Eggs ...
Cicero's Songs on the significance of Kosovo to the Serbs.
"... during their years under the Turkish yolk, the Serbs began to create a series of myths surrounding the battle ..."
"... during their years under the Turkish yolk, the Serbs began to create a series of myths surrounding the battle ..."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
