It's Not A Change In The Law That's Needed...

...it's a change in the attitudes of the public sector:

The DPP revealed the change in tactics yesterday as he responded to the criticism and said he will not hesitate to call for a change in the law.

Pointless. Utterly pointless. Yet more evidence (as if it were needed) that Kier Starmer is as much use as a chocolate teapot...

Ann Clwyd, a Labour MP whose 2003 FGM Act bans girls being taken abroad to have the procedure, said teachers, doctors and police had shown "a lack of sufficient will to confront minority ethnic groups on such an issue".

She added: "It's very nice to get a law through Parliament, but if it isn't acted upon, it isn't worth the paper it's written on."

Starmer's solution? Try a different law!

Mr Starmer said he did not want to repeal existing anti-FGM laws, as that would "send the wrong message", but he conceded "the legislation clearly isn't nearly enough on its own". His FGM "action plan" also pledges to "explore whether evidence to prosecute offences under other legislation is possible and may be easier to support".

He targeted the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act, which creates an offence of "causing or allowing a child or vulnerable adult to die or suffer serious physical harm", as route to tougher action.

Clearly, a man who only has a hammer to solve his problems...

An Association of Chief Police Officers spokesman said: "Detection can be difficult because some children are exposed to the practice before they enter the schooling system. There are dedicated officers working in this area and police will investigate where there is information that such practices are occurring. Officers are working with community representatives to highlight serious health issues that can arise."

Stop 'working with community representatives' and start arresting them!

If it helps to get your outrage on, try to imagine they pinched some 20 year old starlet's bum 30 years ago... 

And stop hiring public health workers from the cultures that tolerate this:

I moved to England in 2011 and, through my work, I have seen women, some Somali, who have needed to have an operation [deinfibulation] to give birth. But when they come back for a second child they have again been sewn up [reinfibulation], so it is possible they are having FGM in the UK. I want to help other ladies. I feel complete but I don't want girls to go through this.

That's a quote from 'Aissa Edon, 30, a midwife working at Ealing Hospital, London.'

What does she do with her information, other than give it to a newspaper reporter? Perhaps a few high-profile trials of those who turn a blind eye will do the trick.

I suggest we start with Aissa.

Never Mind The Horses On The Pitch...

...what about the elephant in the room?

York cricketers have been left on a sticky wicket due to horses invading their pitch. Hopgrove Playing Fields, in Malton Road, are in danger of being seriously damaged by stray horses regularly getting on to the pitches, churning up the ground and leaving piles of manure, it has been claimed.

Richard Kerrison, chairman of Stockton and Hopgrove Cricket Club, said he feared the playing fields would become unusable if nothing was done to address the problem.

Now, why would 'nothing be done'?

“We have rung the council and the police and they seem to say there’s nothing we can do. It’s ruining peoples’ enjoyment.”

Gosh. It's a mystery. Who could these horses possibly belong to?

MONA Still An Option In 2013...

Given the similarities between the attacks police said they were being treated as "potentially linked".

Similarities? What can they mean?

“He was described as being Asian, in his late teens or early 20s, between 5ft 2ins and 6ft tall, chubby with short black straight hair with his fringe brushed forward.”

“The second victim described her attacker as an Asian man aged about 30, 5ft 6ins tall with gelled hair and light stubble. He was wearing denim jeans and a dark jacket.”

I wonder if that's really the descriptive term the victims used..?

H/T: Pavlov's Cat via email

Is It 'Cos I Is...? Pt 268974

Imara Jones (Who he? Why, none other than the economic justice contributor for Colorlines.com! Aren't you impressed?) on the awful injustice done to ... well, people with afros, I think:

Over the past year, "natural hair pat downs" have taken place with greater reported frequency. The fact that they occur at all underscores that America's post-racial future still has roots in its racist past.

With a twice-elected black man as the country's chief executive, how could the TSA get it so wrong?

So black Americans should be exempt from the stupid screening laws that everyone else has to undergo because Obama!

Yeah, right. Give him a call on your ObamaPhone and tell him about it, Imara...

A Fine Send Off, To Be Sure!

The 31-year-old from Oxford was injured at about 11.20am yesterday during a funeral service being held at the Greyfriars Church in Iffley Road.

The service was for 76-year-old Winnie Joyce, a mother of 13 children, grandmother to 64 and great grandmother to 45.

Yes. You guessed it:

Her family lives at the Redbridge Hollow travellers’ site, near Kennington, which she helped set up with husband Christopher Joyce.

Emergency services and the police helicopter were called in yesterday to deal with the incident, after crowds of people poured out on to Iffley Road.

Lovely!

Police declined to confirm how many officers were sent to deal with the incident.

Because the answer is ‘an embarrassing amount, given we made no arrests’…

H/T: John Gibson via email

Trouble ‘Oop North!

Labour party members in Rotherham protested against the decision to field an "outside" candidate in the forthcoming byelection by staging a mass walkout from the final selection meeting.

Whoops!

This is, of course, the Nov 29 by-election prompted by the resignation of the latest MP expenses cheat, McShane.

So, what’s their beef? Well, once again, it’s the demand that local areas accept a candidate desired by the high command:

The dissenters said they would now not canvas for the eventual nominee, Sarah Champion, chief executive of Rotherham's Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice.

Heh! It’s their ball, and if no-one plays the game without cheating, they are taking it home with them!

"If the NEC [Labour's National Executive Committee] wants to parachute in an outsider, the NEC can come up to campaign for them," said one member who walked out.

"We in the community should have had a say in the candidate. This is not democracy. If they had wanted a woman, they should have told us they wanted a woman, and we would have found someone locally."

Ahhh, you were doing so well right up to that bit. If they had wanted a woman, you should have asked ‘Why?’…

The candidate is herself is just the sort of Labour Party apparatchik you’d expect from Ed’s Special Needs Team:

Putting a brave face on after the bruising meeting, she insisted had not nearly "broken" the Labour party.

"I think it's absolutely right that people want to have their voice heard," she told BBC Look North, "but no, the labour party has not been broken. Mahroof would have been a good candidate, he has got a good, long track record of working in Rotherham, but the party has made its decision."

Translation: ‘It’s right that the little provincial people feel they’ve had their little say, so long as they then knuckle down and do as they are told by us important people…’

A vote-winning strategy, I’m sure you’ll agree.

But it seems that the locally-preferred candidate had less going for him than just the wrong set of genitalia:

One Labour insider said Hussain had been the "red hot favourite" locally but as a Muslim man was deemed too much of a risk to the party in the wake of the child sex grooming scandal involving Pakistani males in the constituency which has prompted far right protests in the constituency.

Oh, dear. The twists and turns of identity politics, eh? Tweeter Mike Broadbent disagreed that this was the whole local party:

Labour was also keen to choose a woman, said the insider, because: "The Rotherham political class is male, male, male."

The South Yorkshire town has never had a female MP, and the Labour council has long been overwhelmingly male dominated.

And why is that necessarily a bad thing? Would they have been better off with, say, Margaret Moran? Or Nadine Dorries?

A Labour source who was at Tuesday's disastrous meeting confirmed the walkout. "People are entitled to their views," he said, "but we need a clean break with the past in Rotherham."

Translation: “The little people are entitled to their views, so long as they then knuckle down and do as they are told by us important people…”

“Look, It’s OK When We Do It!” (Part 459)

Mark Brown on Ed Milliband’s declaration of war on the belittling of mental health issues:

Perhaps unwittingly, Miliband has managed to get to the heart of a gnarly problem when he mentioned privilege – the perceived right enjoyed by people without mental health difficulties to speak with authority about those who do.

The ‘perceived right’? It’s no such thing.

I have an absolute right to speak as I please.

People can disagree, even point to my lack of experience on that particular issue to scorn my words, but there’s no doubt I have that right, no matter how people like Brown wishes it weren't so…

But he’s singing from a very, very familiar hymn sheet here:

I'm sure some of the comments on this article will say: "Why are you pesky people with mental health difficulties always looking to get offended? A joke's a joke!" But gags about people with mental health difficulties are different, because of where the power lies; they too often come from people who are reconfirming the status quo, defending attitudes and structures that prevent people with mental health difficulties achieving our potential. In other words, they are jokes and ideas that help "keep us in our place", out of sight and unheard.

On the other hand, jokes by people with mental health difficulties about mental health are often about the gap between outmoded ideas and lived experience, or about reclaiming common experiences from prejudiced interpretation. Sometimes, the comedy itself is directly confrontational: the live comedy nights May Contain Nuts and US comedian Rob Delaney being brilliant ambassadors of the genre.

Ahhh, yes. We've seen this argument before, haven’t we?

This is a good beginning; I now hope that Labour will continue to pay such attention to who is speaking about mental health and where their privilege lies as their policy development continues.

It seems to me that a lot of the ‘privilege’ now lies with the offence-takers.

So…can we start to ignore them?

More Calls For Application Of The 'Pussy Pass'

Eric Allison (the ‘Guardian’ prison correspondent, and career criminal) on women in prison. He thinks it’s a bad thing.

Well, he would, wouldn't he?

Those familiar with the issue of women behind bars know the female prison estate contains many damaged and vulnerable women, most of whom have been victims themselves, one way or another.

Ah, yes. Of course. The age-old excuse…

So, what horrors have been visited on these fragile flowers of femininity?

Inspectors found responses to women whose behaviour caused concern were "excessively punitive", with too little attempt to tackle the underlying causes of their behaviour. They found women being forcibly strip-searched and having their clothing cut off.

One woman arrived in clothes that were not allowed at New Hall. She refused to hand them over and was held down while the offending garments were sliced off her.

The report says there was "no attempt to resolve the issue in other ways".

Such as..? Should they have asked ‘Pretty please, with sprinkles on top’?

It’s a prison, Eric. You do as you are told, or else. You, of all people, ought to know that…

Women arriving at New Hall travelled in "sweat boxes" (cellular vehicles) shared with male prisoners. As a serving prisoner, I travelled in sweat boxes containing women and heard the obscenities hurled at them by the men. Hardly the ideal way to prepare women for incarceration.

And avoidable, except to give them separate transport would trim the profits of the private companies that ferry women prisoners around.

Prison separatism? I'm sure it’d please the Muslims, at least.

Another depressing feature, not confined to New Hall, was that inspectors said "as we have found elsewhere, at night, one male member of staff was in sole charge of the mother and baby unit". The watchdogs found that "unacceptable".

I find it gross, uncaring mismanagement.

Why? Are you implying that males should have no role in this? That’s a bit sexist for a ‘Guardian’ contributor…

Visits are especially important in a women's prison, where many inmates are held long distances from their homes and have been the primary carers of their children prior to custody. Inspectors found visits often started late and finished early.

Shockingly and inexcusably, they found "separation visits" – where women say farewell to their children before they are taken for adoption – sometimes took place in the main visiting hall.

Are they not entitled to respect and dignity at such a traumatic time?

Given the reasons they are behind bars….no. They aren't  It’s a consequence of them being considered so bad that they cannot be allowed to mingle with the rest of the public.

That this affects their children is sad, but really, they only have themselves to blame, don’t they?

Last month, a study found that many coroners' recommendations, following deaths in custody, have negligible impact because there is no authority charged with ensuring compliance. Clearly, the Ministry of Justice is not dedicated to learning lessons.

In the case of New Hall, it should act now to prevent further tragedies. The criticisms in this report tick all the boxes that, history tells us, led towards almost every death of a disturbed woman in the MoJ's care.

They are disturbed women, by your own definition. Preventing them from harming themselves is going to require herculean methods, and will require – of necessity – restrictions on their liberty. And it still may not be enough.

As ever, the perfect is the enemy of the good.

Good Job, RSPCA! Now….About Those Travellers…

A ‘horse lover’ has been found guilty of 52 counts of animal cruelty.

Philip Davies, 65, of Plantation Road, Edgworth, also pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to protect the horses from pain, injury, suffering, and disease, and two counts of failing to provide a suitable environment, during the two-day trial.

The charges, brought by the RSPCA, relate to 17 horses kept on land in Edgworth.

Hurrah! Cruelty to animals is to be abhorred. Even when it isn't deliberate cruelty, but neglect and lack of concern for their safety.

Summing up, district judge Peter Ward said: “Adequate steps should be taken to reduce infestation, but these steps were not taken.

“Davies had too many horses and he could not adequately deal with them.

“The inadequate control and the level of the infestation was so much that it caused suffering.

“Mr Davies was not able to keep on top of the number of horses, and the condition in which they should be kept. ”

Who could disagree with this?

Speaking after the case, Chief Inspector Cathy Hyde, of the RSPCA, said: “I am very pleased with the judgement.”

Well, so you should be!

So, when will the RSPCA be rounding up the horses in York then? And prosecuting their owners? 

Cathy..?

Hello?

Are you there, Cathy..?

Call The Whaaaaambulance!

Anna Chen sulks and pouts and whines (in an inscrutable fashion):

It's no fun being bred out of the cultural gene pool.

Eh..?!?

Watching TV, theatre or film, I'm on constant alert for a glimpse of someone who looks Chinese, for the slightest resemblance to an estimated 499,999 others like me living in the UK.

Blimey! Can’t you just relax and watch the programme, like other pe…

Oh. Right. I forgot. This is Grievance Land.

Barring Gok Wan, scientist Kevin Fong and the odd TV chef, UK Chinese are virtually absent from mainstream media.

Well, you must be ecstatic about the new 'Sherlock Holmes' adaptation, then! But a word of warning - don't discuss it at the 'Guardian' watercooler with some of your colleagues, eh?

So it was with a sense of "here we go again" that we learned that the esteemed Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is mounting the classic play The Orphan of Zhao in the way prize trophies usually get mounted: gutted and stuffed. This 13th-century Yuan-dynasty masterpiece may be the first Chinese play, to make it to the hallowed RSC, but the only parts given to actors of east Asian heritage are two dogs. And a maid-servant. Who dies. Tragically.

OUTRAGE BUS!!!! ALL ABOARD!!

All director Gregory Doran came up with is that the blizzard of complaints is a case of "sour grapes", and that the critics should "get real"; not the most eloquent response you might expect from the intellectual heavyweight described as "one of the finest Shakespeareans of his generation".

Maybe he just feels it’s all you deserve? I mean, why waste any effort on such a pathetic attack?

Playwright David Henry Hwang of the Asian American Performers Action Coalition which fought in the Nightingale battle, says: "By producing The Orphan of Zhao, the RSC seeks to exploit the public's growing interest in China; through its casting choices, the company reveals that its commitment to Asia is self-serving, and only skin-deep."

Waah, boo hoo, etc *repeat ad infinitum*

Clearly, Anna feels only the nuclear option will do:

The RSC casting is something of a litmus test, indicating how a failing superpower asserts its cultural dominance when its economic base is disintegrating.

Ummm, what? Is the 'failing superpower' the RSC? Or the British Empire?

Such minds are hard-wired to eliminate an entire group's cultural representation, and they don't even realise it. Amanda Rogers of Swansea University, says: "As a national company they have a responsibility to represent all sectors of British society. There is a real paucity of east Asian representation in this country, and when we do see it, it is usually confined to minor or stereotypical roles."

Victimhood Poker is in play, folks!

Oh, Just Make It STOP!!!!

…Bear Grylls will now fall foul of new guidelines from the Scout Association, which has banned all nicknames in a bid to reduce bullying among its young members.

The organisation founded by Lord 'B-P' Baden-Powell believes that giving children nicknames could encourage taunting and bullying.

The organisation founded by Lord Baden-Powell has clearly gone as mad as almost every other organisation the nannying ninnies have managed to infest…

Training sessions are being offered to new and current leaders, who have also been warned not to use the shortening technique amongst themselves.

I do like the word ‘offered’. I suspect it’s the offer you can’t refuse, if you want to be a new or current leader…

It is particularly concerned aboutthe use of nicknames which focus on an individual’s physical characteristics – such as their hair colour, height or weight.

And who is responsible for this outbreak of cretinism? Step forward, ‘Barmy’ Sam Marks.

Oh, sorry, was that offensive? So sad, too bad…

The association’s chief 'safeguarding' officer Sam Marks drew up the plans. He told Scouting Magazine: 'Bullying can advance gradually and can start with something as simple as a nickname.

'Research and experience all highlight that name calling – whether it be nicknames or harmless taunting – is often the largest form of bullying.'

Brilliant! So, to reduce the risk of bullying, we ban nicknames! What a genius plan! That one's up there with blaming the victim...

I mean, never mind intent. That’s hard to prove. No, the ‘new and current leaders of the Scout movement’ can’t be expected to make judgement calls. They need firm, clear, black and white guidelines.

'We don’t have a black and white list of approved nicknames. 'If someone is called Frederick and you call them Freddie then there is no problem with that.

'But you need to ask why that person has a nickname – if it is because they have red hair or are fat or they have a funny face, or because they did something funny and it stuck with them? They might be quite embarrassed by that.'

Well, how about you ask them? And if they don’t mind, why should you?

Mr Marks continued: 'It is in response to industry standards – all the anti-bullying work mentions name calling and teasing as the main form of bullying.'

Translation: ‘ I've read all the stuff pumped out by the fakecharities and I don’t understand half of it, but my job depends on me coming up with a policy, so I've come up with one. Whew!! Earned my salary there!’

'It is about getting the adults to think about their behaviour and how they are role models, because what they do, the children may do. 'If adults don’t use nicknames then the children are less likely to do so.'

Yes, children will always do just what adults do. It’s the way of the world, right?

Ouch! It’s Painful Getting Hoist On My Own Petard!

Gallaudet University's embattled chief diversity officer said she wasn't taking an anti-gay stance when she signed a petition advocating for Maryland's same-sex marriage law to be put to a vote.

Instead, Angela McCaskill says she was joining 200,000 others in standing up for the rights of voters to make decisions at the ballot box.

Oh?

"I thought it was important that as a citizen of the state of Maryland I could exercise my right to participate in the political process. I am pro-democracy," McCaskill explained at a news conference Tuesday in Annapolis, Md., speaking out for the first time since the university's president placed her on administrative leave last week after it became public that she had signed the petition.

You can be disciplined for that?

Hurwitz clarified his actions in a statement released Tuesday morning. He wrote that McCaskill is welcome to return to her job but doing so will require "that she and the University community work together to respond to the concerns that have been raised."

Ahhh, the taking of offence - the new sport!

McCaskill, 54, was the first deaf African American woman to earn a doctorate at Gallaudet, a university for the deaf and hard of hearing in the District of Columbia. She has worked at Gallaudet for more than 24 years and was named top diversity official last year.

And how did she go about her task?

McCaskill said she rearranged her budget to find money to open a resource center on campus for sexual minorities, hired an openly transgender employee and hosted many events centered around discussing lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender issues.

And…how much of any of that did you put to a vote?

I mean, since you are so keen on it, surely you must have done..?

This summer, McCaskill and her husband attended Reid Temple AME church and heard a sermon about "different types of marriage," then signed the petition there, Gordon said. That petition was obtained and made public by the Washington Blade. A faculty member saw McCaskill's name on the petition and confronted her in early October, Gordon said. McCaskill confirmed that she had signed the petition, alerted the Gallaudet president that it could become an issue and offered to organize a panel discussion to address the topic, Gordon said.

The next day, the faculty member and her partner filed a formal complaint with the president, he said. Gordon said that McCaskill was asked to issue an apology and that she declined to do so. Days later, McCaskill was notified by e-mail that she would be placed on paid leave and that an interim chief diversity officer would take over, Gordon said.

The action was announced publicly Oct. 10.

And McCaskill is shocked, shocked, to find that the tactics she has no doubt encouraged and used can be turned on her, just as easily...

"I was shocked, hurt, insulted. I was humiliated," McCaskill said at the news conference, with the assistance of an interpreter.

"I am dismayed that Gallaudet University is still a university of intolerance, a university that manages by intimidation, a university that allows bullying among faculty, staff and students."

Gosh. I can't really feel anything other than schadenfreude and a feeling that what goes around, come around...

Bernie Two Dads: Every Bit As Useless & Obsessed With Appearances As Sir Ian Blair

Police recruits to Britain's largest force were banned yesterday from having visible tattoos in a sweeping reform of its public image.

Scotland Yard Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said body art that can be seen by the public 'damages the professional image' of the service.

Really? According to whom? Have you ever been asked, or polled?

No. Me neither.

And he ordered a 'tattoo amnesty' in which anyone who already has marks on their hands, neck or face must declare them within weeks or be sacked.

Ummm, if they are visible, don't they already count as 'declaring themselves'?

But rank-and-file representatives claim associating tattoos with criminals is old-fashioned and police should reflect the public they serve.

Well, quite! Just try Googling the phrase and see what you get! It drips from the lips of politician and union member, pressure group leader and civil servant alike.

'It will be a requirement, by the Commissioner, that all officers and police staff with existing tattoos defined as 'visible' must register such tattoos as a formal written declaration to their line manager before November 12.'

Why can't their line managers just look at their staff and note down the tattoos? Are they all blind? Or is that a loaded question right at the moment?

Met officers have already questioned how officers from islands in the South Pacific where cultural tattoos are common will be affected.

Do we get a lot of those, then? I suppose we would if the top brass thought it would help their diversity scores!

And they highlighted that many servicemen may find they are unable to join the police after leaving the Armed Forces.

Ah, now, I suspect that's not something that'll worry Bernie and his cronies - in fact, the useless top brass probably consider it an advantage, preferring straight-out-of-university, easily-moulded footsoldiers!

Of course, if Bernie was really worried about public image he'd just make sure all his Taser-wielding officers had gone to Specsavers...