The ship full were back in the 60's and were mostly drafted into their national service. Very very hillbilly type as per the film Deliverance. Friendly enough but thick as the proverbial.
In the current environment, military power matters once again. France has powerful forces, including an aircraft carrier and nuclear deterrent. They are the equal of Germany and perhaps more so, as the US now regards France as it main diplomatic ally in Europe. Remind me who filled that role before Brexit?
The guy who fired a sub-machine gun at rival gang members in a Liverpool pub on Christmas Eve, killing an innocent young woman, was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 48 years. That heavy sentence was presumably because of the gangland element. I think that’s about right. I struggle to understand though how a man who, over a period of months, beat a toddler to death got only 28 years. Although I don’t support the death penalty intellectually, emotionally I can’t help thinking that the sentence that fits that crime involves a rope and a trapdoor. I also don’t support the witch-hunt against motorists who exceed ridiculously low speed limits by a small amount. A good example is the Torquay ring road, built as a dual carriageway at great expense and then lumped with a 40 mph limit. It’s one of those highly engineered highways with 40 or 50mph limits which are joined by country tracks carrying the national 60mph limit. The police have recently caught hundreds of drivers exceeding an unnecessarily low limit. What I don’t understand though is how a man who drove at 125 mph with one hand, weaving in and out of traffic, while filming with his mobile phone in the other hand, got only 12 years when he smashed into a broken down car on the hard-shoulder at 90 mph killing a pregnant woman. She also had her 2 sons and a nephew in the car although by some miracle, they survived. The maximum tariff for causing death by dangerous driving is 14 years and I fail to see any mitigating factors in this a case. I despair sometimes.
If you go through the sentencing allowable in the Country bit by bit a lot of it is an ass. I personally have no problem with a death sentence in certain circumstances. I recognise that there are miscarriages of justice at times and that sort of puts a damper on death penalties but there are cases where there are no mitigating circumstances at all or doubt. I fail to see why tax payers should keep these people who are never going to contribute to society except to create a job for somebody to keep them inside. In the case of the man and the little one I was surprised the mother didn't get the same as him sentence wise. If you stand by and do nothing at all then cover it up by lying then you are as culpable as the one who strikes the blow.
Yes I agree. Apparently he was controlling, I don’t doubt it given what he did to the child, but she was the mother and it was her first duty to protect her child. If she’d killed him, you’d have a lot of sympathy.
I was very disappointed today with England women in their match with Nigeria. Firstly was the pathetic dive which was originally awarded a penalty and then rightly overturned by VAR. The dive was blatant and she should have been booked. The second was James who had been a hero in previous games. The absolute deliberate stand on the Nigerian backside was disgusting. She should get more than one match ban and deserves it. Standards improving and so is the attempts at cheating it seems. Now the result today is tarnished.
Did we have too much summer last year ? Second week of August and its wet and cold....condensation on the car and on the bedroom windows...and that is with a fanlight open....signs of autumn I believe. The last two months have been dreadful....I haven't cut the grass for three weeks....because it ain't growing....evenings closing in so much earlier with the damp dark weather. The only bright thing at the moment is Argyle.
No hosepipe ban here.....in fact Thames probably would like us to use more and get bigger bills....to help there extremely red accountancy figure.
Ironically I have just finished cutting the grass. It is definately growing here along with every weed known to man and then some they don't know.
The Prime Minister's office seemed to think the UK was still in the EU until earlier on today. They're now saying it was a mistake and should have said "twice as many as any EU country", claiming it was a gaffe by a junior employee. Or ex junior employee anyway. More like wishful thinking than a gaffe if you ask me.......
I think the Government should resign en masse. They expect other organisations to chop heads off when they balls up so why not them. Head of Coutts, Head of Thames Water. Head of BBC, Head of Metropolitan Police...........etc etc. So far they have ballsed up Brexit, the Economy, Covid, The NHS, Railway projects north and south, Immigration......etc etc. Strikes me apart from Cressida the other heads didn't make that many cock ups between them and had to go.
Ultimately the government is responsible for all these activities. You could argue the banks are an exception as they’re commercial operations but even they work in one of the most heavily regulated sectors. The government has the BoE, the FSA and HMRC who are supposed to provide oversight. The government appoints the regulators so ultimately it’s responsible. I fear though that the situation runs deeper than that .The country (and many countries probably) is in effect ruled by an infinite number of single issue pressure groups. When the leader of the opposition is unable to endorse the definition “ a woman is an adult human female “, you know we’re in deep do-do.
The real things of life can at times be funnier than made up comedy. Spent a few hours today in are local Hospital....the clinic had about 30 people in it. Each patient when booked in where called to a side room to have their blood pressure taken. The middle aged lady who was called Marie who did the blood pressure checks would come over to the seating area and call out a name. Every time there was dead silence and people would look at each other. Marie would walk around repeating the name with still no response.....the problem was that english wasn't her first language and no one could understand her pronunciation....in the end people would look at her list of names and pronounce it for her. So every time she came out of her side room to call out the next name it was difficult for people to keep a straight face as she tried to pronounce the next name......she was good at taking the blood pressure anyrate and that was the most important thing.
At least the lady is doing a worthwhile job serving allcomers wherever they hail from. I'm sure she speaks better English than a considerable number of white youths form sink estates who have only the bare minimum of language needed to deal drugs, thieve and vandalise.
That notdistant is the worst kind of stereotyping I have heard for a while. I worked in Council Housing for 30 years. There are good families and there are bad families in all kinds of Estates. Most meaningful theft takes place in Boardrooms and financial institutions at a fairly senior level. Difference is they probably went to a private school to learn how.
I didn't say everyone who lives on a council estate is like that, or even a majority. I said a considerable number of white youths. The point was widely made by the press (and I don't mean the rabid-Right red-tops) that in the case of the two teenagers that died in an electric bike crash in the Ely district of Cardiff, the estate suffered from a minority of families who terrorised the majority and that the former rendered the estate to something of a no-go area for the police. That is not to say that the two killed in one group or the other, I don't know that, but it does explain the rioting after the incident. I was making the point that laughing at a public servant because her English was not perfect rather fails to recognise that sections of the white community are a damn sight worse.
True but there are also sections of the Black community who are worse. The point of having a pop at anyone black white or skyblue pink who is working and contributing isn't the best idea. Without that particular lady there wouldn't be anyone there to do the job at all. As we have learned from a shortage of workers almost everyhwere.
No of course. I noticed from the video of the disorder in Oxford Street this week that there wasn’t a white face in sight. However, it’s not a question of race: the Cardiff rioters were predominantly white. It’s just a question of which gang of louts are in the news on a particular day. And to be fair, poverty, poor parenting, poor education, radicalisation of all sorts, disaffection…. You name it, we suffer from it.
Watched the England v Australia match this morning. I think you have to take the standard of football for what it is. They make glaring errors but at the same time also play some attractive football with some skill. It was a decent watch and the right result. It was amusing to watch them play the ball out from the back most of the time like Argyle try to do. They are pretty good at it and then out of nowhere pass the ball to the opposition completely out of the blue. Not all of the time but certainly more than once today. Mostly they then just go and get it back but if they were playing better oppostion they would get punished for sure. They are though improving fast and will only get better the more exposure they get. I will have to make sure I tune in on Sunday morning now.
