Author: Mick Hartley

to investigate crimes committed by what was described as the ‘Asian’ community”. […]

This resistance to an obvious truth repeated itself across the country. By 2010, a West Midlands Police report showed that authorities were aware that grooming gangs were approaching children at school gates.

But as the report stated, “the predominant offender profile of Pakistani Muslim males… combined with the predominant victim profile of white females has the potential to cause significant community tensions”. As a result, the report remained unpublished until released in response to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests five years later.

In Manchester, a 2019 report concluded gangs were left to roam the streets in part because officers were told to look elsewhere. One detective constable was quoted by a report as saying “the offending target group were predominantly Asian males and we were told to try and get other ethnicities”.

It's a long article: there's plenty more. Grim, grim, grim.

y, has attracted more than its fair share of crank theories – most famously Bruno Bettelheim's Refrigerator Mother Theory, which blamed autism on lack of maternal emotional warmth: a doubly cruel acccusation for the unfortunate mothers of autistic children.

More nonsense to fill in that daft ideas shaped hole, alongside gender theory…

Code to contribute to the public good which, includes promoting an understanding of different cultures and diversity.
“There is a continuing blind spot when it comes to Israel. Our audiences have a right to expect high-quality, impartial and accurate content.”

Writing on Facebook after the interview, Rabbi Sylvester said: “I was told that I was there as a rabbi to talk about celebrating Chanukah while Israel is at war. When I got on for the live broadcast, there was no mention of Chanukah, just a barrage of aggressive political questions.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) condemned the BBC for “anti-Jewish” bias and said it would be writing to the broadcaster.

A spokesperson for CAA called the interview “absolutely despicable”.

"This is one of the starkest examples of anti-Jewish BBC bias that we have ever encountered. When you invite a Rabbi to discuss Chanukah in wartime, the bare minimum is to ask questions about Chanukah."

Yes, you would think so. 

If you can understand that the woke left labelling their political opponents as "far-right, Nazi racists" was a sign of derangement, then you should recognise the parallels with "rape genocide apologist" and "complicit in the rape of Britain".

— Stephen Knight 🎙️ (@GSpellchecker) January 3, 2025

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I've interviewed survivors and criticised our institutions for sweeping it under the carpet due to 'cultural sensitivity'. These are unforgivable crimes and we should never stop talking about it. And I've been called all sorts of names for doing so. So, I'm glad more people are now talking about it.

But if you think what Musk is doing here is anything short of dangerous lunacy that only increases the safety concerns of British MPs, then we aren't the same.

11pt”>Far from playing into the hands of these preachers, my colleagues and I are opposed to all faith creeds, all non-evidence-based belief systems. This includes traditional supernatural religions, but it also includes younger faith systems such as that in which a man literally becomes a woman (or a woman a man) by fiat. Or by legal decision (you could as well legally repeal the laws of thermodynamics so we can have perpetual motion machines).

How patronising, how insulting to imply that, if deprived of a religion, humanity must ignominiously turn to something equally irrational. If I am to profess a faith here, it is a faith in human intelligence strong enough to doubt the existence of a God-shaped hole.

No, it's not an argument that after all this time retains much credibility.

So can we please drop the excuses, and have a proper national investigation into the whole business as Kemi Badenoch has proposed.

, but one where teenagers are never violated or otherwise penalised for now and again succumbing. Thanks to malevolent actors, we don’t live in that ideal world and never will; but along with my teenage liver, I mourn it.

Marion Post Wolcott, May 1940. Memphis, Tennessee. "Main Street at night during Cotton Carnival."

[Photo: Shorpy/Marion Post Wolcott for the Farm Security Administration]

Added Shorpy comment:

Today it's Carnival Memphis. "Cotton" was dropped in 1987 because "our economy has become more diversified. We accomplish our mission through the four C's: Charity, Community, Commerce and Celebration."

"The Cotton Kingdom" was the slogan used by the antebellum South to justify slavery and secession. In 1895, John Philip Sousa wrote his "King Cotton" march, which intentionally or not contributed to "Lost Cause" sentimentalization of the Old South. It is still played.

ver the next few days, secrecy and bureaucratic obstinacy ensured that the only chance to nip the outbreak in the bud was missed. The authorities excluded from testing all potential cases that had no connection or proximity to the seafood market. They insisted the virus could only be caught from animals, despite nurses and doctors falling sick. They went ahead with a huge banquet for the Chinese New Year and encouraged people to travel abroad. By mid January at the latest, the virus was already in a dozen countries, every index case tracing back to a traveller from Wuhan.

It's perhaps important to note that China's cover-up remains a scandal whether the lab-leak theory is true or not. Matt Ridley has co-written a book and written numerous articles explaining why he thinks a lab leak is, overwhelmingly, the most likely explanation for what happened in Wuhan, and the subsequent world-wide pandemic. I think he's right. But even if it came from the street market, or from some other source, China's response to the unfolding crisis remains as an act of criminal irresponsibility.

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After that last post I'm not going to do another "full thread", and anyway it's too long – but it's an important account of the whole wretched saga.