Quentin Tarantino on what the future of the James Bond franchise should look like:
"What I think they should do, and I’ve been thinking they should do this for a long time, is so many of the books have these really classic names and really classic adventures. And for the most part, a lot of them, they never did the book. They never did the stories.
They took the plot line and maybe the Bond girl or maybe the villain and then just went their own way. Tom Mankiewicz just goes his own way. He did the writing for a lot of them. I think they should not remake the movies but actually just do the books, but do them the way they were written. And those would all be brand new."
@dev_mayor I do not have a problem with him using legitimate devices to save money for himself. I do have an issue with him then pontificating about other people having too much money.
The same Lewis Hamilton who used a corporate leasing structure to save money on taxes (around £3.3 million in VAT) when acquiring his Bombardier Challenger 605 private jet in 2013? The same Lewis Hamilton who bought the £16.5 million jet through his British Virgin Islands company (Stealth Aviation Ltd) and who then set up an Isle of Man leasing company (Stealth (IOM) Ltd, to import it into the EU and sub-leased it to a UK jet management firm (TAG Aviation), which in turn provided it back to Hamilton and his Guernsey company under charter agreements? *That* Lewis Hamilton?
Wonderful story from @HamishDBG about the courage to disobey.
My great friend Major James Hewitt was ordered to open fire on the enemy.
He couldn't see who he was shooting at.
So he didn't.
It turned out the enemy was @hamishdbg.
"Every February, when the veterans of B Squadron gather to commemorate the Battle of Al Haniyah, our battle honour from the Gulf War, a glass is invariably raised to James Hewitt and the judgment that saved British lives."
https://t.co/jy9gtdI6oN
Our Prime Minister watched a fictional TV series and immediately speaks about it on media and in parliament.
A young British white lad stabbed to death, handcuffed and disbelieved by police as he lay dying, and he says absolutely nothing. Nothing.
Keir Starmer is an utterly out of touch sop of a man.
Henry Nowak's murder was horrific. His killer, Vickrum Digwa, stabbed him to death for no reason.
But when the police arrived at the scene, it was Henry that they put in handcuffs, while he lay dying.
Digwa accused Henry of racism - and the police uncritically believed him.
This is the latest example, and one of the most blatant, of the so-called “anti-racist” ideology which now influences the behaviour of so many people within our institutions. The cost of these dangerous ideas can be measured in lives; they must be rooted out and totally destroyed.
The facts in Henry Nowak's case are particularly shocking. Henry was a student at the University of Southampton; he was just 18 years old. He was walking home from a night out, back in December.
On his way home, he crossed paths with Vickrum Digwa. Digwa then stabbed him five times with his kirpan – the ceremonial knife carried by many Sikhs. In Digwa's case, that knife was 8 inches long.
Digwa later tried to claim that he had acted in self-defence – that Henry had been drunk, and that he had carried out a racist attack against Digwa.
But last week, Digwa was convicted of murder. The court identified that Henry hadn't even drunk enough to cross the drunk driving limit. Digwa's allegations of racism were also found to be unfounded – they were described as a “wicked lie” in the trial.
Yet, when they were called to the scene, Hampshire Police handcuffed Henry, not Digwa.
They immediately and uncritically believed Digwa's claim that Henry was racist. They handcuffed him, while he lay dying. Henry told the police that he had been stabbed, but they didn't listen. His last words were “I can't breathe”.
Why did the police immediately believe Digwa's claims of racism? Why didn't they listen to Henry when he told them that he'd been stabbed? Why do Hampshire Police continue to deny that their officers were in the wrong? Why won't they release the bodycam footage of the incident?
It's hard not to imagine that, if the roles had been reversed, the institutional response to Henry Nowak's murder would have been completely different.
An investigation by the regulator that reviews police conduct, the IOPC, is ongoing. The officers involved should be held accountable for uncritically believing an accusation of racism. It is not the job of the police to handcuff anyone and everyone accused of racism, no questions asked. That is madness.
But accountability must extend beyond those individual officers. Their decisions were influenced, and enabled, by a set of ideas which now dominate many of our institutions. This includes the idea that avoiding racism, or the perception of racism, is more important than keeping people safe.
In so many institutions, including the police, “anti-racism” is drilled into people from the beginning of their careers. If people are perceived as racist, they can be struck off, punished, or denied promotion. Training materials often contain advice on how to treat particular ethnic, racial, or religious groups, to avoid accusations of racism. In the police in particular, many forces employ liaison officers, or police associations, designed to represent particular minority groups.
Rules and guidelines that inform how public servants act are dominated by this kind of thinking. Sometimes, these guidelines are even made into law – meaning that public servants can get into legal trouble if they make a decision which seems to disproportionately impact one group.
These practices are, in turn, the product of the belief that certain groups are oppressors, and others oppressed. The oppressed groups must be afforded special treatment and protections. Rather than applying a single set of rules to every individual, equally and fairly, many of our institutions now believe that they have a mandate to “maintain relations” and “manage tensions” between groups, and to control public perception of groups considered “oppressed”. The need to keep the public safe, or administer our rules consistently, or even to tell the truth, is subjugated to the cause of “anti-racism”.
This is exactly the same institutional approach which led so many people to cover up the rape and grooming gangs which preyed on so many children, for so many years.
Most of the offenders in those cases were Muslim men, either from Pakistan or of Pakistani heritage. Most of the victims were white.
In most cases, police forces, local authorities and care providers either turned a blind eye to this abuse, or actively tried to cover it up.
In her rapid review into the grooming gangs, Baroness Casey said outright: "we found many examples of organisations avoiding the topic altogether for fear of appearing racist, raising community tensions, or causing community cohesion problems."
In other words, the British state covered up the worst crime committed in this country, ever, because people were scared of appearing racist.
These two instances are far from unique.
On June 13th 2023, Valdo Calocane stabbed two university students to death, and then did the same to a school caretaker. He then drove a van into a nearby bus stop.
He'd been known to authorities for years. In May 2020, he tried to break into a neighbour's flat during a psychotic episode. He wasn't sectioned because NHS professionals were told to consider the "over-representation of young black males in detention".
Had Calocane been dealt with properly, he would likely never have gone on his killing spree. He clearly posed a risk to the public. And yet, once again, a fear of being branded racist trumped our right to be kept safe.
In 2022, the IOPC said that police forces should reduce the use of ‘stop and search’ because the practice is disproportionately used on ethnic minorities.
Never mind the fact that stop and search saves lives (including those of ethnic minorities!), and takes weapons off the streets.
On, and on, and on. Earlier this year, West Midlands Police lied to the public about its handling of the match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Aston Villa. Its recommendation to bar Maccabi fans from Birmingham was driven entirely by pressure from Muslims in Birmingham. Broader public interest in the match didn't matter – the only question was how to avoid offending Muslims, many of whom objected to the presence of Israeli fans.
And just last week, a whistleblower from West Yorkshire Police revealed that she'd been sacked from her role as chairman of a “hate crime” panel when she questioned whether the force should be spending so much time on policing people who made offensive comments about Muslims or Islam.
These are the real world consequences of this moral crusading. People have died. Many thousands more have been horrifically abused, groomed, and raped. Our ability to express ourselves freely is being restricted.
A single set of rules must apply uniformly, to everyone. Institutions like the police should go back to focusing exclusively on keeping the public safe. Nobody's life should ever be put in danger, and nobody's freedoms should ever be restricted, because a public servant is scared of being called racist.
We must not rest until these dangerous ideas have been totally booted out of the British state.
Folks I can’t lie I think that 21yrs is a very low sentence indeed; DIGWA is a man aged 23 so not a Child; he Pleaded Not Guilty so put everyone through a long trial & harrowing ordeal & lied throughout causing a delay in the police treating Henry NOWAK & showed no remorse!👇🤷♂️
Carrying a kirpan like this also solves the issue of religious belief.
We don’t need a long and sharp blade to fulfil our need to carry a ceremonial dagger.
'His murderer was afforded decency. He was believed'
Henry Nowak's father says the 'contrast' in the police's treatment of his son and his murderer is 'unbearable' in a statement after Nowak's killer was sentenced to 21 years in prison.
@anishmoonka He made one good film and that was down to Eva Green and Martin Campbell. The rest were awful and left the franchise in a total mess. The worst Bond ever. They were right.
Did you know Ferrari permanently banned Paris Hilton for painting her Ferrari pink? They also banned Kim Kardashian for modifying her 458. And banned Justin Bieber for wrapping his in neon blue. And banned Deadmau5 for a Nyan Cat wrap. They sent cease and desist letters and blacklisted them all. Brand integrity is sacred and the prancing horse must be protected at all costs.
Anyway here’s their new €550k EV that looks like a Nissan Leaf.
Sorry HMRC rules that serving as a British Army Reservist counts as a ‘break’ from work and therefore penalises you?
The question here isn’t just that it’s wrong and should be overturned. It’s that someone made that ruling and is probably still a civil servant.
Nobody Reads the Ingredients:
• Maggi was invented to feed overworked factory women with no time to cook.
• Coca-Cola was sold as pharmacy medicine.
• Red Bull was a cheap Thai drink made for labourers and truck drivers.
• Nescafé was created to solve Brazil's coffee surplus.
• KFC was a petrol station kitchen.
• Pepsi was called Brad's Drink, mixed in a pharmacy backroom.
• Cadbury was sold as a health food to replace alcohol.
• Heinz started as a way to preserve garden vegetables.
• Domino's began when a brother traded his store share for a Volkswagen Beetle.
• Lay's were sold from the boot of a car during the Great Depression.
• Cornflakes were discovered by accident when dough was left out overnight.
• Worcestershire sauce was so foul it was abandoned in a cellar and became a hit 18 months later.
• Tabasco sauce was made on a small Louisiana island by a man with leftover hot peppers and a used cologne bottle.
• Kellogg's Corn Flakes were originally made to suppress patients' appetite for unhealthy food at a health retreat.
• Sprite was created by Coca-Cola purely to compete with 7UP,not because anyone asked for it.
@DailyMail Targeted, lured, gang raped at knifepoint while they filmed it and laughed while they took turns.
One of the girls said "All I want to do is die, I no longer have fear for when that comes"
If anyone hadn't realised yet, girls just don't matter in the UK
Devastating injustice
@AndyBurnhamGM@afneil They're all having it so tough but you haven't given the cost of the impact of your personal political ambitions a second thought.
Up to 800 hard working people will need to work a while year to pay the tax to cover it.
Absolutely abhorrent.
Let’s have a think about what’s happening in Makerfield.
This by election is costing taxpayers £226,208. And it’s happening because a Labour MP chose to step aside to make room for Andy Burnham’s leadership ambitions. He admitted that himself.
But here’s some more interesting figures.
If Burnham wins, he’ll have to resign as Greater Manchester Mayor too. That triggers another election costing taxpayers around £4.7 million.
So in total, nearly £5 million of public money could be spent not on improving services, fixing roads, supporting communities or helping struggling families, but on political career ambitions.
People are struggling with bills, crime, NHS waiting lists and communities being ignored. Yet Westminster politics still seems focused on who climbs the ladder next.
That’s what frustrates people. Not democracy. Political games made to look like democracy.
British politics will reach a new reductio ad absurdum in the Makerfield by election:
Vote Labour to destroy the sitting Labour Prime Minister.
Support Labour PM Starmer but NOT voting Labour.
We are having a by-election not because there’s any demand or need in the national interest but entirely to suit the convenience of the byzantine politics of the ruling party and the political pygmies in whose interest it is run.
We are no longer a serious nation. No wonder the bond markets are squiffy.