Douglas Coombes

High Hopes, Low Expectations

[Oliver Lewis @policy_uk]

Call me old fashioned but a mere eight years behind bars for murdering someone? Is this ‘punishment’ really appropriate for the extremity of the crime?

[Stanford University @Stanford]

The most important briefings of the day.

Karl Deisseroth, professor of bioengineering and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, shares the news of his Nobel Prize with his kids.

[Helen Joyce @HJoyceGender]

Devastating fact. Incredible that it seems not to play the slightest role in policy considerations

[Janice Turner @VictoriaPeckham]

“We only ban a march when its opponents will be violent.
We know Jews won’t kick off, so they have to tolerate a celebration of a recent Jewish massacre.”
Violent bullies always win.
What a way to police a city.

[Douglas Coombes @notefromnowhere]

@edwest Workshy of the world.

[Lisa Mckenzie @redrumlisa]

What a shameful day - people dressed up as terrorists that murdered Jews 3 years ago on Cable Street where Jews fought fascists 90 years ago in Britain.

[Migration Watch @MigrationWatch]

Perhaps a bad idea to continue admitting all the male rapists on these small boats then?

[Emma Fildes @emmafildes]

Money got Sheikh Mansour’s Abu Dhabi company first dibs on development land and the same money got the council to turn a blind eye.
Manchester city council published a review of its deals noting “weaknesses in documentation, monitoring and assurance” but noted the “significant benefits” delivered. Bending the rules for one for fear of losing them and their money doesn’t bode well when trying to get others to build across the whole country @DavidCollinsST @lara_spirit @thetimes
https://t.co/Cxz1isDzdt

[Jake Wallis Simons @JakeWSimons]

It was only a matter of time before the breadcrumb trail led to Britain! Hammam al-Hammami, the 29-year-old Omani co-pilot who allegedly tried to hijack a Flydubai flight to Israel with a crash axe, turns out to have studied at a British university.
Al-Hammami, who reportedly attacked the Indian captain, Smit Machchhar, as their Boeing 737 Max plunged 15,000ft, completed a three-year distance-learning degree in aviation management at Buckinghamshire New University. We don’t yet know if he was radicalised at university, but the British connection is horribly symbolic.
The attempted hijacking may raise extraordinary questions about security in Dubai, Oman and Israel, but it now also points to something Britain’s governing class has spent decades refusing to confront: we have become one of the West’s great safe havens for radical Islam.
Let’s look at the evidence...
New post. Link in first reply

[Lisa Mckenzie @redrumlisa]

First they came for the Jews then they came for the Jews and then they came for the Jews again.

The old racism of the new progressives

[Michael Crick @MichaelLCrick]

British Musuem chairman George Osborne can't just bask in the champagne-swigging glory of hosting the Bayeux Tapestry, he has to get a grip on this contempt for the public. And Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy should pull her finger out too.

[Jewish News @JewishNewsUK]

Miliband has lost right to lecture on anything ever after Iran handshake, says Schama
https://t.co/Yg6HrNimOM

[Kemi Badenoch @KemiBadenoch]

Over the summer, Henry Nowak's final moments were broadcast around the world. He was just eighteen, and when the police reached him on a street in Southampton he would have believed that help had come. He told them he had been stabbed and could not breathe, and they handcuffed and arrested him.

I met Henry's family in June, and that meeting has stayed with me ever since. There is still much more to be said about how the police failed Henry, and about how they went on failing his family and loved ones right up until the conviction.

The day after we met, I wrote to the then Prime Minister, Keir Starmer asking for an independent, rapid review of the police response, the decisions that followed, and the role of the police watchdog. I didn't publish that letter at the time, because I hoped the Government would do the right thing and I wanted to work with them quietly to make that happen. Downing Street's answer was to wait for the existing processes to run their course.

Since then, Keir Starmer has gone and Andy Burnham has taken his place, yet still there is no review. There was little mention of victims in the PM’s speech earlier this week. Henry's family have waited long enough, so today I'm publishing my letter. Andy Burnham should order the review now, and I stand ready to work with him to set it up, as I offered in June.

I haven't forgotten Henry, and I won't let this Government forget him either.

[ShoolieW 🇬🇧 @ShoolieW]

I remember as a kid, I used to be afraid of the dark.

Having just received my electricity bill, I'm now afraid of the light!

Morning all 😁x

[Douglas Coombes @notefromnowhere]

My new favourite account.

[Cats in the Navy @CatsintheNavy]

Buggey was born on the liner Winchester Castle and sailed 200,000 miles over a two-year period. When the liner returned to England to be taken out of service in 1960, Buggey was left by himself because he could not transfer to another ship with the rest of the crew without spending six months in quarantine. Not wanting him to be lonely, customs officials decided to place him in a basket and escort him to his new ship, ensuring that he did not set a paw on English soil along the way. Successfully avoiding the need for quarantine, Buggey rejoined his crew and continued sailing the world.
#cat #cats #catlore

[Albannach @SaorAlbannach]

If any film journalist out there with a spine wants to ask Michael B Jordan if it was worth throwing a disabled man under a bus so that he could guarantee his oscar win, that would be great.

Nobody who worked on Sinners should be welcome in Scotland. Bastards, to a man.

[Paul Embery @PaulEmbery]

As a firefighter, I am appalled at these scenes. Utterly inexcusable behaviour by feral thugs, directed at individuals trying to provide a humanitarian service. I hope justice is served.

[Matthew Lynn @mattlynnwriter]

Greece's falling unemployment rate is a good example of how economies recover once they get their deficit under control. Britain is a long way off that https://t.co/fbWlI5cTr1

[Sharron Davies HoL MBE @sharrond62]

This is a freight train coming towards the uk & it’s being ignored by this government 😔

[Ian Acheson 🇬🇧☘️ @NotThatBigIan]

Let's be clear. What's happening today in the first tranche of mass early release of offenders is an affront to justice putting victims last. No amount of MoJ spin can disguise the fact dangerous prisoners are being shovelled into community 'supervision' already in ruins.