“Christina Hendricks is absolutely fabulous,” says Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone, who held up Hendricks’ outline as an ideal shape for women.
Highlighting the “overexposure” of skinny models and the impact they have on body image among young people, Ms Featherstone went on: “We need more of these role models. There is such a sensation when there is a curvy role model. It shouldn’t be so unusual.” BBC.
What utter bollocks are we to only judge women on whether they fit a perfect figure or not – madness – it’s time we judged women for who they are not what fucking size they are – Christ we’re all different shapes and sizes it’s pointless trying to be a shape we aren’t – what’s the point of replacing one unattainable image with another?
David Cameron’s “big society in action” answer to police budget cuts has been revealed as a plan to appeal to the public to take part in “do-it-yourself” policing ? and perhaps even go on patrol with uniformed officers.
A radical police reform white paper published by the home secretary, Theresa May, says that she wants to explore new ideas including creating a reserve army of volunteers prepared to act as community crime fighters along similar lines to fire reservists who help staff some neighbourhood fire stations. Alan Travis, The Guardian.
That’s vigilante policing by another name what next lynch mobs?
Study YouGov’s polling: Conservatives are on 44%, Labour on 35% and Lib Dems on 13%. Gloat at the Cleggites’ sinking fate if you like – but the combined government support is a stonking 57% and David Cameron’s approval 58%. Which party is “led by people of real ability”? 31% Conservative, 15% Labour and 7% Lib Dem. People are profoundly alarmed about the economy and afraid for their future: 54% expect their own household to suffer this year, 69% expect to be personally harmed by public service cuts, 64% fear losing their job. Who do they blame? 48% blame Labour, only 21% the Con-Lib government. On a string of measures, Labour is harpooned. Polly Toynbee, The Guardian.
Why are people so stupid? Why on earth do we believe their lies? Why do we wish to wear hair shirts and sacrifice our jobs, health and pensions to making the wealthy ever richer? There is no need for these massive cuts.
There’s much of the defeated Labour government I could find fault with – Iraq, Afghanistan, ID cards to name three – but one thing Labour isn’t to blame for is the banking crisis – not one of our politicians at Westminster saw it any other way at the time.
Still I’m a voice in the wilderness when it comes to my views on the need for savage cuts – there is no need.
A 50-year-old woman who used a cooking knife in a bid to murder her husband at their home in Tenby, Pembrokeshire will be sentenced later.
Shafia Sofan was found guilty of attempted murder by a jury at Swansea Crown Court on Wednesday.
She used a traditional Pakistani botie knife with a 25in (63cm) blade to hit Mohammed Abdul Sofan as he sat watching television. BBC.
This story caught my attention not because of the murder but the knife – surely a mistake – that’s a knife with a blade that’s over 2 foot long – what sort of food requires such a blade to prepare?
A Google returns nothing of use; however the Western Telegraph provides further information
A botie is a 25 inch long hooked blade used by the Pakistani community to cut up vegetables and meat. Western Telegraph.
Still makes you wonder what sort of meat and veg the Sofan’s used – I’d be hard pressed to need a blade half that size in our kitchen – surely this is journalistic error?
Cameron also outlined three strands of what he called the “Big Society” agenda:
• Social action: “Government … must foster and support a new culture of voluntarism, philanthropy, social action.”
• Public service reform: “We’ve got to get rid of the centralised bureaucracy that wastes money and undermines morale.”
• Community empowerment: “We need to create communities with oomph – neighbourhoods who are in charge of their own destiny, who feel if they club together and get involved they can shape the world around them.” Nicholas Watt, The Guardian.
Services aren’t going to be run by the proverbial man or woman in the street we haven’t the free time we’re too busy desperately trying to make ends meet – those of us lucky to have jobs that is – those of us who haven’t are going to finding themselves having to work for the pittance that the Com-Dems call unemployment benefit.
This is nothing but the rich dishing out charity to the “deserving poor” whilst companies like Capita are quivering with anticipation at the profits they’re going to make.
Richard Marchant, head of local government strategic partnerships at Capita, an FTSE-100 company which already works for councils in Harrow, Swindon, Southampton and Sheffield, said: “A major problem for the public sector is, we feel, a significant opportunity for us. Opportunities are at their highest level in two to three years. This year we have probably seen a 100% increase in opportunities [compared with 2009] and I suspect we will see another 50% increase in the following year.”
Such an increase could deliver a £60m boost to Capita’s revenues while councils are anticipating a 30% budget cut over the next four years. Other firms vying for town hall contracts include Serco and Mouchel. Robert Booth, Richard Wachman and Jeevan Vasagar, The Guardian.
What on earth possessed people to vote for these arch- Thatcherites? And how many of these bastards are shareholders in these outsourcing companies?
There’s been a lot of talk about graduate tax – now I’m ambivalent over the proposal – mainly I fear the wealthy as often the case will avoid paying their fair share.
To my mind there are two ways to make sure the rich pay more and yes it’s a twofold attack on private schools. Private schools are over represented at our top universities – so those taking the best university places should pay more.
Now firstly let’s abolish their charitable status – as I’ve said many times there’s nothing charitable about educating rich kids.
Second is to tax on school fees with an educational supplement – if you pay for private education then you’re likely to be wealthy, can afford it and you’re kids are most likely going to have the advantage of the UK’s top universities.
I’m no economist and don’t have the figures to determine how much tax revenue might be raised – but it’s a start and is going to be paid by those of us most able to afford it.
I didn’t watch any of the news coverage of the hunt for and subsequent suicide of murder Raoul Moat – The Guardian’s Charlie Brooker watched more of it than a sane man should.
Reporters were competing to get as close as possible to an armed confrontation with a mentally unstable gunman with an acknowledged hatred of the media. On air, they whispered down phones so the police couldn’t hear them. Sky’s James Matthews crept to “within metres” of the standoff until an armed officer caught him. “Crept up silently, first I knew was when I felt his breath on my cheek,” he tweeted. There were other tweets from TV reporters, written in a breathless hurry. Channel 4′s Alex Thomson apologised for the rush: “Sorry lots of Bberry tweets in dark running thru people’s gardens evading cops – some spelling may have gone astray”. Charlie Brooker, The Guardian.
There’s a police standoff with a Gunman so what do the press do – everything they can to make the police’s job harder – bloody morons.
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