News Category
Who beat up 98-year-old Peter Gouldstone?
If you know who attacked Peter Gouldstone at his home in Bounds Green, London, do tell the police. Mr Gouldstone is 98. He’s a widower. One or two people broke into his home, beat him and dragged him around his house. They booty? A £50 television – a 26inch Panasonic set in black .
His son, Simon Gouldstone, 67, tells the news wires: “A member of the public tipped me off and I rushed over there. I had a key for my dad’s house but I had to force it open as there was a chain. The place was so cold and quiet, then I found my dad lying on the floor beside his bed.
“His TV was gone and the place was a mess. He was semi-conscious and he couldn’t speak or move, he was clearly agitated. It was clear he had been beaten badly, he had bruises everywhere and was bleeding from his head.”
Know who did it? Do tell the police.
Anyone with information can call Enfield CID via 101 quoting CAD 2140/6Nov, or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Blessed are the Nazi Hunters: Johann Rehbogen stands trial
You can’t see Johann Rehbogen’s face. The German judicial authorities say the former SS guard’s face must be pixelated. Given the passing of time, the trial of Johann Rehbogen promises to be one of Germany’s final Holocaust trials. He’s 94. And depending on your view that means he’s an old man who should be left alone, or a man accused of one of the worst crimes in human history who lived free and protected by others for decades. Blessed is the man who lives to see his children grow old.
And cursed is his soul if you believe in that sort of thing and know that Johann Rehbogen is accused of being an accessory to the murders of at least 300 Jews, Russian prisoners and political dissidents at the Stutthof camp near Gdansk. The victims were killed by toxic injections to the heart, poison gas, the hangman’s rope, electrocution and the result of being ordered to stand naked outdoors. Mr Rehbogen was at the camp from 1942 to 1944. He was born in Romania. He joined the SS at age 18. He denies all wrongdoing. He says he was unaware of the killings and did not participate in them.
The Times:
There were more than 29,000 deaths — and possibly as many as 65,000 — at the camp over the course of the Second World War. When the Red Army captured Stutthof in May 1945, its soldiers discovered a laboratory where Nazis experimented on corpses. Mr Rehbogen seemed to weep silently as lawyers representing Holocaust survivors and relatives of the dead recounted their suffering in the camp. Some criticised the Germany for having taken more than seven decades to bring the guard to justice. One said it was “too little, too late”. The defendant spoke only to confirm his identity. His lawyers said he would make no plea until they received an expert opinion on procedures of the camp from a historian.
Ah, the banality of alleged evil:
After the war he completed a PhD in business management and taught landscape gardening. He is divorced with three adult children. He has admitted working at the camp but repeatedly denied knowledge of the executions.\
Why are old Nazis hunted? Simon Wiesenthal (31 December 1908 – 20 September 2005) explained in The Murderers Among Us: “But I, even before having had time to meditate carefully, understood that we should not forget, if we all forgot, the same thing could happen again after twenty, fifty or a hundred years.”
Never forget. And fight. Never stop fighting:
“When the Germans first came to my city in Galicia, half the population was Jewish: one hundred fifty thousand Jews. When the Germans were gone, five hundred were alive. … Many times I was thinking that everything in life has a price, so to stay alive must also have a price. And my price was always that, if I lived, I must be deputy for many people who are not alive.”
Image: The Holocaust memorial in Berlin, Germany, Monday, Aug. 13, 2012. The memorial to the 6 million Jews killed in Europe under the Nazis was created by U.S. architect Peter Eisenman and consists of an undulating field of 2,711 steles through which visitors can wander. (AP Photo)
BBC trolls Everton fans over donation to Liverpool fan Sean Cox
Clickbait Balls courtesy of the BBC, which spots Everton player Seamus Coleman contributing to the fund set up to help Sean Cox, the Liverpool fan set upon by Roma fans before a Champions League match. The BBC says Coleman is “worried Everton fans would question him for donating money to Liverpool fan Sean Cox.” Sheesh! Coleman must think Everton fans are real numbskulls. Are they so loyal to Everton that they’ll condemn a player for helping a fellow countryman – both Coleman and cox are Irish.
Clicking on the link we’re told:
Everton defender Seamus Coleman worried fans would question him for making a donation to help an injured fan of city rivals Liverpool.
Maybe rabid Liverpool fans don’t want his money? Or maybe the BBC’s heading is total clickbait balls:
“You think ‘Do you put your name towards it or not?'” Coleman said. “You might get people saying ‘he might have put more money in’ or whatever,” he added… “I wanted to put my name to it because sometimes that raises more publicity. That’s what the Liverpool manager did.”
Mentions of Everton fans? Nil.
He doesn’t say that at all though does he? You fucking horrible little arseholes, fuck off.
— Everton Aren't We (@EvertonArentWe) November 6, 2018
Absolute joke! Everton and Liverpool share a great rivalry but when it comes to community we are always together i.e. Hillsborough. Good on Seamus for putting something back in! 🙂
— William Wallace (@BillyWallace89) November 6, 2018
More BBC clickbait soon…
Posted: 7th, November 2018 | In: Back pages, Key Posts, Liverpool, News, Sports | Comment
Roald Dahl: Royal Mint rejected writer over his anti-semitism
You won’t see a coin that commemorates the life of Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) because the Royal Mint was put off by the author’s antisemitic views. The Guardian says the Royal Mint’s planned to produce a coin in 2014 to coincide with the centenary of Dahl’s birth. But this was stopped when it was decided that Dahl was “not regarded as an author of the highest reputation”.
Instead of Dahl, the Mint opted for coins to mark the lives of William Shakespeare and Beatrix Potter.
The decision was made despite the Royal Mail honouring the children’s author with a set of commemorative stamps celebrating his books, many of which have been adapted into films. These include Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the BFG.
The minutes state: “The themes set out below were considered but not recommended. 100th anniversary of the birth of Roald Dahl. Associated with antisemitism and not regarded as an author of the highest reputation.”
…
In 1983…Dahl told the New Statesman: “There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity, maybe it’s a kind of lack of generosity towards non-Jews. I mean, there’s always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason.”
The Labour Party supporting New Statesman had a question that might have been rhetorical. Roald Dahl never edited the publication.
Dahl told the Independent in 1990:
“I’m certainly anti-Israeli and I’ve become antisemitic in as much as that you get a Jewish person in another country like England strongly supporting Zionism. I think they should see both sides. It’s the same old thing: we all know about Jews and the rest of it. There aren’t any non-Jewish publishers anywhere, they control the media – jolly clever thing to do – that’s why the president of the United States has to sell all this stuff to Israel … ”
So instead of Roald Dahl, we got coins for Potter, the woman who opined: “The strongest impelling motive of the Jewish race is love of profit as distinct from any other form of money earning.”
What is is about wealthy, guilt-ridden Christian anti-Semites and their hatred for Jews who work in the face of prejudice to be as successful as they are?
Spotter: Guardian
Everton and Liverpool United for Sean Cox
Sean Cox
Nice one, Everton defender Seamus Coleman. He’s donated €5,000 (£4,300) donation to Sean Cox, his fellow Irishman. Mr Cox was attacked by Roma supporters before their Champions League semi-final against Liverpool at Anfield in April. Says Coleman:
“We have to be together. I think football is great for sticking together. Rivalries go out the window with stuff like that; you don’t see a crest or a jersey, you see a man who came to support his team and unfortunately it didn’t end too well for him that night.
“Thankfully there is a fundraising page and I don’t know the ins and outs of how he is but hopefully they can raise some money for him.
“I saw on social media the Liverpool manager had donated some money and saw there was a link to a GoFundMe page. I wanted to put my name to it because sometimes that raises more publicity. That’s what the Liverpool manager did.
“You think ‘Do you put your name towards it or not?’ because you might get people saying ‘He might have put more money in’ or whatever.
“It’s not about Liverpool and Everton, this is about a man who unfortunately was part of something he did not intend to be. I’ve had people in the street, Liverpool fans, stop me and say ‘Thanks very much’.”
You can go here to donate to Sean Cox.
Posted: 6th, November 2018 | In: Liverpool, Money, News, Sports | Comment
Grenfell: Six people arrested over burning of cardboard model; no-one arrested over 72 deaths
Six people have been arrested over a cardboard model of Grenfell Tower burning on Bonfire Night in someone’s private garden. Someone filmed the pre-medicated idiocy – the Tower was populated with paper faces stuck at the windows – and stuck it on WhatsApp. Lots of other people saw the video when it reached Twitter and Facebook, and became understandably upset. So six arrests have been made – that’s six more than have been arrested for any part in the actual fire in which 72 people lost their lives.
The six have been arrested on suspicion of committing a public order offence. Which offence is unclear. It could be a hate crime, but, then, what isn’t? Under the Public Order Act, racially or religiously aggravated offences carry a prison sentence of up to two years, a fine or both. What is the sentence for being a bellend who made a despicable video? Is making an offensive joke in private a crime? Maybe Theresa May, the actual prime minister, who called the video “utterly unacceptable”, can advise?
Burning effigies of people for a laugh. Artist Frank Shepherd puts the finishing touches to the Edenbrige Bonfire Society Celebrity Guy which has been unveiled as the model Jordan and featuring the faces of former husband Peter Andre and current partner Alex Reid.
On the video, onlookers can be heard shouting “Help me! Help me!” and “Jump out the window!” A kind soul says: “All the little ninjas getting it at the minute”. Ninjas appears to be a slight on Muslim women who wear the veil. Another quips: “That’s what happens when they don’t pay their rent.”
Police have been visibly concerned and swift to act. They swooped on a home in South Norwood, south London. Things were taken away. Moyra Samuels, from the Justice For Grenfell campaign group, say the video “doesn’t represent ordinary British people”. No-one said it did, did they? “But there is a worrying rise of racism in this country at the moment. And that is concerning, because it’s now starting to impact on us directly, which means that we actually need to be thinking what we do about this, and how we respond to this as a whole.”
If found guilty, the media and judiciary will name them. And we can all realise that we’re reading about people mocking others who died in horrific circumstances because it’s a rare event – thankfully – and not an inspiration.
UPDATE: The alleged nasties have been named in the media. The Times:
Five men aged 19-55 and from south London are being held on suspicion of public order offences after handing themselves into a police station last night. Detectives from the Metropolitan Police are searching a property in South Norwood, south London, where two of the suspects, Clifford Smith, 49, and his son Bobbi Connell, 19, are believed to have hosted a bonfire night party on Saturday…
Mr Smith and Mr Connell were arrested with Paul Bussetti, also from south Norwood, a 49-year-old man from Lambeth and a 55-year-old man from Beckenham. All are suspected of intentionally causing harassment, alarm or distress under section 4a of the Public Order Act.
Mr Connell’s grandfather, David Connell, told Mail Online: “It’s an appalling thing to do given the tragic loss of life. It’s in dreadfully bad taste and utterly shocking and I don’t condone it at all. I don’t know what they were thinking.”
England book a one-night stand with former Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney
In its desperation for bums on seats and to milk the England brand, the FA have commissioned Wayne Rooney for a one-might stand. The former Manchester United striker and England captain has been picked to play in a friendly against the USA at Wembley. The match has been called “The Wayne Rooney Foundation International”, but the Times says the player’s eponymous organisation won’t get a penny. The charity will only benefit if fans who’ve forked out for the privilege of seeing Rooney play in an England testimonial make their own donations on match day. Putting the tin lid on they box of balls is Rooney’s desire to were his old No.10 jersey.
The FA is expected to earn up to £3 million in ticket sales for the match.
Disappointingly, Gareth Southgate, the England manager, backs the plan and has spouted the usual X-Factor-style balls: “Acknowledging the Three Lions legacy has been a major part of our journey with this group of young players and Wayne Rooney is a hugely significant part of that history.” It’s marketing 101. Call England the ‘Three Lions’? Tick. Guff on about a “journey”. Tick. Talk of legacies. Tick.
In other Wayne Rooney news, an alleged one-night stand with these people was a lot cheaper:
Gina McCarrick
Posted: 6th, November 2018 | In: Key Posts, News, Sports | Comment
Charlene White gets the Poppy Day row right
The usual mouth breathers have been having a go at Charlene White over her refusal to wear a poppy onscreen while reading the news. She’s made an entirely fair point about this, has Ms. White, but she’s not in fact correct about the poppy wearing either. Really, rather the point of the whole exercise is to remember those who fought so we’d have the freedom to wear a poppy or not as we wish. This is something the Royal British Legion at least understands.
The mouthbreathers:
ITV News presenter Charlene White has explained why she will not wear a poppy while on screen after receiving a wave of online abuse.
The 38-year-old was most recently called a “f*****g disrespectful c***” this week after she didn’t wear a poppy while delivering the news.
One person on Twitter said: “If @CharleneWhite isn’t willing to wear a poppy she shouldn’t be on our TV screens. She’s more than happy taking a wage out of this country. F*****g disrespectful c***.”
Yes, quite, delightful isn’t it. By the way, it’s not the country that pays her wage, it’s the advertisers, the people who cough up the money to put those little bits inbetween the programs.
Charlene White as responded on Twitter:
For those asking tonight – some nicely, others not – here’s an article explaining why I don’t wear a poppy on air: https://t.co/YNXJeWJ5OS
– I wear a poppy off screen
– I donate to the British Legion
– I come from a forces family
– I’m really not a b***h, c**t or p***k— Charlene White (@CharleneWhite) November 2, 2018
The explanation is that she supports a number of charities. And she’s not allowed to support them on air, wearing the right ribbon for this or that. The poppy, yes, that can be worn, that has a special exception. But she’s not happy with supporting just the one – if she can’t support all, then none.
No, we don’t have to agree with this but we do have to understand it. But then, as the Royal British Legion says, that choice is rather the point in the first place:
A spokesperson for The Royal British Legion said: “We take the view that remembrance honours the sacrifices and contributions our Armed Forces community have made in defence of freedom, and so how people choose to remember, or not to, must be a matter of personal choice.
“If remembrance became compulsory it would lose its meaning and significance.”
Quite so. Or, as we might put it, Charlene White is exercising the freedom those fought and died for by deciding for herself whether to wear the poppy or not, when and where. That’s actually the damn point.
Madeleine McCann: The European Court of Human Rights has the final say on Amaral’s pay
Madeleine McCann returns to the fore with news that Gonçalo Amaral, the “poisonous, grazing, shambles” ex-copper, has made money from her story. How much the Sun has made from ‘Our Maddie’ stories is not calculated, but the missing child is on the paper’s front-page once more so her face must shift copies. Amaral has apparently made £350,000 from his book, the Truth of the Lie, and a DVD. This, says the paper, is a “fortune” – the kind of money that buys a studio flat in a decent bit of London.
On page 7, we spot the McCanns, Kate and Gerry. The Sun says they’re challenging the Amaral decision at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). They are taking on the Portuguese State not Amaral, as the Portuguese Resident website notes. The McCanns won a libel case against Amaral’s book but saw the decision reversed on appeal – a move supported by Portugal’s Supreme Court. Contesting that ruling at the ECHR is, says the Sun, the McCann’s “final effort to avoid paying £750,000 compensation to the man who cruelly claimed Maddie’s parents covered up her death” in May 2007. The McCanns deny any part in their daughter’s disappearance.
Can the ECHR come good for the Brits? Let’s see what the Sun has had to say about the court in the past:
A third of those who have won against Britain at the European Court of Human Rights are terrorists, prisoners or criminals, figures show.Among claimants the court found in favour of since 1975 are murderers, terrorists in Iraq and IRA gunmen. It [the figures] is a response to criticisms of the Strasbourg court by Tory ministers and The Sun… Commons Justice Committee chairman Bob Neill MP said: “This is well beyond what any sensible person would say is real human rights. It’s mission creep, law made by judges who are not judges and many from countries with questionable human rights and very little judicial experience.” – “European Court of Killers’ Rights”, the Sun 2016.
Via ‘The Sun gets regulator reprimand and publishes correction for misleading on European human rights’ – read more about the story and the apology from Adam Wagner
Jon Henley wrote in 2013: “Why is the European court of human rights hated by the UK right?”:
Grayling said last week the ECHR did not “make this country a better place”. David Cameron has said the court risks becoming a glorified “small claims court” buried under a mountain of “trivial” claims , and suggested Britain could withdraw from the convention to “keep our country safe”.
An unnamed source tells the Sun: “Kate and Gerry have full confidence the European Court of Human Rights will find in their favour. It hasn’t altered their determination to carry on searching for their daughter.” Best of luck. The Sun seems to doubt the court’s trustworthiness. The paper says it could be an 8-year wait for the case to be heard. The Express says the cost could be “astronomical”.
An ECHR spokesperson is quoted in the Sun: “The case McCann and Healy v Portugal is still under consideration and there is no fixed time for examining it. There is no date fixed date for any judgement or decision to be delivered.” And so it goes…
- If you have evidence about the search for the missing child contact the police. Or you could call Amaral – the Sun says he might be planning a sequel. Meanwhile… a child is missing.
Posted: 5th, November 2018 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann, News | Comment
Super Mario Segale is dead – long live Super Mario
‘Super’ Mario Segale in 1952
There aren’t that many of us who don’t know who Mario is. You know, the plumber in the video games for those whose memories are fading? Yes, that’s the one, on the Nintendo. The thing is, he’s now dead.
Well, no, not the character, but the character the electronic one is named after. Hey, we’ll all take whatever immortality and fame is on offer, right?
So, the background is that Nintendo was trying to break into the US market and they had an office in Seattle. Their character already existed but he was called “Jumpman.” Obviously, if they were renting an office then they were renting it from someone, and when they needed a better name for the character then why not the name of the guy they were renting from, the one who always gave them such a hard time about being late with the rent?
The story goes that in the early 1980s, Nintendo was setting up their U.S. headquarters just outside of Seattle. The owner of the office they rented was Mario Segale, whose name they used as the main character for their signature series. He made quite the impression on them when he came in demanding overdue rent payment, and the rest is history.
Up to that point, Nintendo’s character had been known as “Jumpman,” so we have to say “Mario” was quite the improvement.
Well, quite so, why the hell not?
As told by his family in the obituary, Segale was the only child of Italian immigrant farmers. He started his own construction business soon after graduating from high school in 1952, and later began focusing on real estate and property development, establishing the Segale Business Park in the 1970s.
It was then that Segale leased warehouse space to the still young U.S. wing of Nintendo. He reportedly made such an impression on the video game company that the company decided to use his name for its hero, NPR reported.
Quite the joy of this is that Mario Segale did indeed do construction and did pretty much everything in construction, from digging through to owning the business park at times. Except, except, the one thing he never did do was plumbing…
Posted: 5th, November 2018 | In: Key Posts, News, Technology | Comment
The war for an independent Barcelona (1976)
February 1 1976: three months after the death of dictator Generalísimo Francisco Franco (4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975), the Assembly of Catalonia (Asemblea de Catalunya) marched in Barcelona under the banner ‘Libertat, Amnesty, Estatut d’Autonomia’ (Freedom, Amnesty, Autonomy).
Local residents’ associations, Trade Unions, political parties (many illegal), along with members of cultural and artistic entities participated. Initially it was peaceful. There was a sit-in on the Passeig de Sant Joan, at the corner of Carrer de Provença. But the Civil Guard and riot police police-threw smoke bombs at the seated protesters and charged them. Later, numerous groups marched through the streets of the Eixample to reach the Modelo prison, where they sought the release of political prisoners.
The Civil Guard waited. They were armed with rifles. Manel Armengol had a camera.
PG. DE SANT JOAN/PROVENÇA; CAMI DE LA PRESO MODEL, A LA MODEL C.ENTENÇA
Posted: 5th, November 2018 | In: Key Posts, News, Politicians | Comment
CCTV saves bouncer: Kierah Lagrave did not strike a blow for feminism
A (la)grave error
Who says chivalry is dead? Surely not 22-year-old Kierah Lagrave, of Plattsburgh, N.Y., who is accused of choking a nightclub bouncer into unconsciousness. Lagrave thought he’d slapped her backside. He hadn’t. Her friend had – the friend who when the attack was taking place appeared to do nothing to stop it.
The odd bit is in the reporting by NBC News: “Newly released video shows a 5-foot-1 New York woman choking a much taller nightclub bouncer unconscious…” That makes it sound like Lagrave is some kind of hero. She isn’t. The bouncer says he didn’t defend himself because at the Five1Eight Nightclub because he “thought it was a friend playing a joke on him”.
Others also present the story as a blow for womenkind: “Woman Knocks Out Bouncer After She Thought He Groped Her,” says iHeart.com. How about “Woman Accused of Attacking Innocent Man”? The Independent makes her a “5-ft woman”, reducing her height for extra power. The bounce’s height is not given.
Lagrave has been arrested and charged with strangling. The bouncer can be thankful for CCTV. As the NY Post notes:
LaGrave, of Plattsburgh, later admitted to police that she choked the bouncer, telling investigators she did so because he had grabbed her. Surveillance footage, however, proved otherwise.
David Cameron and Hilary Clinton reprise The Aristocrats – a joke in many parts
Memoirs written, shed built, David Cameron is now so “bored shitless” there’s nothing left to do but to return to his old job. The Sun quotes a mate of Dave’s telling us that the former prime minister who quit when his campaign for Britain to remain in the EU failed thinks the role of foreign secretary will fill his days. Good job Dave has private means because one former foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, told friends his minister’s salary of £141,405 a year was not enough to live on. He now muddles along on less, having selflessly resigned his post. If Johnson does become leader let’s hope his fellow toff Cameron isn’t insulted by the derisory sums on offer.
Over the water, another upper-class politico, Hillary Clinton, was asked about her return to the fore. “Well, I’d like to be president,” she told the Recode podcast. Many would. But why you, Hillary? “I think, hopefully, when we have a Democrat in the Oval Office in January of 2021, there’s going to be so much work to be done… The work would be work that I feel very well prepared for, having been at the Senate for eight years, having been a diplomat in the State Department, and it’s just going to be a lot of heavy lifting.” With the CV filed, Tom Slater reminds us, “She is still, believe it or not, less popular than Donald Trump“. If she stands, they’ll be no Democrat in the Oval office in 2021.
Another Clinton. Cameron redux. They never leave. Incidentally, Tom’s post is entitled ‘The New Aristocrats”, which made me think of this. It’s NSFW.
Predictive Policing perpetuates racism and makes us all suspects
Predpol is, according to it website, “the market leader in predictive policing”. Predpol collects data and uses it to show police where future offences will take place. Crime is contagious, the thinking goes – the same offenders target the same people in the same area. Pump in the bald facts for ostensibly objective analysis and an efficient police service. “PredPol is currently being used to help protect one out of every 33 people in the United States,” says the company. Really? The facts are unclear. But predictive policing is here in the UK.
Predictive police has many fans. Jeff Brantingham, an anthropology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles who helped to develop the Predpol algorithm, says: “If you are victimized today the risk that you’ll be a victim again goes way up.” Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, a law teacher at the University of the District of Columbia, warns that “under current Fourth Amendment doctrine predictive policing will have a significant effect on reasonable suspicion analysis”. Lindsey Barrett agrees: “These algorithms have the potential to increase accuracy and efficiency, but they also threaten to dilute the reasonable suspicion standard and increase unintentional discrimination in a way that existing law is ill-equipped to prevent.” It’s not the coppers who are racist; it’s the robot.
If past data is the barometer of future crime, how trusty is that data? For instance, if police spend more time in, say, black neighbourhoods nicking people for weed possession will they just repeat past patterns and mistakes? Can Predpol tell us where most white collar crime takes place and prevent it?
…civil liberties groups and racial justice organizations are wary. They argue that predictive policing perpetuates racial prejudice in a dangerous new way, by shrouding it in the legitimacy accorded by science. Crime prediction models rely on flawed statistics that reflect the inherent bias in the criminal justice system, they contend—the same type of bias that makes black men more likely to get shot dead by the police than white men. Privacy is another key concern. In Chicago, Illinois, one scientist has helped the police department generate a list of individuals deemed likely to perpetrate or be victims of violent crime in the near future; those people are then told they’re considered at risk, even if they have done nothing wrong.
Corey Doctorow took a look:
An anonymous security researcher recently contacted me with what may be a list of Predpol’s customers. This researcher had seen that Predpol assigns easy-to-guess subdomains to each Predpol customer, in the form of CITYNAME.predpol.com, for example, baltimore.predpol.com.
This researcher wrote a script that combined the name of every US city and town with “.predpol.com” and checked to see whether this domain existed. The full list of cities that had Predpol domains is both short and confusing:
longbeach.predpol.com
indianapolis.predpol.com
hollywood.predpol.com
albany.predpol.com
southjordan.predpol.com
berkeley.predpol.com
frederick.predpol.com
baltimore.predpol.com
pleasanton.predpol.com
modesto.predpol.com
tacoma.predpol.com
elmonte.predpol.com
elgin.predpol.com
livermore.predpol.com
reading.predpol.com
merced.predpol.com
haverhill.predpol.com…
Predpol itself was tight-lipped in the extreme: they initially ignored all press requests, then sent a terse “neither confirm nor deny” response to my questions about this list. They wouldn’t even confirm whether the login forms at these domains were secure, despite repeated warnings from me that I would be making them public, requesting that they ensure that these forms require strong logins and passwords to avoid exposing sensitive policing data.
Robocop’s watching you. What can go wrong?
Posted: 2nd, November 2018 | In: Key Posts, News, Technology | Comment
Aaron Wan-Bissaka is the new Wilfried Zaha
When Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha claimed he’d been racially abused, the i paper illustrated the story with a photo of Aaron Wan-Bissaka. Maybe the abuse was a case of mistaken identities?
Wilf Zaha says he’s racially abused. So let’s use a picture of Wan-Bissaka on the story. Come on @theipaper ffs pic.twitter.com/ttp6uDImda
— Simon Barlow (@billybob1310) October 31, 2018
After Pittsburgh the righteous and fair blame the Jews
After the massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue, hollow minds scout around for someone to blame. You can blame the web, rabid anti-Semitism now rife in British politics – we’re told never to forget, but it never went away – the prime suspect’s hatred of Jews, Israel (how the righteous and not-in-the-least-bit racist love to apportion collective blame on all Jews for events in a foreign country) and the Chief Rabbi. So here are Jenny Tongue, a member of the House of Lords, and Katie Hopkins, a member of the twitter doghouse, doing there bit for peace and harmony:
this used-up old shoe named Katie Hopkins says Jews deserved to be murdered because they support refugees. I’m sure she’ll still be welcomed to prance around Israel ogling soldiers pic.twitter.com/YefFVMY3Vj
— Molly Crabapple (@mollycrabapple) October 29, 2018
If your response to American Jews being shot at prayer is “yes but what about Israel/Palestine”, you may have a problem with Jews and I hope you will realise it’s time to educate yourself. pic.twitter.com/LR2qV8HyoI
— David Schneider (@davidschneider) October 27, 2018
Labour MP Chris Williamson and Baroness Jenny Tonge condemned for response to synagogue shootinghttps://t.co/aBL6qaYN9F pic.twitter.com/9WDt0FScga
— The Jewish Chronicle (@JewishChron) October 28, 2018
‘Disgusting’ and ‘greedy’: what they said about Leicester City owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha
Praise for Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, the Leicester City chairman killed in a helicopter crash. Jamie Vardy, the club’s striker, calls Srivaddhanaprabha the club’s “soul”. “He was a billionaire – a very wealthy and successful man,” said BBC Leicester’s Ian Stringer. “But also so humble and lovely.”
But when he oversaw the “ruthless” (talkSport) dismissal of Claudio Ranieri, the manager who led Leicester to the Premier League title, bouquets lobbed at the great man had thorns to the fore. Picking up on the “wave of shock, outrage and disgust” (BBC) was Gary Lineker, a former Leicester City and England striker now hosting BBC TV’s Match of The Day. He tweeted:
“After all that Claudio Ranieri has done for Leicester City, to sack him now is inexplicable, unforgivable and gut-wrenchingly sad.”
Daily Mirror columnist and former Leicester player Stan Collymore called it “disgusting”. Beneath the headline “Claudio Ranieri’s sacking was absolutely disgusting – it was modern football in a nutshell”, he opined:
…when Foxes owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha did wield the axe on Thursday it was such a joke.
Although, sadly, the act was symptomatic of the greedy and ill-thought-out nature of the game. It was modern football in a nutshell…
The fact that Ranieri has been sacked is disgusting, absolutely disgusting.
And Ranieri wrote:
“Yesterday my dream died. After the euphoria of last season and being crowned Premier League champions all I dreamed of was staying with Leicester City, the club I love, for always. Sadly this was not to be. I wish to thank my wife Rosanna and all my family for their never ending support during my time at Leicester.”
Jurgen Klopp provided context:
“It is not only football. For me there have been a few strange decisions in 16/17: Brexit, Trump, Ranieri.”
The Guardian:
This is the part of the story that shines a light on football’s deceit and two-facedness almost as much as the fact that barely a fortnight earlier, only two days before deciding they had to cut him free, the people in charge at Leicester promised Ranieri their “unwavering support”. Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, the club’s chairman, and his son, Aiyawatt, clearly find it easier to employ others to carry out their dirty work. Yet, after everything that has gone before, was it really too much to think they might have afforded Ranieri the common decency of a first-hand explanation?
Jose Mourinho added:
“I thought last season, when I was sacked as a champion, it was a giant, negative thing. Now I recognise it’s peanuts compared to Claudio.”
Forbes looks at the money:
In his book The Billionaires Club, James Montague says Leicester’s shock title win in 2016 also helped shield owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha from some of the turbulence of Thai domestic politics. Owning a team in the Championship doesn’t have quite the same effect.
As for now, well, Lineker noted:
“A quiet, unassuming man who will always be remembered with great fondness and respect. He also helped to bring the most magical, miraculous title win in the history of football. Thank you, Chairman for all you did for our football club. #RIP”
It was incredible.
Posted: 29th, October 2018 | In: Key Posts, News, Sports | Comment
After Pittsburgh the internet bans Gab
In response to the massacre of 11 Jews and police officers at the Pittsburgh synagogue, PayPal will no longer be processing payment to Gab. It’s a social network a bit like Twitter. The main suspect in the synagogue shooting, Robert Bowers, operated a Gab account where he displayed the neo-Nazi code-phrase 1488. He told other Gab users that refugees being helped by a Jewish organization were “invaders”, and that he was “going in”. Gab has been called a “hate-filled echo chamber of racism and conspiracy theories” (The Guardian), and a “safe haven for banned Twitter trolls, Gamergaters, Pizzagaters and high-profile white nationalists” (Mic).
PayPal told Gizmodo: “PayPal has canceled the Gab.Ai account. The company is diligent in performing reviews and taking account actions. When a site is explicitly allowing the perpetuation of hate, violence or discriminatory intolerance, we take immediate and decisive action.”
So long, Gab? The outfit made a statement on Medium:
Gab.com’s policy on terrorism and violence have always been very clear: we have zero tolerance for it. Gab unequivocally disavows and condemns all acts of terrorism and violence. This has always been our policy. We are saddened and disgusted by the news of violence in Pittsburgh and are keeping the families and friends of all victims in our thoughts and prayers.
Gab’s lament is no longer on Medium. Gab is no longer available – the site tweeted a message saying it web hosting provider, Joyent, has told it to get thee hence. “We have been systematically no-platformed by App Stores, multiple hosting providers and several payment processors,” says Gab. Private companies can take money from who they like. That’s free speech.
Gab continued:
“Gab’s mission is very simple: to defend free expression and individual liberty online for all people. Social media often brings out the best and the worst of humanity. Free speech is crucial for the prevention of violence. If people cannot express themselves through words, they will do so through violence.”
People remain free to talk. Radicals will lampoon ideals and gods. Nothing will be beyond criticism, open debate or public ridicule. Gab just needs to find a partner willing to host it. In the meanwhile, the internet, an online version of life you can turn off and on, will continue…
Image: Gab’s now retired logo.
Posted: 29th, October 2018 | In: Key Posts, News, Technology | Comment
After Pittsburgh Jews advised to build militarised homeland to deter attacks
President Donald Trump says mass murder at a Pittsburgh synagogue would have been “better” if the Jews had been armed. “They had a maniac walk in and they didnt have any protection and that is just so sad to see,” said Trump. “The results could have been much better.” One day when Jews return to their homeland after millennia of persecution they can invest heavily in the military. Then no-one will be attack them. They will be treated with respect and murderous anti-Semitism will end.
As for now, we’re told that Robert Bowers walked into the Tree of Life Synagogue during Shabbat service and shouted “All Jews must die” before shooting dead 11 people sand wounding many more.
“This has little to do with it,” said Trump when asked what role US gun laws played in the massacre. “If they had protection inside the results would have been far better. This is a dispute that will always exist I suspect. But if they had some kind of protection inside the temple, maybe it could have been a much different situation. But they didn’t and he was able to do things that unfortunately he shouldn’t have been able to do.”
It’s all too much like when an adviser to Poland’s president said Israel was ashamed “at the passivity of the Jews during the Holocaust.”
Jews have sometimes been described, often for the purpose of assigning blame or inflicting humiliation, as having acted passively in the face of the Holocaust. Key acts of resistance contradict the trope, most notably the Warsaw Uprising of 1943. Smaller revolts took place in death camps, including Sobibor and Treblinka, where starving prisoners without weapons faced heavily armed German guards.
Image: Felix Nussbaum (1904-1944), Camp Synagogue, Saint Cyprien, 1941. (Via)
Posted: 28th, October 2018 | In: Key Posts, News, Politicians | Comment
Philip Green and my part in his downfall
Judging by the reaction to Peter Hain’s outing of Philip Green as an alleged sex pest, law matters not a jot – it’s a matter of like or dislike. People who view Green as a bastard deserving of opprobrium will think it good the sitting Lord used parliamentary privilege to repeat the claim the Top Shop boss was using NDAs and big money pay-offs to quieten several members of staff at his Arcadia Group from going public with claims of sexual harassment or bullying.
If you like Green or are indifferent to him, you might be more circumspect, trusting the judges who approved requests for an injunction banning journalists from naming the tycoon or revealing details of those aforesaid allegations more prudent than Hain. You might wonder if being super-rich can be a double-edged sword: sure, you can afford the best legal teams but in the court of public opinion people delight in the worst and are entertained by downfall.
Sky News doorstepped Green in a hot and sunny Arizona. “He’s now miles from parliament,” says the reporter, offering viewers a mix of shock and snark that a billionaire would chose to spend the week at an exclusive resort rather than at a B & B in Bridlington. It’s alright for some, eh.
And what of the alleged offences? An ‘insider’ alleges in the Guardian that Sir Philip gave women lingering hugs, asked if they were “naughty girls”, wondered if they “needed their bottoms slapped”, said a woman “must be a lesbian because no man would marry her”, responded to one woman who asked Green to use her name rather than “sweetheart” by telling her to “shut the f*** up”, and asked an Asian woman if she had been “eating too many samosas”. The Times says it’s been reported that “several” claims reached a settlement of at least £1,000,000. “It is not known if these cases were among the five subject to the interim injunction that kept the billionaire’s identity secret until he was named in parliament by Lord Hain on Thursday,” says the paper. “It is thought a number of the complainants signed non-disclosure agreements.”
Facts are thin on the ground. There are lots of claims and allegations. Green says he’s done nothing wrong, issuing a statement: “I am not commenting on anything that has happened in court or was said in parliament. To the extent that it is suggested that I have been guilty of unlawful or improper sexual or racist behaviour, I categorically and wholly deny these allegations… Arcadia and I take accusations and grievances from employees very seriously and in the event that one is raised, it is thoroughly investigated. These settlements are confidential so I cannot comment further on them.”
We can wait. And the lawyers can run a tab. Green plans to issue a formal complaint to the House of Lords. “As many people have said,” says Green, “Lord Hain’s blatant disregard of a judgement made by three senior judges is outrageous.” The Times adds more layers of intrigue: “The Labour peer failed to mention that he had worked for Gordon Dadds, the law firm employed by The Daily Telegraph to fight the case. Adding:
The former Tory attorney-general Dominic Grieve said that he was alarmed by the link. “I would make a formal complaint if I were a member of the House of Lords,” he said, adding: “That there is now a suggestion that it might have been in the solicitors’ firm’s interest to do it [reveal the name] rather than a disinterested decision by him [Lord Hain], even if one which I think is completely wrong, makes me even more alarmed.”
Says Green:
“When Lord Hain made allegations about me in the House of Lords … he failed to disclose that he has a financial relationship with the law firm, Gordon Dadds, who represent the Telegraph.
“I have been advised that his actions are likely to have been a breach of the House of Lords Code of Conduct. As many people have said Lord Hain’s blatant disregard of a judgment made by three senior judges is outrageous.
“If he hadn’t read the judgment, on what basis was he apparently talking about it. If he had, Gordon Dadds’ name is on the front page.
“I will be lodging formal complaints with the relevant authorities in the House of Lords.”
Lord Hain and Gordon Dadds deny any wrongdoing. Says Hain:
“I took the decision to name Sir Philip Green in my personal capacity as an independent member of the House of Lords. I was completely unaware Gordon Dadds were advising The Telegraph regarding this case… I stand RESOLUTELY by what I’ve said and neither retract nor apologise for standing up for human rights.”
A spokesman for Gordon Dadds adds – and best to include this because big lawyers can ruin you:
“Peter Hain is a self-employed consultant who provides occasional advice to the firm, relating principally to African affairs. Any suggestion that Gordon Dadds LLP has in any way acted improperly is entirely false.
“Peter Hain did not obtain any information from Gordon Dadds regarding this case. He has no involvement in the advice that we provide to The Telegraph newspaper, and he had no knowledge of any sensitive information regarding this case.”
From dealing with allegations of abuse of power and laws skewed against the little people, we’re all being entertained by the rich and powerful pulling each other to pieces. Meanwhile, the conversation in many households amounts to: if a rich man offered you a £1million quid to not tell anyone he’d committed an allegedly criminal act on your person, would you take the cash? Wonder if anyone’s got any dirt on the Royal Family they’re forbidden to tell us about – are they the only billionaires who never do wrong? And will women now stop spending at Top Shop?
Pipe Bombs, Donald Trump and the surge in Demophobia
The rush to blame President Trump for the nut job posting pipe bombs to leading Democrats has been notable for its haste. Do you really believe that a vote for Trump was a vote for terrorism? Blimey, the man’s a berk possessed of all the diplomatic nous of a puppy sat by a pile of poo, but to jump on the link that banging on about ‘fake news’ and locking up Hillary Clinton leads to acts of potential murder is a leap onto a convenient lily pad.
Did we all rush to blame Islamism for the attacks on Paris, London, Barcelona, Nice, New York, Berlin, Toulouse, Brussels, Manchester and Madrid? The advice after those attacks was to look to ourselves for signs of Islamophobia. It wasn’t the loons we need worry about. The real danger was non-Muslims reacting with phobic-born violence towards Muslim mates, work colleagues, family, nurses, doctors, pot heads, cab drivers, lawyers, postmen, Lords, politicians, waiters, victims of crime, victims of Islamist terrorism and any other Muslims who after mass murder would surely mutate before our lizard brains into the enemy unless we were monitored. After Manchester was attacked, we got candles and pledges to unite and remain united. But after pipe bombs in the post, the message is get Trump because the man on the trigger for millions of dangerous fools.
If you want to politicise extreme violence and terrorism, then allow all terrorism to be openly debated. There have been no renditions of ‘Love is All you Need’ in response to the pipe bombs posted to George Soros, Baraka Obama, CNN and Hillary Clinton. We’re not warned to look out for Demophobia and fight it when he see it. Why? Because it’s safe to attack what we believe we can change. Trump can be undone by linking him to acts of violence, hope his decriers ; but confronting the issues that drive a radical, murderous form of Islam, well, best light a candle, create a hashtag and hope for the best.
Let’s not bury debate and allow the berks and bigots to fill the void. Don’t do it if you want to get rid of Trump and stop empowering the likes of Tommy Robinson…
Posted: 26th, October 2018 | In: Key Posts, News, Politicians | Comment
Southampton student leader regrets vow to destroy art painted by Jewish ‘white man’ Sir William Rothenstein
Do we believe in redemption? And is redemption only possible after punishment, preferably one meted out by the court of public opinion, or something more brutal, like ‘Frothing at the Mouth With Rage, of Twitter’? Emily Dawes, student union president at Southampton University, has apologised after she told her twitter followers of her plans to paint over a “mural of white men”. For those of you not paying attention, “white men” is now an insult.
The mural Dawes wants destroyed was painted by Sir William Rothenstein in 1916. It’s a memorial to British students who served in the First World War. The Echo tells us the mural “depicts an academic procession and an unknown soldier being presented with a degree”. On planet Student Union, it seems that laying down your life for democracy and positive freedom – freedom to – is a sin if the perpetrators of this heinous act were white men.
Ban this sick filth
The Times cites another of her tweets:
She posted an image of the mural with the caption: “One of the women just said, ‘It’s nearly Armistice Day so are we covering up this tapestry??’ And Holy Shit. F*** Yes. Grl Pwr.”
A quick note about that swine Rothenstein (29 January 1872 – 14 February 1945):
William Rothenstein was born into a German-Jewish family in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire where he was educated at Bradford Grammar School. His father, Moritz, emigrated from Germany in 1859 to work in Bradford’s burgeoning textile industry…
Rothenstein was principal of the Royal College of Art from 1920 to 1935, where he encouraged figures including Edward Burra, Evelyn Dunbar, U Ba Nyan and Henry Moore. Moore was later to write that Rothenstein “gave me the feeling that there was no barrier, no limit to what a young provincial student could get to be and do”.
Jews Mourning in a Synagogue 1906 Sir William Rothenstein 1872-1945 Presented by Jacob Moser J.P. through the Trustees and Committee of the Whitechapel Art Gallery in commemoration of the 1906 Jewish Exhibition 1907
An utter swine, then. His works must be defaced and destroyed. And there’s more. The Tate tells us about the panting above – Jews Mourning in a Synagogue:
This is one of eight paintings of Jewish ritual which Rothenstein made over a two year period, following a visit to the Spitalfields Synagogue in Brick Lane, in London’s East End. The artist describes in Men and Memories (II, pp.35-6) how he chanced to visit the Machzike Hadaas Synagogue…
Rothenstein was excited by the unusual scene: ‘Here were subjects Rembrandt would have painted – had indeed, painted – the like of which I never thought to have seen in London … It was the time of the Russian Pogroms and my heart went out to these men of a despised race, from which I too had sprung… Not permitted to draw in the synagogue, which would have been a violation of the Law, and ‘determined not to waste a subject so precious’, he took a room nearby in Spital Square and persuaded some of the men to sit for him. They were initially reluctant, as they feared he might sell the pictures to churches. The first of the paintings Rothenstein made was The Talmud School, 1904. In Jews Mourning in a Synagogue, Rothenstein has perhaps misunderstood the ritual, as Jews would not have been mourning in a synagogue, and the scene is posed in a studio, in any case.
What a nasty sod, eh. My mother’s Sephardi ancestors fled the pogroms in Russia and settled in the East End. Thanks to Rothenstein’s work, I can be transported to that time. Art has power. Great art has presence. Anyone who destroys it is a fool.
Emily Dawes can be forgiven for thinking that in the binary world of identity-driven student politics, where pioneering figures are trashed and their deeds poured down the memory hole, she’d get an agreeable audience when she tweeted: “Mark my words – we’re taking down the mural of white men in the uni senate room, even if I have to paint over it myself.”
After a lot of blowback, Dawes deleted the Tweet and apologised for her words.
“Firstly, and most importantly, I would like to apologise for the offence and upset I have caused with what I have said. I never meant the disrespect to anyone past, present and future. I had no intention of the tweet being taken literally, and upon reflection have realised how inappropriate it was. My intention was to promote strong, female leadership and not the eradication of history. I do not believe that to make progress in the future, we should look to erase the past. Once again, I would like to apologise for the offence and upset I have caused.”
Students, eh, they do go to the school to learn. Ignorance isn’t always bliss…
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman vows to find Jamal Khashoggi killers
Good news for police investigating what on earth happened to Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist killed on a visit to the country’s consulate in Turkey. His King’s son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is on the case. At the so-called “Davos in the Desert” – what is with the rich and extreme climates – getting them used to Hell? – the Crown Prince vowed to get to the bottom of things, possibly by drilling through the spinal column and using a bone saw to reach the insides of the matter before burying the mess in an unmarked grave in, say, a Turkish woodland.
What say the guests at the big do in the sand as the Prince accepted a standing ovation before the great washed?
Some who did attend said they were there just to do business and dismissed the Khashoggi situation.
“It’s just noise to me,” said Michael Slater, who runs the Middle East and Africa investment business for Northern Trust and is based in Riyadh. “The people I need to see are here, and that’s what I care about.”
Meanwhile, in Yemen…
Spotter: Seattle Times via Boing Boing
The British #MeToo and other #iBelieve witch-hunts
The Daily Telegraph has been legally gagged from publishing allegations of sexual harassment and racial abuse made against a top businessman. Is that fair? We usually get to know the name of the accused in such case but not the name of the accuser. the BBC once hired a helicopter to get to the accused first. The paper’s story is billed, rather unappealing, as the “British #MeToo scandal”, what many see as a divisive movement, one rooted in sexual misconduct allegations about Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. It was ‘Time’s Up’ for sexual aggressors – time to divide leering men who use power to abuse, belittle and intimidate women from, well, the rest of us.
The writer Lionel Shriver said #MeToo was “important to begin with to expose some of these real malefactors”, but then as she told an audience at the Cheltenham Literary Festival:
“Then it took a turn and suddenly we were talking about bad dates and bad taste or making crass remarks and it trivialised itself and I thought that was really regrettable. I don’t like the feeling that now everyone has to have their story of some kind of terrible sexual abuse in order to be able to have an opinion about any of this stuff. I don’t want younger women to locate their sense of power in their weakness, in their fragility. I think the movement has run its course and we can pretty much call time on it now.”
Whereas feminism was once about women seeking equality and opportunity through their resilience, strength, modern feminism is about seeking victimhood and demanding special zones and rights. Shriver says MeToo encourages women to “locate their sense of power in their weakness, in their fragility”. She also said: “I am concerned that we are increasingly wont to confuse genuine abuse of power in the workplace with often distant memories of men who have made failed – ‘unwanted’ – passes.”
The Telegraph would love to tell readers the accused man’s name. But maybe not knowing is better than knowing because it allows the Telegraph to make a cause from could otherwise be a good bit of gossip. “The public have a right to know when the powerful seek to gag the vulnerable,” says the paper’s leader. We learn that the accused man spent “close to £500,000 in legal fees”. Who knew that saying nothing could cost so much?
The paper lines up the guns:
A businessman has used NDAs [Non Disclosure Agreements] in at least five instances to pay employees substantial sums to stop them accusing him of sexual harassment and racial abuse. He has used considerable resources to fight disclosure, achieving an interim injunction preventing publication.
Interesting to know what pressure was applied on the alleged victims to take the money? A QC tells the paper: “A lot of claimants are forced to enter NDAs because of the sheer cost and unpredictability of litigation.” To nothing of the huge stress of going to court. But the rich can afford it. So is it one rule for them and another for us?
And what of gender? Christina Hoff Sommers, host of The Factual Feminist noted:
Powerful men are falling left and right – but not because women are second-class citizens. Just the opposite. Girl Power is real. Instead of carrying on about how frightened and degraded we are, maybe it’s time to acknowledge the truth: in 2017, we can destroy almost any man by a single accusation.
To believe the women without thinking and circumspection is surely no good. To call out illegal behaviour by pathetic men is good.
Back to the scoop, then, and there’s an inkling that however much the Tele wants to tell us the alleged cretin’s name, not telling us puts it on the side of the angels:
A High Court judge had refused to grant an injunction. But the Court of Appeal has overturned that ruling and imposed an injunction which remains in place pending a full hearing in the New Year. We have, in other words, been gagged, contrary to the age-old principle against prior restraint of the press. If the businessman had used defamation laws to block publication, he would not have been granted an injunction since this newspaper would have declared its readiness to prove the truth of the allegations.
The paper ekes four more stories from the gagging order: “Schillings: The ‘attack dog’ firm that acted for Giggs, Terry and Ronaldo”; “The day press freedoms received a devastating blow”, “How gagging orders became the MeToo war’s weapon of choice” and “This decision will discourage exposure of oppressive workplace cultures”. A huge deal. Papers need a campaign and the Telegraph has one.
Stop Press – this is important: “it is now illegal to reveal the businessman’s identity or to identify the companies, as well as what he is accused of doing or how much he paid his alleged victims”. How this pans out on twitter and areas outside the judiciary’s control remain to be seen. In 2011, the Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming “used parliamentary privilege to name Ryan Giggs as the footballer identified on Twitter as having brought an injunction to prevent publication of allegations he had an affair with a former reality TV star.” They might do it there. But don’t do it here.
The Telegraph says there is “a clear public interest in publishing the claims, not least to alert those who might be applying to work for him.” But innocence is presumed, of course. And if what we read is true, well-fed lawyers working for him were not mired by the accusations. And to repeat this to make it no less true: believe what you like, but innocent must be presumed.
