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Periods in sport are no taboo, Serena Williams gets over it
When watching the Olympics, did you think I wonder if she’s on her period? Ross George did. She tells Guardian readers:
My gold medal goes to Fu Yuanhui – for talking openly about her period
Well, if dressage can be a sport, why not your body clock?
The swimmer’s admission of what affected her Rio Olympics performance shouldn’t be a big deal, but it is. It’s one more step towards stamping out a pathetic taboo
It’s not a taboo in the Guardian:
January, 2015:
Menstruation: the last great sporting taboo
When Heather Watson crashed out of the Australian Open this week, she put her poor performance down to starting her period – publicly breaking the silence on an issue that affects all sportswomen. But why is it still something we never hear about?
January 2015:
My period may hurt: but not talking about menstruation hurts more, Rose George
Menstrual taboo is bad enough for female athletes such as Heather Watson.
May 2015:
On the second Menstrual Hygiene Day, Ellie Mae O’Hagan looks at what NGOs are doing to break the taboo around periods
March 2016:
Bad blood: the taboo on talking about periods is damaging lives
Is the great female athlete Serena Williams wrong?
Posted: 19th, August 2016 | In: Broadsheets, Reviews, Sports | Comment
Inequality makes you fat and food is therapy
Why are you fat? Why are you not fat? Polly Tonybee knows. She writes in the Guardian:
The Tories must tackle the real cause of obesity: inequality
When fat meant prosperous and jolly and thin meant poor and mean, it was about inequality. Now that fat means you’re poor and thin means you’re on message, it’s all about inequality. The only thing that fits for all is that the rich and knowing want to school you.
Polly want to ban advertising of certain foods to youngsters watching telly.
Obesity is no one’s choice, as everyone wants to be thin: young children now worry about body image, and rates of anorexia – obesity’s evil twin – are rising.
The simple fact is that we eat more calories than we can burn off. When the poor had no cars and central heating, they walked and worked in manual jobs. They were thin. The rich with their hearths, carriages and desk jobs were fat.
To be obese signifies being poor and out of control, because people who feel they have no control over their own lives give up…
It signifies the post-war miracle of plentiful food for all.
It is inequality and disrespect that make people fat…
…the social facts suggest Britain would get thinner if everyone had enough of life’s opportunities to be worth staying thin for. Offer self-esteem, respect, good jobs, decent homes and some social status and the pounds would start to fall away.
This abstraction that being thin means you have more to live for and have higher self-esteem is bizarre, as is the news that being fat means you have psychological issues. Food isn’t eaten because you’re greedy, don’t walk enough, don’t do physical labour and it’s cheap. Food is State-sanctioned therapy. And you’re the victim.
Posted: 19th, August 2016 | In: Broadsheets, Reviews, The Consumer | Comment
Man passes out after having sex with a van
Police say Michael Henson was trying to have sex with a van in Dayton, Ohio at around 8:00pm.
Caught in Transit
A woman who called police claims to have seen Henson pull his shorts down and place his genitals in the front grille of the van that was parked on the street. She says this went on for some time before Henson shambled away and passed out.
Men, eh. Wham. Bam. Thank you, van.
Posted: 19th, August 2016 | In: Key Posts, Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
Take Hart: Manchester City given lesson in ‘common human decency’ by Joey Baton
When not shouting like the loon on the night bus, Joe Hart is letting in goals for England. Manchester City have seen enough, and are looking to offload the goalkeeper. The Mirror says Hart has told City teammates he will leave before the current transfer window shuts.
On Talksport, former City player Joey Barton says City’s treatment of Hart is “disgusting”. In the pantheon of disgusting behaviour, telling an overpaid footballer prone to clangers he is no longer first choice for his club is not disgusting. It’s sport. Disgusting might be, of instance, stubbing a lit cigar into the eye of young team-mate Jamie Tandy (as Barton did in 2004, when he was on City’s books), exacting common assault and affray in Liverpool city centre (Barton was jailed for his crimes in 2008), and assaulting Ousmane Dabo during a training match row in which the other player was knocked unconscious and punched repeatedly while on the ground (yep, Barton did that).
Says Barton:
“It is not the club I left. The club I left and watch now are two totally different organisations. The club I played for wouldn’t have treated a player that has been a servant for as long as Joe has in the manner that it has. It is disgusting.
“He is a full international, somebody who, probably before City took the money, could have gone on to bigger and better things himself but stayed and wanted to be at City.
“I don’t see what he has done wrong to be treated the way he has. His attitude isn’t terrible. I don’t like this.
“It is common human decency, regardless of how good a coach you are. Why treat him like that?”
If Manchester City are taking lessons in common decency from Joey Barton, they really are in trouble.
Posted: 18th, August 2016 | In: Back pages, Manchester City, Reviews, Sports | Comment
Arsenal fan signs Riyad Marhez because he read it in the Metro
Modern football fans are in crisis. Get a load of the Arsenal fan who bought a replicate top and had the name “MAHREZ” stuck across the back. That’s Leicester City player Riyad Mahrez, who still plays for the Premier League champions.
The Metro says, “Asad Balal, a long-suffering Gooner, was clearly confident that Arsene Wenger would swoop in to bring the Le Havre winger to the Emirates and even claimed to have inside information on the Algerian’s move to north London.”
Balal knew nothing, which makes him a good candidate for a career in journalism – at the Metro:
Unabashed by it own dire prediction and reporting, the Metro mocks Balal:
However, Balal was forced into an embarassing [sic] backtrack today after Mahrez signed a new four-year deal with the Foxes and he quickly took to Twitter to jokingly put his Arsenal no.26 shirt up for sale before deleting the tweet and saying he’s sending the shirt to a charity shop.
Embarrassing stuff all round.
PS – buying players is not the same thing as buying players for form a team. The modern fans’ desperation for big-money signings is pathetic.
Posted: 18th, August 2016 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, Reviews, Sports, Tabloids | Comment
Racism spotted in the dust of Judge Roy Bean’s nooses
Can a sign be racist? In Green Country, Oklahoma, Terrance Reed, Sr. Reed spotted three nooses handing from a tree. “When I looked over there, I was like, ‘are those nooses hanging there?'” he tells the local news. This, he reasoned, was an attack on his heritage.
He went on: “If you think of a noose in America, it don’t represent anything about but what used to happened to African Americans. He got the right to do what he wants to do, he’s got a right to feel what he wanna feel, but I got a right to be angry about it too, and I’m angry.”
Blacks were the usual suspects back when racial segregation was enshrined in US law. But whites were also lynched.
“It bothers me. It’s humiliating,” says driver Dennis Varner. “It’s discrimination, and America shouldn’t put up with it.”
The drivers seeing only racism should look at the warning sign. Judge Roy Bean was Phantly Roy Bean, Jr. (c. 1825 – March 16, 1903), whose courtroom was his saloon along the Rio Grande in the Chihuahuan Desert of southwest Texas.
This site says of Bean:
Bean has often been confused with “hanging judge” Parker of Ft. Smith – (perhaps because their slightly unorthodox or creative sentencing). Bean never actually hanged anyone, although he occasionally “staged” hangings to scare criminals. Bean would prepare a script with his “staff” – if they were sober enough – which allowed for the prisoner to escape. Given this “second-chance” – the culprits never appeared before the court again.
In 1972, the New York Times said of Bean, played by Paul Newman in the movie Judge Roy Bean:
The passage of time, if not actual circumstances, has thrust the mantle of freebooting greatness upon Roy Bean, the Kentucky-born (circa 1825) scalawag who, in the 1880’s, settled in what was then Vinegaroon, Tex. Bean immediately styled himself judge and then set about to being law and order to the lands west of the Pecos, principally by hanging those passers-by (a lot of whom were outlaws) who had any money or property to bequeath him.
And:
When young, and in California, Bean killed a Mexican official during an argument over a young woman. Friends of the official didn’t take kindly to this, so they hauled Bean off and hanged him, leaving him to die. Although seriously injured, he was saved from death by the young woman in dispute.
Bean was white.
So much for the racism.
Noose erector Merle Martindale says his sign was merely a warning to any potential thief. Martindale has now removed the sign and nooses down “because he was concerned for drivers stopping to look”.
Bachabaze, gang rape and Afghan asylum seekers
Do they have Yew Trees is Afghanistan? The Indy has news of a suspected rape:
Four-year-old child refugee ‘raped by Afghan man’ at centre for asylum seekers in Germany
The boy’s dad came running:
He found his son and an old man with their trousers down, the Schleswig-Holsteinische Zeitungsverlag newspaper reported. The father told the court he asked the man what he was doing with the boy, and was told he had been helping him go to the toilet…
The four-year-old later told his parents he had been forced to perform oral sex on the man – an allegation prosecutors have supported with DNA evidence.
Police said the 22-year-old suspect was immediately arrested on suspicion of aggravated sexual abuse of child.
Is 22 an “old man”?
He denies the allegation, while another Afghan man, 29, denies threatening the victim’s brother with a knife when he tried to stop the attack.
All for the courts to decide.
For centuries, Afghan men have taken boys, roughly 9 to 15 years old, as lovers. Some research suggests that half the Pashtun tribal members in Kandahar and other southern towns are bacha baz, the term for an older man with a boy lover. Literally it means “boy player.” The men like to boast about it.
“Having a boy has become a custom for us,” Enayatullah, a 42-year-old in Baghlan province, told a Reuters reporter. “Whoever wants to show off should have a boy.”
The BBC adds:
In Afghanistan women are not allowed to dance in public, but boys can be made to dance in women’s clothing – and they are often sexually abused…
People call it bachabaze which literally means “playing with boys”. The most disturbing thing is what happens after the parties. Often the boys are taken to hotels and sexually abused. The men behind the practice are often wealthy and powerful.
Tell the police?
In his last phone call home, Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. told his father what was troubling him: From his bunk in southern Afghanistan, he could hear Afghan police officers sexually abusing boys they had brought to the base.
“At night we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it,” the Marine’s father, Gregory Buckley Sr., recalled his son telling him before he was shot to death at the base in 2012. He urged his son to tell his superiors. “My son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it’s their culture.”
How do you plead?
Transfer balls: pig-headed Chelsea reserve Cesc Fabregas want Real Madrid move
Transfer balls: what news of Cesc Fabregas, the former Arsenal captain who left for his beloved Barcelona and now warms the bench at Chelsea? The Daily Express has some, reporting on August 15:
Chelsea have offered star [Fabregas] to Real Madrid
The Mirror confirmed the news:
One day one and the Sun added:
Chelsea transfer news: Cesc Fabregas wants Real Madrid move and has contacted Florentino Perez
Blimey! Can a the former Barcelona player, a local boy done good, really join the Catalan club’s arch rivals? Have the pig’s heads on order.
No. Wait a moment. The Sun has more news. One day on from the scoop that Cesc wants Real, we read:
Chelsea transfer news: Cesc Fabregas will stay and fight for his Blues starting spot despite being dropped in favour of N’Golo Kante. Blues sources told SunSport Fabregas is NOT seeking a move away from Stamford Bridge and that it is highly unlikely he will leave this summer.”
Not quite, says the Star:
Cesc Fabregas is set to stay at Chelsea after being snubbed by Real Madrid, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus.
Such are the facts.
Posted: 17th, August 2016 | In: Back pages, Chelsea, Reviews, Sports | Comment
How to make puppets from cats
You make your own entertainment in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Gerda Osteneck makes puppets from old cat hair. “Boo was a rescue cat we got shortly after I took a felting class,” says Gerda, “and I took one look at her ‘Oh, I want to felt you.'”
She explained that the process for felting cat hair is the same as felting with wool. First a pattern is made out of a heavy plastic. Then the hair is wrapped around the plastic, and soapy water is applied. The next step is to massage it all together, causing the hair to become felt.
Nowadays, Osteneck says all the cat hair she collects goes straight into a plastic bag to save instead of the trash can. After she collects enough brown and grey hair from Boo, she makes the felt and then crafts it into tiny finger puppets. Osteneck is now itching to show others how it’s all done.
And you can learn the technique. Gerda is teaching cat puppetry at the Neil Balkwill Civic Arts Centre.
“This is the first time I’ve posted a class for it and I’m really quite surprised at the reaction,” she adds. “You don’t have to go out and buy a kit. You don’t have to go out and fill a studio full of equipment. You can just grab your cat and brush, and the next thing you know you’ve got enough materials to make something.”
Or if brushing’s not your bag, why not just watch and wait until your cat coughs up a hairball. As we say, you make your own entertainment in Regina…
Posted: 17th, August 2016 | In: Key Posts, Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
Transfer balls: Shkodran Mustafi arrived at Arsenal yesterday after no bid was made
Transfer balls: Are Arsenal set to sign a new defender? Given the Gunners’ season debut against Liverpool, you’d think hiring another four would be ideal. But the Mil says one is enough, reporting: “Arsenal to sign Shkodran Mustafi for £30m from Valencia on five-year deal in next 48 hours.”
That was published on August 12:
More than 48 hours later, the Mail reported:
As Arsenal haggle over £30m fee for Shkodran Mustafi… will he join Luis Suarez, Gonzalo Higuain and Co on list of stars Arsene Wenger missed?
In other words, the Mail was utterly wrong.
Today’s Express adds: “Arsenal have not yet bid for Valencia star Shkodran Mustafi.”
Posted: 17th, August 2016 | In: Arsenal, Back pages, Reviews, Sports | Comment
Free speech for Anjem Choudary: Twitter backed the Devil but banned Milo Yiannopoulos
So, farewell, Anjem Choudary, the UK’s leading gurning face of Islam. Choudary took over from hook-handed Abu Hamza and ‘Tottenham Taliban’ Omar Bakri as a the country’s Islamist-in-residence. But his carer is near its end.
Britain’s most controversial hate preacher, is today behind bars after finally being convicted of terrorism offences. The 49-year-old firebrand cleric, who has helped radicalise a generation of would be terrorists, was found guilty of inviting support for a banned organisation after swearing an oath of allegiance to Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil).
The Sun sees it as a victory for good over evil. The ‘Devil’ is locked up:
Did you follow Anjem on social media? The Guardian notes:
Social media giants had the last word on Anjem Choudary’s online posts, even after he was arrested for inviting support for Islamic State.
British authorities made repeated efforts to get his Twitter posts and YouTube videos taken down after an oath of allegiance to the Caliphate surfaced online with the preacher’s name on it, jurors at the Old Bailey were told during his trial in July.
But they had no power to force corporations to remove material from the internet even if it was believed to have fallen foul of UK anti-terror laws.
Choudary was not censored by censorious Twitter. Good. Free speech means just that. No buts.
The BBC adds:
Supporters of Choudary included:
• Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, the murderers of soldier Lee Rigby
• Suspected IS executioner Siddhartha Dhar
• Omar Sharif, a British suicide bomber who attacked Tel Aviv in 2003
• Brusthom Ziamani, jailed 12 years later for planning to kill in the streets of London
Sky continues:
The jury took less than three days in July to find Choudary and his co-accused Mizanur Rahman, 32, unanimously guilty of inviting support for a terrorist organisation. Choudary and Rahman were found guilty on 28 July, but for legal reasons the verdicts could only be reported on Tuesday.
Choudary’s key lieutenant, Siddhartha Dhar, was arrested at the same time as him in police raids in 2014. Dhar later skipped bail and fled to Syria with his young family, where he began taunting the UK authorities with a series of pictures and online posts.
The Mail says Choudary has been “nailed”, which is another way of saying crucified.
In other news, Twitter banned Milo Yiannopoulos; it did not ban Anjem Choudary. Remember when Twitter was the “free-speech wing of the free-speech party”?
Pokémon hunters scare human sex pigs
Peek-at-you
To Insjön, Sweden , where two young Pokémon Go hunters failed toe find their quarry. they did however find two strange creatures. one of the hunter’s parents tells Dalarnas Tidningar:
“They wore rubber masks depicting pigs’ heads and they started screaming and waving a green laser.”
The rutting pig people also wore T-shirts labeled ‘King’ and ‘Queen’. Later that night they were spotted having sex beside the hamlet’s waterwheel.
Which is, of course, how Pokemon get ‘made’.
Posted: 17th, August 2016 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
UKIP’s Lisa Duffy rises above the trolls
Can we offer a word of praise for Lisa Duffy, the unlovely would-be UKIP leader? The HuffPost says Dear Lisa is being mocked on the web.
The candidate with the most momentum seems to Lisa Duffy, who has secured a number of significant endorsements in the past few days…. While Duffy has attracted support from established party members, some members of Ukip’s youth wing – Young Independence – have been mocking the leadership contender.
Mocking. Not trolling? So says the Huffost, on which you can read such anti-trolling stories as:
Jess Phillips Reveals The Extent Of Trolling As Even More Women Are Forced Offline
We Often Forget Online Abuse Has Real World Repercussions
Why Female Journalists Are A Major Target For Internet Trolls (Sexism Has Something To Do With It)
London Metropolitan Police Service Take A Massive Step To Tackle Online Hate Crime
Is it only mockery when you don’t much like the person on the receiving end, but criminal trolling when you do? The HuffPost provides a few examples of the mocking:
In a closed Facebook group called ‘YI Faculty’, Oscar Gomez, a former local election candidate in North East Derbyshire, wrote: “Roll the fat fuck down the street and straight to the RSPCA. We can flog her off as an unwanted butchers dog.”
Another group member, Edwin Smith, wrote: “She rolls her sleeves up before assaulting another bucket of deep fried poultry.”
After a picture was posted of Duffy mocked up as Mr Blobby with the caption: “Mrs Duffy says Move on”, Smith wrote: “She needs to ‘move on’ to a treadmill.”
And how has Duffy responded to this trolling, which looks a lot like being rude, fattist, sexist (she’s being called a ‘dog’) and, lest it go unsaid, offensive?
Duffy’s campaign manager Jay Beecher said: “…These vile attacks on her are clearly just a childish attempt by some of her competitors who see her as the main contender. We’re busy fighting for a bright future for Ukip, so we’ll do what we’ve always done: rise above them”
Stick and stones, eh. Meanwhile, over at Labour, one MP has called in the police after being told to “get in the sea” on twitter. Oh, grow up.
Posted: 16th, August 2016 | In: Politicians, Reviews | Comment
Rio Olympics pariah Islam El Shehaby proves anti-semitism is not universal
Good news. Egyptian judo loser Islam El Shehaby has been expelled from the Rio Olympics. El Shabby (sic) refused to shake Israeli opponent Or Sasson’s hand after losing their fight.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has booted the bad sport out, ruling that his conduct was “against the spirit of friendship embodied in the Olympic values”.
The better news is that the Egyptian Olympic Committee condemned El Shehaby and sent him home. The even better better news is that El Shehaby was booed by the crowd after his pathetic snub.
Anti-semitism, if that’s what it was, is not a universal condition.
Screening Donald Trump turns into Violet Elizabeth Bott
Donald Trump will screen and screen until America, the enemy and every one is sick.
He reminds us of Violet Elizabeth Bott, the spoilt nightmare in Just William books. She wants to get her own way, too. She will “scream and scream” until she’s sick. Why? Because she can.
Posted: 16th, August 2016 | In: Politicians, Reviews | Comment
Dalian Atkinson: Police kill threatening unarmed black man with a Taser
Former Aston Villa footballer Dalian Atkinson has died after being shot by a police taser. West Mercia Police tell us:
West Mercia Police can confirm that officers responded to a report for the concern for the safety of an individual at approximately 1.30am this morning at an address in Telford. Upon arrival, taser was deployed and a 48-year-old man, who subsequently received medical attention, was pronounced dead at approximately 3am.
Tasers are safe, right?
West Mercia Police are unable to comment any further as the incident has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) as is normal procedure, and will assist the IPCC with their inquiries.
Dalian Atkinson celebrates a goal
Why did the police shoot? The BBC says:
A neighbour described seeing the former Aston Villa star, 48, being Tasered after “stumbling towards” police.
The Mirror says: “Ex-Aston Villa footballer ‘approached police in non-threatening manner’.” Well, so says a source. The police have not commented.
We hear from Paula Quinn, who lives in a first-floor flat near the Atkinson property in Trench. She tells the BBC:
“They were shouting and kicking so much all I could hear were the boots hitting him. And then the officer who released the Taser stepped back while the other officer still continued to kick and then I could hear him shout to the other officer that was still kicking, ‘Back off, back off, back off.’ And then the officer with the Taser asked the gentleman to put his hands behind his back and did so probably two or three times and reactivated the Taser another four or five times after that.”
Quinn has also spoken to her local newspaper, Before hearing from her again, we hear from Dalian Atkinson’s father:
“He was in a real state. He was very agitated and his mind was upset. The last thing he said to me was ‘don’t move’ when the police came to the door. He was threatening and very upset. I didn’t call the police but someone else did. He got tasered in the street outside in the road. I didn’t see him but I saw a flash. I haven’t had any sleep and cannot take it in.”
The Sun has more:
‘MY BOY IS DEAD’ Dalian Atkinson’s dad’s anguished cries as he revealed his son turned up at his home ‘drunk’ before being Tasered to death by police
Adding:
Ernest, 85, said is son was ‘in a real state’ before he was zapped with stun gun and ‘repeatedly kicked’ by officers
Lots of bold claims in inverted commas point to one thing: uncertainty. The Sun keeps going:
PREM ACE TASER DEATH Former Aston Villa striker Dalian Atkinson was ‘Tasered six times and kicked by cops’ before he died
We hear more:
The Indy adds a race angle:
Deborah Coles, director of Inquest, a charity that supports families bereaved by deaths in custody, said there will be particular concern over the latest incident because Mr Atkinson was black.
Oh?
“There’s a lot of disquiet over the disproportionate number of people from BME (black and minority ethnic) communities who are dying at the hands of the police. This will understandably raise questions about whether the use of the Taser was proportionate in the circumstances.”
Much more to follow.
Posted: 15th, August 2016 | In: Reviews | Comments (3)
‘Get in the sea, twitter’ orders Labour MP Thangam Debbonaire
There are no jokes. there are only comments. The Telegraph reports:
A student at the University of Bristol has faced disciplinary procedures after telling Labour MP Thangam Debbonaire to “get in the sea” on Twitter.
No way. Get in the sea!
Ms Debbonaire responded to the tweet sent by student Verity Phillips on 15 July, saying: “This person has just told me to drown – I believe that is a threat to kill.”
“I expect Bristol Uni to deal with this,” she added in another tweet.
Can you swim, Thangam?
The rest of us can try but I fear the tide has turned…
Posted: 15th, August 2016 | In: Politicians, Reviews | Comment
Slut shaming topless Helen Skelton
Helen Skelton’s topless video is all over the internet. When she was 17, so the story goes, the BBC TV presenter sunbathed topless in France. Without her knowledge someone filmed the teenaged Skelton and uploaded the footage to porn websites. A mere two years later the tabloids made Skelton’s breasts front-page news.
The Mirror published stills from the covert video, albeit with a light frosting over Skelton’s nipples. That’s the Mirror which yesterday reported:
Revenge Porn: Teenager, who left pal feeling suicidal, says she’s ‘the loser’ after publishing secret sex tape
Elsewhere the Mirror reports on “the dark side of sexting, and reveals what can happen when your most intimate photos get into the wrong hands”.
But when the Mirror sees Skelton’s naked breasts, presumably supplied via the wrong hands to a porn site, it appraisers her body, “Gorgeous mum-of-one Helen looks fantastic in the video.” A source calls it a “nightmare” for Helen.
As the Mirror exploits Helen’s nightmare to prove the misery and allure of covert porn, assuring the victim it’s ok so long as your fit, the Sun reports:
TOPLESS PHOTO STORM Helen Skelton is ‘distressed’ after topless photos of her from when she was 17 emerge
Amid more shots from the “leaked” footage, journalists TINA CAMPBELL AND JOANNE KAVANAGH tell us of Skelton’s “distress”.
The 33-year-old mum of one was holidaying in France in 2001 and believed to be unaware that she was being filmed and ONLY 17 at the time.
Tina and Joanne might like to have a word with their Sun colleague Hannah Crouch, who in April told Sun readers
Hundreds of women fallen victim to website which shares nude pics without permission – A 21-woman has exposed a slut-shaming website which asks users for explicit photos
Are you only a victim when you’re not on the telly?
Posted: 15th, August 2016 | In: Celebrities, Key Posts, Reviews | Comment
The higher education bubble: graduates earn below average wage
The higher education bubble needs pricking:
One in four graduates in work a decade after leaving university in 2004 is earning only around £20,000 a year, according to a new study.
Well, so says the Guardian. The average wage in Britain is around £26,500. It’s time to end the higher education push. The only people to benefit are those graduates who went into full-time education – as teachers, administrators and student debt pedlars.
Stripping Helen Skelton in ‘topless video leak’
Helen Skelton, the BBC’s Olympic Games presenter who looks and sounds like a primary school teacher talking to her class, is in a topless video. So says the Daily Star, which leads with the “exclusive” old news that “Olympics Helen” once sunbathed topless. The story first appeared in April 2014, when she was “Blue Peter’s Helen in topless video”. Presumably it will be revisited and adapted whenever Skelton gets a new job.
Helen Skelton’s flesh has been big news in the tabloids, which has been watching her Olympics striptease.
It began with a look at Skelton’s legs. She has two. The world was shocked. “BBC presenter Helen Skelton sends pulses racing in her skimpy outfit,” cooed the Sun. Skelton was wearing a skirt. Behind her Olympic athletes took to the swimming pool dressed in tight swim suits and budgie smugglers. No pulses were raced at the Sun. If Skelton wants to go out in her Lycra bra and big knickers and run around the presenting table, the Sun won’t notice so long as she’s also wearing a Team GB sticker across her chest.
After the legs came the stomach. Sam Morgan was on Skelton Watch.
Then came “another body part”. We call them “arms”.
And so to the breasts.
Footage of the presenter exposing her boobs was uploaded to an adult website. It soon racked up thousands of hits as fans clamoured to see it. In the four-minute clip Helen, who once presented kids’ show Blue Peter, is seen on a beach wearing just a pair of shorts. Sources close to the blonde have claimed she was 17 at the time.
Who wants to ogle a teenager, then?
One pal said: “Helen was on holiday in France. She was enjoying her holiday and relaxing in the sun. She had no idea she was being filmed, so this leak will be quite a shock for her.”
To recap: Helen Skeleton has legs, arms, a stomach, breasts and hair. Read all about it!
PS: says one tweeter: “Put those shoulders away you whore.”
Posted: 14th, August 2016 | In: Celebrities, Reviews, Tabloids | Comment
Rio 2016: The anti-Semitic Games?
Israel’s Jewish athletes are being shunned at the 2016 Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro. Is it anti-Semitism?
Beaten by Israeli fighter Or Sasson in the judo, Egypt’s Islam el-Shehaby refused to shake his Israeli opponent’s hand. He looked like a bad sport, and in a sports arena that’s no good thing.
Reports claim El-Shehaby is an idealist unable to separate sports from race, religion and politics, rather than a sore loser. The NYPost claims El-Shabby (sic) was under pressure from Islamists to refuse to fight Sasson. The Daily Mail provides an example. “My son watch out, don’t be fooled, or fool yourself thinking you will play with the Israeli athlete to defeat him and make Egypt happy,” said the host of an Egyptian TV station. “Egypt will cry. Egypt will be sad and you will be seen as a traitor and a normalizer in the eyes of your people.”
The International Judo Federation’s Nicolas Messner says: “This is already a big improvement that Arabic countries accept to (fight) Israel… There is no obligation to shake hands, but to bow is mandatory… his attitude will be reviewed after the games to see if any further action should be taken.”
The Jerusalem Post says Syrian boxer Ala Ghasoun heard the call and refused to fight an Israeli athlete.
The Washington Times reports says the Lebanese barred Israelis from boarding a bus.
Palestinian swimmer Mary al-Atrash told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp: “There is no Olympic-sized swimming pool in the Palestinian territories that Palestinians are allowed to use, so Atrash practices at the YMCA in Beit Sahour, near Bethlehem. The pool is 25 meters long, half the length of the facility she’ll compete in at Rio.”
Israel say they invited Atrash to apply for a permit to travel to Jerusalem to use their facilities. She didn’t. Liel Liebovitz of Tablet Magazine added that there are several full-sized pools within the Palestinian territories.
Posted: 14th, August 2016 | In: Back pages, Reviews, Sports | Comment
Story of the Year: Foxton’s estate agents arrested for fighting by Boris Johnson’s Islington home
One of the top stories of 2016 has appeared in the Times: “Estate agent sacks staff after brawl outside Boris Johnson’s home.” It gets better yet when the teaser to Nadeem Badsha’s story gives more details: “Class War activists brawled with three Foxtons estate agents outside Boris Johnson’s Islington home.”
It is believed that the men, seen wearing suits, were on their way back from a pub after closing their branch due to concerns it could be a target for protesters from Class War. A spokeswoman for Foxtons told the London Evening Standard: “We were extremely disappointed to learn of this incident.”
You bet they are. If there is one thing Foxton’s staffer should be good at it’s pushing and punching down.
The Standard calls them “businessmen”. It adds:
The activists, whose faces were covered with scarves and hoods, set off coloured smoke bombs and paraded a banner of the newly appointed Foreign Secretary’s face beneath the blade of a guillotine.
Are they activists’ mugs covered with scarves and hoods in case their colleagues in the Met recognise then, allegedly? Or are they, as keen decapitators, jihadis?
Of course, this beyond-satire news is not fun for the two men, aged 28 and 68, charged with assault. A third man, 49, was arrested on suspicion of assault. All three no longer work at Foxtons, which has yet to report what living in a high-crime zone has done to Islington house price.
The Duke of Westminster left his son very little (but the trust got loadsa tax-free money)
The Duke of Westminster has died. There will be no land grab for his vast estates in London’s Mayfair and Belgravia. Chinese and Russian investors can stable the horses. The Duke, whose family gained their estates thanks to an ancestor’s friendship with William the Conqueror, who took charge of the land after a successful invasion, has left the spoils of war to this heirs. The Guardian is upset that the State won’t get their chunk of change:
…the sixth duke is said to have left an estate worth £9.9bn upon his death this week to his son and yet, despite the fact that inheritance tax is supposedly payable on all estates on death worth more than £325,000, it has been widely reported that very little tax will be due in this case.
He did? No. He left the estate to a trust managed by his son. As the departed Duke said:
I’d rather not have been born wealthy, but I never think of giving it up. I can’t sell. It doesn’t belong to me.”
It belongs to the trust. Indeed, the Guardian adds:
The English legal concept of a trust is believed to have been developed during that era, when knights departing the country with no certainty of returning wanted to ensure that their land passed to those who they thought to be their rightful heirs without interference from the Crown. Trusts achieved that goal and the concept has remained in existence ever since, representing the continual struggle of those with wealth to subvert the rule of law that may apply to others but that they believe should not apply to them.
No. They are using the rule of law to stay legal.
The late Duke had this advice for his heir: “He’s been born with the longest silver spoon anyone can have, but he can’t go through life sucking on it.. He has to see himself as a caretaker, keeping the estates in good shape in his lifetime. It took me ten years just to understand what I had inherited.”
Posted: 13th, August 2016 | In: Broadsheets, Money, Reviews | Comment
George Monbiot: vegans against cow shit
George Monbiot wants to tell us about his meals in the Guardian. We live in an age of narcissism, so a broadsheet writer talking about his dinner is staple fare:
I’ve converted to veganism to reduce my impacts on the living world
Cows swoon:
The world can cope with 7 or even 10 billion people. But only if we stop eating meat. Livestock farming is the most potent means by which we amplify our presence on the planet. It is the amount of land an animal-based diet needs that makes it so destructive.
We should slaughter all the animals?
An analysis by the farmer and scholar Simon Fairlie suggests that Britain could easily feed itself within its own borders. But while a diet containing a moderate amount of meat, dairy and eggs would require the use of 11m hectares of land (4m of which would be arable), a vegan diet would demand a total of just 3m.
And lots of manure to grow the stuff with? Human shit is only good for columnists to make a living. The rest of us need horse, bird, pig and cow shit.
Rothamsted tells us:
Livestock manures are a valuable source of nutrients in many organic rotations. Making best use of these nutrients:
• contributes towards economic sustainability
• minimises pollution of the wider environment
Can you have good animal shit without animals to do the shitting? Monbiot adds:
Not only do humans need no pasture, but we use grains and pulses more efficiently when we eat them ourselves, rather than feed them to cows and chickens.
If not more animals to create more animal manure to grow crops with, is the option to go for increased GM crops and artificial fertilisers?
This would enable 15m hectares of the land now used for farming in Britain to be set aside for nature.
Nature? Are human beings not natural?
File under: show us your shit.
Posted: 10th, August 2016 | In: Broadsheets, Reviews | Comment
Chris Biggins, Nazis and the EDL-supporting Daily Star’s Big Brother fantasy
Helping readers spot Nazis and other far-Right loons is the Daily Star. The paper that once cheered for the EDL leads with a picture of erstwhile panto dame Chris Biggins, formerly of Celebrity Big Brother, dressed as a Nazi. Is this how he chillaxes at home?
No. This is his work gear. Says the Star:
Disgraced CBB housemate Biggins dresses as Nazi in unearthed video
RAUS!
The Star adds:
IN a story that keeps getting worse, Christopher Biggins once appeared on television dressed as a Nazi.
Biggins is now on par with – in no special order – Ricky Gervais, Ralph Fiennes, Roger Moore, Michael Fassbender, Alec Guinness, Michael Caine, Marlon Brando, Donald Duck and various actors on TV’s Dad’s Army. Biggins must be delighted. Who knew he could act so well?
Grainy footage has surfaced of the pantomime star appearing in sketch wearing a full Nazi uniform.
Oh, yes he did.
It couldn’t come at a worse time for Biggins, who was booted from the CBB house on Friday for making offensive comments towards X Factor star Katie Waissel.
Waissel should get a grip. Big Brother should stop being so censorious and killing its own show. Biggins should get some new material. Lest you missed the joke, Biggins (not a Jew) told Waisell (is a Jew) she had best be careful in the showers. Geddit?! If you did, you should like Jerry Sadowitz (is a Jew), who often starts his shows by telling the Jews to head to the shower blocks.
An insider from the show told The Sun: “I was part of the crew in 1997 and we were filming a ‘joke’ gameshow called Vahalla or Bust as part of a BBC documentary. Biggins didn’t seem to mind dressing as a Nazi at all, and didn’t question the morality of it.”
Well, to take the piss out of Nazis, it can be useful to dress as one.
Posted: 9th, August 2016 | In: Celebrities, Reviews, TV & Radio | Comment
