Afternoon music
A la recherche du temps perdu…
I am old enough to remember those little shops. One in particular, in Caversham Heights, near Reading, early 1960s. The sweets were dispensed by the owner, I think an otherwise-retired old fellow, who sold them in small white-paper bags. A wide range, but I either bought small boiled sweets (very small balls of hard candy), or a kind of chewing gum that came with collectable cards depicting (and explaining) battles of the American Civil War of the 1860s. I wanted the cards, not the gum.
Very gory, those cards (as I discovered only when I belatedly read law, 20 years later) were the subject of a legal case (as to whether they counted as “obscene” because of their bloodsoaked content), which case went as high as the House of Lords (House of Lords Judicial Committee, the forerunner of the present UK Supreme Court). That was around 1965, only a couple of years after I used to buy the cards.
I remember that all my friends (who also bought the cards) favoured the Confederate side, but I (alone, I think) favoured the Union. Not sure now, over 60 years later, whether that was because the Union side was more efficient, or more advanced in weaponry, or just because I wanted to go contrary to the views of the mob.
The sweetshop in question was actually made out of the front part of an ordinary late-19thC house, which (I see from Google maps and streetview) has now reverted to being just a house again.
I also remember the little sweetshop because, aged about 7, I sheltered in that tiny shop after I (God knows why, now, but it would have been in self-defence) hit another boy, and then was sought out by the much older, and rather fearsome, brother of the same. In the end, the older boy caught me outside but, after I explained that I had hit his brother in self-defence, he was very reasonable, and let me off. Maybe I had dormant barristerial skills even then (or at least the ability to get out of scrapes)…
Tweets seen
Thangam “Debbonaire”, an ex-MP who uses a fake name (her real or original name was “Singh”, but she changed it by deed poll, presumably wanting to sound less “ethnic”), and who was kicked out by the voters at GE 2024, is invited onto TV to opine about immigration and public order etc. Why? She has no real locus standi any more. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thangam_Debbonaire.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Central_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections_in_the_2020s
The people instinctively know that the System parties are rubbish, but also feel that, equally, there are no credible non-System parties for which to vote, only the very underwhelming Reform UK. Certainly, there are no credible social-national alternatives.
Look at what “they” are doing in Gaza, in the West Bank, and elsewhere. “They” always do such things when they have power. That is why “they” must never have power and, whenever they do have power, must be removed from having power.
Superficially impressive, but then exercises like that always are. “Qatari Army”? Really?
I have no time for the Gulf Arabs, none at all.
Terrible, but good to see that the lady’s companion animal was also rescued.
(in thousands; in other words about 1.4M in all).
The state of Britain is so frustrating that it is tempting to shout “Full Communism Now!“, but that, of course, is not the answer. I recall that the Dowager Lady Birdwood opined that I was a “national bolshevik” (when I was aged about 18, around 1975)!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Birdwood,_Baroness_Birdwood
True, but the “welfare” bill would be very low were it not for the existence of literally millions of non-white parasites in the UK, both the migrants and the children and grandchildren of migrants and former migrants.
Talking point
More tweets
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alastair_Crooke.
At this point, only idiots or those with no choice are really fighting for the Kiev regime.
Late talking point
Late music
Ian Robert Millard 
Whilst many Brits were focusing on The Budget today, I actively avoided hearing about it. Instead I watched this video of the very talented Ben Maton visiting eight country churches.
I particularly enjoyed his playing of the Wiltshire Regimental March ‘Auld Robin Gray’. It must be quite emotional for Ben to play that tune after his Grandfather and Gt’ Grandfather both served in the regiment. Also, Billy’s rendition of the theme tune to “Out of Town’ on the guitar was beautifully played.
It is easier to believe that all is well in England, when villages are so beautiful and so timeless and whilst we still have talented men such as Ben and his brother Billy (guitar) learning to play music at such a high standard.
An Organist Spoilt for Choice?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIUDNIgRCHk&t=1106s
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I have just seen this on the news. For once the horrible criminal (a woman in this case) got what she deserved, 20 years in prison for attempted murder. The article also says that she got “a further 5 years on license”, which I suppose it means she will be in probation for 5 years. Is it so?
You can tell she is a monster capable of anything, what a face!
https://news.sky.com/story/ambulance-worker-jailed-for-trying-to-kill-boss-with-hammer-and-later-texting-friend-saying-oppsie-xx-13244408
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Claudius:
Yes, in effect.
In England, when a custodial sentence is handed down, the norm is that it is given as x-number of weeks, months, or years. Say “4 years”. In practice, the defendant is not going to be in prison for 4 years, but for some lesser time, and the rest of the time, i.e. 2+ years, released “on licence”, which means that if the defendant re-offends within the licence period he or she *may* be recalled to prison for some of, or all of, the rest of the term.
Until recently, the norm for *most* prisoners was that they would serve 50% of their headline sentence in prison, then 50% “on licence”. Recently, that has been altered (for most prisoners) to 40% in prison and 60% “on licence”.
One exception is that, if a judge determines that a defendant is legally “dangerous”, then he/she will serve a fixed number of years in prison and then on licence. In the case you mention, 20 years in prison, then a further 5 on licence, rather than (as in the case with a normal 25 year term) doing 40% or 50% inside and the rest outside on licence.
I had not seen the case you mention, but I see now that all the newspapers here are covering it.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/oct/29/ambulance-worker-jailed-hammer-attack-boss-greater-manchester
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14016075/text-message-ambulance-worker-hammer-attack-boss-feud.html
Incidentally, the rules were different when I was actively at the Bar, and I was never a serious criminal barrister, so this is mostly not from my own experience.
By the way, the Daily Mail report (but not the Guardian one) makes the point that the defendant is a “lesbianka” (as the Russians say), with a “wife”. Another crazed lesbian, in other words.
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Canada abolished hanging in 1976 and has degrees of murder. Instead of being executed, a first degree murder there will now earn you a life sentence with a parole ineligibility period of 25 years.
We do not have degrees of murder as Canada and the US do. That is one aspect of the American and Canadian criminal justice systems that might be worth emulating.
America certainly believes in retribution and the incapacitation of the offender:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_prison_sentences_served
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John:
In the case to which Claudius referred, the charge was not murder but *attempted* murder.
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As that story in the Daily Telegraph illustrates so well, we need to exit from the European Convention of Human Rights. Most of it is loony-left insanity and is used by lefty, out of touch, normally public school educated judges living in ‘nice’ Tory areas (not that there are many of those left now) to allow illegal immigrants and blatantly fraudulent ‘asylum seekers’ to stay here with quite a few of them posing a risk to our safety. The few sensible elements of it can be incorporated into a new British Bill of Rights whilst dumping the globalist PC rubbish.
Robert Jenrick says he wants to withdraw from it whilst the Nigerian woman is reluctant to do so. Both are unsuitable leaders for the fake Conservative Party but she is worse. All I have ever heard from her is an obsession about transexuals, ‘gender ideology’ and demented rants about maternity pay ect.
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