… sick of the crime, sick of the MSM’s selective reporting
In a comment posted yesterday morning our reader and contributor Stout Yeoman wrote about the knife attack on toddlers in a playground in the French town Annecy. Do read his comment post again, here (scroll down).
This morning we find that, either as leading article or at least as front page report, this horrible crime is on all the front pages of the print editions except for The Star: “Newspaper headlines: ‘Horror at the playground’ as British girl stabbed” (link).
Does one have to be as cynical as me to ask if the news editors only placed their report of this crime on the top of their pages because one of the poor little tykes was ‘a British girl’? See e.g. the headline in The Times: “France stabbing: British girl among five injured in Annecy playground” (link, paywalled).
I’ll not quote details from those reports, it’s sufficient to post the headline from the DM because, as always, it’s a perfect summary:
“Syrian Christian who stabbed four children including a British two-year-old girl in playground horror had recently divorced the mother of his child and ‘was convicted of benefit fraud’ during ten-year stint as a refugee in Sweden” (link)
There is one other aspect to be emphasised: all the reports mention that this Syrian ‘refugee’ was a Christian. Apparently he had a necklace with a cross around his neck and called ‘in the name of Jesus Christ’ before he went on his stabbing spree. See e.g. the sub-headline in the DT: “Screams rang out around the sunny Annecy park as the man appeared to shout ‘in the name of Jesus Christ’, while waving his knife in the air” (paywalled link).
Cynical old me wonders if all those news editors were glad to be able to point this out, in a change to the usual ‘religious’ shouts of other knife wielders killing and maiming in towns and cities across EU countries. I’ve not seen an admonishment that readers ought to refrain from tarring a whole religion because of one knifeman.
I am also astonished that suddenly the reports are quite clear: the terrorist was ‘a man’, not just a person – how do they know if he doesn’t self-identify as woman? They also explicitly write that he was a Syrian, not just someone of ‘asiatic origin’. Is that because he’s a self-confessed Christian?
Interestingly, one German journalist argues in a video (in German, and you need a VPN as well as a machine translator) that this fact doesn’t suit the ‘discourse’ of the French Right, as if that terrorist being ‘a Christian’ means a justified outcry from said ‘right’ is therefore not valid because, after all, they’re ‘only against muslims’.
Of course, as Stout Yeoman already pointed out in his comment post yesterday, the fact that this ‘refugee’ who had already lived in Sweden for ten years, was convicted of benefit fraud, had been refused Swedish nationality, who happened to be able to make his way, unhindered thanks to EU ‘freedom of movement’ laws, to France where he again applied for citizenship which was refused: these are not problems to exercise the minds of opinion piece writers!
Here’s a question which puzzles me: are the huge number of ‘refugees’ which have swamped this country all innocent angels or do they commit violent crimes as well, only we’re not told because it doesn’t fit the woke image of gentle diverse ‘people’, of making us unwilling to sacrifice so much for them, or of fear of being called ‘raycisst’?
Speaking of labelling people and of discrimination, the Times has an article today which nearly made me throw my coffee cup against the wall: “Patients have no right to know if their doctor is trans, says NHS guide” (link, paywalled). This is not an original report – it is copied from the DM. Does The Times have no reporters left? Anyway, here’s the DM’s summary headline:
“Patients don’t have the right to know if their medics are transgender and may be guilty of discrimination if they ask to see another doctor – and those with dementia ‘should be challenged’ over discriminatory views, NHS warns – Guidance says patients can only request same-sex staff in limited circumstances – But they cannot make a request where there is ‘no clear clinical benefit’” (link).
Amazing, isn’t it, how the Sacred Cow, overworked as their employees all are, still finds the time to produce ‘guidance’! I am speechless to note that patients who should be able to trust their doctors have ‘no right to know’, and are guilty of ‘discriminatory views’ if they dare to ask or demand a ‘hetero-cis’ doctor. Is the NHS hell-bent on robbing us of our trust in doctors and nurses?
That’s all I have for today. In future, I shall refuse to answer any questions – be it from NHS staff, be it from council staff – about my age, race or gender because it is discriminatory. Have a good day.
Just been announced that Nadine Dorries is standing down as Conservative Party MP for mid Bedfordshire with immediate effect, which will trigger a by election. She apparently states that a younger person needs to take the reins, but quite why an MP who has a majority of 24,000 would resign with immediate effect as opposed to standing down at the next general election would seem to indicate the Conservatives internally are in a very dire state indeed.
Although apparently close to Boris Johnson and an ally of his, she was not amongst those who received awards in his resignation honours list and resigned a hours before the awards were announced. Was it sour grapes on her part, or did she resign as being an MP because one cannot enter the House of Lords whilst serving as an MP because she thought she would be elevated to the House of Lords? Whatever the real truth is, the fact is that the Conservative Party in its present form is going through its death throes. It needs to reinvent itself and return to its traditional roots because its flirtation of being a Social Democratic Party cum psuedo Liberal Democrat Party cum Green sort of Party has not worked under Cameron, May, Johnson and now Sunak and the electorate have tired of their shenanigans and lack of commitment. Whatever happens it needs to get shot of that crew once and for all and this can only be done in opposition which may last for a generation or more. I just wish there had been a viable alternative for those of us on the right of centre to get behind and support, but there isn’t one at the moment. Having flirted with Reform UK, and the Heritage Party, of which I was a founder member, I am afraid for one reason or another neither of these parties cut the mustard and will not achieve anything in the forseeable future. Personally I returned to UK Independence Party fold three months ago and providing they get their act together and in time elect a younger and more dynamic leader, they I believe represent our best chance because at least UKIP is a recognisable brand name whereas quite a lot of people still don’t know anything about Reform UK or the Heritage Party and/or have never heard of their respective leaders.
All will be revealed, no doubt. She stated a little while ago that she was going to stand in the 2024 GE but when rumours arose that she was going to resign her seat before the GE she had responded that she would serve her time out. No smoke without fire as they say.
Its alright I’ll reply to my own email, as everybody else is probably drowning their sorrows down at the Frog and Bucket and not commenting here. So now Boris the Buffoon has resigned as an MP with immediate effect. Some people of Farage’ Facebook site are saying that he was best PM ever and quite a lot stating he should join Reform UK. I mean what a joke, where have these people been for the past four bloody years. Reform UK are an absolute loss anyway, but Johnson joining it would be the kiss of death. Put simply Johnson utterly wasted the 80 seat majority he got in 2019 and negotiated a right old stitch up job with the European Union insofar our relationship with them. A crap trade deal where Northern Ireland have separate customs arrangements to the rest of the country and are still members of the single market. Our fishermen have been thrown to the wolves and we do not full control of our territorial waters, and anyone and everyone is somehow able to waltz into this country via the English Channel and given 4 star accommodation, mobile phones, tablets, free transport on the railways and pocket money. Next stop for Johnson no doubt the Big Top at Billy Smarts as a slapstick clown with a red nose, oversized shoes throwing custard pies around……
Off topic, but a Parliamentary committee of MP’s at the House of Commons who were interrogating an incredibly weak senior police officer who holds the rank of Assistant Commissioner over combination locks holding together ‘Just Stop Oil’ placards, was interrupted by a group of Just Stop Oil protestors who were all wearing white ‘Just Stop Oil’ tee shirts and sitting behind this senior police officer and facing the committee of MP’s asking him questions. The committee proceedings were suspended as the protestors were no doubt escorted out and after about two minutes the proceedings re-started again. If the cameras televising the proceedings could see these idiots wearing those ‘Just Stop Oil’ white tee shirts how come the senior officer and the MP’s interviewing couldn’t see. Simple common sense would indicate that people brazenly wearing those tee shirts especially in the present climate would attempt to disrupt the proceedings, and they should have been told to leave the meeting before it started, which doesn’t say too much for the idiotic MP’s present or indeed the senior police officer. Having served in the police for over 30 years I am just amazed at how incompetent the so called senior police officers of today are compared with yesteryear. They probably do not instill any confidence in the frontline officers who serve under them and seem to be devoid of any leadership skills as far as I can see, and in my day these senior officers would not have passed their probationary period as a Police Constable, let alone progressing to the senior ranks. How these protestors are able to get away with what they do is beyond my comprehension. Surely nothing much has changed since my day when these people would have been arrested for Highway Obstruction. And as for those MP’s present, well I give up. We are ruled by utter numpties, they just have not got a clue as to what time of day it is.
I had a personal account from two armed police officers of the disconnect between front line police and their managers. It was the day after the referendum and I was at a friend’s house celebrating. She lived two doors along from Philip Hammond (then foreign secretary) and she had the biggest leave banner I have ever seen hanging off the front of her house (and so seen by Hammond every morning!). At about 6pm it was attacked by a remainer and her car vandalised. I gave chase and caught the guy, which as a well fed under exercised old git was a feat in itself for me, and I managed to hold him (just about) until the police came. My friend stayed to give a statement and I went to check on my wife at which point two armed police on motorcycles rocked up as they must whenever anything kicks off in the vicinity of a cabinet minster. We got to chatting. It was slightly unnerving as one of them kept his hand over his gun until it was clear I was not a threat to Hammond and they spotted the UKIP poster in the house next to my friend which belonged to her mother. They asked for stickers and leaflets explaining ‘we all vote UKIP’ and how much they hated Theresa May. The older one then told me about the increasingly ‘woke’ senior management though that wasn’t the word used back then in 2016. Of course, those two may not be completely representative but I suspect they were in fact typical of the disconnect between the rank and file and the political class which now includes senior police officers as members of what Matthew Goodwin calls the ‘new elite’.
The problem with senior police, as with all in the new elite (the graduate, laptop class) is that they hold what psychologist Rob Henderson called “luxury beliefs” meaning fashionable and ideological beliefs held by people whose own comfortable positions shield them from the consequences of those beliefs. Senior Home Office officials, themselves holders of luxury beliefs, have no insight at all to policing at street level and these days no-one in senior police positions is able to tell them as they share the same luxury beliefs and lack of experience.
As with politicians, it is a general feature of the new elite that they report horizontally to each other and not vertically to the people they represent of oversee. I suspect senior police are more interested in a pat on the back from the Home Office and career advancement thereby than standing up for front line police. It must be harder than ever to be an ordinary police officer uncertain of being supported by senior management and so fearful about making mistakes all the time. We saw that recently when a woman was resisting arrest and assaulting a female officer in the process and all her male colleague could do was exclaim ‘madam!’ as she slapped him before running off. The two officers were pilloried and ridiculed but I suspect they felt so circumscribed by regulations, guidelines, threats of extensive paperwork and investigation if a miscreant on the street lodges a complaint that crying ‘madam!’ was about all the office dared do. If society gets the politicians it deserves, so the saying goes, then so also with policing. We should cut the police some slack and let them reclaim the streets. That requires a change to senior management of course of people without the luxury beliefs making life miserable for the rest of us.
I can imagine there was an MP who thought Stop Oil fanatics should not be allowed in but felt unable to say so. Such are the time we are in.
Stout Yeoman, you’re right there. These days one wouldn’t get into the police without a degree, and certainly most if not all of the senior officers have University degrees, and quite a substantial number of them joined the police at Superintendent level which was introduced about 10 years, and so had absolutely zero experience of getting one’s hands dirty on the front line of policing. Or if they did join at Police Constable level with a degree they were on a rapid promotion course, and that was bad enough, but certainly not as bad as direct entry at Superintendent level. So, someone like me who only had two ‘0’ levels plus five CSE’s when I joined would stand no chance these days. Those like me who did not have five ‘O’ levels including Maths and English Language were required to pass the National Police Entrance Examination, which in itself was quite demanding but sufficient for the purpose. The fact is that one does not need a University degree to become a police officer, but what you did need was a high degree of common sense which is sadly lacking these days. And of course the physical fitness requirements back then were particularly onerous, and one could not join if you had not so good eyesight. And these requirements were set at a high level for a very good reason. Unfortunately I was short-sighted, but it only required one eye to be slightly outside the minimum requirement, and you were cast aside, and no ifs and no buts. However most of these physical requirements including height and weight measurements have now all gone out the window and everything has been dumbed down, and one can sadly see the results of this on the streets today. Unfortunately many of the senior officers of today who have been through the University system from school have been subject to the left leaning indoctrination, so I suppose it is no great surprise that many approach policing with that woke left leaning ideology upper most in their mind, like theft is a crime that should go unpunished, writing graffiti on walls (criminal damage) is a display of free expression, and that searching or arresting a suspect is an infringement of the their human rights, and one could go on and on. And of course much of this dumbing down and woolly thinking has been allowed to occur under a supposedly Conservative administration. The Conservatives, the party of Law and Order… my Aunt Fanny.
Well said SY. I was so angry last night it was all I could think of and what I would like to see happen to these politicians who all have blood on their hands.
“Is the NHS hell-bent on robbing us of our trust in doctors and nurses?” Too late!
I’ve commented about this before, but let it never be forgotten that there was a publication “Voice of Europe” started in 2015 when mass dinghy arrivals really took off. At that time it affected Italy Greece and Spain but not yet Britain.
This publication detailed the large numbers of “social incidents” like this one, especially in Southern Europe where the impact was felt first: a daily litany of outrages, murders, rapes etc. One of the worst was where a busload of Italian schoolchildren narrowly escaped being torched. These reports were unverified, but instead of looking for evidence of their veracity, TPTB, chose to bury them:
This publication “Voice of Europe” was wiped off the internet lock stock and barrel several years ago. Not a trace left.
TPTB do want us all fighting with each other, black against white etc to take the spotlight off themselves; but in this case i think they needed at the same time to ensure that they didn’t frighten the horses (i.e, us) too much with too big a taste of what was coming here.
The Syrian met his so-called Swedish wife in Turkey before they moved to Sweden. We know from the ‘Christian’ who tried to bomb a Liverpool hospital it is known by immigrants that claiming to be a persecuted Christian from the Middle East increases the chances of asylum by gullible Westerners. But, there are Christians in the Middle East most notably Maronites in Lebanon, Copts in Egypt, and Assyrians in north east Syria so it is possible he was from a Christian sect in that region. But stabbing children is hardly practicing Christianity so one wonders in what sense he is Christian. What Christian church did he attend in Sweden? Where are the shocked interviews with others in the congregation? ‘He was such a nice chap attending every Sunday and helping with the church fete’. Do me a favour. I suspect he was merely a Syrian who was not a practising muslim.
Ethnicity is paramount in our identitarian politics except when an immigrant commits a crime. Acquired nationality then takes precedence to disguise that the perpetrator is someone from a different culture who never integrated. His wife is not Swedish as the press claim. She has not taken or been given Swedish citizenship. She merely has the right to stay and is therefore a Swedish resident. EU citizens with settled status in the UK are not described as British. They remain Italian etc and resident in UK. For some the right to remain is indefinite but they remain nationals of other countries unless and until they take out British citizen ship.
One characteristic completely ignored is that he appears to be a feckless father who has abandoned a child. He is divorced from his wife but we do not know if she was given sole custody. Swedes are pretty soft and I doubt he would have been denied access unless violent toward his wife. There is no mention of that. Feckless deserter is more likely. He lived on benefits . We do not know if his wife had a job but it is quite likely the entire family lived on benefits for ten years with some fraud involved along the way.
The news report should have read: two Syrians left Turkey ten years ago to live on benefits in Sweden (total cost to date X krona) and the male abandoned his child after a divorce and travelled to Annecy where he attempted to murder very young children in a park playground.
About ten years ago there was a stunt by someone opposed to mass immigration – I forget who – in which he placed a large jar of sweets before the audience and asked if anyone would like one. There was a catch. A couple of the sweets were laced with cyanide and would kill you. He was much criticised.
My criticism is that the jar should have included more than a couple of poisoned sweets. After the 2005 London bombings, 2007 attack on Glasgow airport, the 2010 stabbing of Steven Timms MP, Lee Rigby in 2017, Westminster Bridge, Manchester Arena London Bridge and Parsons green bomb in 2017, the Manchester Victoria Station in 2018, London Bridge stabbings in 2019, Streatham and Reading stabbings in 2020, the murder of David Amess and Liverpool Hospital bombing in 2021, the jar would contain dozens of sweets that kill. (I could add the list of atrocities by immigrants in France but it would take up too much space here.)
Behind the ‘refugees welcome’ brigade is a utilitarian calculation that a few poisoned sweets are outweighed by the good of helping the nice sweets. But how many grieving families are acceptable? How many more decent, ordinary citizens must die before the jar of sweets is removed? Turkey receives billions to help fund its refugee camps. That is the discharge of our moral obligation to the nice sweets – who have a moral obligation to go home when war is over as it now is in Syria.
Annecy will soon be memory holed. I wonder how deep that hole is and how much more can fit in.
Thanks, Stout – especially for the additional information regarding the “Swedish wife”. I’m also reminded of the ‘immigration industry’, here as well as across the EU, where ‘human rights’ lawyers disable and destroy any deportations which a government is trying to enforce.