Saturday Evening Posts Worth Reading and the 25-Hour News.
Daniel Acheampong on the Death Penalty.
An old post from MRDA – but worth reading for a superb rant on the Twitter mob.
JuliaM on the sad results of the police taking action to remove vulnerable young girls from harm’s way – and the resulting liberal backlash.
SepticIsle on ‘Victims today – undesirables tomorrow‘.
Moor Larkin on ‘Muck Raking and Progress‘.
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August 30, 2014 at 7:58 am -
Cheers for mention!
Wondered if you had a take on the Ashya manhunt?-
August 30, 2014 at 8:08 am -
Thous shalt die in the manner prescribed by the state which negates any possible Tort against the NHS…..
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August 30, 2014 at 8:36 am -
I knew you’d have something pithy…
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August 30, 2014 at 7:01 pm -
Mmm. To me the Aysha article is full of b/s. We have no idea at all if Aysha actually is dying at all – just one ‘family friend’ said that. All we know is that he recently had an NHS operation and was being given (free) pain and medical treatment, His parents took him away suddenly without telling anyone why and it’s that which has sparked off an expensive manhunt which now english,french and spanish taxpayers are all paying for. Given the child’s age and health I can’t see that the police could do nothing at all and obviously the press are slavering all over it too.
People including children are go overseas for alternative treatments often enough. If you really are terminally ill you will find your hospital will be eager to get you to a hospice or to your home asap, as it looks better on the stats.
You aren’t pressing my outrage button, I’m afraid.
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August 30, 2014 at 10:41 pm -
It’s interesting that, despite no criminality being claimed or evident, it is reported that a European Arrest Warrant has been issued against the parents.
So it looks like the authorities can now set all of Europe’s plod-dogs on you without even the merest suggestion of a criminal offence having been committed anywhere – that doesn’t sound very Magna Carta to me.
That nice Mr Clegg and his Limp-Dems always seem very keen on the European Arrest Warrant, claiming it as one of the major benefits of European integration. Police State, anyone ?
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August 31, 2014 at 1:14 am -
Out in the real world what should plod actually do? The family have acted in a bizarre way with a seriously sick child for no apparent reason. As Magna Charter has bog all to do with this series of events what are you suggesting? Do nothing till the child emerges, alive or dead? Strictly speaking harming a child by neglect or withdrawal of medical care can be a criminal offence, but given that this blog supports individual responsibility, my ire is totally directed at the parents who seem to have done the maximum to ensure that no rational outcome is possible. If they told the world and of course their own family and friends that the boy was alive and well and being treated in Marbella the story would be dead.
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August 31, 2014 at 6:24 am -
Well, suffolkgirl, we now know exactly why they acted in this ‘bizarre way’, don’t we?
“In the video, Mr King told how they had wanted to leave the hospital because the NHS could not fund the proton beam treatment that they wanted for their son.
‘We couldn’t take it any more – not knowing and not being able to question anything in fear that they say, “Sorry Mr and Mrs King, emergency protection order, you’re no longer allowed in the ward“,’ he told the camera.
‘Under that stress, our son has grade four brain tumour, we couldn’t discuss or question them at all in fear that our son would be in that ward all day long by himself without his parents being able to come in.
‘We couldn’t be under that system any more. I was going to get the money to pay for the proton beam therapy but they have prevented that now because the Spanish police are involved and I can’t do want I wanted to do.’”
Does that spell it out for you sufficiently? The NHS didn’t want them to get treatment in Marbella. And they successfully suborned the police to ensure that that happened.
And now they plan to extradite the parents, so they won’t even be able to stay by their terminal son’s bedside, an act of such monstrous, stubborn & wilful cruelty that I’ve now got even more reasons to be ashamed of my country..
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August 31, 2014 at 2:06 pm -
People including children are treated with proton beam therapy abroad quite often’ sometimes at the NHS expense. Google shows. If the parents would pay and it wouldn’t harm the boy the medics would have found it hard to stop them. There are legal ways to resolve these issues and an EPA wouldn’t necessarily keep the parents from the bedside – though they might be supervised- any more than they are likely to be extradited while Aysha stays in Marbella to die alone. I’m sorry, this just reads like sentimental claptrap.
Many parents face these appalling difficulties in mature ways and I salute them.-
August 31, 2014 at 3:02 pm -
‘Mature ways’ meaning they don’t dare criticise the NHS?
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August 31, 2014 at 7:30 pm -
They aren’t in this mess for criticising the NHS though, are they? Simply for taking the child out unannounced.
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August 31, 2014 at 4:27 am -
The parents are Jehovah’s Witnesses and JWs have been known to refuse blood transfusions based on a rather odd interpretation of a verse in the Bible. This may or may not be relevant. I would have thought the parents were entitled to remove the child from medical treatment unless the child was the subject of an existing court order to the effect that they could not. I am sure that the whole thing must be a very hard situation for them to deal with and they are doing the best they can.
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August 31, 2014 at 6:30 am -
Jonathan, as is now pretty clear, the fact that the child’s family are JWs is a total red herring, since they want treatment. They aren’t trying to prevent it, the State is.
Well, actually, not so much of a red herring. The continued mention of it in the media allows the parents to be hinted at and painted as nutters who need to be prevented from leaving the smothering blanket of the state because, poor creatures, they aren’t really grown ups, are they? We can thank zealots like Dawkins for that prevailing opinion…
I mean, make no mistake, I’m a non-believer, and I think people who do believe are a bit odd. But I don’t think that means that the State should be able to use that belief to paint them as cranks & weirdoes who don’t deserve to have free will, do you?
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August 31, 2014 at 2:25 pm -
The state isn’t painting them as cranks and weirdos on account of their JW affiliations – nor is the Press, at least as represented by the Mail online. The story was that the child was removed clandestinely while sick and might reasonably have been at risk. The family had been quite happy to accept ‘the smothering blanket of the state’ until there was a dispute over treatment. Such as happens quite often – several high court decisions on it,
The evil state has actually provided beam therapy abroad in some cases at the cost of some 80k each time.
Bad case to make your point on Julia,imho-
August 31, 2014 at 3:04 pm -
Oh, the press isn’t now, no. They can see which way the wind’s blowing, and like good littlebweathervanes, they are turning on the police and doctors who have greviously overstepped themselves.
I’m more than happy to have made my point on this case. It’s certainly smoking out the useful idiots…
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August 31, 2014 at 7:58 pm -
Mm, haven’t had the telly on but the press has been pretty consistent all through. Now I see Grandma is complaining about the police interviewing her ‘cos its not like anything her son did which set this all in motion….
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August 31, 2014 at 9:49 pm -
From what I see reported and reading between the lines, the parents removed the child “against medical advice”. Presumably this means there was some discussion (or argument!), the parent acted unilaterally, and the hospital administrator on the advice of the doctors, sought some kind of warrant or court injunction for the return of the child, which was approved by a magistrate or court, leading to the arrest warrant being issued. We don’t really have enough details, though, to know the full story. It certainly seems like drastic action on the part of the health care authorities, that is for sure.
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August 30, 2014 at 8:49 am -
Cheers for the (double) mention!
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August 30, 2014 at 10:23 am -
Thank you for the 25 hour news tip you gave a while back. I’ve now become addicted to Buggernation street as well.
Were I wealthy enough to retire I’d just drink, and watch victorialucas38 all day. But I’m not, so I can only do that when I’m not at work.
@MRDA
I am pressed for time at the moment, but your fevered thumping of the ‘bile’ and ‘venom’ keys draws me in. You must have veins the size of the Alaska pipelines throbbing away on your temples. Thoroughly enjoyable. -
August 30, 2014 at 11:28 am -
Acheampong’s convoluted, pretentious writing style does its best to bury any points he might be trying to make. He tries so hard to be literate and witty that he just comes across as a twat. Didn’t you find the quote (below) pompous to an unusual degree?
““Why rip on democracy so much?” you might ask. Because, dear reader, it amounts to a low-intensity assault on the very concepts it ostensibly symbolizes in the minds of modern men.”
Well, that’s us told, then …
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August 30, 2014 at 6:08 pm -
I love my fan mail…
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August 30, 2014 at 12:35 pm -
BE AWARE that some dodgy images may appear down the side of the MRDA page which your browser will dutifully cahe for you.
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August 30, 2014 at 1:54 pm -
Ms Raccoon long ago took advertising off this site after some decidedly dodgy images appeared on here after she went googling for a suitable graphic to enliven a post about Thai sex workers……..and we won’t mention the day she was looking for a graphic for the ‘Snuff Porn’ article…..
Apparently, only I could see them….Google tracking or summit.-
August 30, 2014 at 8:13 pm -
It’s a good job you don’t blog on wildlife matters. Imagine the fun of trying to find illustrative material for an article on Great Tits or Beavers.
Even us boring old engineers are not immune. There’s a very old-established brand of heavy industrial spanners (the sort you need if you have large nuts) called King Dick.
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August 30, 2014 at 10:20 pm -
Brings to mind the old dream tabloid headline after a lunatic escaped from the asylum, went into a laundrette, raped the customers, then ran off – “Nut Screws Washers and Bolts”.
I’ll get my coat…..-
August 31, 2014 at 3:01 pm -
My favorite headline of all time was in The Daily Mirror around 1970. A soccer player called Gerry Queen was red-carded at Selhurst Park, the home of Crystal Palace. The headline was: “Queen In Brawl At The Palace.” Of course this headline appeared on the new-stand boards and sold a lot of newspapers to loyal subjects who may have not have had the full context.
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August 31, 2014 at 2:29 pm -
Last week, the leader column of ‘The Daily Mail’ disclosed that there was shortly to be a service in Westminster Abbey celebrating the work of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs ( http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2734319/ )
A service for tax collectors! Jesus had some pretty rum things to say about them; see, for example, Luke 3:
12 Then came also publicans [tax collectors] to be baptized, and said unto him, Master, what shall we do?
13 And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you.
Furthermore, the profession of tax gatherer is constantly denigrated in the Gospels: being associated with sin (eg., Luke 15, 1); worse even than ‘extortioners, [the] unjust, adulterers’ (Luke 18, 11); and on a par with ‘harlots’ (Matthew 21, 31).
Don’t these people ever read the Bible? On the other hand, it should be an interesting sermon!
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August 31, 2014 at 3:04 pm -
Maybe it’s a service of exorcism? (If it isn’t – it should be.)
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Wondered if you had a take on the Ashya manhunt?
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