Dear Legal Profession,
What fun! I can remember a time when ‘litigants in person’ were mocked as the ‘afflicted’ by the legal profession. A nuisance. Didn’t understand the system. Not
Continue reading →Anna Raccoon
Sliding Down the Greasy Pole.
From Kraków to Katowice, the rumours gathered strength. The streets of London were paved with gold; the British didn’t want to work; you could earn a year’s wages in a week – just sweeping the floors, washing
Continue reading →Just for a laugh.
Go on, just for a laugh. Adopt a fetching lisp, dress in a fey fashion, admit to past employment as a Roman Catholic trainee priest – and try and get yourself a job as a child minder.
Reaching for Sky.
What the Hell are Sky playing at?
I’ve just got home and turned on the TV, only to find that Sky are running a live interview with four masked ‘rioters’ bragging of their spoils from the riots.
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The Gilded ‘Deprived’
Among the accused was, for instance, Laura Johnson, the 19-year-old daughter of a successful company director. She lives in a detached converted farmhouse in Orpington, Kent, with extensive grounds and a tennis court.
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The Last Honky in Brixton.
With impeccable timing, the IPCC informed the panting Sky newscasters that the ‘firearm found at the scene hadn’t been fired’, just as Sky were preparing their nightly ‘roll-up, roll-up, all the fun of the fair’ broadcast of
Continue reading →The Blackberry Uprising – UPDATED
Tunisia had its Jasmine Uprising; the Guardian is crowing that the Metropolitan Police were behind the times in not knowing that London was undergoing the Blackberry Uprising.
Unlike the ‘down wiv’ da yoof’ Guardian journalists.
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United by the Cenotaph.
Two very disparate characters, both male, though I hesitate to refer to both of them as ‘men’. Only one is deserving of that denomination.
Two men in two different prisons. One in Wandsworth prison, one in
Continue reading →Defending the Indefensible?
Various posts and comments I have read over the past few days appear to argue that our police service is institutionally murderous, untrustworthy, and naturally racist.
Continue reading →Gangsta cRap.
Ter’ast yer know man, der finger shot mi bruvver, an he ain’t got no reason ter do dat. Mi bruv only fired off a couple a’ rounds to warn der Babylon dat he ain’t got no business
Continue reading →I see no riots!
It’s always a joy to turn to the quality Sunday papers for informed well researched journalism and up to the minute information….or you could read the
Continue reading →Coming for the Anarchists
“The citizen of Oceania is not allowed to know anything of the tenets of the other two philosophies, but he is taught to execrate them as barbarous outrages upon morality and common
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Professional Suicide and ‘I want to be alone’.
I like people who do things properly, put the research into the project, take their time, check everything out thoroughly – and then execute their task with skill and aplomb.
Thus I find Richard Handl an
Continue reading →Simple Pieman
Simple Pieman met a newsman,
Following a dare,
Says Simple Pieman to the newsman,
For your views, I do not care.
Says the newsman to Simple Pieman,
Allow my wife to show you how;
To land a pretty punch,
– and on the floor you cower.
Simple
Continue reading →Jason Owen – Capital Punishment Icon?
If there is a simple visual answer to the capital punishment conundrum, then it will emerge – in the shape of Jason Owen – blinking into the daylight on this coming Friday
Continue reading →Defective Fault Lines
The idea of accepting personal responsibility for anything seems to have gone the same way as straw hat and white gloves with a summer dress, an anachronism that we barely remember and cannot begin to conjure up
Continue reading →Competition – Write the Rules.
This will be fun!
NUJ members at the BBC have today started a second 24 hour strike action against compulsory redundancies.
A work to rule will start when the BBC
Continue reading →Judgment Day
Once again, the High Court is being asked to quantify ‘enjoyment of life’. This time the vanishing point has been moved forward from the ‘futility’ of the Bland case.
I am at a loss, as
Continue reading →Fear and Anxiety
It is a terrible thing to live with, fear and anxiety. My heart goes out to anyone who lies awake at night, fearful and anxious that a much loved son is not yet home from a night
Continue reading →“The best of times, the worst of times…”
“Breaking speculation” interrupted the, er, “breaking speculation” as to who or what might be responsible for the tragic deaths in Norway. The media had moved on. No longer were they lovingly arranging pictures of 92 clean living
Continue reading →“Patients will be little more than consumers…”
Buried under an avalanche of inconsequential media tittle-tattle – did ‘x’ tell ‘y’ how he got his best stories, and did ’y’ tell his boss how he did it, and should ‘z’ not resign in disgrace for
Continue reading →Libertarian Libertinage
Since my original post on the subject of Andrew Withers and his morally dissolute treatment of those, myself included, who had held out a hand of friendship to him, I have been careful not to add
Continue reading →Why is national socialism worse than international socialism?
In a previous post, I discussed my thesis that the “social” in any kind of “socialism” involved pushing the costs for bad things onto society as a whole. This always entails other consequences,
Continue reading →Thoughts on Social Democracy
I realize that I will probably offend generations of political anoraks with this bland assertion, but I’m going to make it anyway: “social” anything, whether it’s “social democracy” or “pure socialism” or “social something else” ultimately
Continue reading →Blood Sucking Bureaucracy
I’ve got the hang of the local accent now; I rattle confidently through the questions with them as they laboriously write out the answers in triplicate. Nom, prénom flies out in the correct back to front order;
Continue reading →Prisencolinensinainciusol.
One of the time honoured methods of learning a new language is to buy a book you know well – written in your chosen new language. It used to be the bible – these days it is
Continue reading →I’m still in love with Gildas, Baby
Dear brothers and sisters,
As many of you may know, I have long considered that I am a SPECIAL friend of one of the occasional contributors to this blog, namely GILDAS THE MONK. However, I must confess
Continue reading →Reverse Dutch Steamboat.
There was a lengthy period of time, during which, thanks to the inimitable Thaddeus J Wilson, Ms Raccoon was the top search result for ‘Reverse Dutch Steamboat’. I have long since forgiven him.
Many and
Continue reading →The Gynophobic Mail
Men, beware, one glance at this face could turn you into a helpless cypher, craving only to commit crimes in order to have the chance of a second glance…if she opens the door for you, that’s it,
Continue reading →The Best of British – A Challenge.
Mr G took the old crock out for a run in the French countryside this morning. He let me come along too.
We went to Beaumont du Périgord for breakfast, taking advantage of the French tradition
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