New Scientist journalist John Hoyland coined the term ‘nominative determinism’ to describe the alchemy by which some people seem to be drawn to their jobs by virtue of their birth name. Though given that most surnames
Determinative Labelism.
The ‘Voices’ begging to be heard?
Oft’ times, when I am struggling to resolve opposing opinions, I will stare out the window
Continue reading →Victims and Survivors.
Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it; so that when Men come to be undeceiv’d, it is too late; the Jest is over, and the Tale has had its Effect…
It was 200 years
Continue reading →‘Saint’ Nick and the Fantasist Club.
Someone had a sense of humour at Operation Midland, when they psuedo-named their prime ‘witness’ as Nick.
I am indebted to Bob Woffinden, in his excellent book ‘The Nicholas Cases‘*, for alerting me
Continue reading →Operation Kaddie fiddlers on the hoof…
Cliff Richard has waited 636 days to hear any substantive news regarding the allegations made against him. Almost two years. He now has to wait many months to hear whether the crown prosecution service think it
Slater & Gordon – ‘Ouch’ edition.
Last April, one of those little noticed tweeks to regulatory matters, brought in by the Government without publicity, was made to the rules surrounding court costs:
(1) Orders for costs made against the
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On the multitude of ‘ex’-Met Police Officers.
Whilst the reputation of the Metropolitan Police may stink on home ground, it is still thought of highly in foreign parts. That may explain why there are so many ‘ex’-Met officers plying their
Continue reading →Slater & Gordon – The ‘Pile ’em High’ edition.
As the supermarket concept developed in the UK in the 1950s, the appearance of brand names developed as well and were designed to be colourful, eye-catching and distinctive.
Buying a supermarket with
Continue reading →Cliff Top Caution.
‘My Generation’ – its virtually impossible to hear those words without acquiring an earworm that taunts you all day with a stuttering echo:
Things they do look awful c-c-cold (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
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Yeah, I
Slater & Gordon – Part 962.
Last Thursday, as you were rushing about buying Easter eggs, the beleaguered staff at Slater & Gordon were more worried about their Easter pay cheque.
They were due to be paid on the morning of the
Continue reading →To #Believe or not to #Believe.
That is the question. There are so many possible answers.
When Exaro first emerged with their ‘credible and true’ allegations of exotic Westminster paedophile rings, the opprobrium heaped on the head of anyone, like Ms Raccoon for
Continue reading →Slater & Gordon – Part 764.
Legal regulators in Victoria, Australia, have woken up to the dangers posed to ‘vulnerable clients’ by
Continue reading →The ‘Falsely Accused’ Strike Back.
Close to the Canadian border, in a small township called Watton, two unassuming Christian folk, Lale and Joan Roberts, had brought up their three daughters. It was the sort of community where nothing much ever happened. They may yet
Continue reading →A kiss is just a kiss? Depends who you are!
The ‘outrage bus’ is doing wheelies round the Sunderland Football Club car park as it awaits its ritualistic joy-ride through Twitter when Adam Johnson’s sentence is deemed too soft… as it will be if just one week short of
Continue reading →The Slater and Gordon, ‘False Allegations’ Popcorn Show.
Around midnight last night, Ms Raccoon’s e-mail pinged with an exceptional morsel from Tom Winnifrith, the experienced and multi-talented financial journalist who was responsible for uncovering the frauds that lay at the heart of Rob Terry’s empire. That
Continue reading →The Savile Memorial Celebrations…
100 years ago last year, a bitter little man, a man who hoped to be ‘somebody’ one day, a man with his head full of the ‘injustices’ of his life, but who, despite his poor background had had
Continue reading →The Dame Janet Smith Review.
The BBC was off to a cracking start this morning – commencing with the ceremonial hurling of the sacrificial spent carcass of yet another DJ from the top of BBC Towers to the waiting mob below – Tony Blackburn.
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The right to defend yourself against sexual allegations?
A fascinating case has been making its way through the legal system unnoticed by all bar a few legal practitioners. The media are uninterested – they cannot name or photograph the parties and there are absolutely no celebrities,
Continue reading →The Presumption of Innocence.
There was a howl of outrage when it appeared that the Presumption of Innocence had been suspended for those individuals with a penchant for strapping explosives around their waist and ensuring that the police had a neat pile
Continue reading →‘Saint’ Bernard Hogan-Howe safe – but is he a ‘Pussyfoot’?
I have always been of the opinion that the age of ‘Savilisation’, a term I invented and now proudly watch as it propagates through the media, was a perfect storm of tensions between the media, the
Continue reading →Not yet ‘Settle’d.
Mark Watts was busy picking the cherries out of the Operation Vincente review conducted by Deputy Chief Constable James Vaughan of Dorset Police.
Met was right to interview Lord Brittan over rape – review.
Continue reading →Necro-nonce© policing and Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe.
Every single working day of the past year; every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday – and come to that – most Saturdays for good measure, a senior and specially trained police officer of the gender requested by
Continue reading →Rough Kids – Rough Love.
It was a stroke of genius, ten years ago, for Ms Camila Batmanghelidjh to invite documentary maker, Lynn Alleyway, into her multi-coloured harem to film her charitable work with underprivileged kids – ‘Tough Kids – Tough Love‘. It
Continue reading →Surrey Police and Lynne Owens.
If Surrey Police appear at times to have a symbiotic relationship with the Metropolitan Police, it could date back to the days when districts like Epsom, Elmbridge and Reigate were the province of the Metropolitan Police, and were
Continue reading →Slater & Gordon’s annus horribilis.
Long ago, there was a country club with a golf course called ‘Quindell’. A man called Rob Terry ran it, despite his previous company, Innovation Group, apparently vanishing up its own backside – leaving him some £12 million to
Continue reading →Operation Notarise.
October 2014 – and as ‘many as 20,000 to 30,000‘ potential sex offenders, or vile perverts in tabloidese, had been identified. There was outrage that all those on the list provided by the National Crime Agency hadn’t been
Continue reading →The Taming of the Screw?
Once upon a time, children, in this septic isle, we used to slope off to Sunday School in order to learn the rules of moral transgression. Moral authority was exclusively the preserve of the Church, who denounced sinners
Continue reading →Janner and the Henriques Report.
Sir Richard Henriques has produced an exhaustive report describing the minutiae of every decision made in respect of Granville Janner.
The main stream Media has reduced those 47 pages to:
“Lord Janner: CPS
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Lord Bramall: IPCC identify ‘victim’.
For all the richly deserved ‘scrambled egg‘ that decorates Lord Bramall’s formal dress, none can mean as much to him as the discreet star depicted here – which signifies that he was the 973rd person personally chosen
Continue reading →The Divine Ms Raccoon’s Annual Beanfeast….
I said we’d organise something, so here’s a very important date to put in your diaries – 19th November 2015. Previous get togethers have been in London, generally organised round Old Holborn’s annual Guy Fawkes
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