In the news

and depressing

This. We might be living in the safest era since the 70s in terms of likelihood of being a victim of a terror attack in Europe but the nature and regularity of these attacks just feels bleak.

I’m enjoying the scandal engulfing Jozsef Szajer, a Hungarian MEP and close ally of Orban, who was caught at what the Belgian press have described as a gang bang, in Brussels at the weekend, in direct contravention of the Belgian COVID restrictions.

Szajer was a key contributor to the revised Hungarian constitution which featured the line “Hungary shall protect the institution of marriage that as the union of a man and a woman...”

Ah, he's still unnamed in this report that I just saw:

According to local reports, as the police entered the building an unnamed MEP sought to escape on to a window ledge but hurt himself in the process. He then claimed diplomatic immunity.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/01/belgian-police-arrest-25-men-including-mep-as-sex-party-breaks-curfew-coronavirus

This Guardian report claims that it was in fact Fleischstraße ('Flesh/Meat Street'), not Brotstraße ('Bread Street'), but other (German) reports I've seen describe it as the driver driving about a kilometre through the pedestrian zone (which includes both the above streets) covering Trier's Old City.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/01/car-ploughs-into-crowd-of-pedestrians-in-german-city-of-trier

I can't imagine there won't be more deaths.

There'll be a press conference tonight that will probably bring more news, e.g. possibly about the motive.

I like that the French term for gangbang is "a party of legs-in-the-air".

That's just a general euphemism for intercourse. It can probably be applied widely but equally apply to just one couple.

https://en.bab.la/dictionary/french-english/faire-une-partie-de-jambes-en-l-air

Hungary shall protect the institution of marriage that as the union of a man and a woman...”

It seems women were lacking from the party.

He's now quit, it seems he'd been considering it for some time ...

Margaret Thatcher statue: £100,000 unveiling event to be underwritten by council

Conservative councillor Robert Reid added: "She was the Iron Lady who put the iron back in Britain.
"Is it too much to ask that we underwrite this important event?"

Where the fuck is Grantham?

For most of us its just a place you pass on your way to Skeggy

In all our hearts

About 1955?

Vivid memories, aged 6-15 odd, of the long drive from Cambridge up to Bradford to see grandparents. There and back in a day as we never stayed up there.

The A1/A57 roundabout on the way up marked 100 miles. Looking at it on google streetview I knew exactly what it looked like with all of those trees.

For some reason the "100 mile roundabout" was an important thing, probably to help placate us three whiny shitbags in the back of the car.

Where the fuck is Grantham?

Grantham on the way back marked 100 miles from Bradford and only ~60 odd to go.

It appears that there is now a reason to visit Grantham. Seems like a valid and important competition to me.

I mainly know Grantham as it's one of those annoying places that some trains go through and some don't and you have to read the tiny print on your ticket (or sometimes your ticket order) to see which route you should be taking else they'll try and fine you.

Hopefully they will hold six heats a day over 7 days in an annual contest running from Boxing Day to Christmas Eve.

Norn Iron gonna Norn Iron:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/dec/03/lord-maginnis-faces-18-month-suspension-over-homophobia

Jesus, the email he sent!

Yikes!

Maginnis sent an email to the MP James Gray, the chair of the APPG, copied to a number of other parliamentarians, with the subject heading “Discrimination by Homos”.

Why he’s not gone indefinitely I don’t know.

Why he’s not gone indefinitely I don’t know.

Maybe they're waiting for him to try to escape out of a window...

I completely agree with you. Have they seriously set such a low bar or is the delay merely going through due process? Horrible human being.

In the U.S., federal agency files complaint against Google for illegal anti-union activity. Be great if that actually goes anywhere but I won't be holding my breath.

See also Priti Patel.

At least the HoL seems to have (some) standards?

She bullied straight people, and is fine to get on with it. But you bully the homos, look what happens - proves his point really.

I'd hope if Patel was in the HoL she'd get suspended too.

That Boris could just let it slide is the real issue.

But yeah that's probably how mr "look at me being the victim" would interpret it.

Some knobheads have driven a car into a pedestrian zone in Bingen in Germany, which is not too far from Trier. They reportedly laughed as they did it and scared people stepped aside (article in German):

https://www.allgemeine-zeitung.de/lokales/bingen/bingen/auto-in-fussgangerzone-passanten-in-angst_22733081