In the news

NT crocodile expert who once hosted David Attenborough pleads guilty to animal sexual abuse

Crazy headline. Horrible story.

Just read that article, it sounds absolutely horrendous. What a twisted cunt

Laurence Fox again.

Since last nights fuckwittery?

Thankfully it has also taken out Dan Wootton

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-66940513

Evans is now calling on Conservative MPs to stop appearing on GB News.

"It's got the deputy chairman [of the Conservative Party, Lee Anderson] on there, hosting a show. You've got Jacob Rees-Mogg on there, you've got Esther McVey presenting. These are elected members of parliament.

They all kind of fit the billing though

Police body cameras

I'm sorry but how hard can it be for these body cams to be controlled better?
For example:
Introduce a chain of custody where they are signed out at start of shift and signed back in at the end.
Access is controlled via fixed memory not cards and proprietary connectors/software/passwords.
They automatically switch on when undocked and assigned to an officer.
This could start with a statement to camera "Officer X, badge y, date and time"
Then repeated upon end of shift.
Any officer not meeting the rules is up for disciplinary.

Ffs

Because then they’d just get a vest put over them. The problem is the officer- fix them, not the tech.

People are twats.

https://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/2023-09-28/world-famous-sycamore-gap-tree-believed-to-have-been-deliberately-felled

1 Attachment

WAC (or several, I suspect)

WTF, that's so sad :(

Yes Sycamore are not "native native" like oak and ash, but just let them be if they aren't pushing out native species.

They had the death penalty in ancient Ireland for felling protected trees, now that would be a bit drastic, but seriously?

What punishment do you even get for that, a fine?

Yes a fine.

When I was growing up in a village (more a small town), there was a big field with a massive oak in the middle. One day the farmer sold it to some developers. The developers got planning refused due to it being a protected tree.

About a month later, the tree has been felled overnight. Apparently the developer had a cheque to pay the fine dated before the tree went down.

Council then granted planning permission, now full of houses.

really upsetting news. cunts

It is believed that the tree was felled deliberately

Don't know how they came to that conclusion.

From that pic, probably beavers

They could have at least taken it home for their woodburners

That shit brings out my inner "bring back hanging" persona ;)

The fines should be enormous. It is max 10K or so here, which won't stop anybody.

Now, I know, sometimes the planning is too rigid. Instead of saying "fine, but go around the oak", you will sell the houses anyway, stick the car park around it, it can become pen pushing.

In Belfast near where I live there were a few small protected trees, the dev got permission to build BUT they had to put new trees in. These are boring cherries, but then there isn't much room so that limits the choice.

But in another area overnight, with no permission, a dev cut down a huge old sycamore, 10K fine which is f-all. Again, to get planning permission.

Prison? Forcing them to buy a plot of land only good for farming and make them plant 10 oaks? I don't know what the solution is :/

Yes a fine.

That's for chopping down your own property. If I cut down your tree without permission it's presumably vandalism or criminal damage so could be 6 months in jail.

If it was a memorial, which in the case of a tree would need it to have been planted for a reason, then it could be 10 years in jail.

Back in my wood butchering days in the wilds of Hampstead and Highgate we regularly had clients who were redeveloping properties pushing us to fell protected trees and offering to pay any fines incurred along with absurd cash bonuses for us on top.
My boss never touched it as obviously it’s going to be the end of the companies reputation and the loss of all local authority and contract work.
They all get felled in the end, always some scoundrel happy to do it no questions asked.

As for this one? I can’t even begin to understand the thinking behind it. :/ aside from the walk in that would have taken less than 10mins to have it down. The gob-cut is nice and wide and the back cut level. Whoever did it knew exactly what they were doing- not some mad bastard with a shite saw from b&q.

It’s such a pointless attack. It’s completely without merit and not exactly like its removal would have allowed a development of some kind (like the equally sad demolition of the Crooked House pub).

It’s the whole premeditated thing that gets me. It’s not on a public highway so someone has made a significant effort to get there with the necessary equipment and carry out the act without at any point having a moment of self-reflection or thinking “this is a bit silly really”; imagine looking at the below and thinking it would be gags to chop it down. Desperately sad.

The cynic in me is wondering whether there are shooting estates nearby and is this tree used by various birds of prey...

What a waste.

It was a tourist attraction apparently, with it being off the beaten track maybe some local NIMBY cunt got fed up with people traipsing through/near mY pRoPeRtY?

i hope they find out who is responsible and they get publicly shamed over it.
i really don't understand the thought process. under what circumstances could anyone justify doing that?
so shit.

What @ectoplasmosis is saying is the only plausible reason I can come up with :/

It's a bit of a walk in but not massive, 10/15 minutes but it is visible from a very busy A road. I do not understand why you would do it, it's very popular to visit with a fantastic YHA close by. Reminds me a bit of the golden spruce, which is a fantastic book about an environmentalist who cuts down a sacred tree in Canada to raise awareness of environmental destruction going on daily unnoticed