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@Velocio is this normal or is Cruella&Co clamping down on dissent?
Just went to sign and saw this…

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Yeah... they have 2 gates on petitions:

1. You need 5 sponsors and then it has to be checked for "compliance to standards"
   
2. Once you get to 20-25 people signing it then it has to be fully checked for standards.
   
   

It's my own fault as I started a petition years ago and it had lots of people vote for it and so now they prevent petitions they consider irrelevant by gating them on reviews.

My original petition was admittedly frivolous:

We, the people of Britain, feel that our current National Anthem has lost a bit of its sparkle.

When we are confronted by the rare occasion of us winning a medal at the Olympics, we all have to mumble through "God Save The Queen", well God help us in 2012!

We would thereby like to table the suggestion that we change the National Anthem to something more modern and appropriate and that will re-invigorate our pride.

What we specifically want to see, is that the National Anthem be changed in favour of "Gold" by Spandau Ballet.

Further, we would like our National Olympic Committee to decree that Tony Hadley is the only person permitted to handle medal ceremonies where the National Anthem is played.

We don't mind what he wears when he does this, but preference is given towards a a gold colured suit.

I was called a lunatic for that, but this new petition is actually far more serious and urgent.

Obviously not a funny story, at all.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/oct/13/reed-wischhusen-bristol-obsessed-mass-killings-convicted-plotting-primary-school-attacks

but had a viable 19th-century rifle
and He shot himself in the head in the bathroom and survived – an act he demonstrated in court from the witness stand. He emerged from the bathroom and was then shot by police officers. He again survived

I'm just thinking how I read in the press that the attack by Hamas was "Israels 9/11 moment". And just like the US then completely disproportionately retaliating and killing lots of civilians seems to be the go.

As a species we're fucked, aren't we?

Maybe bullets aren't as deadly as we've been lead to believe

The bodycam footage of this is crazy; the cops who were sent to investigate him let him go to the toilet but didnt seem to notice he'd slipped on a coat that had a gun in the pocket.

Hmmm there's a conspiracy. Gov won't let me sign

I'll be signing once it goes live. It seems to match my feelings on the issue.

Small terrorist organisation carries out terror attact. Country overreacts and initiates a pretty good imitation of genocide.

The fact the US government is talking about humanitarian aid for Israel is insane. As a country Israel and their people are better off than at least 90% of other countries.

Interesting phone-in on 5 Live, this morning. Asking whether the FA is right to not light up the Wembley arch in the colours of Israel.

A few callers saying that when there were terror attacks on France, Belgium… the arch was lit up in their flag colours.

To me that misses half of the story. But I didn’t phone in.

I think Ian Dunts peice in the i is good on this.

Doing the solidarity flag thing is fine after the initial attack. It shows solidarity with the victims and survivors. However, given that a pretty brutal counter attack is now underway, that moment has passed.

Whatever your intentions, I don't think you can solidarity flag without a conveying a degree of support for the attacks/counterattacks on Hamas and the Palestinians. Therefore, by now there shouldn't be any more flags from public or quazi public bodies imo.

Depressing news from Australia that they look to overwhelming reject the Australian Indigenous Voice referendum to recognise the Aboriginal and Torres Island people in the constitution.

🤡ing

https://archive.ph/ACv3O

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Guardian newspaper sacks cartoonist Steve Bell

That seems like more of a stretch than the last time the Guardian had a cartoonist in hot water. (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65438581)

seems slightly tortuous logic there.

Seems a bit ridiculous. I know it's a sensitive moment, but nothing there sounds like it makes the connection alleged .

Also this I find really odd:

A 2020 drawing featuring Sir Keir Starmer holding Jeremy Corbyn's head on a plate was interpreted by some as a reference to the head of John the Baptist, which was presented to Salome, the daughter of the Jewish King Herod.

Christianity is the largest religion in the world by some margin. Through colonialism European culture has arguably become the dominant world culture - and that is heavily influenced by Christianity and it's stories. The idea that using such a well used image is antisemitic because Salome and King Herod were Jewish is some serious reaching.

It's basically laying claim to any biblical imagery as a negative (not to mention shit tonnes of literature), because 99/100 there are going to be some Jewish people involved.....What with the whole fucking thing being a story about Jewish people and all!

If I am imagining the cartoon correctly - from the description - then it’s a bit tenuous. Shylock didn’t take a “pound of flesh” from himself.

If I am imagining the cartoon correctly

It's pretty easy to just google image search for "steve bell netanyahu" and find it based on the description:

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/guardian-cartoonist-steve-bell-sacked-netanyahu-cartoon/ has a copy of the cartoon in question.

Thanks!

It’s as I imagined it. It’s a bit tenuous.

Christ, what a mess. :-(

Christ

Yes, he is/was a contributory factor.

recycled cooking oil!!!!

I'll give you half a point (assuming you were answering the question about an energy dense fuel that is hard to set alight).

Biodiesel flashpoint is ~150 deg C (which is better than regular diesel at 55-65 deg C, and a lot better than -43 deg C of petrol) but 150 deg C is still well in the realms of an engine fire if the engine has been running for a while.

I think this is all more a case of ‘could this be construed as antisemitism?’ and ‘should the artist know better?’ rather than ‘oh yeah he’s an antisemite’. It could and arguably he should.

Any decent editorial team should be able to pick stuff like this up. IME there's a fair bit of to-and-fro between the illustrator/cartoonist and the Ed Dept. Cartoonists are supposed to push buttons but if an image can be misconstrued then it's on the editor as much as it's on the cartoonist.

Unless Steve Bell just gets a space in the paper that he fills with whatever he likes with little or no oversight, which I find hard to believe.