In the news

Captain Tom grifters justification for keeping the swimming pool complex they illegally built.

Mr Paynter said the building would also offer the ‘opportunity for people to meet on a coffee morning basis – that’s probably not going to be more than once a month, like a church opening up for a coffee morning for Macmillan’.

‘There’s going to be the opportunity to open the garden – we’ve heard the garden will open once per year for a fete,’ he said.

He added that there would also be space in the building for creating podcasts.
Mr Stemp said ‘memorabilia is going to be kept’ at the building, but added: ‘I don’t think it’s ever been said it was intended to house all of the memorabilia there.’

Fuck me:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/17/georgia-leonard-cure-killed-police

Fuck me indeed

“….the 80th “officer-involved” shooting in Georgia so far this year…..”

Holy fuck. This is awful.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/10/23/new-bus-services-introduced-from-scrapping-manchester-hs2

The Tories have turned HS2 into a rail replacement bus service.

I'm sure I read that the money from HS2 was going to be released as per the original spending timetable. Not much being released until 2028?

Hannah Ingram-Moore caught lying again, and taking credit for someone else's work, again. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-67195261 I wonder if she could challenge the cat bin lady as a national hate figure?

Is this cunt related to that cunt of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” cheating fame?

I don't really want to defend the Ingram-Moore folks, but I'm not sure how folks could get that wound up about them 'taking credit' for the services of a freelancer.

It's literally how freelancing works - you do the work, you get paid. That's kind of it.

Unless it's not freelancing, in which case, pay yo' fucking taxes!

Read like the kind of article published in the Sun's 'serious pages' in the 90s. But it gets irate eyeballs, so.

I think it sounds more like they suddenly realised they didn’t want it known that they’d done paid PR and that the story had developed organically. Submitting for a PR award would have rumbled them earlier.

But they forced the PR person to withdraw their award entries. Is that how freelancing works? Can the work only be submitted for an award in the name of the client?

Presumably yeah - surely PR person would normally agree client confidentiality unless the client waives it?

I think it's more the "you have no right to talk about your role". I have no experience with the world of freelancing so feel free to correct me, but that seems like a pretty important part of getting future work.

Also when the person saying "you have no right to talk about your role" is someone who's clearly a dodgy little shitbag, people are more likely to side with the PR person. I mean, how badly do you need to fuck up where the public are in overwhelming support of the PR person? I guess claiming to be a PR person who did the actual PR person's work is an answer.

At this point its just open season on the Ingram-Moore woman (rightly so IMO), it doesn't really matter if the story has any real merit.

It's normal but you need permission. The client needs to agree to it and it's not unreasonable for them to change their minds.

For purposes like getting more work, of course you can talk about your work - what you did and what the outcomes were - to potential buyers of your services. This is reasonable.

Biging up your role to the point where you've (self? or been?) nominated for an award - that is public - seems like overreach, based being asked to write a press release. This is unreasonable, especially if permission wasn't sought or granted.

I agree, but it saddens me to see the BBC News engaging in this tbh.

I'm not sure if I get this story.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/24/anthony-pratt-said-royal-advisors-wanted-payments-to-prince-charles-to-stop-to-avoid-appearance-of-anything
Was the guy just giving money to the Prince of Wales (not related charities or anything) for personal use? Surely that isn't a thing.

The article suggests that it's in relation to this:

Prince Charles’s former aide quits as charity boss amid cash-for-honours claims

So cash being through various people to make the bribes look less obvious.

Chuckles was worried that he's look complicit. Which he probably was, even if only by turning a blind eye.

In that case it was going to the Prince's Foundation which is a distinct entity, that doesn't seem to get mentioned in the recent article.

Isla bikes are stopping production - voluntarily, they've not gone bust.
The middle class will be holding memorial ceremonies outside Waitroses the length and breadth of the UK.

Overstock, or they can’t afford to continue?

Seems a bit harsh, made great bikes for kids and people with disabilities.
Tough time in the industry.

Neither, apparently. Just no appetite to continue. Business is still profitable, but they don’t want to sell on.

Sounds like a decent way to go out tbh. Price of second hand stock just went up by 1.5x I reckon.

Having dr biked countless bikes in school playgrounds over the last 10-12 years, islabikes genuinely changed what children’s bikes are all about and they influenced other brands to make better bikes too. Revolutionary stuff. Thank you Isla.

Thought Isla bikes were changing to a lease model of bikes.