In the news

jesus fucking christ.

That's the Daily Mail slamming the heartless brutality of our policies on immigration, that are resulting in the needless heartbreaking deaths of so many innocent, angelic souls.

That's how we're meant to interpret it, right?

is that ted heath behind her?

I don't think she's his type... Allegedly...

That's how we're meant to interpret it, right?

Wierd. But that's exactly how I interpreted it. Before I saw the source.

Although interestingly someone was telling me that all the strikes in Calais have done is focus illegal migrants in one spot rather than over a number and overall there has been no change in the actual numbers trying / succeeding to get though. Just the reporting.

I haven't bothered to look into it yet though.

Although interestingly someone was telling me that all the strikes in Calais have done is focus illegal migrants in one spot rather than over a number and overall there has been no change in the actual numbers trying / succeeding to get though. Just the reporting.

That's my understanding. One factor was an improvement to the fences at the ferry terminal so people have moved to the tunnel.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/robin-lustig/calais-migrants-refugees_b_7909630.html
https://www.facebook.com/Channel4News/videos/vb.6622931938/10153123270646939/?type=2&theater

The reality is that the UK is both pretending it's the target for refugees, and that it's not it's responsibility to take them. The former is factually incorrect, the latter is morally incorrect (although some would argue factually incorrect as well).

Ben Goldacre on Kids Company closing is sobering

https://twitter.com/bengoldacre

A deeply tasteful protest against Walter Palmer:

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/aug/05/walter-palmer-florida-home-vandalized-cecil-the-lion

did they shoot the pig so they could put it's bit on the drive to complain about people shooting animals ?

'muricans

Kids Company closing is tragic, irrepective of who is , or is perceived, to be at fault (which, quite frankly, we probably all are in some way).

A lot of vulnerable young people are probably now even more so.

Stupid phone deleted my extended rant. Here are some key points;

1. Fuck

2. This was an effective hatchet job by the government and the media.

3. Some journos are cunts. Paying vulnerable kids for their stories to serve your fucking headline grabbers.

4. "Doesn't represent value for money" - fuck you. Seriously, fuck you. Does £6m spent on earplugs for the MOD that then subsequently had to be scrapped represent value for money? Where was the Newsnight and Buzzfeed investigation into that? Or the £7.2m spent on a mobile mine detection system that didn't work. Why isn't the person who signed that off being vilified and attacked because of their appearance and upbringing?

5. These historic allegations. Why did the whistleblowers not report them at the time? Where was their duty of care to protect the young people? How were KC to have done anything about it if they weren't told?

6. Don't be surprised when the suicide, crime and neglect numbers go through the roof in the areas directly served by KC centres and youth workers.

There was more but I've depressed myself enough rewriting that

there was some awful fucking hack on the wireless this morning who said, amongst a slew of other anecdotal horseshit: "i even saw middle class white kids going in there, hardly likely to be in a gang now, are they" or words to that effect.

I just hope whichever cunts are wringing their hands don't ever have to experience half of the suffering just one of the KC clients has been through.

It sounds as though there were some quite eyebrow-raising things happening which probably were quite concerning to those funding it - Camila herself said that it was run in quite an ad hoc, on the hoof kind of way.

The way it's been handled is atrocious though, a lot of people left in the lurch and then the word 'abuse' thrown in to cause a bit of final damage to the reputation.

It's a real shame for the staff and kids who are certainly going to miss out - and as with the government's dismantling of mental health and drug services, there's fuck all there to pick up the pieces when it inevitably goes to shit.

There's the police service, luckily that's seen sustained investment and recruitment.

Oh, wait.

In all seriousness what, really, are the Tories planning on doing if it does all go to shit, vis a vis rioting in the streets etc? They've butt-fucked every institution and service designed to help and protect society - can they simply think that the inevitable crunch can't/won't affect them?

retreat to their saferooms until it all blows over, obvs.

what are you gonna do?

#basmatiNEVA4GET

Move abroad with all the money that has been stashed in offshore accounts, perhaps?

Not everyone gets f*cked by a recession though, even a really big one. If anything, they tend to increase the gap between the haves and have nots.

Bombs and guns and more (privatised) prisons. Big wall around expensive houses also.

That's precisely what sharp economic downturns do - Excacerbate existing wealth inequalities, and concentration of wealth to the very top end.

Far fewer haves owning disporoportionately more, and disproportionality more have-nots owning far less.

In all seriousness what, really, are the Tories planning on doing if it does all go to shit, vis a vis rioting in the streets etc?

http://www.basicint.org/blogs/2015/04/conservative-party%E2%80%99s-manifesto-and-policy-nuclear-weapons

Funny you mention the police, they are already stretched with what they rightly say are the responsibilities of the social services. But the social services aren't given the resources or the infrastructure to tackle those responsibilities.

Funny anecdote (not funny at all). One of mrs_com's service users (not a KC client) - an autistic 18 year old young man who you would swear was 12 or 13 by appearance and demeanour - disclosed something which at that point in time meant he absolutely could not go home. This was at 6pm so mrs_com rang me to say she would be working late to get him the right help. I was at a loose end so I said I would come and wait with her while it was sorted so she could send other staff home (I am enhanced DBS cleared). She spent until 1 in the morning arguing with both children and adult social services duty social workers as each side was saying he didn't meet their criteria. The second you're 18, you're not a child. If you leave a roof over your head out of choice (for whatever horrible reason) you're not an urgent adult case. So this lad had nowhere to go. There was no way we were sending what was essentially a child out into the streets so we took him to the police station (a legitimate safe place) and sat with him while he slept on a metal bench in reception until one of mrs_com's centred opened in the morning.

That was fucked and it was difficult for two "fully functioning" adults to even know where to start to look for help (social services out of hours numbers, hostels, secure accommodation, charities etc). Leave that to an inexperienced and vulnerable young person whose head is six ways from Sunday and you've either just signed their death certificate or HMP intake form.

I have had a similar experience and its a fucking nightmare. Unfortunately its still too easy to fall through the net.

So what I think you are saying is that it's all the fault of immigrants?

Natch

This was an effective hatchet job by the government and the media.

Except it wasn't, because despite the down with the people act, Batmanghelidjh is one of them. She came from a rich family and went to a £32,000 a year private school in Dorset.

Her connections to the rich and powerful kept things going for a long time, and resulted in Cameron overruling his own ministers and civil servants to keep it going. Now it's collapsed the Government (successive governments actually, Brown was in her thrall too) has egg on its face. Why would the government want to perform a hatchet job on itself?

And saying it's a hatchet job by the media is ridiculous too. Batmanghelidjh spent a lot of BBC airtime today saying they had to close because they'd run out of money and everyone was out to get her while not dealing with serious governance issues and financial irregularities (such as spending £800k of funding which was specifically not meant to be spent on salaries, on: salaries).

Miles Goslett's original expose in the Spectator was a perfectly valid piece of journalism, and his sources were people who had worked for, with and donated to the charity. If it was a hatchet job, why would a hatchet job come from a right wing publication, given how damaging any impuning of the charity's reputation would be to Cameron, given how closely he had positioned himself to it?

Another thing Batmanghelidjh did a lot of today on TV was blaming everyone but herself for the failure of Kid's Company. But she was running it. If any one person should take the blame, shouldn't it be her?