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I don't really blame them in this political environment. Some person some where had to make the call. Overcook it, articles in the guardian, undercook it, daily mail going through your bin and Tommy Robinson on your doorstep

and Tommy Robinson on your doorstep

I thought for a second that was some sort of Cockney-rhyming euphemism for a poo in a paper bag.

re: national rail grayscale.

https://twitter.com/giovannibienne/status/1381520958394097665?s=19

It wasn't dda compliant . Sounds like they were fixing it as I posted.

Exactly, apparently part of the reason the coverage was so over the top was because they took massive flack from the press when the Queen Mother died for not covering it enough

Also, they don't seem to have updated the protocols in 20 years. missus-ru used to work for Classic FM BITD and they had these same plans for the Queen, Phil the Greek, Chuck etc dying. Can understand it for the Queen, but for Phil is too much.

Too much irony.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/apr/12/tommy-robinson-asked-wealthy-us-backers-help-claim-asylum?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

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re: national rail grayscale.

https://twitter.com/giovannibienne/statu­s/1381520958394097665?s=19

It wasn't dda compliant . Sounds like they were fixing it as I posted.

Longer explanation:

One Twitter user said: “National Rail have coloured their entire website grey to ‘mourn Prince Philip’, rendering the whole website completely useless to people with visual impairments. The UK has completely lost the plot.”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/apr/12/visually-impaired-users-complain-rail-websites-greyscale-prince-philip

Given that he has a conviction for possession of class As with intent to supply (not often reported, it was referenced in his trial for immigration fraud to the USA but predates online records), I find it very hard that he'd be able to claim asylum even with high profile backing.

Aren’t the grandes ecoles universities, where Eton is a college?

Sorry, missed this. Yes, but they're funny kinds of universities. I was trying to work out how entrenched privilege mainly goes in the education system, and finds its connections, and I think in France it's less at secondary/A-level school level than at university. Obviously, one might say that that's precisely what makes it non-comparable.

Grandes Écoles (and there are many of them) are definitely not universities. Not the ones I've attended anyway.
All GE have a very selective entry process. Not based on your grades at the baccalaureat but with a very hard entry exam. To sit that exam, you will have to have been attending a prep school (very often private high schools in the largest cities only, and if you studied in the "province" or shires you're already at a disadvantage cos the concept of GE is a very Paris-centric one with all the snotty snobbishness you can imagine).
I'm surprised that Macron is able to replace the grandest of GE, the ENA where past leaders, ambassadors, prefects learn the ropes about leading and running a country, with something a little less elitist-looking at least on the surface.
What I'm not surprised about though is that he's attempting to push through more much-needed reforms.
I wonder if the sons and daughters of the bourgeois families who are going to be the ones impacted the most by this small revolution will descend sporting Dior and St Laurent-branded gilets jaunes.

Grandes Écoles (and there are many of them) are definitely not universities.

I understand the distinction in France between the GE and the rest of the system of higher education, mostly. Given the usual age upon admission for their students, it seems to me that the GE are closer to being universities (such as OxBridge) than they are to being colleges (such as Eton).

Most western countries don’t have a formalised parallel system for preparing the political and intellectual leadership. That role usually falls informally to certain universities or schools within said universities, which can themselves have very competitive or elitist entry requirements. Harvard, OxBridge, UNAM in Mexico, UC in Chile, UBA in Argentina are all universities known for their role in producing their respective national leadership.

I wonder if the sons and daughters of the bourgeois families who are going to be the ones impacted the most by this small revolution will descend sporting Dior and St Laurent-branded gilets jaunes.

To be totally fair, it's not ALL people like that. A colleague's daughter is in one of the prep schools and she has had to work her arse off to get to where she'd got and they're neither connected nor wealthy. It's right, though, that any place that churns out the elite attracts the kids of the elite and their kids and so on. They should reflect the makeup of society, not that single social tier but we know how well that works...

another fatal police shooting in minneapolis

"i mistook my sidearm for a tazer"

it's almost as if at this point, excuses exist merely to provide the right wing apologists with a level of plausible deniability for their bad faith arguments in support of anti black male police violence.

Have you seen the video? Its fucking crazy. The cop shouts "taser taser taser" as she pulls the trigger on the thing that very much wasn't a taser.

And the Americans seem so confused why we only let a very select few of our police officers handle fire arms after literally years of selection and training. Ability to identify which is your pistol and which is your taser seems quite important.

The ability of UK cops to use weapons appropriately is dubious too. When tasers were brought in they were for protecting life as a less lethal alternative to guns. Now they have been fairly widely deployed they get fired into the back of people running away who are suspected of carrying small amounts of drugs.

There was that kid who broke his back while being tasered as he ran away from a drugs stop.

Interesting article: https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2020/07/investigation-into-misuse-of-taser-guns-by-uk-police-forces/

I don’t buy that she got her taser and gun ‘mixed up’ bollocks

Not at all, straight up lie

I mean, if it's a lie it's premeditated, right?

She would have known she was on bodycam. She identifies a taser after pulling her pistol. She fired her pistol.

I don't see how deliberately firing her pistol after pretending it's a taser benefits the cop in any way. Not saying that it isn't a lie, just that it makes no sense at all. She might as well have said she fired her pistol by accident and not bothered pretending it was a taser.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/04/13/us/daunte-wright-taser-gun.html

A clip of Officer Potter’s body camera video released by the Brooklyn Center Police Department shows the police trying to handcuff Mr. Wright before he lurches suddenly back into his car. The video then shows Officer Potter’s arm aiming a weapon as her voice shouts “Taser! Taser! Taser!” on the audio.

She fires one round, Mr. Wright groans in pain and Officer Potter can then be heard to cry, “Holy shit, I just shot him.”

https://www.insider.com/some-police-academies-require-fewer-hours-of-training-plumbing-2020-6

https://www.criminaljusticedegreeschools.com/resources/minneapolis-police-department-requirements/

Recruits will complete 16 weeks of training at the Minneapolis Police Academy

of course it's bullshit - but it's what they reckon will fly in court.

What's your theory for why it's definitely bullshit?

Do you think that the cop went into that traffic stop wanting to shoot that guy and had a premade plan to pretend she had a taser for the benefit of the cameras?

If she wanted to shoot the guy she has two choices. Claim accidental shooting or self defence. I can't see what the benefit of the taser story is to her defence when US cops get acquitted for accidental shootings on an almost weekly basis.

wanting to shoot that guy

sure, why not? this is the police we're talking about. they shoot unarmed black men all the fucking time. it's a problem.