I used to clean civil service offices as a nipper.would you really want to work in an office where someone has just been wanking?
Ah so it's ok to contemplate prosecution of retired officers when it's a government minister who is in the frame but not in the many other instances where there have been miscarriages of justice due to police corruption and officers have escaped prosecution due to being retired. Thanks for clearing that up.
Former police officers who leaked Damian Green pornography allegations could face prosecution, says Cressida Dick
One of the best ninth-ever posts I've seen here, TBFI used to clean civil service offices as a nipper.
All offices have been wanked in, in my experience.
Tim's editted it.
'twas ever thus. This is what happens when people start to feel like they're beyond accountability. At best, they'll make a big show of disapproval, find a few token "bad apples" to chuck out, but never, ever address the systemic deficiencies that make this stuff happen in the first place, and stop it being reported/dealt with promptly when it does happen.Jess Philips on how nothing has changed at Westminster as with narrow gaps between parties by-elections are not desired by those in leadership positions.
At Westminster, those accused of abuse still walk among us | Jess Phillips
"For a time Green effectively ran the country" single handedly, as it were.
The metrics of mandarin masturbationSome heroic maths from the Guardian.
They took the average number of attempts between June and October, which was 160 per day. Then they seem to have multiplied this by 150ish days (presumably) to get to 24,000 (because multiplying 160 by 365 gets you to well over 50,000).
There is obviously a lot wrong with this methodology. Westminster is in recess a lot of the time between June and October, which will act to lower the figure. To be consistent with a time period that includes recess, you would need to multiply by the full year. But it will still be misrepresentative anyway, because the rest of the year still won't look much like June to October.
I suspect the true number is a lot, lot higher than 24,000.
Actually, it was a bit of premature calculation on my part.The metrics of mandarin masturbation
The child sex abuse inquiry is to write to Michael Gove to ask whether he attempted to find out about the release of an investigation into a priest suspected of abuse at a prominent Catholic boarding school.
The alleged interest of the former secretary of state for education in a police and local authority inquiry into the priest surfaced during evidence given to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) last month.
Gove, now the environment secretary, denies making any phone calls to the local authority in relation to the investigation. A search of education department telephone records, his office has said, can find no trace of any such contacts.
The priest, only identified by the reference number F65, is alleged to have had “connections to some quite senior figures”. In evidence given to the inquiry on 13 December, F65 was said to have been the subject of an allegation of oral sex with a 16-year-old boy.
Towards the end of her evidence, counsel to the inquiry, Riel Karmy-Jones QC, indicated that Winter wanted to raise a further issue. The lawyer said: “There was significant interest from the office of the secretary of state in relation to one individual, F65, a priest who had previously resided at Downside Abbey. How did that come about?”
Winter then recounted the alleged sequence of events. “I only mentioned it because it was so unusual,” she explained. “I have never experienced it before or since. This was a priest who there were concerns about and it was agreed that the abbot would suspend him from ministry while investigations continued.
“He did have, I discovered subsequently, connections to some quite senior figures, and it was one afternoon I had I think it was two phone calls from the office of the minister of state for education asking for the time at which that decision was going to be made. I said, I knew what time it was, but I said it was a child protection matter and that I wasn’t willing to discuss it.
“Then very shortly before the time it was due to happen, I had a phone call from somebody who said they were the secretary of state for education and please would I tell them the time at which – he was quite insistent about the time that decision was due to be made.
“ ... I said exactly the same thing, that it was a child protection matter, it was in relation to a criminal matter, and I couldn’t give that information ... I had no further contact after that, but it just seemed very unusual for that to happen.”
I am rather guilty of not keeping up with the inquiry but I did just notice this:
Child sex abuse inquiry to query whether Gove asked about investigation
Nothing you could hang him with, but something to make you goAnd that’s just for starters. If we’re Roman Catholic we’re accessories to child abuse
I see John Woodcock has been suspended from the Labour party, accused of sexually harassing a member of his staff.
Labour MP John Woodcock has been suspended from the party ahead of an investigation into claims he sent inappropriate text messages to a female former aide.
The backbencher, a fierce critic of Jeremy Corbyn, had been ordered to appear before party disciplinary chiefs over the alleged harassment, which he has denied in an open letter to constituents.
The Labour party’s disputes panel said last year that a fuller investigation would be needed, although they decided that he could remain as an MP until it was resolved.
But the new Labour general secretary, Jennie Formby, who has the power to intervene in cases in order to protect the party’s reputation, is understood to have ordered that he have the whip withdrawn until that has taken place.
A Labour party spokesperson said: “John Woodcock has been suspended from the Labour party pending due process. It would not be appropriate to comment further on an ongoing case."
Last week I acted for Bernie, Jack and Lucy Sargeant, the family of former Welsh Government cabinet minister Carl Sargeant at the inquest into his death.
Carl committed suicide in November 2017 after he was sacked from his cabinet post as Secretary for Communities and Children. Allegations had been made against him, but he was never told what they were. The fact of his impending removal from government was leaked to the media before he knew.
The inquest concluded on Thursday 11 July, some seven and a half months after it started, having been listed for five days....