ToadArray

Labour has shelved what limited inquiries it was prepared to mount into the industrial scale child abuse by Pakistani-heritage rape gangs over several decades. It is fitting that this shameful surrender was made by vacuous ministerial show pony Jess Phillips, who announced it as Parliament was heading for Easter recess and the media’s eyes were on Trump tariffs. A good day to bury bad news if ever there was one. Why this abject abandoning of a Labour government’s responsibilities? Simple. Pure party self-interest. First, any investigation would merely confirm that Labour local authorities looked the other way for years and failed to prevent the most heinous abuse. Phillips admitted the change of course was in response to local authority lobbying. Second, it is too toxic for Labour. Any investigation would confirm that the evil perpetrators in the rape/grooming gangs were overwhelmingly Muslims of Asian origin, a vital part of Labour’s electoral base with which it is already in trouble for not being sufficiently robust over Gaza. So best draw a veil over it all, even at the expense of vulnerable, abused young women never getting proper justice or closure. Unforgivable.

@sussex_police To be fair I can think of loads of non-terrorist-related reasons why I’d want to store dangerous quantities of explosive chemicals in my house…🧐

A brief summary of life in the UK: 27 million private sector workers support 9 million economically inactive people aged 16-64, 6 million public sector workers, and 13 million pensioners. If you suggest any part of this is unsustainable, people compare you to Hitler.

Every day, in every way, things are getting worse and worse. It wouldn’t be so bad if, while running through the darkening wood, we knew we were headed toward daylight, but we don’t know any such thing. Merry Christmas one and all

Much rejoicing at the fall of the monstrous Assad regime in Damascus. HTS have swept through Syria in the face of total regime collapse. Just to be that “ack-shually” guy for a second, though; I’d advise taking a pause to see what happens next, before we celebrate too much. Who are HTS? Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham means “Assembly for the Liberation of the Levant”. They are led by a chap called Abu Muhammad al-Julani (that’s his nom de guerre, his real name is Ahmed Hussein al-Shar’a, which in recent interviews he has used, for reasons that will become apparent). HTS has their origins in Al Qaeda and Islamic State. When Iraq went up in flames (2011 version) under Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi’s Islamic State of Iraq, his henchman al-Julani was sent back to Syria to set up an offshoot there, to exploit the opportunity for ISI presented by the civil war. Al-Julani is Syrian - his nom de guerre “Julani” references the Golan Heights. Radicalised by the Palestinian second intifada, he went to Iraq in 2003 and was a senior player in Al Qaeda there (which he denies). He was nicked by the Americans in 2006 and released in 2011, at which point al-Baghdadi packed him off to Syria with a bundle of cash. He did his job well. He recruited from Al Qaeda, Islamic State, and other Islamist hardliners. Al-Nusra were so successful in battles against the Assad regime that Islamic State in Iraq soon proposed a merger. Al-Julani refused, the two groups had a very public falling out, after which al-Nusra fought a successful campaign to minimise Islamic State influence in NW Syria. Al-Nusra also fell out with Al Qaeda in 2016 and went through one of many rebrands (rebrands and falling out with people being a bit of a theme with al-Julani). Al-Nusra became Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (JFS). Just a few months later, JFS swept up four other jihadi groups and merged to become HTS in early 2017. Since the Russian-Turkish ceasefire in 2020, HTS has been consolidating power in NW Syria. They cracked down on Islamic State affiliate Hurras Al-Din (HAD), who had opposed the HTS merger. It’s rumoured HTS were behind the intelligence that allowed the US to strike HAD’s leaders in 2021. And now, with Turkish backing, they’ve exploited the collapse of Hezbollah in Lebanon, Assad’s allies, to overthrow the Assad regime itself. They don’t run all of Syria, not by a long shot, but their areas of control are hugely expanded. So what does this all mean? HTS has an administrative arm, the Syrian Salvation Government (SSG). They’ve been running NW Syria with some legitimacy, having worked hard at the local level to provide aid, as well as having their own bank and oil company. Human rights haven’t really been their thing, with reports of prisoner abuse and attacks on civilians. Again, though, these have declined significantly in the last two years, reflecting more moderate rhetoric that has moved away from global caliphate jihad to being more Syrian-focused. They have shown a pragmatism and have been effective administrators. So, in spite of their shady origins, there’s hope that they will be an upgrade on Assad. Geopolitically, there is huge potential. HTS’s opponents are Iran- and Russian-backed. The success of HTS and the fall of Assad weaken both those two countries, which is a good thing (not enough space to go into depth here - more later). It also shows the extent of Hezbollah’s defeat in Lebanon, and the opportunity given the Lebanese government to get past the Hezbollah era. Still too soon and too complicated to predict much right now, but there is a potentially a golden opportunity for the Middle East to find some stability. It’s going to need deft statesmanship from all players to seize that opportunity. Let’s see what HTS/SSG do next.

@CSgtBourne Thanks Giving looks like what would happen if you asked the local council to cook your Christmas dinner

Americans will unironically criticise British food and then deep fry a turkey in their back garden like they’re in Soweto.

@MerseyPolice What are your thoughts about violence against female police officers. You know, like at Manchester Airport recently…

Today marks International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls. Our officers have been out and about today, together with some local charities and groups, to raise awareness and highlight support available. orlo.uk/QY3YU

@ShumBaloo Jeremy appears to have learning difficulties

Jeremy here thinks Germany won the Battle of Jutland

@realBradBrewer @BasedMikeLee @elonmusk Honestly wouldn’t be the worst thing that could happen given our current path…

@BasedMikeLee @elonmusk BREAKING: Elon buys the UK and fires everyone. 😂

I look forward to hearings with British MPs, who will be asked to explain their censorship and threats against American citizens, including @elonmusk

@GuidoFawkes The lowering of standards in public office was accelerated by scumbags like this. He was part of the problem that saw us where we are today. Good riddance

John Prescott Dies Aged 86 order-order.com/2024/11/21/joh…

@lurcherwork I’ll stick a river on them wearing Le Chemeaus as well 🇫🇷

If you know the brand of the girls jackets there’s actually a beautiful irony here 😂😂😂

@christiancalgie Good news. Just a few decades too late

RIP John Prescott. Hull legend, pint downer, jag owner and the best sitcom cameo of all time Don’t make em like this any more

@doris_from Is he gen dead? Only bit of good news I’ll read this morning probably

RIP John Prescott. A giant of a man, both metaphorically and literally.

@landofangle @KemiBadenoch you’ve got >4 years to come up with credible and detailed plans to dismantle this shower. You failed previously. This is probably the last chance the @Conservatives will be given by the public

Read this thread. It is mindbending. Every single tweet deserves an entire thread of its own. We're paying for this. We go to work to pay for this. It must stop, and those involved on the political side and the civil service dude must be fired. Read immediately.

The Great Betrayal...

@daveatherton It’s the far right again

In Leicester a 15 year old girl has been approached by this man in Sawday Street/Burnmoor Street & subjected to vile, inappropriate comments. He has been spoken to her before on numerous occasions, causing her great distress. leics.police.uk/news/leicester….

This is big news. Despite the establishment's best efforts to hide the statistics on the nationality of those claiming benefits, I believe that I have uncovered the true answer. The Universal Credit Habitual Residence Test is used to determine a foreign national's eligibility for accessing benefits. It also includes British citizens, who have returned from abroad to check for 'factual habitual residency' in the UK. I have been reliably informed by a central DWP whistleblower, that these numbers of British citizens equal roughly 10% of overall tests passed. Since April 2019, the total number of these residence tests that have been completed successfully? This is internal data from the DWP. Minus the estimated British numbers... 3,379,500. April 2019 to March 2020 342,900 April 2020 to March 2021 826,200 April 2021 to March 2022 941,400 April 2022 to March 2023 499,500 April 2023 to March 2024 479,700 April 2024 to September 2024 289,800 This means that over 50,000 foreign nationals are passing tests to become eligible to access and receive Universal Credit EVERY month. If this is wrong, the DWP should come out and publish the full nationality breakdown of those claiming benefits. This is a scandal. The British public deserve to know the FULL truth.

@nicholadrummond Pay. It’s the elephant in the room. People will tolerate a great deal if they feel their pay reflects the demands placed upon them, and if it is competitive with what is available in civvy street.

Thinking about how we improve the British Army’s offer, not merely to Generation Z, but to all those who serve within its ranks, here are a few ideas about the benefits we ought to provide: ✅ Every soldier gets his / her own room ✅ Every barrack block gets WiFi as well as heating and hot water (amazed I even have to say this) ✅ Every soldier is offered further education so that his/ her service becomes a route to a second career ✅ Every soldier needs to be able to drive larger armoured vehicles so driver training (HGV) courses need to become standard for all at unit level ✅ Free medical and dental care obviously remain an ongoing priority ✅ We need to introduce a “home base” concept whereby soldiers always return to the same area of the country allowing them to buy a home, put down roots, and school their children with some degree of consistency ✅ We will still need to provide married quarters for younger married soldiers ✅ We can reduce the cost of married quarters by helping soldiers acquire cheaper mortgages to purchase their own homes ✅ We will still need to post soldiers overseas unaccompanied. Wherever possible the period should not exceed 6 months. ✅ We need to take PTSD seriously for serving soldiers as well retired ones. Every unit on operations should have a psychologist trained in this area. ✅ Ww can reduce the overall cost of basing by creating military hubs like Tidworth, Catterick, and Warminster, but we must not isolate the Army from society as a whole - it must reflect the people it serves by living amongst them ✅ We probably need to consolidate the regimental system further, for the sake of consistency and efficiency, but we must not abandon it. What else could we offer?