Orchid

No commentary necessary

The feeling of betrayal amongst all those extraordinarily brave young Iranians who risked (and tens of thousands of whom lost) life and limb must be off the scale. Trump directly encouraged them to put their lives on the line and solemnly promised them his support, only to abandon them completely. It is something people everywhere feared Trump would do, but it is particularly cruel all the same.

The US has circulated its version of the Memo of Understanding with Iran to G7 leaders in France. It’s as bad if not worse than expected. — The moment it’s signed (Friday) sanctions on the export of Iran oil are lifted. So the regime can start replenishing its coffers immediately. — The US commits to doing nothing to undermine or destabilise the Iranian regime (it started the war to remove it). — The US specifically commits to ending its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz but Iran does not commit specifically to returning the Strait to toll/fee free transit exactly as before the war, with no Iranian control/regulation whatsoever . — All sanctions against Iran will be dropped should phase two negotiations go well. And America will withdraw its forces from the region. — The US ‘undertakes’ to work with Iran and Gulf allies to create a $300 billion reconstruction package for Iran. So America will now become a partner with the tyrants of Tehran, who Trump only recently wanted to overthrow, in rebuilding their economy. — All matters related to Iran’s nuclear capabilities are kicked into the ‘final agreement’ in 60 days time (or longer if necessary). — No mention of Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities or its financing of terrorist proxies. And that’s just about it. When Trump insisted the war would only end with ‘unconditional surrender’ it never crossed my mind he meant his own.

🚨PAEDOPHILE WHO EXPOSED HIMSELF TO CHILDREN SENTENCED TO £10 FINE A sex offender who repeatedly exposed himself at train stations to lone females and children has avoided prison and instead is fined £10 Leon Clarke, 49, from Sutton, admitted exposing his genitals intending to cause alarm or distress on seven occasions in the last year. Two of the offences took place at Cheam Station whilst one happened at Herne Hill Station. The other offences took place at various stations in London and Hertfordshire including Romford, Woodside Park and Croxley Green. Clarke appeared at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, May 27, and was sentenced to a one-year community order and a £10 fine. He was also given a five-year sexual harm prevention order which bans him from approaching, touching, or making any attempts to communicate with any unknown female in a public place. The order also bans Clarke from sitting next to or opposite any lone female or child at a railway station or on public transport except where there are no other seats available. Clarke has been added to the sex offenders register and will be required to register with the police until 2030. Predator awareness

Never deleting this app.

My Uncle nails it again imo: From FB So you can have sex, kids, get married (in Scotland), vote (in Scotland and shortly in England), drive, work and pay NI and tax, join the army, and get an adult passport, travel abroad on your own… but you will be banned from YouTube and social media. Well not all social media, as nice middle class social media, like BlueSky, is strangely absent from the announcements. Even worse is the curfew for people under 18! The bill is not yet worded but the portents are clear. The problem with social media, they claim, on social media, is excessive use and possible bullying and abuse. But this ban also kills off many of the social relationships and friendship groups kids form, as well as communications with their parents. There’s also a certain hypocrisy here, as adults are hardly screen-free themselves, roughly 3 hours of TV or video and 4–5 hours online per day is now normal in the UK. It won’t work for many, as they’ll switch to VPNs and fake AI ID, exposing them to further risk. Some free VPNs log data, inject dodgy ads, sell browsing information or expose users to malware. They may also give kids access to less regulated sites and porn. As the existing platforms have lot of filters and safeguards, the protections, filters, reporting routes and content, such limits may not apply, making them even more exposed. They may also shift to using more obscure, foreign, darker and dangerous platforms. When they get access to an adult account, which some will, either parent or someone they know, they have access to adult recommendations, DMs, payment details, stored cards, subscriptions and private messages. There have been cases of some unexpectedly large bills! And once they start to share log-ins, there are impersonation and bullying risks and loss of control over personal data. Worse still, you’re driving kids towards secret use, where they’ll be less keen on telling you about problems of bullying and abuse. This all makes grooming, scams, bullying, self-harm content, pornography, extremist content and drug-sales approaches harder to spot. I attended a debate on this very issue and noticed the Government folk were using highly medicalised language of addiction, detoxing and attributing mental health problems to screen time and social media, way beyond what the evidence says. These kids are not crack addicts. What the panel was buying into were Haidt’s exaggerations, where he is actually not representative of the field as a whole, and is often seen as a book-plugging opportunist. At a deeper level, there’s something else going on. The professional, managerial class see working class parents as hapless, and want to clamp down on any form of dissenting behaviour. Witness the immediate hijacking of the legislature by Starmer after Southport, when six were jailed. Thousands have been arrested. This is yet another attempt at creating this form of oppressive atmosphere that is making people angry. It is just more friction we could all do without. But forget all of the above as these are possible consequences. My main argument is that parents have the means of doing this already. On smartphones, the big guys are pretty good. Apple’s Screen Time and Family Sharing let parents set downtime, app limits, communication limits, content restrictions, purchase approval and web restrictions. Google Family Link similarly lets parents approve or block apps, set screen-time limits, manage content restrictions and locate a child’s device. There’s all sorts of checks on the onion layers, device, app-store, platform and router. And of you’re really worried, just use an app. And on platforms, there’s Instagram’s Teen Accounts that make under-18 accounts more restricted by default. TikTok has Family Pairing, which lets parents link to a teen account and manage screen time, restricted mode, direct messaging, content/privacy settings and, more recently, some interaction controls. TikTok also bars direct messaging for users under 16. A better option would have been general pressure to get easy to use parental control. Donald Clark FB

2 yrs ago when I had surgery for cancer, the lady in the next bed was visited by a hospital administrator she had not met before, not her doctor, who stood at the end of her bed and said she had no option but to have MAID. The woman said “Absolutely not! I plan to get up and dance again”. The administrator then started to argue with her saying she had no choice but MAID without explaining why. The woman said “Well I’ll talk to my family when they come on Monday.” The administrator replied “They’re coming on Monday? Good, I’ll talk to them”. She headed off the family on Monday before they saw her and they came to our room primed to convince her she had to have MAID according to the hospital. She then argued with the family that she didn’t want it. During the day she was firm but at night when they weren’t there she cried. Ultimately they convinced her and started preparing a party for her to say goodbye to all her friends. So sad. And it has made me more skeptical about MAID procedures.

@TRobinsonNewEra Why no riot gear??

There's been debates at the Oxford Union for over 200 years. Before Queen Victoria even took to the throne. The exchanging of ideas is key to growing society. This is it today. Far left degenerates blocking anyone wanting to learn or share ideas.

@BasilTheGreat Thought no one had heard of them?

"If Restore Britain win, millions of people will leave the country" "Good"

I'll repeat. My Step mum lives in Glasgow high rise. It was mostly single parents and elderly, very peaceful..the odd druggie would appear and die or be removed...now as they leave it's all immigrants. ALL. Her upstairs neighbour died and an African family moved in. No carpets. Four of them thumping about it was really loud and they often thumped about seemingly all through the night too. After 4 months of going out her mind, getting ear plugs, really trying, she had friends round who hears the thumping and it was really really bad...so she took some sweets up and knocked on door, a grumpy African man answered she said kindly, hello I live downstairs, i know you're new and don't have carpets, perhaps I can give you a number to help you get some or some help to..it's just really very loud downstairs in my home and i can't sleep so please if you could be a little mindful....she added these are for your bairns offering the sweets he slammed the door in her face. She also volunteered for the immigrants programmes and arranged free reiki and yoga and art and all sorts trips..only to find out on a trip to highlands she was looking forward to it was for 'women of colour only' yeah...thanks a fucking bunch huh? She said there is constant rubbish thrown out windows, that's a thing..the bins are a disgrace and hallways get filled with it, never seen anything like it mess

Holy fucking crap! How many times can one person blink in thirty seconds when they are lying on national television?

The state is doing all it can to take possession of everything - all you have now and all you might need in the future. They would make it that you can have and do nothing but what they permit. This is the audacity of the state now.

The Scots are ready to bury the hatchet and sing “Starmer’s a wanker” for the English. Ancient rivalry cancelled due to mutual hatred of Orwellian nonsense

Edward Snowden said it the best: "When you say 'I don't care about the right to privacy because I have nothing to hide,' that's no different than saying 'I don't care about freedom of speech because I have nothing to say.'" "Simply because you are following the law, doesn't mean that you'll be exempt from governmental interference in your private life."

Oh BRILLIANT! I love these interviews. Stop what you are doing and watch London’s Deputy Mayor! … it is truly staggering that this role pays £148,000 a year and THIS was the best person for the job And also … we really are this bad 🤡

@liamtuffs1 @ThelmasHadanuff @TRobinsonNewEra @LozzaFox @jonsac What a team! 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

Good luck lads… @TRobinsonNewEra @LozzaFox @jonsac - Oxford Union Debate night 🎤

Childhood memory unlocked 🔓 ❤️

@AlexWilsonAM @SadiqKhan Tooken? Did she say tooken?

Unbelievable! They’ve gone from denying the existence of two-tier policing to saying how important it is. 🚓 The mental gymnastics of @SadiqKhan’s cronies knows no bounds.