BY JAMIE FOSTER Alison Saunders has announced she is stepping down as head of the Crown Prosecution Service after five years in post. Hers has been a controversial tenure, leaving behind a mixed legacy. Her main ambition, to secure more convictions in sex cases, has led to a string of failures and near miscarriages of justice. High profile men have had their names dragged through … Continue reading Saunders’ Patchy Reign Over
BY JAMIE FOSTER Celebrity lawyer “Mr Loophole’ Nick Freeman was attending his old public school reunion dinner when last week’s bad weather prevented him from travelling. This left him with two booked and paid for rooms at a four star hotel in London. Rather than letting them go to waste he asked his daughter to offer the rooms to a homeless charity. His daughter contacted … Continue reading Charity Sector in a Mess
BY JAMIE FOSTER It is reported that Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are using an online hate index created by the Anti Defamation League to moderate hate speech on social media. The online hate index is a machine based AI programme that searches out and identifies examples of hate speech so that action can be taken. This opens a massive can of worms concerning what hate … Continue reading Online Hate Index is Frightening
BY JAMIE FOSTER Jeremy Corbyn has spelled out Labour’s position on the EU stating that he wishes to have a customs union with the EU that will leave the UK a say in trade deals struck with other nations. At first blush this would appear a fantastical position. Having left the EU it is impossible that Britain could have either a vote or a veto … Continue reading Remoaner Corbyn
BY JAMIE FOSTER Jeremy Corbyn’s reaction to press allegations that he may have passed information to a Czech spy in the 1980s comes straight out of the Donald Trump playbook but may be reminiscent of even more totalitarian characters. The press have made a point of allegations that Corbyn met with a Czech spy at the House of Commons. The former spy alleges that Corbyn … Continue reading Corny Cob’s Puny Denials
BY JAMIE FOSTER George Soros, the Hungarian-American Billionaire investor has caused yet more furore as it has emerged that he has invested a further £100,000 in an anti Brexit organisation, Better for Britain, bringing the total invested by him up to £500,000. The main argument that Soros faces is that, as a foreigner, he is trying to interfere in British politics. Nick Timothy, in his … Continue reading Brits’ Satisfying Soros Payback
BY JAMIE FOSTER Anyone joining Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party may be excused for being a little confused about the rules that may lead to them being asked to leave a job or the party itself. Recent events do nothing to clarify the position. Lord Mendelsohn, for example, has just been asked to leave his front bench position as a result of having attended the President’s … Continue reading Labour’s Moral Relativism
BY JAMIE FOSTER UKIP is facing a crisis as a wave of resignations sweeps across key positions in the party over the leadership of Henry Bolton. The ex army officer already faced a vote of no confidence from UKIP’s NEC but is refusing to step down following reports about racist texts allegedly sent by his girlfriend Jo Marney. She is alleged to have said that … Continue reading UKIP’s Existential Crisis?
BY JAMIE FOSTER The latest row at the BBC shows how byzantine and secretive the organisation is and how unfit for its role as a public broadcaster it is. China editor Carrie Gracie has quit her role in protest over the fact that male colleagues in similar roles get paid 50% more to do their jobs. She is supported by a massive twitter campaign under … Continue reading Byzantine BBC
BY JAMIE FOSTER In the summer, newly elected Labour MP Laura Pidcock said, in an interview for the Labour-supporting propaganda website Squawkbox (they call it Skwawkbox), that she has no intention of making friends with any Tory MPs as they are the enemy. The MP Nadine Dorries criticised her juvenile attitude on Twitter. Another Labour MP, Mike Amesbury, has now also come out publicly to … Continue reading The Death of Grown Up Politics?
BY JAMIE FOSTER “For me, comedy starts as a spew, a kind of explosion, and then you sculpt it from there, if at all. It comes out of a deeper, darker side. Maybe it comes from anger, because I’m outraged by cruel absurdities, the hypocrisy that exists everywhere, even within yourself, where it’s hardest to see.” Robin Williams There is nothing new about hypocrisy, it … Continue reading Bring Back Integrity
BY JAMIE FOSTER An article in the Daily Express caught my eye this week. It is based on a report by the group A New Pact For Europe which claims that the rise in populist parties across Europe offers a threat to the very existence of the EU. The report states that members of the European public are disenchanted with the political class who are … Continue reading The Undercurrent of European Euroscepticism
BY JAMIE FOSTER A Daily Mail investigation has revealed that top universities are using wealth screening organisations to spy on their alumni to discover if they are likely to make donations. Millions of graduates have had their details passed to such organisations. If their consent wasn’t obtained to do this, then the universities may have broken the law. A number of charities were fined last … Continue reading University Greed
BY JAMIE FOSTER Michael Gove has announced a new Environmental Watchdog which will be created to protect Britain’s wildlife, land, sea and air following Brexit. It is intended to be a bulwark against the powerful and to ensure that environmental standards don’t slip when we leave the EU. A cross party environmental committee has expressed concern about what will happen in the aftermath of Brexit. … Continue reading Gove’s Environmental Watchdog
BY JAMIE FOSTER If you didn’t think that Remainists could get any more brittle or inward-looking, hold your nose then take a few moments to look through Alastair Campbell’s newish publication the ‘New European.’ It is a paper with a circulation of about 20,000 a week set up to whine about Brexit. It is replete with attack pieces about Brexiteers by the usual well and … Continue reading The New Pygmaean
BY JAMIE FOSTER We have reached a point in time where being offended is a default reaction to anything said by a political opponent. Take the Gove example last week – on the Today programme Gove made a rather unremarkable joke about John Humphrys’ interview technique. “Sometimes I think coming into the studio with you John is a bit like going into Harvey Weinstein’s bedroom, … Continue reading Humourless
BY JAMIE FOSTER Tom Watson is going on hunger strike for a day to raise awareness of the plight of two detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Ahmed Rabbans and Khalid Qasim. The two have been on hunger strike for 28 days in protest against their detention. The MP is calling on other MPs to follow his example and demanding that Theresa May puts pressure on Donald … Continue reading The Watson Diet
BY JAMIE FOSTER Theresa May’s conference speech raised an important question this year. Is Simon Brodkin funny? The prankster, also known as Lee Nelson, (the persona he adopts for television), offered her a P45 from Boris during the speech. It was, at best, a weak joke, reliant upon the embarrassment it caused for its humour. Brodkin has staged a number of such high-profile stunts. He … Continue reading Is Simon Brodkin Funny?
BY JAMIE FOSTER Theresa May’s speech in Florence set out her government’s approach to Brexit in some detail. The message appears to be that the can is to be kicked down the road. A transitional arrangement that will last for an undetermined amount of time, believed to be two years, will see the UK remain in the single market, continue to pay into the EU … Continue reading Florence Failure
BY JAMIE FOSTER It emerged in a recent Daily Mail article that Tory MP Bob Stewart’s son has been the subject of abuse at school due to his father’s job. Appallingly the abuse was directed at him by a teacher who told classmates not to talk to him because his father is a Conservative. For a 13 year old this sort of situation must be … Continue reading Backing Bob
