More Stupidity

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/8360560.stm

About sixty people have been injured during a crowd surge at Birmingham’s Christmas lights switch-on.

More than 20,000 people turned out for the event at Millennium Point, which had been due to feature acts including JLS and the Sugababes.

A city council spokesperson said more people than expected had turned out and they had feared for crowd safety.

Reports suggested up to 27,000 people were at the site by the time band JLS finished performing at 1330 GMT.

The council said a combination of fears over the number of people and bad weather led them to cancel the event.

West Midlands Ambulance Service said four people were taken to hospital and a further 56 patients were assessed by ambulance crews in a make-shift triage area.

‘Absolute chaos’

A spokeswoman said a woman in her 30s suffered serious crush injuries to her pelvis, shoulder and leg.

A second woman suffered a broken ankle, a teenage boy had a broken wrist and a teenage girl suffered crush injuries to her back and legs.

Martin Krol, who lives in a flat overlooking Millennium Point, said he saw people pushing at a fence at the front of the crowd.

He said: “Police had already stopped people from going through into the main bit because there were so many of them, so an extra line of people had been created at the back of the main crowd.

“The police were totally outnumbered – there were far too many people in the crowd for them to be able to cope.

“It was absolute chaos – the ambulances couldn’t get through – and it took quite a while for them to be able to clear the area because there were so many people.

 

Sigh. How many times do I have to say it. Some. People. Are Stupid.Beyond.Belief

Channel 5 News UK Uses Disfigured Newsreader

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8360092.stm

“A charity chief with a facial disfigurement will read the news on Channel Five for a week in an attempt to try to break down prejudice.

James Partridge, who is chief executive of Changing Faces, suffered severe burns in a car accident aged 18.

He will front the Five News lunchtime bulletin for a week from Monday.

A YouGov survey for the station found 44% of respondents thought it would be a good idea for people with facial disfigurement to present TV shows.

Some 64% of those surveyed said seeing disfigurement on screen would not cause them to change channel, but one fifth said they would feel uncomfortable seeing a disfigured presenter.”

Good news, no pun intended.

 

Stranger Mother and son duo…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/8357870.stm

The wee boy in this video is writing on his Mum’s sofa with a pen while she’s busy talking to the TV reporter. And there is something seriously amiss with her eyebrows.

God love them but….this made me laugh.

So, so sad, but I would have done the same.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/8349132.stm

“Police are to examine social networking sites on the internet as part of investigations into the murder of a mother-of-nine from Cornwall.

Mary Fox, 59, died in a fire after a firework was put through the front door of her home on Wallace Road, Bodmin.

Her 17-year-old son escaped after jumping from the first floor after she helped him to a window.

Thirty firefighters were called out to tackle the blaze at the three-storey building in Wallace Road, Bodmin, on Thursday night.

Ms Fox, whose family have described her as a “loving and caring” self-sacrificing woman, is believed to have gone back to rescue her cat after helping her son escape.“

I believe it’s a very noble thing to value a trapped animal’s life so much that you are willing to risk your own to save it. If going back into a burning building to save a human life is heroic, why is it not also heroic to try and save the life of an animal?

The value of human life is hugely over-estimated. It was humans, after all, who maliciously started the fire.

Jan Moir – Bigot Of The Year

http://londonersdiary.standard.co.uk/2009/11/traitors-gate-beckons-for-jan-moir.html

“ACERBIC Daily Mail columnist Jan Moir has been recognised for her weekly effusions with a last minute nomination in the Bigot of the Year category at tomorrow’s Stonewall awards ceremony.

The gay rights charity has even invited Moir to the event but is unsure whether she will attend.

In her column the day before Stephen Gately’s funeral, Moir said there were unanswered questions about his death which had occurred in “sleazy” circumstances. She wrote the death “strikes another blow to the happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships.”

Moir was forced publicly to apologise to Stephen Gately’s family and friends for the timing of a column last month about the death of the Boyzone singer, which prompted a record 25,000 complaints to the press watchdog, but also defended it, saying she did not hold “poisonous” homophobic views.

Guests at the Stonewall bash include Gok Wan, Mary Portas, Sue Perkins, Russell Tovey, John Bercow and Ben Bradshaw.

Moir might be wise to give the event a wide berth.”

Well-deserved this is and it couldn’t have gone to a nicer person.

Please note that she did, indeed, ONLY apologise for the timing of her article, not its contents, so it actually was a very crafty and disingenuous “apology”, probably very carefully conceived by her and her editor. Such is the calibre of these people.

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Massive Respect to Easyjet.

I want to thank the Easyjet ground staff at Glasgow and Alicante airport for treating my Mum and Aunt so well on their recent trip to Spain. Mum has had a stroke, and is partially sighted and has arthritis and neither woman is as sprightly as she used to be! They have been going to Spain every year for yonks and not one airline thought to put them on the plane first among those passengers requiring extra time to get seated. Easyjet did.

I used Easyjet for years to travel to Holland, until they pulled the service from the route and I always loved them.

Two teenage girls and teenage boy kick gay man to death in London

http://www.samesame.com.au/news/international/4655/Man-Killed-By-Two-Girls-In-London.htm

“A gay man who was assaulted by two girls close to Trafalgar Square has died in hospital. BBC reports that 62 year old Ian Baynham was punched and kicked to the ground on September 25, his death caused by head injuries. His life support was switched off on Tuesday.

A 30 year old man who was with him also suffered minor injuries.

Police said that Bayman and his friend were verbally abused by a woman when they got off a bus late one night in Central London. When Bayman went to reason with her he was attacked by her and her two friends, a man and another woman.

The two blonde teenage girls screamed homophobic insults while kicking him as he lay helpless. CCTV footage shows them laughing after the attack.

Detective Chief Inspector Alexis Boon said, “This was a vicious homophobic attack on two men who had done nothing more than come into central London to enjoy a night out and were verbally abused and assaulted within minutes of getting off the bus.”

It’s views like those of Jan Moir which make attacks like this more likely.

Gang of up to 20 youths attacked off-duty trainee police officer in homophobic attack

…outside a gay bar in Liverpool city centre.

Four boys from the Kirkdale area, one aged 17, two aged 15 and one 14, have been arrested on suspicion of assault.

The officer is in hospital with multiple skull fractures and fractures of his eye-socket and cheek bone. His condition was described as “very critical”.

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to to make the Press Complaints Commission a Public Body

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/makePCCPublic/

This is to give the Press Complaints Commission BALLS!

Sign it or else!