Britain - The Official Thread

[UKMikey]

This seemingly prescient New Statesman clip from 30 years ago was doing the rounds a couple or so months back:

Spoiler: nsfw screenshot at end

 

[Liquid]

Suspended sentence for Huw Edwards seems... lenient.

 

[HenrySwanson]

Suspended sentence for Huw Edwards seems... lenient.

It's awful.

 

[CrookedPanda]

Suspended sentence for Huw Edwards seems... lenient.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2...mitting-accessing-indecent-images-of-children

"As he handed down the sentence, the chief magistrate said he had accepted evidence that Edwards had no recollection of viewing the indecent images owing to his mental health issues at the time of the offences."

Seems... convenient.

 

[Famine]

Suspended sentence for Huw Edwards seems... lenient.

Seems it got more and more horrible as it went along.

Originally it was exchanging pics with a 17yo which is... illegal but they could legally bone and it's one of those bizarre technicalities that doing the act is fine but filming or photographing the act is bad.

Then it was that he'd been exchanging messages with a guy who sent him pics that included CSAM after he'd said not to include CSAM - where the "making of" was simply the act of viewing them because the device created a local copy (which is how things work).

Now he actively agreed to seeing CSAM and commented on it and the request not to send more was later on.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Suspended sentence for Huw Edwards seems... lenient.

Par for the course. I had a friend who also was found guilty of three counts of 'making' Cat A porn against him, and he basically got the same, plus 100 hours community service. This was a couple of years ago. Like it or not, custodial sentences don't seem to be the favoured way of dealing with this.

 

[TheCracker]

Like it or not, custodial sentences don't seem to be the favoured way of dealing with this.

Prisons are also full at the moment - thanks to the recent imigrant riots and the subsquent ongoing rapid trials of those charged, so the courts are not sending people down who normally would be for this level of offence.

 

[Fezzik]

Par for the course. I had a friend who also was found guilty of three counts of 'making' Cat A porn against him, and he basically got the same, plus 100 hours community service. This was a couple of years ago. Like it or not, custodial sentences don't seem to be the favoured way of dealing with this.

Meanwhile the ecoterrorists get 3-5 years. Crimes against kids, ok. Crimes against the economy, PRISON.
Not to mention all those still stuck in jail for many years past their original sentences because of IPP.

The whole system is a complete mess. You'd hope the present government could do something about it with a former DPP in charge but I very much doubt it, to them it would not be worth anymore bad press about releasing people.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Prisons are also full at the moment

As I said, my mates conviction was a couple of years ago, that had been delayed over the Pandemic, and at that point it was ongoing for 1-2 years already, and the offence was committed something like 18 months before that. I don't think Edwards's seemingly lenient sentence is anything to do with the current situation, beyond the fact that the Police and Judicial systems are under resourced and have been for years. I have another friend who worked for West Midlands Police catching online sex offenders, from what he said it likely wasn't even the UK police that original caught my mate - he reckoned it (my mates IP) was flagged up by the Americans and that was why it was a year and a half between him accessing the file and the Police turning up on his doorstep.

I have to say, having seen the process up close, knowing the person for 20 years, and having chatted to my police friend about it (who's seen some properly terrible stuff), we're terrible (as a society) at reacting to it in a sensible fashion, and that likely hampers prevention, detection, punishment and potential 'rehabilitation'.

 

[Dave A]

Suspended sentence for Huw Edwards seems... lenient.

Yet he has still received a more sever punishment than the man who was supplying him with the images. Definitely lenient, to them both.

I think the judge in this case has followed the guidlines on sentencing based on the situation and case as it has been presented. I don't think overcrowded prisons are the reason for this, it's the current sentencing guidance for this type of offence married with the defence and guilty plea.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Yet he has still received a more sever punishment than the man who was supplying him with the images.

6 month suspended sentence for Edwards (reduced from 12), 12 months for Alex Williams. Williams's sentence looks like it should have been more since it appears to qualify as distribution, for which 2-3 years is the recommended minimum. Perhaps he got a reduction for assisting the investigation into Edwards.

 

[Dave A]

6 month suspended sentence for Edwards (reduced from 12), 12 months for Alex Williams. Williams's sentence looks like it should have been more since it appears to qualify as distribution, for which 2-3 years is the recommended minimum. Perhaps he got a reduction for assisting the investigation into Edwards.

I stand corrected, I mixed up it being suspended for 2 years as a 2 year suspended sentence.

 

[HenrySwanson]

Physician Assistants - as they were called until recently - were ‘sold’ to doctors 20 years ago as removing the administrative burden that junior (now resident) doctors face - scribing on ward rounds, routine tasks like catheters, cannulas, bloods, ‘chasing’ results, etc…

Instead we have a dystopian situation where qualified doctors are left doing the grunt work while PAs - unregulated, less qualified (60% are med school rejects) are doing surgery, running clinics, seeing you as a patient if your GP suspects cancer. In theatre we have anaesthetic associates giving you anaesthesia.

All at the same time as getting paid more than many of our junior doctors.

The GMC, DoH and medical colleges have been complicit in this lower of standards and safety in the NHS. some big whigs like the ex RCGP president - initials CG - have multisite practices built on employing cheap PAs rather than GPs. In fact - bizarrely- ARRS funding (some extra £ for general practice) - can with a specific note that you can employ PAs but not GPs with the £. So practices were in the bizarre situation of getting a ‘free’ PA from DoH funding vs paying for a salaried GP.

Thankfully there is a significant multipronged push back against this cosplaying by pseudo-doctors - and every survey undertaken shows the detrimental effect PAs are having on resistant doctors - who we all need as they will become consultants and GPs.

My own interactions with PAs - big chips on their shoulders about not being ‘doctors’ , too confident in their own (basic) knowledge, unable to think outside of the box and no appreciation of what the don’t know they don’t know. lots of near misses and harm that had to be subsequently rectified.

As a patient or a relative, I would keep a close eye if you encounter these individuals.

https://archive.ph/hBC2z

 

[HenrySwanson]

Sir Mark said: "With crime, it is less about the numbers than the severity. It was over 300 arrests, there were two murders at this year's carnival and I think there were six other stabbings, and 60-70 weapons recovered.

“This is a very different arrest profile to what you would see at even at the most difficult football matches or Glastonbury, or something like that,” he added.

"Crime control is much harder because it’s a poorly run event. It’s not run by experts in event management in the way that most big events are."

Notting Hill Carnival: Met chief says event is 'poorly run'

Sir Mark Rowley says he fears a “mass fatality event” like the Hillsborough disaster, through crushing.

www.bbc.co.uk

Khan's off to a good third term, but now's the time for action.