The Femicide Census Annual Report is not something which i would recommend reading but it does have some very interesting statistics regarding just when, how and why women are killed in England and Wales.
The most likely murder place for a woman is in her home where 43% of women are killed by their boyfriend, partner or husband while 11% are killed by a stranger.
The most often cited reason for the murder is jealousy and the most popular methods for the murder is by stabbing (25%) and by strangulation (20%).
While most women die at the hand of their partner in the home, most men murdered are done so in the street or a public place and the most likely perpetrator is someone they know (34%) although 30% are killed by someone they have never met before who is likely to be another male.
The most likely cited reason is an argument that has escalated or a show of dominance and knives are responsible for most deaths, especially amongst young black men.
Partners or ex-partners are responsible for 4% of male murders but in both male and female deaths, previous violent episodes are recorded.
Friday, 7 June 2019
Anarchy In The UK Finally
The Sex Pistols were not only one of the greatest bands the UK has ever produced but they were amazing visionaries because as Theresa May packs up her kitten heels and leaves Downing Street for the last time, Britain is now Government free until the Conservatives crown another leader who will by default become Prime Minister so...ANARCHY IN THE UK!!!
With the tune firmly reverberating around my head, i set off with a claw hammer and a crowbar and list of shops whose wares i have taken a fancy to but just as i was about to lob a brick through the local jewellers window, my Anarchist friend stopped me and told me that Anarchy was not about smashing things up but about rejecting authoritarian government and maintaining voluntary institutions best suited to express man's natural social tendencies.
All very nice but i don't recall that line in the Sex Pistols song but most importantly it doesn't end with me making off with a new, free sofa so i referred back to the 1976 song and can quite clearly hear Johnny Rotten singing something about stopping a traffic line but he distinctly says at the end 'get pissed, destroy'.
That's settled that then, Anarchists can keep their key principles of self-organisation, voluntary association, freedom and autonomy because there is a lovely Chesterfield in Argos's window and i quite fancy that top in Next and it's three weeks until payday.
With the tune firmly reverberating around my head, i set off with a claw hammer and a crowbar and list of shops whose wares i have taken a fancy to but just as i was about to lob a brick through the local jewellers window, my Anarchist friend stopped me and told me that Anarchy was not about smashing things up but about rejecting authoritarian government and maintaining voluntary institutions best suited to express man's natural social tendencies.
All very nice but i don't recall that line in the Sex Pistols song but most importantly it doesn't end with me making off with a new, free sofa so i referred back to the 1976 song and can quite clearly hear Johnny Rotten singing something about stopping a traffic line but he distinctly says at the end 'get pissed, destroy'.
That's settled that then, Anarchists can keep their key principles of self-organisation, voluntary association, freedom and autonomy because there is a lovely Chesterfield in Argos's window and i quite fancy that top in Next and it's three weeks until payday.
Wednesday, 5 June 2019
Trump Just The Latest Unsavoury Character In The UK
Theresa May has quite rightly been getting it in the neck for inviting Donald Trump over for a full state visit but he is the latest in a long line of unsavoury characters the Queen has been asked to entertain by the Government of the day.
In 1971 Japan's Emperor Hirohito was invited over for the full package which as the Japanese wartime head of state, didn't go down with angry veterans and former British prisoners of war, who joined the thousands whistling the Second World War march, Colonel Bogey, as he passed by in the horse drawn carriage.
Romania's Nicolae Ceausescu came for the visit in 1978 and the Queen even gave him an honoury knighthood although she admitted to trying her best to spend as little time with him as possible during the trip.
Japan's Emperor Akihito came over in 1998, the son of Emperor Hirohito, was treated to protesters turning their backs on him as he passed by in the carriage down the Mall which is not as bad as the protester who threw himself in front of Russia's President Putin's motorcade when he was given the full regal treatment in 2003.
The US President George W Bush followed Putin to Buckingham Palace in 2003 which was really bad timing as the Iraq War demonstrations were in full swing and tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to protest against the war, including an effigy of Mr Bush being toppled in Trafalgar Square. Eggs were thrown at the presidential cavalcade and £5m of extra security was drafted in.
Protesters followed around Chinese President Hu Jintao during his turn in 2005 although the Government did there best to block the leader seeing protesters by ordering police vans be lined in front of them although they never tried it when King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia came over and he was greeted by a line of demonstrators all the way down the Mall.
The Chinese President Xi Jinping was here in 2015 and he was treated to running battles between human rights protesters and Chinese supporters during Xi's procession to Buckingham Palace, the carriage avoiding a protester who sat in the road.
So Britain has a history of inviting over some of the World's worst leaders and i'm sure there will be more after Trump, especially as we will need the business after Brexit.
In 1971 Japan's Emperor Hirohito was invited over for the full package which as the Japanese wartime head of state, didn't go down with angry veterans and former British prisoners of war, who joined the thousands whistling the Second World War march, Colonel Bogey, as he passed by in the horse drawn carriage.
Romania's Nicolae Ceausescu came for the visit in 1978 and the Queen even gave him an honoury knighthood although she admitted to trying her best to spend as little time with him as possible during the trip.
Japan's Emperor Akihito came over in 1998, the son of Emperor Hirohito, was treated to protesters turning their backs on him as he passed by in the carriage down the Mall which is not as bad as the protester who threw himself in front of Russia's President Putin's motorcade when he was given the full regal treatment in 2003.
The US President George W Bush followed Putin to Buckingham Palace in 2003 which was really bad timing as the Iraq War demonstrations were in full swing and tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to protest against the war, including an effigy of Mr Bush being toppled in Trafalgar Square. Eggs were thrown at the presidential cavalcade and £5m of extra security was drafted in.
Protesters followed around Chinese President Hu Jintao during his turn in 2005 although the Government did there best to block the leader seeing protesters by ordering police vans be lined in front of them although they never tried it when King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia came over and he was greeted by a line of demonstrators all the way down the Mall.
The Chinese President Xi Jinping was here in 2015 and he was treated to running battles between human rights protesters and Chinese supporters during Xi's procession to Buckingham Palace, the carriage avoiding a protester who sat in the road.
So Britain has a history of inviting over some of the World's worst leaders and i'm sure there will be more after Trump, especially as we will need the business after Brexit.
Tuesday, 4 June 2019
Best Of British
Some favourites include 'I'm awfully British, you're just awful', 'Orange is the new stupid' and 'Dear Queen, don't offer him the good biscuits' but some were more blunt such as 'All in all you're another prick without no wall' and 'Fascist Twat'.
There was a baby holding a sign that said 'You're more of a baby than me' and some schoolkids who went with 'Trump is a wally' and there was even my all time favourite of 'Impeach the Orange' which always tickles me.
The runner up and so very British was 'I took the day off work and found a babysitter and came all this way just to tell you you're a wanker' but for Britishness the award for best Trump protest sign has to be 'We're British, we're polite but Fuck off please'.
Brilliant, well done to us British.
Trump In The UK: Day 2
As we learnt at his inauguration, Donald has a problem with judging crowd sizes so we can excuse him when he said the protests in London against him coming to our shores was 'very small' and 'thousands had lined the streets to welcome him' or maybe he just didn't notice the 75,000 people waving banners telling him to feck off.
He never mentioned the giant, orange baby blimp flown in his honour but it may be he had his head down working out what the NHS stood for because after he said it would be part of the negotiations for any trade deal, Theresa May had to explain to him exactly what it was.
At least we know that chlorinated chicken is exactly what it says on the tin, or box of chlorine, which America wants to send to our supermarket shelves when we leave the EU and lower our food standards.
He also explained that there wouldn't be any problem with any shared intelligence which was later proved true as he met with Nigel Farage and had a telephone conversation with Boris Johnson so no intelligence was shared then but he did refuse to meet the opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn, describing him as a negative force which led to several kettles and pots exploding.
Trump did seem to have a problem speaking and kept tripping over his own words but English is the president’s second language, the first being utter bollocks.
A disappointingly tame day in terms of Trumpyness and he ended the day with a banquet at the American Embassy and so keeping up his valiant effort to become the second fattest President ever.
It's my home town of Portsmouth tomorrow and as 1,634,917 people have told me, Portsmouth is an anagram of Shoot Trump so maybe we will be bringing a little bit of America to Southsea Common.
He never mentioned the giant, orange baby blimp flown in his honour but it may be he had his head down working out what the NHS stood for because after he said it would be part of the negotiations for any trade deal, Theresa May had to explain to him exactly what it was.
At least we know that chlorinated chicken is exactly what it says on the tin, or box of chlorine, which America wants to send to our supermarket shelves when we leave the EU and lower our food standards.
He also explained that there wouldn't be any problem with any shared intelligence which was later proved true as he met with Nigel Farage and had a telephone conversation with Boris Johnson so no intelligence was shared then but he did refuse to meet the opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn, describing him as a negative force which led to several kettles and pots exploding.
Trump did seem to have a problem speaking and kept tripping over his own words but English is the president’s second language, the first being utter bollocks.
A disappointingly tame day in terms of Trumpyness and he ended the day with a banquet at the American Embassy and so keeping up his valiant effort to become the second fattest President ever.
It's my home town of Portsmouth tomorrow and as 1,634,917 people have told me, Portsmouth is an anagram of Shoot Trump so maybe we will be bringing a little bit of America to Southsea Common.
Trump In The UK: Day 1
Probably my favourite moment of the day was when the third fattest President ever of the United States said he never saw any protesters, just hordes of welcomers outside the gates of Buckingham Palace who were actually protesters but to be fair, it is easy to confuse a sign saying 'Trump For Prison' for one that says 'Welcome Mr President' and he is barely literate.
It had all began so well with him abusing the Lord Mayor of the city that he is staying in and the sight of Trump clambering out of Airforce one to wave briefly to the absolutely zero people gathered to greet him apart from the pageantry who had to be there to make sure he didn't wander off.
Melania came dressed as a flight attendant but went through clothes changes like her husband changes dinner plates and it was noted that when they turned up at Buckingham Place to meet the Queen, who wore the fixed grin of someone who has just received a present she hates, it was noted that she doesn’t usually wear gloves to shake hands with world leaders, but has chosen to this time, best to be safe, never known what that hand had been grabbing just before.
Checking to make sure the mace spray was in her handbag, they went on a tour and was joined by Prince Harry who did his best to deliberately avoid the man who said that he could have 'nailed' his mum.
The day ended with a slap up banquet back at Lizzie's place, steamed fillet of halibut, watercress mousse, asparagus spears and a chervil sauce with Windsor lamb with herb stuffing, spring vegetables and a port sauce and then a Strawberry sable and lemon verbena cream or as Donald usually calls it, a snack.
As 17 stone Trump (ahem) is only 3 stone behind Grover Cleveland, by the time he lands back in the USA he could be well be the second fattest President ever.
It had all began so well with him abusing the Lord Mayor of the city that he is staying in and the sight of Trump clambering out of Airforce one to wave briefly to the absolutely zero people gathered to greet him apart from the pageantry who had to be there to make sure he didn't wander off.
Melania came dressed as a flight attendant but went through clothes changes like her husband changes dinner plates and it was noted that when they turned up at Buckingham Place to meet the Queen, who wore the fixed grin of someone who has just received a present she hates, it was noted that she doesn’t usually wear gloves to shake hands with world leaders, but has chosen to this time, best to be safe, never known what that hand had been grabbing just before.
Checking to make sure the mace spray was in her handbag, they went on a tour and was joined by Prince Harry who did his best to deliberately avoid the man who said that he could have 'nailed' his mum.
The day ended with a slap up banquet back at Lizzie's place, steamed fillet of halibut, watercress mousse, asparagus spears and a chervil sauce with Windsor lamb with herb stuffing, spring vegetables and a port sauce and then a Strawberry sable and lemon verbena cream or as Donald usually calls it, a snack.
As 17 stone Trump (ahem) is only 3 stone behind Grover Cleveland, by the time he lands back in the USA he could be well be the second fattest President ever.
Monday, 3 June 2019
Welcome To The UK Donald
While he is here Donald Trump is not actually visiting anywhere where he will meet any protesters, but he will be meeting many politicians and royals, or rather the ones who haven't managed to come up with a previous excuse.
Labour and Lib Dem leaders Jeremy Corbyn and Vince Cable, have returned their invites to the Buckingham Palace banquet with a 'we will not be attending' message and Meghan Markle is staying away after she branded her fellow American 'misogynistic and divisive' and 'super creepy'.
The meeting with Prince Charles, William and Harry may be interesting considering that Trump said that 'he could have nailed her' and bombarded Diana with massive bouquets of flowers.
Boris Johnson is on his agenda for a meeting but Boris once said he found Trump to be stupefyingly ignorant and 'unfit to hold the office of President of the United States' while Labour’s shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry did not mince her words by calling him 'an asteroid of awfulness' as well as a danger, a racist and a sexual predator'.
If he wins the Tory leadership, Michael Gove, should be reminded that he mocked Trumps 'glowing, sodium orange skin', his hair and his 'narcissistic and egotistical' personality although David Cameron will be nowhere in sight although he did say if Trump was ever to visit the UK he would 'unite us all against him' which appears to be one of the most honest things he ever said.
Other politicians he may bump into is Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon who said of Trump that he was a racist, sexist, misogynist and intolerant or there is David Lammy who decided to go with a 'woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath'.
Caroline Lucas of the Greens plumped for plain old 'racist bigot' and 'a bully' while it might be good to be a fly on the wall if he meets the London Mayor who today compared him and his supporters to 'the fascists of the 20th Century'.
Welcome to the UK Donald.
Labour and Lib Dem leaders Jeremy Corbyn and Vince Cable, have returned their invites to the Buckingham Palace banquet with a 'we will not be attending' message and Meghan Markle is staying away after she branded her fellow American 'misogynistic and divisive' and 'super creepy'.
The meeting with Prince Charles, William and Harry may be interesting considering that Trump said that 'he could have nailed her' and bombarded Diana with massive bouquets of flowers.
Boris Johnson is on his agenda for a meeting but Boris once said he found Trump to be stupefyingly ignorant and 'unfit to hold the office of President of the United States' while Labour’s shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry did not mince her words by calling him 'an asteroid of awfulness' as well as a danger, a racist and a sexual predator'.
If he wins the Tory leadership, Michael Gove, should be reminded that he mocked Trumps 'glowing, sodium orange skin', his hair and his 'narcissistic and egotistical' personality although David Cameron will be nowhere in sight although he did say if Trump was ever to visit the UK he would 'unite us all against him' which appears to be one of the most honest things he ever said.
Other politicians he may bump into is Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon who said of Trump that he was a racist, sexist, misogynist and intolerant or there is David Lammy who decided to go with a 'woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath'.
Caroline Lucas of the Greens plumped for plain old 'racist bigot' and 'a bully' while it might be good to be a fly on the wall if he meets the London Mayor who today compared him and his supporters to 'the fascists of the 20th Century'.
Welcome to the UK Donald.
Sunday, 2 June 2019
Making Me Feel Old
The BBC channel has been re-running some old Top of The Pops and at the end they show you the year that song was a hit and after almost every song i say 'that can't be right'.
I clearly remember hearing Nirvana bang out Smells Like Teen Spirit for the first time on The Word and was quite shocked to see it was 1991, 28 years ago, which means that it is now as old as 'Surfin' USA' by The Beach Boys and 'He's so fine' by the Chiffons when it was released.
Will Smith was being interviewed on the TV and my husband mentioned how old he is looking now which hurt as he is the same age as me which got me wondering just what else do i refuse to acknowledge is telling me that my youth is quickly vanishing in the rear-view mirror.
I still say i will need to 'tape that' or put the tape on for that' when i see something i want to record on television which my children find hilarious and i saw people queueing up to go see Detective Pickachu who were not even born when the cartoon series introduced him to us in 1997.
Seeing a birth year of 2000 on application forms always makes me think at first glance that they entered the date wrong before i realise that they would make them 19 and once i could run for miles and just feel a bit out of breath and no aches while now i ache for the rest of the day just by sitting at a funny angle for 10 minutes.
The 'Now That's What I Call Music' series has reached 102 and i have number 2 in my record collection, bought for me as a 14th birthday present and playing 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' by
I clearly remember hearing Nirvana bang out Smells Like Teen Spirit for the first time on The Word and was quite shocked to see it was 1991, 28 years ago, which means that it is now as old as 'Surfin' USA' by The Beach Boys and 'He's so fine' by the Chiffons when it was released.
Will Smith was being interviewed on the TV and my husband mentioned how old he is looking now which hurt as he is the same age as me which got me wondering just what else do i refuse to acknowledge is telling me that my youth is quickly vanishing in the rear-view mirror.
I still say i will need to 'tape that' or put the tape on for that' when i see something i want to record on television which my children find hilarious and i saw people queueing up to go see Detective Pickachu who were not even born when the cartoon series introduced him to us in 1997.
Seeing a birth year of 2000 on application forms always makes me think at first glance that they entered the date wrong before i realise that they would make them 19 and once i could run for miles and just feel a bit out of breath and no aches while now i ache for the rest of the day just by sitting at a funny angle for 10 minutes.
The 'Now That's What I Call Music' series has reached 102 and i have number 2 in my record collection, bought for me as a 14th birthday present and playing 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' by
Cyndi Lauper over and over.
Worst of all is one of my favourite films is Back To The Future, where Marty McFly travelled back 30 years to a very old fashioned looking 1955 and realise that if he made the same trip today, he would have to go back to 1989! Bloody hell, i'm feeling old all of a sudden.
Austerity Britain Report #2
Austerity reports are like buses, nothing for ages and then two come along at once so on the heels of the UN report that the Governments austerity drive had inflicted 'great misery on it's people with punitive, mean spirited and callous measures', on the desk of the Prime Minister now drops the report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) that those same austerity measures had resulted in over 130,000 deaths in the UK since 2012.
The IPPR found that, after two decades in which preventable diseases were reduced as a result of spending on better education and prevention, there has been a seven-year slump in which state provision has been pared back because of significant budget cuts to public health services.
The IPPR calls for a large increase in the budget to replace the 5,100 health visitors who have been cut and a reversal of the £700m reduction in public health funding and to plug a £3.6bn gap in funding for social care.
If you ever wondered what the UK would be like after 10 years of Conservative Government, have a look, and if you are still tempted to vote for them ever again, then you haven't look hard or long enough.
The IPPR found that, after two decades in which preventable diseases were reduced as a result of spending on better education and prevention, there has been a seven-year slump in which state provision has been pared back because of significant budget cuts to public health services.
The IPPR calls for a large increase in the budget to replace the 5,100 health visitors who have been cut and a reversal of the £700m reduction in public health funding and to plug a £3.6bn gap in funding for social care.
If you ever wondered what the UK would be like after 10 years of Conservative Government, have a look, and if you are still tempted to vote for them ever again, then you haven't look hard or long enough.
Is Trump An Actual Fascist?
This week on my blog is going to be very Donald Trump heavy as he is here and he is bound to do or say something stupid, insensitive or just plain crazy several times a day and until Thursday at least the whole media circus is going to be concentrating on him and his entourage so little else will get a look in which will make a nice change to Brexit.
One word which is going to be bandied about, and used today by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, to describe the crazy haired lunatic is 'Facist' but it is hard to know how accurate that is because fascist and fascism is hard to nail down.
Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini are probably the most famous fascists but author of many books on Fascism, Robert Paxman, explains that Fascism is all about arousing enthusiasm by propaganda techniques for an anti-liberal, anti-socialist, exclusionary nationalist agenda while George Orwell in his essay 'What Is Fascism?' explains what is the most common traits of a fascist.
He found that fascist leaders scapegoat and demonise other groups to gain a common enemy to unite against, refer to a glorious past and wish to return to it, not allowing dissent or challenge, rid their Government of the previous laws and decisions of previous leaders, to create their own, use the nations resources to build up the military to which they threaten weaker and smaller nations.
So to judge Trumps fascist tendencies, he certainly has scapegoated many including Mexicans (rapists and criminals), the media (enemy of the people) and Muslims so he gets a massive tick for that one.
His clarion call of 'Make America Great Again' satisfies the harking back to a better time agenda and CNN lists 62 members of his staff who have either been sacked or resigned under pressure, famously sacking FBI director James Comey when he refused to pledge loyalty to him.
Trumps whole time in administration has seen him energetically rolling back his predecessors laws and decisions and although he hasn't actually used the military during his time in office, he has threatened to destroy North Korea, warned of the end of Iran, has discussed sending the military to overthrow the Venezuela leadership and sent armed troops to the Mexico border while significantly increasing military spending from 2.4% to 4.7% to $750 billion.
Nobody can deny Paxman's criteria of pushing an anti-liberal, anti-socialist agenda is not spot on so when we also take George Orwell's definitions of what makes a fascist, then Trump is overwhelmingly one and the use of the word is legitimate.
One word which is going to be bandied about, and used today by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, to describe the crazy haired lunatic is 'Facist' but it is hard to know how accurate that is because fascist and fascism is hard to nail down.
Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini are probably the most famous fascists but author of many books on Fascism, Robert Paxman, explains that Fascism is all about arousing enthusiasm by propaganda techniques for an anti-liberal, anti-socialist, exclusionary nationalist agenda while George Orwell in his essay 'What Is Fascism?' explains what is the most common traits of a fascist.
He found that fascist leaders scapegoat and demonise other groups to gain a common enemy to unite against, refer to a glorious past and wish to return to it, not allowing dissent or challenge, rid their Government of the previous laws and decisions of previous leaders, to create their own, use the nations resources to build up the military to which they threaten weaker and smaller nations.
So to judge Trumps fascist tendencies, he certainly has scapegoated many including Mexicans (rapists and criminals), the media (enemy of the people) and Muslims so he gets a massive tick for that one.
His clarion call of 'Make America Great Again' satisfies the harking back to a better time agenda and CNN lists 62 members of his staff who have either been sacked or resigned under pressure, famously sacking FBI director James Comey when he refused to pledge loyalty to him.
Trumps whole time in administration has seen him energetically rolling back his predecessors laws and decisions and although he hasn't actually used the military during his time in office, he has threatened to destroy North Korea, warned of the end of Iran, has discussed sending the military to overthrow the Venezuela leadership and sent armed troops to the Mexico border while significantly increasing military spending from 2.4% to 4.7% to $750 billion.
Nobody can deny Paxman's criteria of pushing an anti-liberal, anti-socialist agenda is not spot on so when we also take George Orwell's definitions of what makes a fascist, then Trump is overwhelmingly one and the use of the word is legitimate.
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