BRENDA'S BIN (out of granthamnewtown@blogspot.com)

So, the Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that any couple allowing their frozen embryos to be destroyed could "be held liable" as such embryos "have the same rights as children". They have, among many things, the right to an education. Trying to teach a hormonal, desensitized, truculent teenager is tough, but a zygote.........?!!? Also, they have the right to have an opinion. Anything worse than an opinionated embryo? Then there's the right to information. Who exactly is going to sit in front of a freezer reading out the daily newspapers to it? Let's take this lunacy a step further with the "parents" of an embryo - a sperm and an egg. If they too have the right to life then EVERY fertile, non-impregnated woman would be convicted of murder every month while every post-puberty male would be in court charged with genocide, up to five times each day in the case of teenagers. I am constantly amused by the fact that in the USA the majority of pro-life fana...

There are always at least two sides to every story. I mean, look at the crisis in Gaza. While some news outlets may choose to focus on the thousands slaughtered in Israel's lust for revenge, others (like the Daily Mail and the Express?), might choose to highlight the negative impact it has had on house prices there.  Likewise, while some detail the police search of the Thames for the body of chemical attack suspect Abdul Ezedi, others might opine rising pollution levels in the river. Cut to Fluffy - Fluffy the aligator snapping turtle found in a Cumbrian lake. The BBC online decided to go with: "Meet Fluffy, the alligator snapping turtle found in Urswick Tarn, Cumbria." (I've had to correctly punctuate it). Sky, however, didn't think that would scare readers shitless enough (part of the company's mission statement) so came up with: "'Dangerous' turtle that can bite through bone found in the UK." Also, don't give me that "Every pictur...

Bad news for Biden. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Presidents and former Presidents do NOT have immunity from prosecution for criminal offences. That means Joe CANNOT have Trump assassinated by Seal Team 6, as the orange loony's lawyers argued he should be allowed to do. There's still a chance, however, as Trump now takes his case to the Supreme Court on Monday. Fingers crossed.

So, head of the Army, General Sir Patrick Sanders, warns that our armed forces are so depleted we may have to reintroduce conscription to fight the threatened future war he wants with Russia. Well Paddy, here's an idea. Before plucking our youth from the streets to die in a war which could only lead to global oblivion, why not consider introducing driving lessons for servicemen and women before conscription? You see, we had three minesweepers in The Gulf keeping an eye on events in the Middle East. We now have only one after the two others reversed into each other! Hamas doubtless had a lie-in that morning, happy that the British Navy was doing its job quite satisfactorily.

How ironic. The USA's beloved Founding Fathers came to the country to flee persecution by vengeful, Christian fanatics in England. Their legacy? A nation dominated by vengeful, Christian fanatics intent on persecuting not only their countrymen but also the rest of the world.

Great legal defences of the 2st Century. Cue the fat, orange, barmy and evil who is Donald Trump. Quote: " Attorneys for  Donald Trump  claim that the  former president  didn’t have 'fair notice' that his attempts to reverse his  Georgia  loss in the 2020 presidential election could result in criminal charges against him." If only Peter Sutcliffe's barrister had thought that baby up. "My client wasn't given fair notice that clubbing with a hammer and frenziedly stabbing 13 women to death could land him in a spot of trouble." Sadly, it is all too easy to laugh at the moron Trump but he is actually very, VERY worrying. If the Supreme Court does not bar him from standing the followers of his cult - ALL either thick, redneck, violent and bigoted neo-Nazis or toadying, power hungry sociopaths - could get him elected president in November. He IS a malignant narcissist. I'm no pyschology or psychiatry scholar but I have researched the diagnosis and Trum...

Well, that's Christmas and New Year over again. Let's get back to the real world. It was known from 2010 that the Post Office's Fujitsu central accounting software, installed in the late 1990s, was as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike. Around 3,500 sub-postmasters and mistresses were accused of stealing from the Post Office and 700 were prosecuted. The bogus allegations led to criminal records for hundreds of the accused and sentences ranging from community service and being made to wear electronic tags to jail. Some not charged were made to pay back money they didn't steal from their own funds and many went bankrupt. The mental stress on all those wrongly accused was huge and has been linked to four suicides. In 2019, the High Court overturned the convictions of a group of sub-postPEOPLE (Oh God, take me now!) and an appeal by the Post Office was thrown out two years later. Now, 14 YEARS after the original scandal broke and THREE YEARS after it was finally confirmed ...

SIR James Dyson - well, I didn't vote for him! - packs off his employment to the Far East for slave labour/cheapo rates, then has the bollocks to fucking lecture the UK about how things should be done!  Without mentioning their names, he says Truss and Kwarteng were right! Yeah, that dog hunts. What an out of touch moron. Another of Thatcher's great entrepreneurs!

"Poisoning the blood of our country."

So, Network Rail manager Michelle Handforth has quit her £330,000-a-year job after some train passengers got stuck in London. Sadly, those of us who don't live in London - 86 per cent of the UK population! - are forced to continue enduring the reigns of terror of their own particular fat cat Network Rail managers who sit back and laugh at the myriad delays, cancellations and hold-ups they are supposed to prevent happening. Nice work if you can get it which, with the exception of the vacancy left by Michelle, you can't!  

https://news.sky.com/story/shetlands-saxavord-spaceport-granted-licence-for-uks-first-vertical-rocket-launch-1303258 I know in this country we're used to setting our sights low but......exactly how many intentional HORIZONTAL rocket launches have there been, not counting the efforts of Hamas, the IDF and Russia and the USA's military? Also, Spaceport's PR team is obviously oblivious to Bonfire Night and people's back gardens.

Baroness Michelle Mone......A liar and under investigation for fraud, having glammed £200 million off taxpayers with her hubby for PPE equipment, much of which couldn't be used because it didn't meet required specifications - and she's a bloody baroness! Her performance in the Lords only reinforces her unfitness for a peerage. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Mone,_Baroness_Mone Michelle Mone - a truly objectionable creature and a shining example of Thatcherism.

It's as if the 1930s never happened as mankind simply refuses to learn!  At times of strife and financial hardship far right maniacs emerge intent on whipping up the masses by offering up one group supposedly to blame for all the ills. Hitler rounded on the Jews. Today's ignorant, uncaring, thick and dangerous generation of mindless rabble rousers have focused in on a new and yet similar minority - immigrants. The lunatic Trump has just told a rally of fanatical cult members that immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country". Suella Braverman similarly dog whistled by claiming multiculturalism had failed - her being from a family of immigrants from Africa/Asia and having risen to the office of Home Secretary - and the UK faced a "hurricane" of incoming migrants. Now Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has topped her insane drive to victimise. Sunak, AGAIN from a family of recent immigrants from Africa, dished out just what his audience wanted at a meeting of fa...

Why, oh why, oh why do programme makers assume that people left at home on Saturday nights are knuckle-dragging Neanderthals with the intelligence of a thrre-pin plug? Ok, a lot of them are, but that's not the point. While millions of our compatriots get ABSOLUTELY blind pisssed BEFORE heading out on the town to start fights in pubs, shag in bus shelters, throw up in taxis and head to casualty with a range of facial wounds, some of us poor bastards are left at home to make our own entertainment. For those of us who don't have a fucking piano or an interest in charades, Trivial Persuit, pass-the-bastard-parcel or pin-the-bleeding-tail-on-the-sodding-donkey.........or any fucking friends.........there is just one recourse to time-passing - the Devil's Lantern. Sadly, the TV programmers have decided to cater for those out causing alcohol-fuelled mayhem and not those left behind. Pither finds himself one of the "left-behinders" on this Saturday night and the televisio...

The headline screamed: "Ukranian Councillor Injures 26 After Setting Off Three Hand Grenades At Village Meeting!" As a former hack of 30 years' standing I have covered countless parish council meetings and you know what? I kinda know how he must have felt!

Former Trinity Mirror CEO Sylvia "Sly" Bailey and professional dickhead Piers Morgan have at least two things in common: 1. They both have faces you would like to slap. 2. They both knew phone hacking was going on at The Daily Mirror, a judge has concluded. PHONE HACKING, unless carried out permissibly by a government agency, IS ILLEGAL. Glenn Mulcaire was jailed for six months when he was found to have violated the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 in the News of the World scandal. The judge mentioned above, who sat on the civil case against The Mirror, was told that the paper was still hacking phones during the Leveson Inquiry into......into.....urmm........that News of the World phone hacking! Police are said to be considering the evidence and findings of the civil action brought against The Mirror and, even though the required standard of proof is higher in a criminal court, Bailey and Morgan must surely be charged? Put the evidence before a jury. Let them decid...

A financial crisis at the country's biggest water company, Thames Water, has shone a bright light on the insanity of privatising public utilities. The situation at Thames came to light when executives fessed up to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee this week. The MPs heard that the company was sitting on a £14.7 BILLION debt pile and currently was not able to make its next loan repayment of £190 million. A cursory bit of investigation found latest available figures show the nation's 15 privatised water companies, many owned by foreign investors and with somewhat unclear, precise ownership, have run up debts totalling £60.6 BILLION from two years after they were privatised in 1989 up until March last year. (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-30/rising-inflation-means-british-water-companies-are-leaking-money). The firms have, meanwhile, paid out £57 BILLION to shareholders from 1991 to 2019 - ALMOST HALF THE AMOUNT SPENT ON REPAIRING AND IMPROVING PIP...

One hilarious outcome of the Rwanda vote is already known, hours before the division bell sounds in the House of Commons. Members of the International Development Committee were scheduled to visit the Caribbean but the "business" trip has been cancelled so all MPs are on hand to take part in the crucial vote Tory nutters hope will get asylum seekers dumped in Rwanda. I love the irony of it. The Tories are so desperate to see flighs take off that they've cancelled one!  Those poor IDC members. Still, I believe their "fact finding" trips are still on to the the Chessington World of Adventure, Disneyland and Alton Towers.

Dubai, one of the world's largest oil producers, is hosting COP 28. With that logic, any future Truth and Reconciliation meetings should be held at Jeffrey Archer's House! So, what exactly, is COP (Conference of the Parties). Well: 1. It's aim is to internationally assess progress made by the "parties" towards limiting climate change against the overall goal of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) - overall, to stop global temperatures rising by 1.5C. 2. Burning of fossil fuels is by far the largest contributor to climate change,  accounting for more than 75 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions. So, what does COP 28 do? It draws up an "agreement" which FAILS to include a demand made by the majority of the world's nations for the use of fossil fuels to be "phased out". Supposedly an international body, COP'S massive cop out was brought about by th...

Trust the 100 or so hard right loons among the Tory MPs in government to name their totally unrecognised or official cabal of supposed legal advisors the "Star Chamber". It says SO much about these fanatics and how completely out of touch they are with reality in the UK. The press has dubbed this gaggle of far right MPs "The Five Families" in a nod to the Mafia's running of New York. Ain't that apposite! Back to Star Chamer. The original Court of Star Chamber was set up in the 15th Century - Jacob Rees-Mogg's vision for Britain where he and his pals think they do, or should, reside. Also, the original Court was " used later on in its history as an instrument of  oppression  rather than for the purpose of  justice  for which it was intended." Ring any bells? If that ain't the aim and record of the Tory right then I don't know what is. Surprisingly, this grandiose-sounding bag of donkey's doo-dahs has concluded Sunak's Rwanda Bill...