A cheery picture

Saw this down at the tip, lurking at the bottom of a skip.

Didn't rescue it. 

Paul Chambers Twitter Trial - post mortem

 "We have concluded that, on an objective assessment, the decision of the crown court that this 'tweet' constituted or included a message of a menacing character was not open to it.

"On this basis, the appeal against conviction must be allowed."

You can see how the magistrate at Doncaster magistrate's court in May 2010 may have been baffled by the high-power prosecution from the Crown Prosecution Service.  In a string of cases over the past two years they have been misapplying law which is broadly written so that they can use it when they need to. Instead, various jobsworths have been trying to score departmental points by bringing novelty cases which should never have got past the screening such as the golliwog in the window and the ludicrous John Terry case.

Paul Chambers was fined  and ordered to pay £600 costs  after being convicted of sending "a message of a menacing character", contrary to provisions of the 2003 Communications Act.  This famous message:

"Crap! Robin Hood Airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!"

Much harder to see is why Judge Jacqueline Davies, sitting with two magistrates, dismissed his appeal his appeal in November 2010, saying that the electronic communication was "clearly menacing". 

It's clearly NOT menacing. Nobody gives you 'a week and a bit' in a threat.  In the context of the delay being down to snow, it was obviously a self-referential jibe at the expense of people who say unreasonable things.

There were linguists all over explaining the classic form of the joke, plus the fact that Chambers was fully identified, which should have given her a clue.  Maybe the two magistrates also on the bench were too much in awe of her, too sympathetic, to do what they should have done - take her aside and offer her a drink of water or maybe she should let somebody else hear the case? Maybe somebody not so het-up about personal matters?

Judge Jacqueline Davies lost her much loved husband,  Paul Clark  in  October 2008 and had trekked across the Sinai Desert in memory of him in 2009

Invent Partners thought she was just ignorant of the technology and so relied on what ever gubbins the CPS told her.  They sent an open letter, but not, unfortunately, until it was already obvious that she didn't understand what she had been told.

The nub of it is this: either Jacqueline Davies is a woman who doesn't speak English well enough to understand a joke or her personal grief intruded in to her judgment so that she failed to back-stop the CPS lawyers on the make.  The airport staff are absolved; they just have to report this rubbish, not take a view on it.

None of the magistrates come out of this well; they are supposed to be bastions of common sense under the common law, but at least three here allowed themselves to be cowed, or maybe they also didn't understand what they were being asked to rule on.

My condolences to Her Honour Judge Jacqueline Davies, but grief and ignorance are a bad mix at any time, disastrous in a judge who has not only to sentence the guilty but perform the function of stopping the state - in the person of the CPS this time - from oppressing the innocent citizen.

Judge Jacqueline Davies won't be the only judge who has been wrong-footed by the CPS.  It has been bringing cases, reckless as to whether it is likely to win or lose because it is using the process as punishment.

Paul Chambers had his life turned upside down, lost his job, has a criminal record which although quashed will always be revealed by an enhanced CRB check,  by CPS workers who have managed to hide behind a judge.

He is owed a huge  apology, reparations, and a job for life at the CPS as he now knows much more about the law than they do.

Update 11/04/2013

At the end of 2012 the CPS issued interim guidelines about the prosecution of alleged offences concerning the social media.

Here are the interim guidelines

Captain Haddock - Gone Fishing

I am richer for having read him, poorer now that he is gone.  Can a blogger make a difference?  Captain Haddock did since to read him was reassurance that pockets of sanity remain in this country. 

Condolences to the family and great thanks for giving his friends and readers, via Max,  the opportunity to express their thanks for his life.


The late Captain Haddock was a prolific commenter but also ran several blogs that carried detailed information about his interests which he illustrated beautifully.

Opinion and investigations - Something Fishy


The Captain's sea angling blog, Fishy Fishy contains, in the first comments, a poignant conversation with another much-missed writer, Mutley The Dog.

His great love of Wiltshire was chronicled and particularly beautifully photographed in his blog Wiltshire Flag.

May he rest in peace, which he loved so much.  

Update:

I'm most humbled by your gracious comments ...but it's a case of mistaken identity....another Captain Haddock....who I have seen from time to time around the blogs...

Apologies.  My condolences to the family of the other Captain Haddock, but rejoicing that this one is still with us. 
 

Five Rings to Rule Them

Amazon is carrying the Official Olympic Wenlock Police Figurine

You may care to read the reviews.  

I DON'T KNOW WHAT EVERYONE ELSE IS TALKING ABOUT, THIS IS A GREAT TOY, IT IS FUN TO PLAY WITH AND MAKES ME FEEL help me PROUD TO BE BRITISH. IT IS MODERN IN DESIGN AND it's watching me REPRESENTS ALL THAT IS GREAT ABOUT OUR COUNTRY AND THE OLYMPIC GAMES WHICH WILL BE GREAT please THE IOC ARE DOING A FANTASTIC JOB AND OF COURSE SOME PEOPLE ARE GOING TO MAKE SOME MONEY OUT OF IT, BUT THAT'S FINE BECAUSE it's going to take my pets away THAT'S THE WAY OF THE WORLD THESE DAYS. WHAT'S SO WRONG ABOUT MACDONALD'S I SAY AND COKE THEY i don't want to die ARE TASTY. IN CONCLUSION YOU SHOULD BUY ONE. 

........................

 After purchasing this toy I was surprised that it unpacked itself and it's surface to air missile system in my back garden. After a test firing of the missile (which passed through my kitchen, down the hall, through the open front door before slamming into Mrs Greyson's house at number 17) all I can say is that a single eye must clearly hamper effective depth perception. I am inclined to think the toy is unsuitable for small children and neighbours opposite. 

.............................
 

By 

peculiar "andrew_eccentric"

 This toy is worse than masturbating to a picture of Lord Coe, official overlord of the 2012 Olympics. And believe me, I've tried.

Update:  some commenters have noticed that Wenlock reprises that masterpiece of the 20th Century, Francis Bacon's "Three Studies for Figures for the Base of a Crucifixion."  Especially the middle one.

Summer Sponge Pudding

Despite the rain the garden has given usable fruit.  A dish of pearly blackcurrants, emerald gooseberries and ruby wild strawberries.  

Two or three cups full, that's all you need for a summer sponge pudding.


Wash and prepare the fruit, place it in the bottom of a pudding basin and add a decent dredge of sugar.  Put it in a cool oven while you mix up the sponge.  If you do this, it makes the cooking time more reasonable.


Mix up sponge topping made from;
 2 oz sugar
 2 oz butter
 1 egg
 3 oz self-raising flour
 and a splash of milk.  

The consistency should be soft so that it drops off the spoon.  Take out the warm fruit, turn up the oven to about gas mark 5, and add the sponge topping . Add an extra sprinkle of sugar on the top for prettiness. 

Bake at gas mark 5 for about 30 minutes. Check that a knife comes out of the sponge cleanly. If not, leave it for 5 minutes longer until it is ready.   

You can cook this on cold fruit but it seems to take much longer to reach the temperature which makes the sponge puff up. 

Serve with cream, custard or ice cream.