“I intend to resign as [Liberal] Party leader, as Prime Minister [of Canada] after the party selects its next leader.”

Pity he won’t off himself. Sepukku would be nice but any method will be acceptable, Justine.

Starmer keeps digging. What is he trying to hide?

How dare Starmer reject a public inquiry into Muslim grooming gangs

Laura Perrins, The Conservative Woman, 6th January, 2025

Sir Keir Starmer claims that politicians who are calling for a statutory inquiry into grooming gangs are ‘jumping on a bandwagon of the far right’. In a press conference this morning (about the NHS, obviously, with his shirt sleeves rolled up, obviously) the Prime Minister not only rejected calls for a full public inquiry into the grooming scandal, or more accurately the Muslim child rape, trafficking and prostitution scandal, he also insulted politicians who believe such an inquiry is needed. It was a disgusting slur against anyone who has problems with the systematic brutalisation of 11-year-old girls.

To quote Sir Keir in full: ‘It is something about the nature of our politics because once we lose the anchor that truth matters in the robust debate we must have, then we are on a very slippery slope and when politicians, and I mean politicians, who sat in government for many years are casual about honesty, decency, truth and the rule of law, calling for inquiries because they want to jump on a bandwagon of the far right, then that affects politics because a robust debate can only be based on the true facts and that is why this is actually an important point about our politics, not about what anybody may or may not say on Twitter.’

A few things. First, it is noteworthy that this press conference was not about the child gang rape scandal but about the NHS, which in itself tells you all you need to know. As I have said before, there are very few subjects that get the lectern treatment: Far Right Thugs get the lectern treatment, the NHS gets the lectern treatment. How and why young white girls were raped and brutalised by gangs of Muslim men while authorities stood by is not worthy of the lectern treatment. This tells you all you need to know about Labour’s political priorities.

Second, how dare he? How very dare he say that calling for a proper statutory inquiry into the biggest scandal in British history, namely Muslim gangs of men raping, trafficking and prostituting thousands of white working-class girls, some as young as 11, around the country, while police forces looked the other way, is ‘jumping on the band wagon of the far right’. Yes, there have been inquiries before. There was the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse by Professor Alexis Jay, but that was a much broader inquiry into sexual abuse by the Catholic church, Anglican church and others.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) launched an inquiry in 2014 after it was revealed that at least 1,400 girls in the South Yorkshire town were abused between 1997 and 2013. The Times reported: ‘An eight-year investigation into multiple police failings during the Rotherham sex grooming scandal was condemned as a disgrace after its final report revealed that no officers have been dismissed . . . The IOPC’s resulting Operation Linden investigation examined 265 allegations against 47 police officers by 51 complainants, most of them abuse survivors. It upheld 43 of the complaints and ruled that 14 officers “had a case to answer” for misconduct or gross misconduct.’

One unnamed officer was said to have told the mother of an exploited child that it was a ‘fashion accessory’ for Rotherham girls to have an ‘older Asian boyfriend’ and that she would ‘grow out of it’.

And there were other local council inquiries and safeguarding reviews. But as Sir Keir Starmer well knows – he is a human rights lawyer who normally cannot get enough of inquiries – this is very different from an inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005 where people are called to give evidence under oath.

Starmer says that ‘robust debate can only be based on the true facts’. Ok then, genius, order an inquiry into the rape gangs, and any possible misconduct by police officers under the Inquiries Act 2005 and we will get to the facts. As a bonus, all your human rights lawyer buddies will be quids in for years.

Why is Starmer dragging his feet over a public inquiry? As a rule, politicians normally can’t wait to order an inquiry. They demand inquiries over anything. We have the current ridiculous UK Covid-19 Inquiry which will tell us at the end of it all that we should have locked down harder and earlier.

There is an Undercover Policing Inquiry. There is the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry, ‘an independent Inquiry into the circumstances of Dawn Sturgess’s death in Salisbury on 8 July 2018’.

There is the Independent Inquiry relating to Afghanistan ‘to investigate the “deliberate detention operations” conducted by the British armed forces in Afghanistan between the period of mid-2010 to mid-2013 to determine whether any of the circumstances around any unlawful killings were covered up at any stage’.

This is to name just a few. But for some reason, for some unknown reason, Sir Keir Starmer is refusing to hold a 2005 Act public inquiry into the sodomising and rape of working-class white girls. They are not worthy of this human rights lawyer’s time and attention, it seems. Don’t you know there is a Far Right Thug out there tweeting something mean? You know as well as I do that the Old Bill will be down on them quicker than you can say ‘Mind how you go’ to a Muslim rapist who is receiving a sex act from a minor in his car. (Yes, that happened.)

No, nothing to see here, says Starmer, we have had all the itty bitty inquiries into these pesky white girls and their abuse that we need. (My words, not his, just to be clear.) Starmer said, in full: ‘There have been a lot of reviews including localised reviews, including into Oldham for example, the mayor of Manchester did his review, and the Jay report was intended to look at the different types of exploitation that went on. It was a comprehensive review . . . This doesn’t need more consultation. It doesn’t need more research. It just needs action.’

Don’t play me for a fool. Sir Keir Starmer KC knows better than anyone that none of these inquiries are the same as a 2005 inquiry with proper terms of reference, focusing on Muslim rape gangs and any possible police corruption, with the power to call witnesses who must give evidence under oath.

Starmer doesn’t want an inquiry because he knows awkward things come out in inquiries. Facts. Truth. Logic. And often liberal beliefs can be slayed. No one is going to push Diversity is our Strength, or say that Britain has experienced an ‘integration miracle’, in the words of that half-wit Fraser Nelson, after such an inquiry, I reckon.

No British Prime Minister wants to start unravelling the myth of integration or asking some tough questions about the Islamic faith. That could lead to the kind of facts and truth a Prime Minister could do without, thanks very much.

The girls who were raped, sodomised, tortured and brutalised by Muslim rape gangs deserve a public inquiry. It is disgraceful that Starmer is refusing to order one. And it is disgusting to label those who call for one as ‘far right’.

It seems that the only time a human right lawyer rejects a public inquiry is when it is about Muslim grooming gangs.

Emma Garlett: I am sick of the date debate too
Emma GarlettThe West Australian
Tue, 7 January 2025 2:00AM

Comments

Year after year at this time, our nation enters a debate on whether we should change the date of Australia Day from January 26 which marks the arrival of the First Fleet in Australia.
It was also the arrival of generations of genocide.
January 26 marks the start of the massacres, oppression and systemic exclusion of First Nations people in their own lands.
Using this date as the date on which we celebrate our nation is a continual oppression of First Peoples.
It’s a celebration of invasion, the rape of First Nations women, the murders of Aboriginal people, of atrocities.
It’s a celebration of the Stolen Generations, of segregation, of control over Aboriginal people and breaches of our human rights.
When the British arrived in Australia, the land was declared terra nullius, meaning land belonging to no one. This was a lie.
The High Court overturned the legal fiction of terra nullius in the Mabo High Court decision in 1992, recognising the land was inhabited by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people all along, tens of thousands of years before those 11 ships entered Sydney Cove.

So why are we continuing to celebrate that anniversary as a benign “arrival” instead of recognising it for the invasion that it truly was?
And why do we continue to celebrate the beginning of a genocide, the most serious of crimes?
The date must change.
It’s not much to ask. Just a simple shuffle on the calendar.
But some would prefer to continue to oppress First Nations people by celebrating their dispossession; celebrating the ravaging of their land for economic gain at the expense of Aboriginal lives.
Every year we have this argument. Every year we see the same assortment of headlines and contrasting opinion pieces.
Companies announce their support of a change, in the name of inclusion.
Then they backtrack, pressured by the noisy minority into cowardice.
It is infuriating.
My whole life, I have watched as my people are kicked and trodden on and our respectful request for a date that includes us is ignored and ridiculed.
It is so upsetting.
As soon as the New Year’s Eve fireworks fall silent, it’s game on again.
It leaves us battered and bruised before the new year has a chance to begin.

Ironically, it’s this hurtful and damaging debate that brings most airtime to First Nations people and issues.
We’re forced to come forward to defend our request for a new date, to justify why we should be included in the celebration of Australia’s nationhood. It’s exhausting.
Our elected leaders can put an end to the merry-go-round. They have the power to make the change and leave a positive legacy.
Keeping the date on January 26 shuts Indigenous Australians out. That’s not what this country should be about. Celebrating genocide is not what this country is about.
Changing the date needs to go to the top of the agenda.
If it doesn’t, year after year you can look forward to me giving my two cents in a column like this one.
Choosing a new date for us all to celebrate is more than a symbolic action.
It would be an act of peace, inclusion and respect.
Emma Garlett is a legal academic and Nyiyaparli-Yamatji-Nyungar woman

Clare Armstrong in the Daily Telegraph:

The ghosts of elections past are threatening to derail elections future for Anthony Albanese, who is running out of time to remind Australians who he is and what Labor stands for.

After firing the starter’s gun on the first unofficial day of the 2025 campaign on Monday with a blitz of regional Queensland seats, it quickly became apparent the Prime Minister has not yet mastered the forum that so nearly cost him the election three years ago.

Standing by a roundabout in Gympie just off the Bruce Highway in Queensland, a road for which Labor had just committed $7.2 billion worth of safety upgrades – ostensibly a good news story – the PM soon became irritable at some of the questions from journalists at the press conference.

When one reporter asked whether Labor’s use of the slogan “build back better” – in this context meaning to rebuild road sections so they are more resilient to severe weather – had been pinched from the campaign of outgoing US President Joe Biden, Mr Albanese lost his cool.

He rejected the question and suggested it had been written by the Liberal National Party.

“You should be cautious about just reading out things that are sent from the LNP,” Mr Albanese replied.

It was a bizarre response.

Firstly, there was a perfectly logically explanation for the use of the phrase.

But more significantly, by jumping to the conclusion of conspiracy between journalists and his political opponents, Mr Albanese showed his enduring weakness: an inability to rein in the glass jaw during media appearances.

Putting aside who even cares where the question came from, his snappy responses and apparent inability to see in the moment how his answers are coming across to the public are increasingly getting the PM into hot water.

It’s how he ends up getting dragged for days on issues like accepting Qantas upgrades, playing tennis after a synagogue was firebombed, or showing up at the Australian Open when Alice Springs was in crisis.

In his hurry to clap back at a journalist – and to be fair, Opposition leader Peter Dutton can also be guilty of this – Mr Albanese frequently misses the opportunity to get in front of an issue and give a response that speaks to community sentiment.

For the PM, the origins of the approach can be traced back to that crisp Autumn morning in Launceston on the first day of the 2022 election.

The events of that half-hour press conference by a playground on the bank of the Tamar River went on to define Mr Albanese’s entire campaign.

Unable to recall the cash rate or unemployment figure, the aspiring PM came across as ill-prepared and unconfident on economic issues.

The characterisation was harsh, but only months earlier Scott Morrison had been lampooned by the media – and Labor – when he couldn’t recall the cost of a loaf of bread or petrol, so the “do you know what ‘xyz’ is” line of questioning was not without precedent.

A few hours later, a rattled and forlorn looking Mr Albanese gave his explanation to the press gathered around him during a walk through the Devonport mall.

“Earlier today I made a mistake,” he said. “I’m human. But when I make a mistake, I’ll fess up to it and I’ll set about correcting that mistake. I won’t blame someone else, I’ll accept responsibility, that’s what leaders do.”

His honesty did not stop the gaffe leading the 6pm news bulletins that night or the newspaper front pages the next day, but it was a refreshing response in the world of politics, which is dominated by spin and refusal to admit wrongdoing

Fast forward to 2025 and what Mr Albanese still doesn’t seem to have figured out yet is that while he is very much “human” and he is right to view the Australian public as generally fair minded and reasonable, being leader of this country generally makes you the exception to the rule.

Yes, Australians may theoretically understand why someone might want to buy a home with their fiance, or day I say, make good on a promise to the kids and go on holiday to Hawaii, but when you’re the PM the same rules just don’t apply.

Of course, no self-respecting member of the public gives a toss about a reporter copping a serve from a politician – if anything they tend to cheer it on.

But what is missed by Mr Albanese is the opportunity to speak through the media and reach the fair-minded Australians who are out there wondering who to vote for.

…what is missed by Mr Albanese is the opportunity to speak through the media and reach the fair-minded Australians who are out there wondering who to vote for.

Any Australian contemplating a vote for Labor after what has transpired over the last three years is hardly fair-minded.

Last trip to Qld on that goat-track mobile reception dropped out 80’s north of Brisbane.

Unless near capital cities or on major high traffic highways, phone coverage in minimal in Australia.

The Five, apart from the Judge, are back and in this 11 minute segment show once again why Gutfeld is far and away the best social and political commentator bar none:

‘The Five’: Biden remains bitter to the end

Albo’s going to have to try harder to sound like a leader.

Tall order.

Perhaps the luvvies at NIDA should offer him a few lessons in the dramatic arts.

So…Justout Trudeau

According to the Babylon Bee he’s to be euthanased as he’s no longer of any use to anyone.

Sancho Panzer

January 7, 2025 9:28 am

…

Gasp!

A cat?

JD Vance warned us about people like you.

The left and the MSM (but I repeat myself) already told you – JD Vance is weird.
Why would you listen to someone who is weird?
Unless you are weird yourself.
QED, Sancho is weird.
I rest my case, m’lord.

Kel

 January 7, 2025 1:47 pm

This should be bloody (hopefully) interesting

NEW: The Conservatives will force a vote in Parliament on Wednesday demanding a full inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal

Let’s see who votes for and against.

Bungonia Bee

 January 7, 2025 2:28 pm

Why are medical centres asking if we have “cold or flu-like symptoms”? Isn’t that their business, and isn’t COVID finished for panic purposes?

Secondly, why does Medibank have no problem at all giving us two pairs of glasses per annum

Do they?
I thought glasses are covered under private insurance extras.

I think it was Cronkite who linked to a clip of “The Five” upthread, where Greg Gutfeld talked about the “Trump Effect”.
I think it is real.
When confronted with obvious gaslighting, people now feel emboldened to simply say “Hey, that’s bullshit and I don’t give a fat rat’s clacker what ‘phobia label you try to stick on me for saying so.”
All of a sudden, Starmer squealing about “the Far Right” sounded just a tiny bit hollow and desperate, and it isn’t shutting anyone up.
It has worked for a generation but almost overnight, put-downs like that have lost their mojo.

Starmer looks like one those pigs from the cartoon version of Animal Farm.