#england and wales

[thoughtlessarse]

In 2006, Martin Myers got in a scrape over a cigarette. He asked a young man if he had a spare fag. The man declined to give him one. Myers came from a well-known Traveller family. The man, Myers says, made a derogatory comment about Travellers, so Myers gave up the niceties. He threatened to punch him if he didn’t hand him a cigarette. The young man ran away. He then went to the police in Luton and told them what had happened. The police were familiar with Myers. He had previous convictions for dangerous driving, assault, theft and burglary. Myers was arrested, charged and convicted of attempted street robbery. On 8 March 2006, he was given a tariff – the minimum time he could serve – of 19 months and 27 days. Myers, 42, has now served 18 years in jail for the attempted robbery of that cigarette. He was given an indeterminate sentence, known as imprisonment for public protection (IPP). This meant that while he could be released after 19 months and 27 days, he could also be jailed for up to 99 years. IPP was first used as a sentence in England and Wales in 2005, having been introduced by Labour in 2003 to detain in prison people who posed a significant risk of causing harm to the public. It was a controversial sentence. Critics said that jailing people for what they could do, rather than what they had done, contradicted the basic principle of justice: that people are innocent until proven guilty. In September 2012, the European court of human rights ruled that detaining individuals serving IPPs beyond their tariff indefinitely “was arbitrary and therefore unlawful” if reasonable access to rehabilitation was not provided. On 3 December 2012, IPP was abolished. But while the sentence could no longer be handed out by judges, it wasn’t abolished for those already serving it. Last week, David Blunkett, who introduced the sentence as home secretary, told me: “What has happened with this sentence is the biggest regret I have in terms of the outcome of all the many things that I was involved in the eight years I was in government.” Today, more than 11 years after IPPs were banned and 16 years after his tariff ended, Myers is one of almost 3,000 people imprisoned in England and Wales still serving an indeterminate sentence – with no release date in sight.

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Labour saw Clinton did much the same thing in the US and said, “We're having that.” And like Clinton they now regret the introduction of such measures.

I've no doubt discrimination against travellers played a large part in the whole affair, from the man threatened right up to the judge who passed sentence.

[importantwomensbirthdays]

Elizabeth Gloster

Elizabeth Gloster was born in 1949. Gloster was called to the bar in 1971, and appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1989. In 2004, she became the first woman to be appointed a judge on the Commercial Court of England and Wales. In 2010, Gloster was appointed Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court, and in 2013, she was appointed a Lady Justice of Appeal. She sat on several important financial and commercial cases. Gloster retired from the court in 2018.

[spiced-wine-fic]

England and Wales are now minority Christian countries.

1) Shamanism is on the rise

Shamanism is expanding faster than any other religion, with the number of people saying they practise it rising from 650 in 2011 to 8,000 in 2021 in England and Wales. The result might prove controversial, as the Shamanism UK website asserts “it is not a religion, more an authentic expression of mankind’s spirituality”.

2) Pagans and wiccans are becoming more established

More established are pagans, who number 74,000 people (up from 57,000 in 2011) and who gather most in Ceredigion, Cornwall and Somerset, and wiccans, who number 13,000. Wicca is sometimes described as a witchcraft tradition whose roots lie in pre-Christian religious traditions, folklore, folk witchcraft and ritual magic.

3) Romanian is the fastest growing language

“Bine ati venit!” Welcome to the fastest growing language in England and Wales: Romanian. 472,000 people now describe the romance language as their main tongue – up from 68,000 in 2011. The centre of the Romanian-speaking population is Harrow in north-west London.

[molags-balls]

big things happening in england

[illustratus]

Transept of Tintern Abbey, Monmouthshire by Joseph Mallord William Turner

[killjoygem]

Random Q, if English degrees are only 3 years when do you do the honours years? Like is it the last year? Or do you only do one year of sub honours? Or is there just no distinction?

[reasonsforhope]

Double dose of articles about how crime is actually plummeting

From the UK:

"Seventy-eight per cent of people in England and Wales think that crime has gone up in the last few years, according to the latest survey. But the data on actual crime shows the exact opposite.

As of 2024, violence, burglary and car crime have been declining for 30 years and by close to 90%, according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) – our best indicator of true crime levels. Unlike police data, the CSEW is not subject to variations in reporting and recording.

The drop in violence includes domestic violence and other violence against women. Anti-social behaviour has similarly declined. While increased fraud and computer misuse now make up half of crime, this mainly reflects how far the rates of other crimes have fallen.

All high-income countries have experienced similar trends, and there is scientific consensus that the decline in crime is a real phenomenon.

The perception gap

So why is there such a gulf between public perception and the reality of crime trends? A regular YouGov poll asks respondents for their top three concerns from a broad set of issues. Concern about crime went from a low in 2016 (when people were more concerned with Brexit), quadrupled by 2019 and plummeted during the pandemic when people had other worries. But in the last year, the public’s concern about crime has risen again.

There are many possible explanations for this, of which the first is poor information. A study published in 1998 found that “people who watch a lot of television or who read a lot of newspapers will be exposed to a steady diet of crime stories” that does not reflect official statistics.

The old news media adage “if it bleeds, it leads” reflects how violent news stories, including crime increases and serious crimes, capture public attention. Knife crime grabs headlines in the UK, but our shock at individual incidents is testament to their rarity and our relative success in controlling violence – many gun crimes do not make the news in the US.

Most recent terrorist attacks in the UK have featured knives (plus a thwarted Liverpool bomber), but there is little discussion of how this indicates that measures to restrict guns and bomb-making resources are effective."

-via The Conversation, May 13, 2024

And the United States:

"[The United States experienced a spike in crime rates in 2020, during the pandemic.] But in 2023, crime in America looked very different.

"At some point in 2022 — at the end of 2022 or through 2023 — there was just a tipping point where violence started to fall and it just continued to fall," said Jeff Asher, a crime analyst and co-founder of AH Datalytics.

In cities big and small, from both coasts, violence has dropped.

"The national picture shows that murder is falling. We have data from over 200 cities showing a 12.2% decline ... in 2023 relative to 2022," Asher said, citing his own analysis of public data. He found instances of rape, robbery and aggravated assault were all down too.

Yet when you ask people about crime in the country, the perception is it's getting a lot worse.

A Gallup poll released in November found 77% of Americans believed there was more crime in the country than the year before. And 63% felt there was either a "very" or "extremely" serious crime problem — the highest in the poll's history going back to 2000.

So what's going on?

What the cities are seeing

What you see depends a lot on what you're looking at, according to Asher.

"There's never been a news story that said, 'There were no robberies yesterday, nobody really shoplifted at Walgreens,'" he said.

"Especially with murder, there's no doubt that it is falling at [a] really fast pace right now. And the only way that I find to discuss it with people is to talk about what the data says." ...

For cities like San Francisco, Baltimore and Minneapolis, there may be different factors at play [in crime declining]. And in some instances, it comes as the number of police officers declines too.

Baltimore police are chronically short of their recruitment goal, and as of last September had more than 750 vacant positions, according to a state audit report...

In Minneapolis, police staffing has plummeted. According to the Star Tribune, there are about 560 active officers — down from nearly 900 in 2019. Mannix said the 2020 police killing of George Floyd resulted in an unprecedented exodus from the department...

In Minneapolis, the city is putting more financial resources into nontraditional policing initiatives. The Department of Neighborhood Safety, which addresses violence through a public health lens, received $22 million in the 2024 budget."

-via NPR, February 12, 2024

[mapsontheweb]

Lighthouse map of England and Wales in 1911

[where-are-the-pixels]

Gansta 44

[withnofreetime]

HETALIA ☆ WORLD STARS (527)

Is there a problem/error? Please say so! And thank you for your support!

The previous chapter was my last straw, but somehow that tiny Scotland and Wales gave me enough energy, so, this chapter's translation is brought to you by them!

[peacefulandcozy]

Instagram credit: acalmwalk

[thoughtlessarse]

Nearly 600 police officers in England and Wales were sacked in the year to March 2024, figures showed Tuesday, as police chiefs battle to restore public confidence after a string of scandals. The sackings -- a 50 percent rise on the 394 dismissed the previous year -- include 74 officers kicked out of policing for sexual offences and misconduct. Another 18 officers were dismissed for possessing indecent images of children, according to the figures compiled by the College of Policing, an independent public body. The reputation of policing in the UK has been left in tatters since the 2021 kidnap, rape and murder of marketing executive Sarah Everard by a serving officer in London's Metropolitan Police who was later jailed for the rest of his life. In another shocking case, an officer from the same unit last year received 36 life sentences for a "monstrous" string of 71 sexual offences, including rapes against 12 women. The most common reason for dismissal, with 125 cases, was dishonesty, according to the latest figures. Another 71 were forced out for discriminatory behaviour.

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Only 600? I'd have thought it easy to find 600 to sack for discrimination alone.

[dolceminerva97]

I wondered how I could update Arthur's style to current trends so he isn't wearing that godforsaken green sweater with a red tie that he's had since fucking 1930 lmao. A looser fit for his clothes esp his trousers and white sneakers for a casual look will do the job without losing his essence. Then I got carried away and gave him two more fits

Together they're the Rowdyruff boys 🫶 daft cunts, all of them

[rosesandalfazemas]

THE BRIT GANGSTERS

The LORD (England) The HIGH KING (N. Ireland) The SORCERER (Wales) The CHIEF OF THE CLAN (Scotland)

Source

[zakuramochi]

As requested, here's a translation of the bonus page from the newly-released Volume 8 of Hetalia World Stars! Please enjoy!

[senditothemoonn]

My headcanon is that the bros are prone to a rather intense board game night