Whats amused you (in the news) today ?

Or even have the meeting over Zoom/ teams whatever

As a queen you have a certain entitlement   

That's our next PM that you're talking about

Paddy Power has Rishi at 5/4 Liz at 5/1 then Jeremy Hunt at 7/1, with Boris expected to cling on past end January but almost certainly be replaced this year.

I'd easily place a tenner on Rishi having leaked the cost of Liz's plane ticket too. He knew from day 1 it was only a matter of time before his boss's castle of lies would crumble and he could - just maybe - bag the top spot...remember when he started doling out the covid cash all those weird tweets with his smiling kind face and the squiggly signature? It was all so sub-branding...."I may be Tory but I'm a special one and I'm your personal saviour". Hmmm. No way in hell will he let Liz snatch this away from him at the final hurdle.

I hadn't spotted the bit about learning difficulties. Which would tend to lead me to have more empathy. but also in my experience (simply from the reporting of cases) so do the judiciary in this country (perhaps rather more so than the US where you can be sentenced to death while having an IQ of 85 or so). 

My initial reaction when reading the story had been that he had got a lighter sentence than the other party: given that lewis hughes had been done for assault. However I see that Lewis was given 8 weeks - the same - but suspended for 2 years, whereas no suspension here (it should perhaps be noted that I recall that lewis also was sacked by his employers).

So not sure. but I'm not convinced it was because the judge had great respect for CW. That certainly isn't mentioned as part of the justification. But moreover, it is precisely the same judge - Goldspring - who heard the original case and therefore also passed sentencing on Lewis. So it doesn't stand up that 'respect for CW' could be a differentiating factor. What is mentioned as part of the justification is:

- "You had a significant, I go as far as to say, an appalling criminal record," (judges comment): "The court also heard Chew had at least 26 previous convictions including public order offences."
- [Mr Morgan] said the defendant had been on licence having been released from custody in July 2020 and argued that this was an aggravating factor. 
- The court was also told Chew gave the name and old address of his brother Aaron Chew to PC Steven Ozden.
-While sentencing was taking place, Mr Goldspring had to interrupt proceedings to ask him to stop vaping. "Your contempt for these proceedings and this court have been breath-taking throughout the process," the district judge said.
- As Chew was led out of the dock, he began to sing "West Ham 'til I die" loudly.

OK,  so the last of these is clearly the most heinous [just joking]. In reality it would seem that he has quite an extensive back record of offending, and those will always have weight when it comes to sentencing. As of course would be committing an offence while you are currently out of custody on license. 

Whatever the poor guys history of learning disability and autism, they don't as primary factors seem to have influenced: if anything, they seem to have been taken into account as slightly mitigating factors in the face of a whole raft of aggravating ones.

Given that it's now Friday morning, and January ends on Monday, that's not exactly the most ringing endorsement...