Tom W

It's already been changed - it now covers anyone under 18 (2003 Sexual Offences Act, s72 and schedule 2). But that won't cover Andrew's behaviour because it occurred before that law was passed

The relevant law, given when the alleged offences took place, is s7 of the SOA 1997: it only applies to offences involving children under 16 (see schedule 2). As I understand it Giuffre was 17 at the time

Not sure what the point of this is; if it was randomly selected, or representative profiles, then it could be an interesting exercise. But with enough people it's possible to find basically any combination of demographics/views/vote, so it only tells you anything about these specific 20 people

So much for a day of rest!

That's a classic localization problem. There's a famous similar case in a D&D book where they replaced "mage" with "wizard", leading to phrases like "inflicts two points of dawizard" and "cause the iwizard of the place to appear"

And the sprinter Tyson Gay was referred to as Tyson Homosexual on a conservative news site that thought "gay" was too positive a term

He stopped being metro mayor a few years ago. I agree he probably won't go for it - I doubt Phillips will either - I'm just looking at who might possibly be able to change things in some way. The likely candidates are too closely tied to the current project, and the left won't get enough nominations

I've said before I think the only one who might improve their fortunes is Phillips. I'm no fan, but she's the only one with enough of a profile to stand a slight chance of winning who doesn't just offer more of the same. Or go for Jarvis and play on the media's deference to (ex-)military types

Not massively better, but if you select "show in all photos" it'll jump to where it is in your library, and you can select it normally there

The bit that could tip it over is "To opt out, it told readers to dial a number beginning in 098, which are numbers ringfenced for premium rate sexual entertainment services by Ofcom." Fraud Act 2006 s2 covers "dishonestly mak[ing] a false representation
... intend[ing] ... to cause loss to another"

I don't think he'd even want to. He can't double-job, so he'd be giving up a position that suits him very well, which he currently has until 2028 at least, with no guarantee of the leadership or even a cabinet post

Phillips is the only other one who *might* be able to do something different - everyone else with any profile is too closely and irretrievably tied to the current project. Which could explain why the Tories are keen to hole her below the waterline with the abuse inquiry stuff

The party leadership will be relieved with Powell's underwhelming margin of victory, it shows there isn't an out and out rejection of how Labour is being run, writes our political correspondent

It's a week of second-place finishers being touted as the real winners by a sympathetic BBC News, so I expect the day to end with the news that Heather Humphreys has won "the moral Presidency"

(old Jewish joke: man goes to his tailor. "I want to return the pants I bought last week" "What's the problem?" "How can I put this... you know the Astoria Hotel on 3rd?" "Sure" "You know the ballroom at the Astoria Hotel on 3rd" "... there's no ballroom at the Astoria" "Same with these pants")

... what is it?

Yeah, I don’t think anyone would really care about Downing Street being remodelled, it’s not remotely as symbolic as the WH (I don’t suppose most people could even recognise it, apart from the door). But people would absolutely kick up a fuss about the cost.

It’s better logic than most of them have, though, with the added benefit that if you’re wrong… eh, no great loss

I don't have access to the full paywalled article to check, but I doubt Bloomberg would have made that sort of basic error. More likely, I'd guess, is a fairly expansive definition of "disaster prevention" spending - eg shifting to green energy perhaps?

... am I misreading that? Is it really saying the US spends $7.7 *trillion* dollars *a year* on disaster preparation and recovery?

That "gently" sets my teeth on edge, too. From someone with authority over you it *might* be reassuring; from someone you owe nothing to it seems passive-aggressive, as if it's only by their own grace and forbearance they aren't following up severely

Esther Ghey's new campaign is calling on the Government to ban phones in schools BRIANNA Ghey’s mother has launched a new campaign in which she is calling on the Government to make schools a phone-free place.

No, that doesn't seem to be her point at all. There's a passing mention of it in this article - but not attributed to her - but the vast majority of it, and everything attributed to Esther, is about Brianna's "addiction" to her phone and social media

Z for Zone I do see occasionally, eg for tube Z1-6. Not exactly an "official" abbreviation, but more convincing than most of the rest.

(All very obscure, obvs. I wouldn't be inclined to use any of them, when there's so many less irritating ways to clue a single letter)

Athletic yes, a sports thing, although the only example I can think of off-hand is AFC Bournemouth, and I think officially that no longer stands for anything. D for dead is (was) used in the navy, per the OED citation. The Lockheed F-104 plane had a variant G for Germany (and J for Japan)

Oh, and he's now managing director of the consultancy firm Peter Mandelson set up (but has since been sacked from)

You were going to give us beer and gave us snails instead? That's very negligent of you

The Chief Exec of Ofcom is married to a former senior Mail and Telegraph journalist. Normally I'd say people's private lives are their own affair, but apparently family relationships are incredibly important and potentially biasing and need to be disclosed, so...

Especially when the government is also currently being attacked over the Chinese spying case and in response is emphasizing the independence of the CPS. Seems a bad look to start putting pressure on other law enforcement related bodies with similar relationships to government.

Yeah, if they go out to do the mission after breakfast, and it usually has a time limit of under an hour, even allowing for the slowness of filming that’s a lot of free afternoon time

I reckon they do them between the tasks and the round table