The Judge RANTS!
Date: 10/10/11
Delayed Call
I've mentioned elsewhere here that my internet connection has been unreliable for two or three weeks, caused by a very low downstream signal-to-noise ratio.
My ISP arranged for BT to send an engineer out to deal with it. Said engineer was due to call this morning between 08:00 and 13:00.
I suppose it won't come as a surprise to hear that no-one from BT turned up at all today, and I've lost a day's work for nothing.
What between that and that corporation's 'Payment Services' division charging me an extra £5.40 per quarter on the phone bill for exercising my 'consumer choice' by refusing to pay by Direct Debit, it's high time that that company had its near-monopoly position removed.
I certainly don't intend taking another day off just for their convenience. They can call when I'm available, not when it suits them, even if that means I sit here with an internet connection which is practically unusable for large parts of every evening.
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Birthday Wishes And Solidarity
(I know, two Rants on the same day).
This is to send best wishes to Edward Woollard, who will mark his nineteenth birthday this week in prison as a result of the blatantly politicised sentence passed on him in January this year.
(There are some things which strike me as odd, though, I have to say. There has been no mention of any appeal against his sentence, which I would have thought was a must given all the circumstances of it. I would have thought that any appeal would have been heard by now, even taking into account the dilatory malevolence of the authorities. Also, Edward should have been eligible for release on a tagged curfew by now, having served a quarter of his sentence. One can only assume that his release has been blocked because someone - out of incompetence, stupidity or spite - claims that he's a risk to the public - unlike bent ex-MPs and peers, obviously. I can't help wonder why, as well, the website set up to support him has been so lacking in updates during the last six months: have he and his family been warned off?).
Whichever way, have as happy a birthday as you can in the circumstances, Ed. Be patient - better days are coming.
Also, solidarity to Charlie Gilmour and Frank Fernie - two further victims of the same judicial thuggery which put Woollard in prison for a disproportionate length of time - and who are waiting to hear the outcomes of their appeals.
Solidarity too to Jordan Blackshaw and Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan, jailed for four years - the sort of sentence usually handed out for kidnapping or for killing by drunken driving - for posting something stupid on Facebook, who are also awaiting the results of their appeals. And to Ahmed Pelle of Nottingham, another one who fell prey to the feral judgery of recent months, who got over two and a half years for a similar 'offence'.
We must not forget.
