This is England (2023)

[slowcoach]

Children punched and hit over the head in care homes rated ‘good’

Paramedics say people are getting ill because their homes are so cold

Energy firms target (~500,000) homes in fuel poverty, using court warrants to forcibly install prepayment meters

Unlawful Exclusions - 'Off-Rolling'

Targets include those unlikely to do well in exams commonly pupils with special educational needs, and can be achieved by bullying or threatening the child's family. It is unlawful yet methinks no one is ever punished.

There is no legal definition of what off-rolling actually is, however, Ofsted defines it as:

“Off-rolling is the practice of removing a pupil from the school roll without using a permanent exclusion, when the removal is primarily in the best interests of the school, rather than the best interests of the pupil. Off rolling is a form of ‘gaming’.”

[slowcoach]

Jan 25, 2023 11:08:48 GMT 2 slowcoach said:

Energy firms target (~500,000) homes in fuel poverty, using court warrants to forcibly install prepayment meters

It seems that despite this problem having been old news long before I mentioned it. Newspapers, politicians, CEO's of energy companies are as of yesterday "shocked" by news of it reaching the pages of "The Times".


There is a bigger scandal that has not been "revealed". That magistrate courts are not reviewing each individual case on its merits but issuing warrants over the phone in batches of hundreds in less than 5 minutes. A practise that appears to be unlawful, but lucrative at 20 UK pounds for each warrant issued. I am not quite sure why courts should be interested in showing a profit but it seems they are.

Not all courts do this, just a few, and whereas magistrates courts normally deal in local matters some are quite happy if some to the warrants are for homes at the other end of the country. But why bother about that, if you are not going to read the applications anyway.

[slowcoach]

At long last something.

From the beeb:

Courts waved through warrants to force fit prepayment meters

Needless to say it is a muddled account with a timeline that makes no sense but, mus'n't grumble to much.

What it does have is some clarification of what was changed in the legal process, and how it was changed, even if it surely gets the when of it wrong.

It seems that the law was modified, or simply overridden, by a committee of senior magistrates and issued as guidance to lesser magistrates in confidence, and otherwise kept secret. Elsewhere it was been suggested that the original request for change came from the UK Ministry of Justice sometime in 2018 or before.

[Netsuke]

This is Australia 🇦🇺





And this is because I like it!