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giingers · 5 years

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little beginnings

Tommy Shelby x reader

Request: Hi I have a tommy shelby request!! The reader is Tommy’s wife and they have a son together and they introduce their son to horses for the first time. Maybe go out for a family ride together and start to build their sons love for horses. Just some good Tommy fluff xx

Note: thank you anon for requesting! this is my first ever imagine so I hope you like it and keep sending in those requests xx

Peace had not been a custom Tommy Shelby had thoroughly been acquainted with during the years past. After the war, it seemed that the notion of peace had altogether flitted from his soul and into the scattering wind that carried with it the remaining pieces of his sanity. Blood stained hands that trembled around the frame of a gun, eyes that darted recklessly and a head that swam with nightmares seemed to be the only things he had been left to carry with him. That was until you came along and changed everything. He sits in the chair he uses as a viewpoint to watch you and he feels it now like a slap to the face, the overwhelming sense of peace that had cruelly escaped him for so long.

He smiles to himself as he lets his eyes travel to where you sit on the rust coloured rug, legs tucked together ever so gracefully as you sit before the bouncing boy that shrieks with glee. He smiles to himself fondly as he watches the black haired boy rock back and forth on the new wooden horse he had received for his birthday, and his heart does a jump when he sees how you smile so widely at your son.

Sometimes he imagines that his life is a dream, and that he’ll wake up in Small Heath to the sounds of his brothers running amuck and the screams of Aunt Pol, and that you will still be John’s best friend that hardly looks at him and not his wife, and that your beautiful boy was all a figment of his imagination. How fickle his mind can be sometimes to treat him so cruelly with impossible scenarios. He knows he’ll never be back to being that boy who watches you from under the peak of his cap and teases you relentlessly out of jealousy. You are his, and he is yours and when you look at him as you do now, so lovingly and honest he knows he should never doubt his reality.

“We should write to my mother” you tell him from where you sit, voice bringing him back to his senses and he looks at you with a crumple of his brow. He sits up straighter in the large brown leather chair he had been slumped in and grips the glass of whiskey in his hand.

“What for love?” he’s confused but he knows by the exasperated look in your eyes that he shouldn’t be. He can’t help the twitch of his mouth at the sight of your rolled eyes.

“Perhaps to thank her for sending her grandson such an extravagant gift” you tell him as you elegantly stand up, walking past Tommy and giving his shoulder a poke with a finger. The tea tray that had been placed on the shiny table looks appealing and you can feel Tommy’s presence behind you as you pour yourself a cup of tea.

“Hmm, I think that’ll be nice" he tells you, but by the way his hands are now around your waist and his nose in your hair you can tell he’s not really concentrating on the notion of sending his mother in law any sort of letter. Your lips curl into a smile around the rim of the tea cup and then it’s placed back onto the tray as you turn around.

His eyes are crystalline on yours, and there’s a spark behind the blue that reminds you of the Tommy from years ago. The Tommy that used to come home with dirty clothes and wild hair, pushing and shoving Arthur and laughing carelessly. That Tommy was mischievous and reckless, and the wild way of him made you first fall in love with him at twelve. Sure you’d been John and Ada’s friend first and had always come knocking on the door to ask them to play since Arthur and Tommy had scared you a little, but through the years you’d fallen harder and harder for him until there was no turning back.

The Tommy that now stands before you with his arms wrapped around your waist is a different Tommy, but still the same somehow. He’s still wild and mischievous, but there’s more grey in his hair now than there ever was before, and when he smiles now little lines appear near those bright eyes. You still love him the same as you did when you were twelve. Perhaps even more.

“Look at him” you almost whisper to your husband, making his eyes leave your face and to where you pointed over his shoulder. The two of you stand there at the table, Tommy’s hands still on your waist and yours around his neck, but your eyes are fixated on the little boy who rocks back and forth gleefully on the wooden horse, completely unaware of his parents spying on him.

It’s moments like these that are so blissfully normal, moments where Tommy gets to witness his son playing or walking or speaking that he delights in, and sharing moments with you is even more special. He watches the three year old use one hand to hold the wooden handle sticking from the horse while the other swings around his head. Tommy smiles as he remembers how last week Arthur had showed his nephew how cowboys in the pictures ride their horses after the small boy had dragged his uncle to see his “new horse”.

“Mama, Dada, I’m going so fast!” your son squeals and you and Tommy both chuckle.

“Good man Archie, you’ll be riding at Cheltenham soon enough” Tommy encourages and you smirk a little, nudging your husband in the side.

“Hmm if he’s anything like his father I’m sure he’ll be at the races for a different purpose” you tell him, earning a devilish grin in response as you let your hands leave him to grab your tea cup once more.

“How about we let him ride for real, eh?” Tommy tears his eyes away from little Archie and to you but you choke a little on your swallow of tea, your eyes darting straight to your husband.

“Excuse me? Did I just hear you correctly? You want our two year old to go out riding for real?” you shake your head at him a little but he doesn’t relent, his grip on your waist becoming a little firmer and you smile when you feel his thumbs run up and down the fabric of your dress. He knows how he can easily persuade you with his touch, but you don’t say anything else, instead shaking your head at him again.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, love” Tommy starts with a smirk “but Archie turned three last week. He’s well at the age to get on a real horse”

You let your eyes trail back to your son and you watch him giggle as his little legs push harder to make the rocking horse go faster. You can’t deny that he is the copy of your husband, with his black hair and blue eyes and you try to imagine how excited a little Tommy would have been getting on a horse for the first time. You can almost feel Tommy smile from beside you as he watches on.

“Alright, I’ll allow it” you say with feigned stubbornness and you try to hide the smile that creeps up on your face when Tommy leans in to peck your lips, his large hands giving your waist a firm squeeze before letting you go.

“Hey, Archie boy” Tommy addresses your son “how would you like to go see the horses down at the stables, eh?”

The answer comes in the form of outstretched arms and blue eyes that now swim with the greatest excitement and in one swoop your husband has the little boy picked up in his arms and heads out the door. Two pairs of crystalline eyes stare at you from the doorway and in each pair there’s the question “Are you coming?” swimming in them. You just smile and place your tea cup down on the table, walking over to the door and letting Tommy take your hand to drag you to the stables.

It’s a little chilly outside and your glad you’d won the battle of trying to put Archie’s wool coat on. He had not wanted to wear it and had insisted he wasn’t cold, but after watching Tommy throw on his long black overcoat he had then been all for wearing his. Now the two of them walked in front of you, hand in hand, Archie’s little legs skipping every now and again to keep up with Tommy’s longer strides and you watched them with utter fondness swelling inside you.

You’d been in love with Tommy Shelby since you yourself were nothing but a child, but if someone had told you back then that one day you’d be married to him and have a son together you’d never have believed them. You’d never really thought Thomas to be the marrying type let alone a perfect father. But he’d surprised you in more ways than one and despite his lifestyle and job choice he really was the most soft hearted man you knew. That was evident now as you watched Tommy hoist your son into the air mid step to hold him close to him. Your son’s face beamed over his father’s shoulder as he spotted you not a foot behind them and his little hand rose in a wave. You smiled as you blew him a kiss.

“Hey! Are you stealing my pretty girls kisses?” Tommy playfully tickled Archie when he spotted his son blowing you a kiss back, and you couldn’t help but giggle.

The smell of leather and horse sweat met you as you entered the stables- that all too familiar scent making its way up your nostrils but Archie didn’t seem to mind at all. He clapped his hands together and bounced on Tommy’s hip with excitement as he was lead to a stable door, his eyes darting all around him.

“Big horses, Mama” Archie explained to you with wide eyes and you bit your lip a little in anticipation.

“Yeah they are big, aren’t they little one?” you smiled back at him, but as soon as your son’s attention and eyes went back to the horses yours went straight to Tommy. He seemed to know exactly what you were worrying about and stood a little closer to you, those knowing eyes scanning your face.

“He’ll be fine, love. I was younger than him when I got on my first horse, and he’ll have one of us with him” Tommy said and the hand he placed on your back seemed to reassure you a little “and besides I recall a time when you and our John boy stole off on the back of a horse through Small Heath”

“We were ten! And it was your troublesome brothers idea in the first place! I was an innocent little child” you smirked at him, remembering fondly the times when you yourself were a little bit wilder than now. But your son was a different story- you were just a little bit protective over him and didn’t ever want to see him hurt.

“Ah yes, we Shelby’s seem to have had a talent for corrupting your innocence” Tommy said with the most devilish look in his eye, the curl of his lip making your stomach flip and then within a second all sexual playfulness is gone and is replaced by excitement as Tommy brings his attention back to Archie.

“So son, do you want to ride with Mama or me?” Tommy asks him and without a second thought your son wraps his arms around his father’s neck. The smirk that Tommy throws your way would curdle milk and you fold your arms across your chest in feigned annoyance.

“Traitor” you say under your breath but Tommy hears and gives you a look of triumphant glee ”I’ll remember how much he wants you when he wakes up with another bed wetting”

Tommy pretends not to hear but you can see there’s a smile twitching on his lips as he hands you your son to hold while he gets the horses ready. Within no time you find yourself clinging to your son as Tommy climbs on top of a large bay horse he named Duke, his black overcoat splaying around him and his grey cap atop his head. Despite his fashionable appearance that he so often shows nowadays you can’t help but picture him the way he used to be years ago when he’d ride on the back of a horse- dirty, wild and dishevelled with a fresh sheen of sweat on his brow.

You hand him Archie and smile as you remind yourself that within the hardened gangster you married there lives a small Romani boy with a deep love for horses. Perhaps letting your son ride a horse for the first time hadn’t been such a bad idea after all when you remember the joy it brought a younger Tommy.

You climb on top of your own horse then, the routine of it all coming easy to you and as soon as your seated on the saddle you nod for Tommy to take off. Archie sits in front of Tommy with his little fingers gripping the reins in the place Tommy had told him to and he gives a little squeal when Duke moves forward slowly. Your son can’t stop beaming and giggling as you all walk through the fields on horseback and watching how Tommy leans down to talk into Archie’s ear every now and again, pointing at different trees and animals, makes your heart swell inside.

Moments like these, that are so human and fleeting are what brings normality into your and Tommy’s life. There’s no negotiating with gang leaders or coppers, no trouble with the Shelby clan or business, just an utter peace that you know all too well had been distant from Tommy’s life for years. You can’t help but breathe deeply when you think of how this small act is a little beginning in not only your son’s life but your husbands too, and you certainly hope that there will be more like it in the future.

#tommy shelby x reader #tommy shelby fanfic #peaky blinders fic #peaky blinders imagine #tommy shelby imagine

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mitchipedia · 4 years

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Trump goes postal, coronavirus in the UK vs. Ireland, and more on Cory Doctorow's Pluralistic.net

Today on Cory Doctorow’s Pluralistic.net

Trump plans to murder the US Postal Service, in violation of the US Constitution.

The USPS is about to declare bankruptcy. It’s at the center of the longstanding plans for disaster recover and has been since the Cold War. It’s the only institution that could (for example) deliver covid meds to every home in America in one day.

pluralistic.net/2020/03/2…

But Congress has decided not to bail out the postal service, despite Art 1, Sec 8 of the US Constitution: “To establish Post Offices and post Roads.”

Maybe it’s because without a USPS we couldn’t have a postal vote in 2020?

pluralistic.net/2020/03/2…

The proximate cause of the post office’s bankruptcy is the pandemic, but that is merely the finishing blow. The USPS was murdered in 2006, when Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act.

www.nakedcapitalism.com/2020/04/w…

The Act gave the USPS a mere 10 years to “prefund its future health care benefit payments to retirees for the next 75 years.” That is, to set aside cash to pay medical bills for future employees who hadn’t been born yet.

www.govtrack.us/congress/…

…

The USPS’s murder is straight out of the neoliberal playbook: “1 Defund, 2 claim crisis, 3 call for privatizatization, 4 profit!”

As Lambert Strether points out, it was a bipartisan act of murder, cosponored by the “centrist” Democrat Henry Waxman….

The USPS is the nation’s second largest employer of veterans, with 630,000 employees. Trump is about to allow it to collapse so that UPS, Fedex and other private firms can skim off the most profitable parts of its business and leave rural Americans totally isolated.

The loss of the USPS would mean the loss of the last truly universal federal program in America and would unduly hammer the people whom Trump claims to love — veterans and rural voters.

www.eff.org/deeplinks…

Also:

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has made election day a statewide holiday, joining the handful of other states that have passed this vital, democracy-protecting law, like Delaware, Hawaii, Kentucky and New York.

edition.cnn.com/2020/04/1…

It should be a federal holiday. It isn’t, because Republicans believe that increased voter turnout is bad for their electoral chances.

www.commondreams.org/news/2020…

…

Northam’s new holiday-establishing order also eliminates Virginia’s Lee-Jackson day holiday, which celebrated the traitorous, slave-owning Robert E Lee and Stonewall Jackson, who murdered American soldiers to defend their right to treat other Americans as property.

Here’s a campaign to #TakeBackTuesday and establish a US-wide election-day holiday.

www.good.is/take-back…

Also:

Coronavirus death rates in Ireland, which embraced quarantining early on, are half what they are in the UK, whose idiot Prime Minister Boris Johnson was in denial about the seriousness of the threat.

Medical historian Elaine Doyle notes that “as the Irish government was shutting schools, 250,000 people in the UK were gathering for a Cheltenham match.”

Ireland canceled St Paddy’s Day and shut pubs a week in advance. The UK had megaconcerts like the Stereophonics gig in Cardiff.

The Irish government made clear, continuous announcements about the gravity of the pandemic, urging people to stay home and take care. The UK government was virtually silent.

The thing about exponential growth is that early interventions make a huge difference. The UK dawdled for nearly two weeks before taking the lockdown steps that the Irish enacted.

The Tory ideology holds that governments are incompetent. This creates a perverse incentive: when Tories govern badly, they prove their own point. But Tories are supposed to murder poor people to juice the economy, not murder pensioners AND the economy.

Boris Johnson is a vile piece of work: a racist, misogynist bigot and a fool. His unwillingness to take (medical) expert advice (and his reliance on finance-sector advice) resulted in the measurable, deaths of Britons. Thousands of them.

What Cory says about Johnson and the Tories goes for Trump and the GOP too of course.

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maggotmouth · 5 years

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hello, i’m nora ( she / her, 24, gmt ) and i almost exclusively join dark academia rps. please find below everything i have thus far on otto ballantyne, a theatre and classics student who was arranged to be married to one of the students who disappeared. i’ve honestly been itching to write otto again for months, so thanks to this lil group for giving me the opportunity. can’t wait to get my teeth stuck into him again. please bombard me with discord messages for plots. here is his pinterest.

act one: application.

THOMAS DOHERTY , CIS-MALE , HE/HIM → according to the school records , OTTO HORATIO BALLANTYNE has been attending sacred heart for the past four years . i last saw them hanging around the cliffs ; i think they were reciting shakespearean soliloquies to the wind and a weathered old skull. at twenty - three years old , otto has been studying theatre & classics and get this , i heard that he was arranged to be married to alice rosseau before her untimely disappearance , and was desperate to call off the affair — figure it’s true ? everyone around here always associates them with an aged bottle of malbec glugged carelessly at the after - show , the kind of confidence that only a private education gives , white lines of powder snorted off a marble sink with lovers you’ll later deny . in the time since these strange happenings , they have have not encountered any unexplained occurrences . ( written by nora , 24 , she/her , gmt )

act two: the muse !

ok so lemme start off by saying otto is heavily inspired by if we were villains by m l rio and the secret history by donna tartt. very serious actor. into the classical plays, but would definitely fit in a production of posh by laura wade. originally i wrote him for a murder mystery dark academia group but when the group ended i missed him so much i decided to bring him here.

born in south london, but raised in cheltenham. went to eton or harrow or one of those posh english boarding schools for boys. we love the homoeroticism of learning latin with your homies and chanting sonnets in caves by candlelight.

youngest son in his family. was fiercely competitive with his brother nathaniel growing up. having an older brother who was incredibly intelligent and successful made otto learn to treat his life like it was a fight. constantly trying to be better and ‘prove himself’.

otto’s a brat. filthy rich public school boy vibes, very riot club. champagne all over the ceiling and driving well over the limit. custom-made cuff links he loses in taverns when he rolls up his sleeves to lean on the bar. needing to know so much about a character you’re playing that it consumes you ; you can no longer tell which parts of you are otto and which parts are macbeth.

characters who have inspired him: alistair ryle in the riot club, francis abernathy in the secret history, anthony marston in and then there were none, oliver marks in if we were villains, achilles in the song of achilles, dorian gray in tpodg.

a fun fact is he is a natural blonde and spent most of his childhood that way but he now dyes it dark because he thinks that’ll give him more versatility in terms of the roles he can play. blonde ppl are usually cast as only the lover or the innocent n he wants to play villains and heroes and leading men as well.

very gay, n that’s pretty much a known thing by everyone but his family?? his family have arranged to have him married to women twice n both times its not worked out. the first time he basically drove her away with his reckless hedonism and alcoholism, and the second arranged marriage was to alice, one of the four students who went missing

archetypes: the figurehead. the challenger. the magician. the knight. the underdog.

ENTP-T / the debater personality.

theatre arts major, minoring in classics.

trigger warning for internalised homophobia / familial prejudice.

act three: the biography !

heavy is the head that wears the crown, though yours is the size of a tennis ball when you are born three weeks premature, barely formed enough to open your eyes. for those first few weeks all your parents knew were fear and love — fear that you would leave them, love that you had made it through so much, hooked up to wires like a fish in a cryogenic tank. to them your heart that learned one day to beat of its own accord was a miracle. perhaps that’s why you became their golden boy.

being born as a boy on the brink of death makes you invulnerable. you were achilles and the world couldn’t touch you for you were shielded from harm by a mother’s protective spell. should nathaniel lay so much as a finger on your skin, a voice would raise like the sound of a god from the veranda where she sat sipping her wine, play nice, boys! the sound of it thick with merlot. in every fight they took your side ; angel-headed creatures never lied. you soon learned that adults would believe anything if they liked you, that flattery will get you anywhere and to the well-trained mind, conversation was little more than a parlour game.

you harboured your mother’s beauty, the softness of her voice, the firmness of her skin and light in the corners of her smile. of your father, they’d say you inherited his wit, though that was your own — as was the golden hair that tousled your head, taken not from ambrose ballantyne but rather the bout of his three-week business trip to germany when your mother had bedded the gardener. if he knew, he never mentioned it. to believe such a fate would imply that he was not enough for her. though you noticed one day when you were nearing five and the sun was ripe on your freckle-flecked skin that the gardener had stopped coming at all. the grass, once shaven to its scalp, now grew to your knees.

at school, you learned with porridge still clinging to your mouth that the way to win over your teachers was through your smile. yours was the kind of school where the christmas play was not the nativity but rather the story of the gods, and stardom came to you in the role of apollo, sun shining from your beaming face, a bright halo of hair around your head. this was the first time you noticed a coldness in nathaniel’s eyes as your father threw you over his shoulder and your mother drenched you in praise. a bout of food-poisoning on your brother’s part rendered the italian restaurant, visited in your honour, abandoned. you never did find out if he was faking.

the room to his door remained shut after that and you learned to wile away your hours in the company of nannies and children from neighbouring castles, played at knights and rescued princesses from nearby dungeons, a tin-foil crown lopsided on your head. you learned to seek influence in the faces of those around you, how their eyes would widen as they hung like stalactites to your words. storyteller. prophet. riddler. prince. you cut your tongue into a well-kept sword and sparred with it thrice a day.

by nine you had read all of dickens novels. by eleven, all of shakespeare’s comedies — though you understood them as much as a cricket knows the meaning of the cosmos. still, it sounded rich and impressive when asked by aunties at dinner parties, what are you reading in school, otto? he finds the curriculum tiring, your mother would say, stroking a hand through your thick head of hair. otto’s just finished the merchant of venice. soon you grew to ignore your brother’s glowers at your back. your mother’s was the only smile you needed.

in cap and blazer your mother would drop you off at school, gated and turreted, the kind that was the envy of poorer neighborhood wives. when you were young, you were sure the gifts that came your way were yours alone, though as you grew older, you learned to expect them in the same way the school expected cheques from your parents. they named them benefactors, you noticed one day, on the wooden plaques fixed to the common room walls. the same plaques you would one day notice their names engraved upon in the arching hallways of sacred heart. acclaim was bought, not earned, and your success was littered with blood money.

what’s a king without a kingdom? your father surely wanted you to inherit his, though it was not in law and corporal finance that you found yourself a castle, but rather upon the stage. when red curtains split, you found you could become anything with the power of your will — boy, man, lion, snake, each of them wrung out by wordsmiths dead in their graves, a certain romance in the dusky smell of stage lights. when every eye in the room was focused on you — that was when you felt most powerful. like a piece of art, you were something to be looked at and admired — and perhaps in the absence of self-earned merit your vanity blossomed, for even if the trophies that lined your cabinets and the a-grades in columns on a sheet came from heavy pockets, your parents could never buy the sound of applause.

actors are by nature volatile. though your facade was swifter than an arrow, backstage they would call you tempestuous, bigoted, vain. still, it never left the wings of the theatre. there was a kind of reverence surrounding you that words could not taper, godliness following you from school to college, a peer admired in the practice rooms of sacred heart where you poured over chekhov and ibsen but yearned to read sophocles and euripides.

you learned to pride yourself on your looks — a sharpened jawline and a sharper tongue — and found that people would do almost anything for a beautiful face. in the beginning, alice was one so much. first colleagues, then friends, then a frequenter to the table in your family’s house. with arrogance carried in the curve of your brow, you only ever saw her as an accessory. that changed when you met her brother, let yourself stumble, brogues in a size that differed from your own kicked beneath your bed, a shirt with a larger neck size, pulled sheets, the smell of a foreign cologne.

talk travelled. it wouldn’t do to have word of your deviance spread further than the ballantyne house. while your parents would claim they were forward-thinking, more lenient than their parents had been, there was a conservative priggishness to the way they’d brush such matters under the rug, your father scarcely able to meet your eye over the dinner table. soon after, the arrangement was set with you all but exalted from the plans until alice had been informed. too late to back out, neither of you all that eager to be wed, though your families would coo when you fixed your hair or she, in keeping with the role, adjusted your tie. at first it amused you to play house with one such as alice, but soon you grew listless. like a caged beast you felt suffocated by the falseness of it all. you’d leave the dinners held by your joint households and return bedraggled, smelling of whiskey and sex. you’re not sure alice ever knew the reason why you couldn’t love her, though perhaps she suspected. at night, the names that would fall from your lips would never be hers. oliver. daniel. mason. rupert. charles.

act four: character investigation !

otto’s an extremely materialistic character who obtains pleasure through the things you can buy in life rather than that which comes to you by way of humble experience. he likes rolex watches, armani suits, louis vuitton travel bags, silk scarves imported from india. he likes to drink wine from decades gone by, where he can almost taste the funk of a victorian farmer hand pressing the grapes into a pulp, or to read a manuscript from the special collections section of the library that he knows has passed through hands which have gone on to achieve greatness. to otto, alice was always an extension of this hedonistic, pleasure-seeking attitude — she was something to be paraded like the equestrian trophies on his bookshelf, or his name on the honour roll. it’s not that he didn’t see her as a person — he’s hardly a chauvinist, although it could easily be inferred from the disdain with which he talks to some women — but rather that he saw her as someone ethereal and admirable and of high social standing who would elevate his social standing, by extension, were he to spend time with her. (this was such a convoluted sentence omg sorry)

the engagement was not his choice. even the idea of it had never crossed his mind. he had never thought to marry – marriage to otto was a tool used for financial gain — and being already wealthy, he was content to live out his days as a bachelor. he would take lovers, of course, but it would be on his own terms without the involvement of the law. alice was chosen as a match for otto because she was from a wealthy, well-liked family and the two had been friends since childhood. it seemed to their parents inevitable that they would marry, and so all that was left was the agreed arrangement between the families and the exchanging of rings. strictly speaking, if the marriage between otto and alice had gone ahead, then alice would have been nothing more than a trophy wife to otto. it would have been a miserable marriage for her, and he would have grown to resent her for it — not resent her for the fact that he could never truly be free to love someone he wanted (for he still would) but resent her, and by extension his family, for taking the option to do that openly and publicly away from him. she would always be seen as the beard, the scorned lover, the cuckold, and it would dampen any future relationships he held with the stain of that upset.

act five: wanted plots !

people who he was friends with as a child (either in london or cheltenham if anyone in this group has a muse from there) but grew apart from when he was sent to private school / they view him as entitled now and the two no longer have much in common

someone who auditioned for the same role as him, but otto got it, and they’ve resented him for it ever since ! want this bad. or put your thang down flip it and reverse it: someone who got the role otto wanted and he loathes them for it.

hasn’t really dated anyone? at college, he tends to hook up with people in a vapid sort of way? so he wouldn’t rEALly have past relationships with boys unless it was….. incredibly quiet and on the DL, literally meeting up in the woods after school to read plato and play with each others hair. suddenly realised i want this. someone give me someone he reads plato in the woods with and kisses up against tree bark because even though everyone basically KnOWS otto isn’t out n probably never will be :/

alternatively someone who he had a vapid, senseless hook up with and grew attached to :/ rude. in this house we lov angst

i guess some friends he actually likes would be cool. maybe someone who he has a hold over, because he’s quite an engaging character with good leadership qualities, like at parties he’ll be the one telling the story and gesticulating wildly and everyone’s watching him or looking to him for where they’ll go next / how the night will pan out. if he has a hold over someone maybe he has some sort of leverage whereby they’ll complete his work for him if he’s out getting drunk which he usually is. if tht sounds like ur character is naive n could be coerced, hit me up

people he knows on a very superficial and base level in the fact that their only interactions together involve doing coke off someone’s sink and stumbling home in the dark. otto’s a massive hedonist. if he were a greek god, he’d be a mix between dionysus and apollo, but he has achilles’ vanity.

#heretics:intro #heretics:ooc #throws my boy out into the wind x #hope u lov him as much as i do #sorry i will mostly be using medium gifs in his threads cos his icon resources are sparse x

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ross-aldridgeuk · 3 years

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They operate on the 'No Win, No Fee' principle. You will only be charged if you receive compensation. Is there anything else you require? Their track record speaks for itself. So, if you want to work with the best medical negligence lawyer, Ross Aldrige Solicitors is the firm to choose.

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They have some of the most experienced lawyers in the field. An experienced solicitor can handle any type of case, and they know how to make everything work in your favour. They will be able to offer you the compensation that you are entitled to.

Ethical Approach

They have never been involved in any type of deception. They are committed to providing high-quality services to their clients. They have a standard to uphold, which is why they never compromise on ethics or quality.

Client-focused

They are more concerned with satisfying their customers than with making a profit. Ross Aldridge Solicitors is a client-focused firm that claims to achieve 100% favourable outcomes.

Conclusion

These are compelling reasons to retain Ross Alridge Solicitors in your spinal injury case. If you choose these firms, you will receive the maximum amount of compensation. Don't choose any random law firm. So, what are you waiting for? Get in touch with the best legal services at the most affordable fee. Remember that only the best lawyers can help you out and make you get the compensation you deserve.

Business Name: Ross Aldridge Solicitors Ltd

Address: Eagle Tower, Montpellier Dr, Cheltenham GL50 1TA, United Kingdom

Contact No: 1242707400

Website: https://rossaldridge.co.uk/

#spinal injury compensation cheltenham #Personal Injury Solicitors Cheltenham #personal injury solicitors near me #medical negligence solicitors near me #medical negligence solicitors cheltenham

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abletax · 2 years

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Do Tax Accountant Help in SMSF Services?

Accountants are finance professionals who assist clients in their accounting and reporting, taxation compliance obligations, and corporate law and regulation. Frequently blamed for being on the back foot, these accountants are seldom seen as being proactive business advisors. But when it comes to superannuation, it has become a core business activity for many accounting firms.

Accountants have traditionally looked after clients’ retirement planning and superannuation needs; some services include fund accounting, fund taxation, fund administration, financial planning, trustee services, and adult services. The SMSF accountant deals with what happened in your SMSF and what you did in the previous financial year and forms a coherent picture for tax and record-keeping purposes. Accountants sometimes provide skilled SMSF accountant services.

Out of many SMSF service providers in Australia, Abletax Business Solutions is one of the eminent SMSF accountants providers in Cheltenham to look upon. With the dedicated and experienced SMSF specialist, we offer complete SMSF administration from starting up a new fund to annual financial and tax preparation, retirement planning to fund wind-up. Apart from financial planning and solicitors services, we can also assist in identifying any areas for attention or concern in breaching the SIS act and offer you tax planning strategies that can help to make the most of the concessions available to superannuation funds.

Our SMSF Services include:

Establishment of SMSF

Reviewing Super Performance

SMSF Compliance & Audits

Transfer Balance Account Reports (TBARS)

Maintaining Fund records

Advice on the SIS Act 1993 and changes to legislation

Update Fund Deeds

Trustee’s Minutes

SMSF ASIC Compliance

SMSF Tax Returns

As registered tax agents, we will keep you compliant with all your tax obligation. So if you are in Melbourne or anywhere nearby, we provide the complete accounting services related to SMSF. Get in touch with us at https://abletax.net.au/our-services/self-managed-super-funds-smsf/ for more information.

#SMSF Accountants Melbourne #smsf cheltenham

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terrypearrson · 4 years

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JLD welcomes decision not to strike off struggling junior lawyer

Susan Orton binned documents ‘in a moment of sheer panic’

The Junior Lawyers Division (JLD) has welcomed the decision not to strike off a young solicitor for acting dishonestly after a tribunal found that her mental ill-health represented exceptional circumstances which warranted a suspension instead.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) heard how Susan Orton, who had been qualified for two years at the time, removed two copies of a hearing notification from a file in 2018 after she realised she had missed a planned preliminary hearing at the Employment Tribunal.

“In a moment of sheer panic”, the junior lawyer then placed the docs in two of the office’s locked confidential waste bins, The Law Society Gazette reports. Orton, who worked at Cheltenham law firm BPE Solicitors, was spotted by a secretary who subsequently reported her.

The tribunal heard that she had suffered panic attacks since a child and was diagnosed with a mental health condition following the incident that contributed to her response.

The SDT cleared Orton of dishonesty over the binning of the notifications, but found she acted dishonestly when she denied having seen them both in an email to the Employment Tribunal and in a meeting with her superiors. She was suspended for two and a half years, although this was reduced to six months after the tribunal factored in the time she had already spent out of work.

The 2021 Legal Cheek Firms Most List

Welcoming the ruling, the JLD said that some high-profile regulator decisions to prosecute junior lawyers in recent years had “failed to give sufficient recognition to the substantial impact of mental health issues on professionals”. The group said it was “concerned particularly regarding junior lawyers who are new to the specific pressures of the legal industry, and the harsh finality of decisions to strike off”.

It continued:

“The JLD hopes the SDT continues to be as conscious of the significant impact of such issues in future determinations, and that the SRA takes note of the Orton outcome when considering whether to prosecute other junior lawyers in similar circumstances in the future.”

The group went on to cite its own junior lawyer wellbeing survey which found that almost half (48%) of the 1,803 respondents had experienced problems with their mental health in the previous month — a proportion significantly higher than the general population.

Feeling stressed? You can contact LawCare by calling 0800 279 6888 in the UK.

The post JLD welcomes decision not to strike off struggling junior lawyer appeared first on Legal Cheek.

source https://www.legalcheek.com/2020/10/jld-welcomes-decision-not-to-strike-off-struggling-junior-lawyer/

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bangkokjacknews · 5 years

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Brit drug smuggling gran's horrifying LAST WISH in Bali

For seven long years British grandmother Lindsay Sandiford has been locked up in jail on the paradise island of #Bali.

In 2013 she was found with £1.6million of cocaine in her suitcase, which she was trying to smuggle into Indonesia. The punishment in Indonesia is brutal - most drug smuglers and dealers are sentenced to death. And the execution method is terrifying - firing squad. Prisoners are led to a grassy area where they can choose to sit or stand before armed soldiers then take their shots, aiming for the heart. But if a prisoner surivives the firing squad, the commader must then shoot them in the head.

Lindsay Sandiford is facing death by firing squad (Image: Getty) Indonesia carries out executions infrequently with most prisoners waiting on death row for more than 10 years. The last death penalties carried out in Indonesia took place in 2015 and 130 people, including Lindsay Sandiford, are waiting to be executed. Former legal secretary Sandiford, from Redcar in the North East, had worked in management for many years at a law firm in Cheltenham. She rented a house in the town but was evicted when she didn't pay her rent. The mum-of-two, who had separated from her husband, made the decision to move to India in 2012.

Sandiford was convicted of smuggling £1.6million of cocaine into Indonesia (Image: EPA) It was as she arrived in Bali from Bangkok in Thailand on May 19, 2012, that she was arrested after the huge haul of cocaine was found in her luggage. Sandiford insisted she had been forced to carry the Class A drugs by a criminal gang, who had threatened to hurt her family if she refused. However, the gran dramatically changed her story when she was told she would receive the death penalty if she was convicted of drug trafficking. She broke down and told officers that she had been asked to carry the drugs by an antiques dealer, Julian Ponder, who was British and living in Bali, and his partner Rachel Dougall. Sandiford even agreed to take part in a police sting to catch the pair, along with a third person, Paul Beales. Ponder's home was searched and both he and Sandiford were charged with drug trafficking. There was no evidence linking Dougall and Beales to the same crime and they were charged with lesser offences. Sandiford's legal team argued that she had been pressured into carrying the drugs and had suffered from mental health problems. Their pleas fell on deaf ears and she was convicted - although even the prosecution pleaded for her to be jailed for 15 years rather than sentenced to death. Dougall was found guilty of failing to report a crime and jailed for a year, while Beales was convicted of possessing hashish and locked up for four years.

Sandiford fills her time behind bars with knitting, which she sells to fund her legal appeals (Image: Gloucestershire Live) Ponder was cleared of drug smuggling but convicted of the possession of narcotics and sentenced to six years behind bars. Despite the prosecution's pleas, on January 22, 2013, judges sentenced her to death. Sandiford appealed against the decision but she had no money left to pay for a legal team. A fundraising campaign managed to raise enough to fly an Indonesian solicitor to Bali but her appeal was dismissed. Sandiford then appealed to the Indonesian Supreme Court, which was also rejected. Ever since the gran has been held in Kerobokan Prison, in Bali.

Sandiford is being held in Kerobokan Prison in Bali (Image: Getty) The jail was built to house just 300 inmates but is currently home to more than 1,400 men and women. Riots and violence from guards is a regular occurence. Sandiford spends her time behind bars knitting items, which she then sells to raise funds to pay for her legal appeals. She has even been teaching other prisoners how to knit. However, the toll of spending so long on death row is taking its toll on Sandiford, who befriended suitcase killer Heather Mack during her time in prison. Mack served 10 years for the murder of her mother, who was then stuffed into a suitcase by her boyfriend. Mack was sentenced to 10 years behind bars while her boyfriend Tommy Schaefer was jailed for 18 in 2015 after they were found guilty of murdering Sheila von Wiese-Mack.

Sandiford says she has accepted her fate and feels "blessed" she saw her sons grow up (Image: Facebook/Justice and Fairness for Lindsay Sandiford) The killer said Sandiford was becoming increasingly reclusive during her time behind bars. Mack said: "I am friends with Lindsay but she has been difficult to speak to recently. “She spends all day pretty much alone in her cell and doesn’t mix so much with the other prisoners. “She snaps at me for no reason but I still make an effort with her." Mack said Sandiford was visibly shocked and upset after two other prisoners convicted of drug offences were suddenly taken away and executed. She said: “They had turned their lives around and were different people to when they were convicted, so everyone thought they would be OK.

Sandiford says she now just wats to get her punishment over with (Image: Facebook/Justice and Fairness for Lindsay Sandiford) “When Lindsay saw that even they could be taken away and killed, she knew it would be happening to her. That’s when it really, really hit home for her.” And Mack revealed the pensioner now had only one wish, explaining: "She has said she wants to die." Facing the prospect of death by firing squad, Lindsay herself said: "It won't be a hard thing for me to face anymore. "It's not particularly a death I would choose but then again I wouldn't choose dying in agony from cancer either. "I do feel I can cope with it. But when it happens I don't want my family to come. I don't want any fuss at all. The one thing certain about life is no one gets out alive." Even though she's on death row, Lindsay insists she feels "blessed" because she's witnessed her two sons grow up and met her grandchildren. She added: "My attitude is 'If you want to shoot me, shoot me. Get on with it'." Sandiford is believed to still be awaiting execution in Bali. – You can follow BangkokJack on Twitter, Instagram, & Reddit. Or join the free mailing list (top right) Please help us continue to bring the REAL NEWS - PayPal Read the full article

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thechasefiles · 5 years

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The Chase Files Daily Newscap 14/2/2020

Good Morning #realdreamchasers ! Here is your daily news cap for Friday February 14th, 2020. There is a lot to read and digest so take your time. Remember you can read full articles via Barbados Government Information Service (BGIS), Barbados Today (BT), or by purchasing a Weekend Nation Newspaper (WN).

EDUCATION MINISTRY WARNED ABOUT IGNORING UNION – The “stench of physical rot and infrastructural decay” at Vauxhall Primary is bad. But it’s not the worst case of environmental issues affecting learning institutions across the island, the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) has warned. In the wake of a rat infestation problem, substandard bathroom facilities and other environmental issues which have captured public attention, the union has condemned the Ministry of Education’s attitude and approach as “untenable and unacceptable”. And, unless “proactive changes” are made in “short order”, the union is threatening to bring a slew of other unhealthy and unsafe existing situations to the public’s attention. “We are most keenly aware that the conditions at Vauxhall recently made known to Barbadians, do not represent the worst conditions we can identify,” the union said Thursday in a statement. But despite the Education Minister, Santia Bradshaw’s visit yesterday at Vauxhall during a planned “silent protest” by teachers, the union accuses the ministry of ignoring several pieces of correspondence outlining numerous cases of unhealthy environment in schools. The BUT warned: “We will be forced to make the unhealthy, unsafe and unsecured school plants known in the absence of the ministry’s repeated failure to engage the union as requested. “These developments are not consistent with “a talking government”, what is deemed “fit for purpose” or the best managerial practices. There must be dialogue and feedback forms a critical part in dialogue. Without dialogue, conditions will not be satisfactorily addressed in a meaningful manner,” the statement charged. Looking back on issues which resulted in the 2006 closure of Louis Lynch Secondary as well as Society Primary and Chalky Mount Primary being condemned, the BUT complained that signs of decay at a number of schools built in the 1990’s like All Saints Primary, Lester Vaughn and Queen’s College continue to be affected by “systemic neglect”. “This continues today, unchecked, given there is little evidence of guidelines in terms of the maintenance or inspection of the physical infrastructure of public schools; whether older or newer; structures be wooden, coral stone or wall; nursery, primary, secondary or tertiary; in town or the country; or housing a large or small roll,” said the union. “Certain schools have endured the brunt of extreme neglect while others have been better maintained where parents possess the wherewithal. Some businesses have also supported these efforts from time to time and they must be commended,” the statement said. But given Government’s mandate to oversee the health and safety of stakeholders at all public schools, the union has been disappointed with recommendations made to the Prime Minister and the Social Partnership, which appear to have fallen on deaf ears. Zeroing in on issues of safety, the union indicated it is still awaiting a promised increase in “psychosocial support staff” in the form of guidance counsellors, which the union agreed to introduce after extended meetings with education stakeholders last May. The statement acknowledged that agitation by the BUT led to a summer maintenance programme by the Ministry of Education which resulted in physical issues at 40 primary schools and 10 secondary schools being addressed. However, that number, and more particularly the quantum and quality of the repairs undertaken, represent a mere drop of water in the ocean of unsecured, unsafe and unhealthy schools,” the statement complained. On Wednesday, the Education Minister revealed that 300 children would be away from school for the remainder of the week while issues at Vauxhall Primary are addressed. (BT)

FORDE INCEST A BIG WORRY – There seems to be an increase in incest. So said Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs, Cynthia Forde who, while not having any empirical data, has drawn her conclusion from increased reports about the matter. Speaking to the media after a seminar entitled Communities Make A Difference at the Savannah Hotel Wednesday and hosted in collaboration with the National Assistance Board, Forde said too few young people were educated about protecting themselves. “You can’t have young children, 13 or 14 years old, whose bodies are developing and they know little or nothing about AIDS,” she cautioned. “I believe the statistics in this country on incest, of persons taking advantage of young girls and boys, is climbing. I do not have the statistics, but from the stories you hear, from the little snippets you see in the newspaper where men get charged with having relationships with young girls or underaged girls and women getting charged with having relationships with younger boys, it says to me no sensitisation or little sensitisation is there.” (WN)

GENDER IDENITY WRONGFUL DISMISSAL - For the first time on record, the Employment Rights Tribunal (ERT) is being asked to address an allegation of unfair termination on the basis of gender identity. The development follows failed attempts by the Labour Department to resolve a dispute between Alexa Hoffmann and her former employer, Court Caribbean Law Practice over Hoffmann’s decision to change her name as a reflection of her gender identity. The legal firm has refused to place its legal position on the matter in the public domain. If successful, Hoffmann hopes the decision will set a precedent for the local Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community. The outspoken activist declined to disclose her given name at birth, which was used in August 2015 when she was hired as a legal assistant. Hoffman explained the issues came to a head when she was attacked in February 2018 and her supervisor, lawyer, Nigel Bennett asked her why she was being referred to as Alexa in the public domain. In response, the trans woman said she explained that although her name had not yet been changed, persons referred to her as Alexa as a courtesy. But it was only in October of the same year when her name was officially changed at the national registry that Hoffman claims she was asked to stay home from work. Weeks later, the trans woman said she emailed her employer to inquire about her status and was informed that she had been placed on leave while the company engaged in consultations on the matter. This eventually resulted in a meeting at the labour department on February 7, 2019 where the two parties were unable to resolve the matter “amicably”. When contacted, Attorney Nigel Bennett refused to comment extensively while the tribunal addresses the matter but admitted the law firm was challenging the basis of Hoffmann’s claims. “We have no issues at all, but as a matter of propriety, the matter is before the ERT and we are simply going to put forward our position to the ERT and let them make a determination. Once they have made a decision in that regard we could make a comment, but it would be highly inappropriate of us to do that before,” Bennett told Barbados TODAY. Asked what legal remedies she would be seeking, Hoffmann doubted the practicality of reinstatement but said she is pursuing damages. Even more important she explained, is the need to set a definitive precedent for “marginalised and downtrodden” persons in the LGBT community. “Outside of the compensation, I am looking to send a message that regardless of an employer’s consternation about the diversity of his staff, as long as that diversity does not have a direct impact on the work they are employed to do…it should not be cause to suspend them,” Hoffman said. “If you have an employee whether they are gay, straight, bisexual, trans, disabled, HIV positive or whatever the situation is…let them do their work in peace, and if I have to go through the Employment Rights Tribunal process to let employers know that I have the right to be left alone to do the work that I have been hired to do, then so be it,” the trans woman added. It is still unclear when the tribunal will hear the matter, and while Hoffman is willing to be patient, she has not ruled out the possibility of approaching the civil courts to adjudicate on the case. The trans activist meanwhile added that she was hoping to empower transgender Barbadians to pursue careers outside the traditional areas of beauty and cosmetology, if that is their desire. “I keep realising there are a lot of people who go through what I go through as well but many of them feel so beaten and downtrodden that they can’t seem to muster up the fight to get up and stand up for themselves…but I keep thinking that if I don’t make this move, I don’t know who else will make it,” Hoffmann said. “It’s not just about me anymore, because I am thinking about other people who may want to become professionals in whatever field they want. (BT)

EX-NURSE 39 YEAR OLD CASE DRAGS ON - Former Government-paid nurse Coral Wilkinson says she has had enough of her attorney-at-law Sir Richard Cheltenham,QC, claiming he has been tardy in completing her injury settlement case with the State, almost 40 years after her fall on the job. Wilkinson, who fell and injured her back while on duty at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in April 1981, said today she is fed up with how long it has been taking to bring closure to the matter. “I can’t take this any longer,” said Wilkinson. She recalled an occasion in which she said she was being blamed for not getting in touch with Sir Richard. “I said, ‘but you see why I planned that I wasn’t calling back you because every time I call, all I am hearing is that, it doesn’t mean because I am not hearing from you all that nothing isn’t happening. So I said nobody hasn’t called me so I figure nothing is happening,’” Wilkinson stated. Thirty six years old at the time of her spinal injury, the ex-Government health care provider told Barbados TODAY she desperately needs the final payment so she can finish her medical procedures overseas and bring some ease to her deteriorating physical condition where she can no longer bathe herself or touch water with her bare hands. Wilkinson said that last year, her attorney told her he was ready to submit her final claim. “Every time he keeps telling me the same thing over and over,” she declared. While admitting that Sir Richard was able to obtain an initial pay out in 2017 of some $300,000 to allow her to travel to the United Kingdom for one phase of corrective surgery, Wilkinson contended that that money was not even sufficient to cover all her medical bills and stay in the UK. She said she had to pull her pocket to avoid embarrassment when she needed transportation to attend therapy or get around generally. She also revealed that in October last year, another offer of just over half million dollars was made to her as a final settlement, which she rejected. “You know how much he offered me that day as a final settlement? Make a guess…$550,000…after 1981 until now and I can’t even help myself. I said ‘no, no, no.’ No way am I going to accept it. That can’t even cover the hospital fees in England,” Wilkinson said with a chuckle. She said that after numerous telephone calls to Sir Richard’s office and hearing “excuse after excuse” she has decided to stop calling. She told Barbados TODAY that Sir Richard has no valid reason for not submitting her final claim to the Government because she had furnished him with all of the documents he requested since 2017. “I went up to [the UK] and when I was ready to come back down, I told the doctors I was going home on August 3. When I went to see the doctors for physiotherapy and so on, all of the doctors’ reports were there waiting for me to be collected. I came back down here on August 3 [2017], and in a week’s time, I had everything photocopied and sent to him [Sir Richard],” Wilkinson stated. She explained that in the same year, her attorney requested an additional medical report, this time from her local specialist which Wilkinson said was provided outlining the condition of her back and her mental state as well. “That wasn’t enough. In March last year I talked to him. He still had not done anything yet. Nothing he had not done yet,” the former nurse complained, adding that the spinal injury has resulted in such serious neurological problems, she cannot tolerate water on her bare hands “When I go in the bath on mornings and the water comes down and hit my fingers, I would get electric-like current going through my body and I am now bathing in gloves. Can you imagine?” Wilkinson asked with a tremble in her voice. When Barbados TODAY reached out to Sir Richard, he contended that his client’s case was being advanced and more progress was expected in the coming week when his secretary returned from a week-long break. “Her case is being advanced. She got an interim [payout] up to a few years ago. Went off to London and all the rest,” he said “The last thing that Coral told me, bearing in mind that it is a few years and more since she went to London, that she had seen the surgeon specialist here. So I wrote him and asked him, since we can’t get anything from the surgeon specialist in England, to send me a summary of when he last saw her, because you can’t submit a claim with a report two or more years old,” Sir Richard recalled, adding that he required an updated one. He said it was only after his client called him just before Christmas last year and he told her he was waiting on the report from the specialist here, that there must have been a misunderstanding on his part. “Because although I told you [Wilkinson] I had been to him [the doctor], I did not mean for you to get an update from him. But that only happened a few days before Christmas; so the matter is on my desk and I am working. The secretary is off for a week, so that when she comes back we could start doing some business,” Sir Richard told Barbados TODAY.Responding to his client’s complaint that she had been trying to get an audience with him but gets the run-around when she called, the prominent Queen’s Counsel said Wilkinson was always in his office, and had not asked for any audience with him since before Christmas last year. “So as soon as my secretary comes back, which is next week, I will reach out to Coral and give her a new appointment, so that I could review with her what I have written; so that once she says okay that it is accurate, we can go,” Sir Richard promised. “I could understand that she is also troubled and her situation is deteriorating and she has carried her burden for many, many years…except that some three years ago I did get an appreciable interim for her and she went off to London. This is now time to bring closure to it. But there was a misunderstanding about the doctor here, the surgeon specialist…and she did go to see him. I thought since the report from England is dated, that I should write him. But she said she didn’t understand or expected me to do that,” he said.Meanwhile, the former QEH nurse said she presently has six discs out of place in her back and screws implanted in her back from a surgery in 1998 intended to stabilize a shaky spine due to constantly falling at home. Wilkinson, who said she has been seeing a psychiatrist for the past 19 years, will also require a battery to be surgically placed in her back to stimulate the nerve to produce feeling, physiotherapy until the day of her death and a care giver considering she is now unable to bath and dress herself. She revealed that once she got her final payout to assist with further surgery in the UK, she would have to return to England for critical follow up treatment every six months.Wilkinson said her physical disability which has forced her to use a walker continues to cause unbearable pain. (BT)

LABANE CASE THROWN OUT – The year-old La Cabane on Batts Rock beach will get its liquor licence renewed. But the renewal came after three residents from nearby neighbourhoods expressed strong objection to the operation of the restaurant in the Bridgetown Traffic Court yesterday.Queen’s Counsel Clyde Turney, who lives at Batts Rock, along with two residents from Prospect, St James, had filed an objection to the renewal of La Cabane’s liquor licence which expired yesterday. The three residents, whose case was put by Queen’s Counsel Leslie Haynes, argued that the noise coming from the bar and restaurant, on Tuesdays to Sundays, was so annoyingly loud that it prevented them from sleeping and from hearing their televisions. They especially complained about drumming which emanated from the restaurant on Sundays and continued until 9 p.m. The restaurant is closed on Mondays. (WN)

GROOM REMANDED – A young Barbadian who does contract work in Canada and goes between that northern country and home, may have to put his planned wedding on hold. Despite his pleas for a second chance and an opportunity to proceed with his wedding arrangements, 24-year-old Winslow Ricardo Bonnett of no fixed place of abode, heard Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant say: ”remanded for sentencing”. Bonnett appeared before Cuffy-Sargeant today charged with entering the apartment of Canadian visitor Ethel Marley and her husband on January 13 with the intention to steal. He is also accused of loitering on the premises of Yellow Bird Hotel on February 3 when it was suspected he was about to commit theft. According to the facts read by the police prosecutor, Marley, who owns the apartment, complained that she and her husband were awakened by a noise coming from the kitchen. The court was told the complainant observed the sliding glass door being opened and saw a man whom she could not identify at the time. However, police investigators were later led to the accused based on finger prints and palm prints taken from the door. This afternoon when the magistrate asked Bonnett if he had anything to say, he replied “I apologize to you, the owner of the apartment. I would like a chance…I would like to proceed with being married.” Bonnett, who pleaded guilty to both charges, will now have to wait until March 12 to know his fate. (BT)

CHOO DOE SERVICE FOR $12 IN POT – One hundred and twenty hours of community service was the sentence today handed down by the District “A” Criminal Court No 2 magistrate on a first-time drug offender. Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant informed Benjamin Richard Choo, a self-employed man of #26 Walkers Terrace, St George that he had to complete the service for having $12 worth of cannabis in his possession yesterday. Twenty-seven-year-old Choo pleaded guilty to the offence and was granted $1,500 bail with instructions that he had to reappear in court on June 26. (BT)

FORDE TO REAPPEAR IN COURT – Twenty-one-year-old Rico Radarah Reneal Forde of Salters, St George, was remanded to HMP Dodds after appearing at District ‘A’ Criminal Court Number 2 this morning. He was not required to plead to any of the offences and Magistrate Christie Cuffy-Sergeant remanded him to reappear at District B on February 19 and District ‘A’ Criminal Court Number 1 on March 12. Forde is charged with having one .9mm Smith and Wesson pistol and nine rounds of ammunition on February 7 without the relevant permits from the Commissioner of Police. On January 26, he “recklessly or without lawful authority or excuse, discharged a firearm in a public place”, namely the Sol Service Station at Charles Rowe Bridge, St George, placing Jianne Douglas in danger of death or serious bodily harm. On the same day, he is alleged to have caused serious bodily harm to Shaquille Callender with intent to main, disfigure or disable him, or to do some serious bodily harm to him and used a firearm without a valid licence during the same incident at the gas station. The final incident occurred on January 4 where he is alleged to have discharged a firearm at Government Hill, St Michael, placing Rashad Massiah in danger of death and serious bodily harm. (BT)

DRUG ACCUSED ON BAIL – A 40-year-old unemployed man this afternoon denied four drug-related charges brought against him by the police for the alleged offences which occurred yesterday. When Sherman Danny Green of 3rd Avenue, Harts Gap, Christ Church went before District “A” Magistrate Kristie Cuff-Sargeant, he pleaded not guilty to unlawful possession of cannabis, unlawful possession of cocaine; unlawful possession of cocaine with intent to supply and trafficking of the same drug. After the prosecution did not object to bail, the Magistrate released Green on $1,500 bail when she took into consideration that the value of the cocaine was estimated at $1,050 and the cannabis $60. Cuffy-Sargeant also placed conditions on the bail which require the accused to report to the Hastings Police Station every Wednesday before noon with a form of identification. The case was adjourned until May 6, but has been transferred to the District “A” Criminal Court No 2. (BT)

PRIEST VIOLENCE NOT THE WAY – Barbados cannot continue to turn a blind eye to gun violence, especially when it happens in front of children, warned an Anglican cleric yesterday. Reverend Trevor O’Neale issued the caution in his sermon during the funeral service for 37-year-old Marlon Jermaine Holder at St Philip’s Parish Church. Holder, the second man to be gunned down for the year, was shot and killed outside St Alban’s Primary School in St James, where he had just pulled up to drop off his six-year-old son on January 17. He was shot through the car window. The priest said such acts of violence could have lasting effects on children. “The sad thing about it is, it is being done in the presence of our children. Do you know that a child experiencing violence is going to be scarred? That it is going to lead to behavioural problems? It is going to lead to mental challenges sometimes,” he said. (WN)

FREE CITY WIFI SOMETIME AFTER MARCH – The Smart Bridgetown project, which includes free public WiFi, has been delayed another three months, the Government’s information technology chief has told Barbados TODAY. The free WiFi, which is the first phase of the project, was originally scheduled to begin by the end of last year. But a delay in obtaining a vendor to offer the service has forced officials to set a new implementation date of the second quarter of this year, said Rodney Taylor, the director of the Data Processing Department in the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology. He said the tendering process was now closed and officials were in the process of choosing a suitable provider. About a dozen domestic and overseas IT firms submitted bids to provide the service for the community WiFi phase of the project. Taylor told Barbados TODAY: “There were some delays with respect to the public tender. “The tender has closed and we are in the stages of evaluating the tenders we received. “And we hope that by the end of the financial year, which is March, we are able to sign off on a vendor and start with the implementation of that.” Under phase one, free broadband internet access being extended from the Bridgetown Port to Independence Square. And with officials now considering adding new areas including the planned Fairchild Street market, the free Wi-Fi could stretch from the Jewish Synagogue in Magazine Lane to Golden Square in Jordans Lane.The next phase of Smart Bridgetown is “smart parking” which will use a smartphone app to locate available spaces in Bridgetown and pay for parking electronically, said Taylor. Smart Bridgetown was allocated about $1 million to get it started. (BT)

There are 323 days left in the year Shalom! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram for your daily news. #thechasefiles #dailynewscaps #bajannewscaps #newsinanutshell

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gyrlversion · 6 years

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Britains Microsoft CEO and Greggs chief awarded honours by the Queen

The boss of Greggs, Microsoft’s UK chief executive and the great-granddaughter of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst all received honours at a Windsor Castle investiture ceremony today.

Roger Whiteside, chief of the Greggs bakery chain, was given an OBE for services to women and equality. In 2016 he joined the Women’s Business Council, which aims to tackle barriers to women’s career progression.

Mr Whiteside, who has been in his current position for six years, was also on the founding team of Ocado – and began his career at Marks & Spencer where he spent 20 years, eventually becoming head of its food business.

Today, he said it was ‘really important’ that Greggs takes a modern approach to environmental issues, adding that the company’s launch of a vegan sausage roll had been a ‘revelation’.

Roger Whiteside, chief of the Greggs bakery chain, receives an OBE from the Queen for services to women and equality

In 2016, Mr Whiteside joined the Women’s Business Council, which aims to tackle barriers to women’s career progression

Microsoft UK’s chief executive Cindy Rose was given an OBE at the investiture ceremony today for services to UK technology

Prior to joining the US electronics giant, Ms Rose led the consumer division at telecommunications firm Vodafone

He said: ‘Because we have been around for so long, we are in the psyche of the British public. Of course our heritage is in bakery and we have seemed to have been probably a bit old fashioned and all of those sorts of thing in the past.

‘So for us to be in the forefront of things like vegan and gluten free, that tends to attract the headlines.’

He said that the introduction of the vegan sausage roll was part of a ‘long-term’ strategy to adjust to the public’s changing eating habits and was not a publicity stunt. He said: ‘We wouldn’t do it if we thought it was a fad.

‘It is clear to us that dietary choice is something that is broadening in appeal and in the way we live.’

Dr. Helen Pankhurst is made a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) by the Queen at Windsor Castle today

Dr Pankhurst is a leading feminist and senior adviser to charity Care International – and regularly speaks out on gender issues

Activist Dr Pankhurst, also a writer and academic, was installed as the University of Suffolk’s first chancellor in December

Professor Jane Cummings, ex-chief nursing officer for England, is made a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire)

Professor Cummings, who retired last year, receives the award from Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle today

Mr Whiteside added that while there were ‘very few’ people who follow a completely vegan diet, there has been a trend among the public wanting to eat less meat.

He added: ‘I now eat more vegetable meals than I used to because I feel like it is probably better to have a diet that is more balanced in that way.’

Profits at Greggs have been boosted by the launch of the vegan sausage roll and there has been a move to add more vegan food to their menus, according to Mr Whiteside.

Microsoft UK’s chief executive Cindy Rose also got an OBE at the event for services to UK technology. Prior to joining the US electronics giant, she led the consumer division at telecommunications firm Vodafone.

The Queen also gave a CBE to women’s rights campaigner Dr Helen Pankhurst for services to gender equality. Dr Pankhurst is a senior adviser to charity Care International and regularly speaks out on gender issues.

The Queen presents an OBE to Paul Lindley, who founded organic baby food firm Ella’s Kitchen, at Windsor Castle today

Mr Lindley was given his award from the Queen for services to food and drink exports and children’s welfare

Skateboarder James Threlfall was presented with an MBE by the Queen for his work with young people in Wiltshire

Mr Threlfall is an ambassador for mental health charity Calm (Campaign Against Living Miserably)

Frank Mullane, chief executive of AAFDA (Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse), is awarded an MBE at Windsor Castle today

Mr Mullane is presented with the MBE by the Queen today for his services to families affected by domestic homicide

The activist, also a writer and academic who recently compared the battle for women’s right to vote a century ago to the #MeToo movement today, was installed as the University of Suffolk’s first chancellor in December.

Dr Pankhurst said her famous ancestor would be ‘delighted’ and ‘amused’ that she had been honoured with a CBE for campaigning on gender equality.

Dr Helen Pankhurst, who is descended from the famous suffragette, was handed the honour by the Queen at Windsor Castle on Friday.

She said: ‘I think the fact that I am being given an honour on gender equality issues and people are still talking about the need to continue to address gender equality… I think she would be amused, but obviously delighted.’

The activist said that while it is important to ‘celebrate success’ on the progress of gender issues, there is still ‘so much that needs to be done’.

Dr Helen Pankhurst with her CBE medal (left) and Microsoft UK CEO Cindy Rose with her OBE (right) at Windsor Castle today

Roger Whiteside with his OBE medal (left) and Frank Mullane with his MBE medal (right) pose for pictures at Windsor Castle

Professor Jane Cummings with her CBE medal (left) and Paul Lindley with his OBE medal (right) after the ceremony today

James Threlfall poses with his MBE medal today after it was awarded to him by Queen Elizabeth II at an investiture ceremony

She said: ‘In every single area we are not there yet, but the direction of travel and the fact that we all know we are on a journey is really positive.’

Honoured campaigner wants greater awareness of domestic abuse

The public needs to be ‘more aware’ of domestic violence so victims can get better support, according to a campaigner on the issue.

Frank Mullane, CEO of charity Advocacy After Domestic Abuse, made the comments after he was presented with an MBE by the Queen at Windsor Castle on Friday for services to families affected by domestic homicide.

Mr Mullane, from Swindon, said he lost his sister and nephew to domestic abuse in 2003.

He said: ‘It is quite a poignant moment because obviously we reflect back on the murder and none of this would have been in our lives but for murders, that’s a strange feeling.’

However, he said it is a ‘nice feeling’ to receive the honour, adding: ‘It is wonderful to see the recognition for the work that we do.’

The public needs to be ‘more aware’ of domestic abuse so they know how to give ‘safe interventions’, Mr Mullane said. ‘A person suffering domestic abuse, for example my sister, first of all comes to her brother. We give loving responses, whereas I think we need informed responses.’

Dr Pankhurst said that companies need to engage better with gender issues, calling it ‘disgraceful’ that two-thirds of companies are yet to publish their pay gaps with around a fortnight to go until the deadline.

She said: ‘I think it really is disgraceful. I think we need to continue to push so it is not just companies that have 250 people and above that have to report. Smaller companies don’t need to report, and I think a lot of the inequality can be at the smaller companies as well.’

She added that there was also some ‘hiding of the data’ in cases such as partners of law firms not having to declare all their income.

Dr Pankhurst, who is also a writer and academic, said that a key area of progress on gender issues is that ‘there are so many men who are happy to call themselves feminists that are more involved in bringing up their children and caring for their parents’.

The campaigner, who was joined at the ceremony by her children and a friend, added: ‘All of us, we are just absolutely delighted.’

Skateboarder James Threlfall, who is an ambassador for mental health charity Calm (Campaign Against Living Miserably), was presented with an MBE for his work with young people in Wiltshire.

He said that it is ‘really important’ young people have access to activities, adding: ‘When I was younger I found that some of my friends went off and were getting into trouble.’

However, focusing on skateboarding ‘completely kept me out of trouble’, he said, and helping young people access the sport is ‘really, really important’.

An OBE was given to Paul Lindley, who founded organic baby food firm Ella’s Kitchen, for services to food and drink exports and children’s welfare.

Jane Cummings, ex-chief nursing officer for England, received a CBE.

How feminist Dr Helen Pankhurst has spotted parallels between the fight to vote in 1903 and #MeToo today

She might be the great-granddaughter of suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst, but Dr Helen Pankhurst is a leading feminist campaigner in her own right.

The activist is a senior adviser to charity CARE International and regularly speaks out on gender issues. Dr Pankhurst, who is also a writer and academic, was installed as the first chancellor of the University of Suffolk in December.

She has attracted headlines over the past year for her comments on women’s issues. In October she claimed she saw great parallels between the battle for women’s right to vote in 1903 and the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements of today.

Dr Pankhurst told the Cheltenham Literature Festival that the suffragettes fought for many years to win universal suffrage and that change did not happen overnight. And she urged the women of today to take inspiration from the suffragettes.

Women’s rights campaigner Dr Helen Pankhurst (left) is the great-granddaughter of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst (right). Dr Pankhurst is pictured in 2015 in the parlour of her ancestor’s home in Manchester, where the suffragette movement began

Back in May, she claimed traditional women’s roles such as Nursing, teaching and full-time parenting should be valued as much as those in male-dominated sectors. Dr Pankhurst told the Hay Literary Festival that society should ‘revalue’ positions traditionally shunned by feminists and ‘let individuals decide what they want to be’.

She also spoke in February last year about the damaging effect US President Donald Trump could have on men’s perception of women. Publicising her book Deeds Not Words, out on the 100th anniversary of women receiving the vote last year, Dr Pankhurst said her message to Mr Trump would be: ‘The world has changed – look forwards not backwards.

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Chelsy Davy: 8 Things to Know About Prince Harry's On- and Off-Again Ex-Girlfriend

Long before Prince Harry got engaged to American actress Meghan Markle, there was Zimbabwean jeweler Chelsy Davy. She met Harry in 2004, but the couple’s on-and-off seven-year relationship officially ended in 2011.

Davy, though, told the Sunday Times in 2016 the two would “always be good friends,” and it seems Harry and his 32-year-old ex are still on good terms: She is rumored to have received an invite to the forthcoming regal ceremony. (Before their breakup, Davy and Harry attended Prince William and Kate Middleton’s 2011 wedding together.) Come May 19, we’ll see if Davy will indeed be on hand to toast to Harry’s happily ever after.

In the meantime, here’s the scoop on Davy, from her safari upbringing to the intense media mania that severed her romantic ties with the prince:

1. That time monkeys stole Davy’s crayons

Growing up on a farm in Zimbabwe, Davy told the Times she hung around an orphaned pet hyena, and once a “very dangerous” boomslang snake the length of a man landed on her head. Of course, you’d expect nothing less from a young girl whose millionaire safari operator of a father, Charles Davy, raised her on 1,300 square miles of African savannah, with giraffes, lions and more wildlife around her. “At my preschool there were monkeys everywhere,” she recalled, “stealing your crayons.”

2. Davy’s move to England, where she met Harry

A far cry from Zimbabwe, Davy briefly attended Cheltenham College, a girls’ public boarding school in the southwest English town, before switching to Stowe School, a selective independent boarding school in Buckinghamshire, all the while feeling maladjusted -- like “Crocodile Dundee, with all my snakes,” she told the Times.

“I'd never worn makeup and suddenly everyone was in makeup,” she added. “People were like: ‘Who is this weirdo from Zimbabwe?’ But I made some fabulous friends.” Among them: Prince Harry, with whom she first hit it off in early 2004.

3. Davy’s lack of model ambitions

Contrary to popular belief, the blonde beauty didn't have her mind set on a modeling career. In the same Times interview, Davy debunked that rumor, stating, “That’s a terrible fiction.” In fact, she told Country and Town House that from a very young age, she was inspired by the film A Few Good Men to pursue a career in law.

4. Instead, Davy became a lawyer

Though she says the media focused on her party-girl antics with Prince Harry more than her day-to-day life as an academic, Davy proved she was more than meets the eye when she got her law degree at the University of Leeds. (She earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Cape Town.) Following school, Davy joined Allen & Overy, an elite London-based law firm.

“They can be forgiven for not knowing I was working really hard, I didn’t shout about it,” she told the Times, referring to the paps. “If you go out once, they take a picture, but they don’t take a picture of you going to work every morning -- it’s of you falling out of a nightclub at 4 a.m.”

5. Law, however, was no match for jewelry-making

In 2014, she abandoned a career in law to pursue self-directed endeavors. After obtaining a gemology diploma from the Gemological Institute of America, Davy launched a luxury African jewelry line called Aya, which honors her deep connection to her native soil, "from emeralds in Zambia to rubies in Mozambique and tanzanites in Tanzania," as the jeweler's official site reads.

Aya in Austin 🤠 Thank you @bygeorgeaustin for having us! #AyainAustin #ayaafrica #finejewellery #finejewelry 💎

A post shared by chelsydavy (@chelsydavy) on Mar 23, 2018 at 12:21pm PDT

6. Davy was held at gunpoint in 2006

In a terrifying turn of events at a South African bar in Cape Town, where Davy and a friend were celebrating having finished their dissertations, a gunman lunged at their table. “He put a gun to my head," she recalled to the Times. “They frogmarched us into the kitchen, made us all lie down, patted us down for valuables, said: ‘The first person to look up we’re going to shoot.’ I was holding my friend’s hand, we were both shaking.”

7. Being in the spotlight was, well, a royal pain

Davy described being chased by the paps during her romance with Prince Harry as “crazy and scary and uncomfortable.”

“I found it very difficult when it was bad,” she confessed to the Times. “I couldn’t cope. I was young, I was trying to be a normal kid and it was horrible.” Seeking to escape the spotlight, the media-shy entrepreneur decided to end things with Harry. “Now it's calm, now it’s fine.”

Responding to the newspaper's inquiry if it's possible for a person with an everyday career to be romantic with a royal, Davy said, “I don’t know, but I think that some people are definitely better at it than others.”

8. Now, Davy enjoys roaming Africa

Beautiful Zambia 💚🇿🇲❤️ #thedream #safari #Zambezi #Zambia ]]>🦓

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