#premises licence

[johnbrace]

Licensing Act 2003 Sub Committee (Wirral Council) 14th June 2022 Part 5 of 6

[jkunokisu]

List of accredited organizations that provide courses and exams for a personal license to sell alcohol.

[premiseslicenses]

Appoint Licensing Lawyers for Licence Applications

At Ince, we have a wealth of experience in providing a range of applications to the clients that ranges from Premises Licences, Pavement Licences, Personal Licences for the smooth business operations. Get in touch with our legal experts for more inquiries!

https://www.premiseslicences.co.uk/applying-for-a-licence.php

[toskarin]

the one thing I feel most regret about, wrt moving my mecha ttrpg writing away from LANCER and towards my own systems, is that I had to scrap one of the more fun concepts because of how personal-to-each-player the suits in my stuff tend to be

rambles about a largely scrapped (and repurposed) module below the break

the adventure's premise was blatantly an IBO knockoff where the party had a finite inventory of grunt frames, along with more interesting suits they could find along the way, with a sort of early d&d style focus on the maintenance of equipment (applied here to earning partial and full repairs for their dwindling mecha supply, with more advanced suits costing more)

the licence level system was more or less decoupled from mecha progression, because all frames and attachments were either looted from battlefields, bartered for with pirates, or otherwise given as incentives for playing into a specific criminal faction's favour, angering the others in your effort to prepare for the inevitable system government crackdown

the adventure was built around finding contracts within deadline windows, weighing if the party could afford the more dangerous ones with their current supplies, and gradually coming into conflict with larger government factions as this happened

base maintenance expenses, food, and protection fees were to be weighed against things like "pay the fee to reestablish a new smuggler route connection for special ammo after the system government cracked down and killed your previous ones"

if that started sounding familiar towards the latter half, a lot of this was repurposed into the core of Armored Blade Jetkaiser's gameplay loop, but the "you are running through your mecha hangar making loadouts and scrounging for repairs, hoping your good mecha don't break beyond repair and necessitate using the questionable ones" bit didn't really make it into that system...

anyway, I'm mostly posting this here because I know tables like to steal homebrew concepts to build their own modules around, so I might as well pay a little back in lol

[reluctantjoe]

‘After rehearsal, my face hurts from laughing!’ The Ghosts cast on fun, fame and their festive farewell

One of the UK’s most cherished comedies is bowing out for ever. The stars talk about nicking things from the set – and being called ‘outrageous and shameful’ by Piers Morgan

Thanks, I tell the creators of Ghosts sarcastically, for making my daughter cry. The evening before, my family watched the supernatural sitcom’s final episode, and the only dry eyes in the house were mine.

This reaction, I tell Martha Howe-Douglas, Laurence Rickard, Jim Howick and Mathew Baynton over Zoom call, is going to be replicated across Britain. Did you think about how you were going to ruin everybody’s Christmas when you wrote this tearjerker? “Ah, you can but dream,” says Baynton, who plays the Romantic poet Thomas, wistfully.

The Ghosts team implore me not to reveal plot twists from the last episode, but there are some tantalising details I can share without spoiling the viewing experience. First, this is the episode where the final secret about the ghosts is revealed, namely how the Captain died. Second, there is a flash-forward to Alison and Mike in their dotage. But most of all, this is where we learn the fates of everybody, living and dead. I’d like to reveal more about whether Alison and Mike do sell land from the estate to build a golf course, or if any ghost is going to emulate Katy Wix’s character Mary and be sucked off (their words) into the spirit realm, but if I did it’s quite possible the cast would hunt me down and chop off my head. Or maybe they’d just haunt me for ever which, to be honest, doesn’t sound so bad.

The show’s premise – that the ghosts can never leave the grounds of the house – is a tragicomic trope of Britcoms, ie that the protagonists can’t escape their fate. It was Harold’s psychic wound in Steptoe and Son, and now in Ghosts all the spirits are stuck in each others’ company for good as if Button House is a home counties Hotel California. Or if you prefer, the Horrible Histories team have made a funny Uncle Vanya.

Four talking heads nod on their respective Zoom screens.

“I always think Chekhov is funnier than it’s usually done,” says Rickard – who plays two parts, Humphrey the headless and Robin the caveman. “They’re fixed somewhere and also utterly baffled as to why they’re there. So you have these existential crises going on with people who are already dead.” “I was in a production of Vanya once,” says Howick, who plays Scout leader Pat. “It was nothing like this.”

Baynton says: “On the face of it, it’s about ghosts, but it’s really just a metaphor for what it’s like to be a person. You’re born into the world and everyone’s got different opinions about what everything means. To do that in a family sitcom always felt like an amazing trick to me. It kind of is Beckett, but it’s um ... silly Beckett.”

Cast your mind back to April 2019, when the team behind Horrible Histories unveiled a new comedy. Did your careers ever recover from Horrible Histories being endorsed by Michael Gove as a tool for teaching? “I think that was nicely ballasted by James Cleverly or Piers Morgan a few years later around Brexit saying that it was a waste of licence fee,” says Baynton. It was actually Morgan who, with his unerring grasp of the national mood, in 2020 tweeted that the show was “an outrageous, shameful abuse of public money”.

At the outset, Ghosts seemed like a spin-off from Horrible Histories’ Stupid Deaths segment, in which the team recreated a laughable demise (King Harold shot in the eye at Hastings, self-styled gong farmer Richard the Raker drowning in his own poo, Aeschylus killed by an eagle dropping a tortoise on his head). The eponymous Ghosts often died similarly stupidly: Howick’s Scout leader Pat died in an archery accident and wears an arrow through his neck for all eternity; Lolly Adefope’s Georgian noblewoman Kitty was slain by a spider bite from a transatlantically imported pineapple.

In episode one, thirtysomething herberts Alison and Mike move into an ancestral pile that she’s inherited, only to find that it’s haunted. After she falls through a window and cracks her head open, Alison can see the ghosts but Mike can’t – though if he could he would probably put out the lights of the dead Romantic poet who keeps putting the moves on his wife.

Ghosts has been a lovely antidote to our times. For the cast too, making it has been a joy. “We’re very different people,” says Rickard, “but the thing we’ve got in common is a sense of humour. And if you can have one thing in common, that is the best thing, because it’s a light, fun, nice thing you want to keep returning to.

“At the end of rehearsal day, my face hurts from laughing. It’s a really unusual feeling that you’re giving yourself a headache from having a good time, without being horribly drunk.”

A few days later, I interview Charlotte Ritchie and Kiell Smith-Bynoe, who play Alison and Mike. “I think it has real kindness at the heart of it,” says Ritchie. “The core of the show, I think, is that all these people you might label as different are navigating things together.”

That said, Ghosts also manages to tackle some pretty important social issues. The second world war army veteran Captain, whose love for a junior officer dare not speak its name, is fondly imagined. More significant yet is the representation of people of colour. Smith-Bynoe says he was especially delighted when last year’s Christmas special depicted something he’d never seen on TV before: a Black family having Christmas dinner. “I’ve had couples come up to me and, them being an interracial couple, say that it means a lot to them to see that at the forefront. It’s not talked about, just there.”

Ghosts has made the pair famous. “If I wear Alison’s jumpers when I go out, I get recognised,” says Ritchie. Or misrecognised: “I was out the other day and this woman came up to me and said: ‘Liked you in Fleabag.’ So I went with it.” “Why not?” laughs Smith-Bynoe. “I had a thing where somebody was convinced I did a warm-up for Mo Gilligan.” But you never have done? “Of course not! But it was hard to convince them I knew better.”

Both Ritchie and Smith-Bynoe would like to have a word with the writers. They’re not happy the show has come to an end. “I’ve got nothing in January,” she says. “Me neither.” They have a point. They are unemployed in a cost of living crisis while several of the writer-actors on the show have parlayed their fame into work on other lucrative franchises. Baynton can now be seen as Fickelgruber opposite Timothée Chalamet as the eponymous Wonka, while Simon Farnaby co-wrote Wonka, Paddington 2 and the forthcoming Paddington in Peru.

In theory, Ghosts need never end: spirits are eternal, so shouldn’t a sitcom about them be, too? Perhaps the Ghosts team should consider making a spin-off. What would be the Frasier to Ghosts’ Cheers, I ask. “Mick,” says Baynton. He means the ghost who shares the cellar of Button House with other plague victims, each one played by a member of the main cast. “It’d be called Mick with an exclamation mark. And it’d have a live audience. I’d come on and say: ‘Hello everyone! Hiya! I’m home!’ Like Happy Days. Don’t even bother with the makeup, the lights aren’t on.” It sounds terrible, to be fair.

Perhaps we have to accept that Ghosts is dead. Certainly, the cast have plundered the set for memorabilia. Ritchie has snaffled Alison’s jumpers, Smith-Bynoe took Mike’s monocle, Howe-Douglas has Lady Button’s rings and Ben Willbond has taken the Captain’s stick. Rickard proudly holds up Humphrey’s severed head to camera.

All that remains now are the repeats. “I think, more so than drama, people will go back to comedies they love and want to experience them again and find more in them,” says Baynton. “There are plenty of shows that are comfort. Sometimes you put them on so you can have a nap.” He seems to be suggesting that Ghosts is part of that soporific canon. I look at the four screens, each interviewee giggling happily at the thought of Britain not sobbing over the last episode, but dozing through repeats. It may be ending with a Christmas special, but Ghosts will be haunting us for many years to come.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for filling in a question on my sisters form in a joking manner?

I (27f) am helping my sister (23f) take her driver's licence. I coach her on drives inbetween lessons at a traffic school. This happened a while back when we were just starting up the lessons. The traffic school wanted my sister to fill out a form that would help them assess how her lessons with them should be. It had questions about in which ways she learns the best (visual, auditive,...) and how much time she (and I) would likely spend practising on our own.

All very reasonable questions. One question stood out though - What do you want to learn from us? It is very obvious to everyone why she is there, her profile has the desired driver's licence clearly marked and there is a very established curriculum for it. It is an unnecessary question, but maybe it carried over from pre-digital profile times. She couldn't find a good answer to it that didn't sound ridiculous though. So I took it upon myself to write it in the silly way, with the intention to let her think for a bit and then change it after she had answered the other questions.

As you can guess we didn't remember to change it so the finished form had: "i wanna learn how to drive lol." printed at the top.

She was SO MAD with me the rest of the day! How would her teacher take her seriously with that on her form!

(This is a resolved issue 6 months later but it's a silly enough premise that it suits tumblrs paygrade perfectly. Please play with me in this space.)

What are these acronyms?

[stephensmithuk]

A Study in Scarlet: A Continuation of the Reminiscences of John Watson, M.D.

The police at this time had dedicated prisoner transport vehicles, of course pulled by horses. They were colloquially known as a "Black Maria", a term whose origin is unclear, although there are several theories.

At the time, the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, to use the full title, tended to be senior civil servants or retired military. The 1881 commissioner, Sir Edmund Henderson, had been a Lieutenant-Colonel who had spent a lot of time supervising prisons in Australia and Great Britain. He would resign in 1886 after criticism of the force's handling of rioting in the West End.

The contents of a police officer's notebook are admissable in court - they may be referred to when giving evidence - and their use is now heavily regulated to prevent the addition of extra material.

Utah does not in fact have a statute of limitations for murder; some jurisdictions do, but it is not one of them.

London is a notoriously easy city to get lost in, due to its lack of a gridded street system; many of the streets and alleys in the city centre haven't had their layout changed since before the Great Fire of 1666.

Any lost property found in a taxi would historically be handed over to the police. Today, it would end up at the Transport for London Lost Property Office, formerly at Baker Street and now in West Ham. It has a computer system called "Sherlock".

Most liquor shops generally don't allow you to drink on the premises, hence the term "off-licence".

It was very easy for someone to get hold of poison at this time - arsenic was openly on sale as rat poison and was commonly used for wallpaper.

Initial magistrate's hearings today for a murder case just tend to be a prisoner confirming their identity and being remanded (bail is very rare), rather than taking evidence.

[darkfictionjude]

What if in a AU were Dr. Madorna and MC were a couple, the first comes to the town to visit her lover. How would the ROs in deep crushing stage and family with Orla react.

Damn nonnie this au came completely out of left field (I keep getting doctor Madorna AUs which is odd since she only showed up once 💀)

although if they were lovers you bet the doctor is losing her licence because that is professionally immoral 😭 (there’s also that she knew mc since they were around 16 and she’s like in her late 40s…)

Let’s say mc is in their 20s

Imre:

Immediately when they see this he begins looking into her professional history. He comes over and debates her over proper medical care and diagnoses. Then someone calls the medical board about an inappropriate relationship between a certain doctor and her patient. Oops, if mc needs comfort he’ll be there.

Nia:

She’s gets a deep puncture in her chest and to get rid of it she decides to find other patients of the doctor’s and pay them off to tell the police some “creative embellishments” about how inappropriate the doctor was to them and look at that the doctor gets arrested but Nia feels so sorry for you, she wonders how this could’ve happened *wink*

Lorcan:

He at first tries to tell the doctor that she needs to stay away from mc or something bad will happen but somehow the doctor ends up having a therapy session with Lorcan and he leaves the house so disturbed about being so throughly analyzed he keeps coming back for therapy. He decides not only will it help him but the more he keeps the doctor away from mc the better.

THE CROWNS

Victor: who is this? Your doctor? Is this gonna cost me? No? Well as long you take care of them I don’t care (and no he doesn’t mean he’s happy mc is being loved more so he’s happy he doesn’t have to take care of them)

Prudence: she hates doctors, especially ones who deal with mental health issues. She thinks anyone who goes into that profession must have something wrong with them. Also it’s embarrassing to date your own doctor. She bans her from the premises.

Sally: he smiles but it doesn’t reach his eyes. He thinks this is unhealthy. He thinks the doctor is taking advantage of you. But… you’re happy so he gives his blessing.

Percy: *cue dr. Frankstein and his monster jokes* and then he asks if they can give him a prescription for adderall

Orla (alive era): she makes sure everyone knows so they can make fun of you. And tries to break into the doctor’s briefcase for personal files

[artoile]

Jamiazujami "Detective"-Thief AU (Part 1)

A while back I mentioned a detective-thief jamiazu au to @pixiestickie and suddenly I blinked and had 3k+ worth of notes. I'll never make this into an actual thing beyond silly doodles and rambles but 'm a one-trick pony who can only write thieves and detectives and I needed to be self-indulgent and embarrassing. Cringe but free I guess. o)-(

Notes

Magic and world are relatively the same, except for the fact that the main cast does not meet at NRC. 

Aged-up to mid/late 20s. Everyone is done with their education and doing their own thing professionally. 

Because it is an AU, there are lots of creative licences taken with Asim-Viper family lore! 

Base Concept

The Scalding Sands is a peninsular nation comprising many arid deserts. They owe their current prosperity to the population developing agriculture techniques suited for their terrain and to the Asim family’s pioneering into maritime trade and the establishment of early maritime trade routes. This story is based on the premise that the Asim backstory is inspired by Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage in DisneySea. When the ride first opened in 2001, it was drastically different. In the original version, Sinbad was a thief/bandit that set out to sea and caused all kinds of problems before returning home with a lot of treasure (despite likely sacrificing a majority of sailors accompanying him in the process). The ride was refurbished in 2007, making it a lot more kid-friendly and wholesome. In the new storyline, Sinbad helps out those being terrorised by thieves and becomes their friend, and becomes mega rich due to the goodness of his own heart. In this story concept, the Asims are related to Sinbad while the Vipers are related to one of the thieves he stopped. Because Sinbad basically saves the thieves from getting mauled by ✨ the horrors ✨  they end up devoting their life and bloodline to serving Sinbad's family. Jamil hates it here! He starts researching the history of the family and ends up falling into a rabbit hole with records suggesting Sinbad might have originally been a bandit as well (reference to original ride) and he finds a lot of shady information revolving around many of the treasures and artefacts obtained by the Asim family and how they were handled throughout their history. He also comes across possible leads suggesting there was a —now lost— magic lamp among the treasury at some point. Craving power and freedom, Jamil concocts a plan to play a game of social politics via public heists as he serves Kalim.

Jamil creates a vigilante/thief persona that targets specific treasures once owned by the Asims across the globe, specifically following the clues that might lead him to the location of the lost magic lamp. He announces his target, brings public attention to it, steals it and reveals whatever shady information he’s learned about the item before delivering it to a museum or public institution. Though it appears “just” to the public eye, Jamil is doing it because it hurts the Asim's public image and reputation, and allows him to scope out the different treasuries and gather more leads on the possible location of the magic lamp. 

And then you might say. But Raffles/Kono/Arto! Jamil wouldn't do a showy/theatrical thief persona! And to that I say he's a smug and self-important little prick that likes outsmarting and manipulating people. This is the perfect way to get spotlight, attention, and showing off his abilities to his heart’s content without having his name and face attached to it. He can go all out and be as feral as he wants…as long as he doesn’t get caught. His goal is to completely destroy the Asim's reputation and make them out to be a family that has made their living out of theft throughout the centuries, while also hopefully locating the magic lamp in the process and gaining unlimited power for himself. It goes semi-smoothly for some time, and Jamil feels more arrogant by the day due to his success at humiliating the Asim’s attempts to stop him. 

Which brings us to Azul! Having been on land for some time now, Azul is a thriving businessman with an established brand and reputation. The lounge has expanded into a number of branches over the world, and he is involved with a variety of profitable endeavours both on land and at sea. He also offers consultation services to high profile clients for a pretty steep fee, and has the reputation of being able to solve any problem/fulfil any request as long as you can pay up. He's been trying to get in touch with the Asim family and get involved with the economy of the Scalding Sands but —much to his chagrin— all of his attempts at contact go completely ignored. At some point, rumours of a thief targeting assets/treasures/artefacts owned by the Asims start to surface and Azul sees it as a perfect opportunity to get his foot in. However, because offering his services directly hasn't worked, he decides to go the roundabout way and manipulate the situation and have THEM come to him. So, he manages to get entrances/invitations to an event he knows Kalim will be going to. With the tweels’ assistance, he identifies an attendee with motive to commit a crime; despite the fact that they don’t tell this person to do it directly, the three of them pressure and enable them into carrying it out during the event via psychological manipulation. All of this just so that Azul can make a grand deduction show out of revealing the culprit during the event (despite the fact he knew it was going to happen all along. You know, like a scammer.) He does this with the explicit intent of impressing Kalim and having him recruit his and the tweels’ assistance in pursuing the thief. To Jamil’s dismay, Kalim —always a sweet soul— falls for it, hook line and sinker.

Kalim signs a deal with Azul in which he promises a long-standing business sponsorship in exchange for catching the thief. However, due to the thief’s motives being so closely tied with the history of the Scalding Sands and the Asim family, it is ultimately decided that Azul & the Tweels will be staying in the Asim mansion for the duration of the investigation, allowing them to conduct in-depth research (including market and location research for the new Scalding Sands Mostro Lounge branch they’re bound to inaugurate once the matter is settled!). Thus! A cat and mouse chase where the investigator and culprit are cohabitating under the same roof and hiding their motives from one another ensues. 

(Jamil will have a bad time!)

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Andrew Doyle

Published: Feb 22, 2024

Since when did it become the business of the state to audit our emotions? In effect, this is precisely what is happening by means of the various “hate speech” laws that have been implemented throughout Europe in recent years. In Ireland, the imminent Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence of Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill would represent one of the most draconian forms of hate speech legislation yet produced. And how is “hatred” defined in the Bill? The following is a direct quotation:

“hatred” means hatred against a person or a group of persons in the State or elsewhere on account of their protected characteristics or any one of those characteristics

So hatred means hatred. Glad we cleared that up.    

This kind of circular definition is what we have come to expect from legislators when it comes to this most nebulous of concepts. In his book Censored, Paul Coleman helpfully includes all of the existing legislation on “hatred” from across Europe and, in doing so, reveals that no two governments are able to agree on its meaning. In 2012, the European Court of Human Rights concluded that there “is no universally accepted definition of the expression ‘hate speech’” and a manual published by UNESCO in 2015 accepted that “the possibility of reaching a universally shared definition seems unlikely”. 

When it comes to the statute books, one would have thought that precision and detail would be of paramount importance. After all, we have seen how vaguely-worded legislation is wide open to exploitation. Consider, for instance, how trans rights activists are now claiming that the reference to “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 connotes a sense of “gender identity” rather than the biological designations of male and female. If the state is empowered to imprison its citizens on the basis of “hatred”, surely we need to know what that means.

Hatred, like any emotion, cannot be legislated out of existence. Will we be seeing laws against “envious speech” on the statue books? And what about codes against wrath or pride? If the government were to prohibit narcissistic speech, most of the flag-waving pronoun-declaring gender ideologues would have to be incarcerated. And while this would doubtless create a much more sane and serene society, it would also involve the obliteration of our fundamental values. 

As for “hate crimes”, there is no need for mind-reading in order to determine the appropriate punishment. If I am physically assaulted, it makes little difference to me if the assailant was motivated by homophobia. I would prefer the sentence to reflect the crime itself, not to be moderated according to speculations about the perpetrator’s private thoughts. The state should have absolutely no licence to probe inside our heads, any more than employers should insist on compulsory “unconscious bias training”. In a free society, we are entitled to think and feel as we see fit. And so long as that does not interfere with the liberties of others, that includes the right to hate.

But even if one were to accept the premise that the state must crack down on hateful thoughts – which I most assuredly do not – hate speech legislation is wholly ineffective. Censorship of hateful ideas does not cause them to disappear; it drives them underground, where they can fester unchallenged. Moreover, hate speech laws are easily weaponised by activists seeking to silence their political opponents.  

For example, in the UK we have seen people arrested for “misgendering”; that is to say, for accurately identifying the sex of another person. The journalist Caroline Farrow was investigated by police for six months after an appearance on Good Morning Britain. According to a complainant, Farrow had referred to another contributor’s female-identifying child with a male pronoun during a conversation that took place off-air. And although such instances have not led to convictions, we all know that the process is the punishment. 

As one who has received my fair share of online abuse, I understand that free speech has its downsides. But I choose to ignore those of the obnoxious and hateful ilk rather than call for them to be censored. The price we pay for living in a free society is that unpleasant people are going to say unpleasant things. But their right to do so is precisely the same right that allows us to counter them. If we attempt to silence even our most abusive critics, we are essentially surrendering our principles at their behest. 

No doubt the trans-identifying individual who was described as a “faggot with tits” in a recent case in Spain did not relish the experience. But it should concern us all that the state has intervened and sentenced the woman [I understand that it has subsequently been clarified that this was, in fact, a trans-identifying man] who posted the offending words to six months in prison, suspended on condition of the payment of a €3,850 fine. In addition, she has been banned from employment in teaching and sports for three and a half years. This is the very definition of authoritarian overreach.

Those who are sceptical of gender identity ideology are particularly susceptible to the misapplication of hate speech laws, and there is no way of knowing which other beliefs will eventually be criminalised. Once a state has outlawed “hatred” and failed to define it, the law becomes a cudgel to beat anyone who holds heterodox points of view. Who is to say that a future government might not deem it “hateful” to criticise its policies? What starts with the chilling of free speech ends with the criminalisation of dissent. 

And this would seem to be where Ireland is heading. Last year, the Irish Green Party Senator Pauline O’Reilly made no effort to disguise the authoritarian nature of the new Bill. “We are restricting freedom,” she said, “but we’re doing it for the common good”. Hasn’t every tyrant in history made an identical claim?

In her speech, O’Reilly invoked the notion of “safety” to justify state censorship. “If your views on other people’s identities go to make their lives unsafe, insecure and cause them such deep discomfort that they cannot live in peace,” she said, “then I believe it is our job as legislators to restrict those freedoms.” It is a common tactic of activists to claim that certain opinions make them feel “unsafe” as a means to provoke a censorial response, either from employers or from the state. This is linguistic sleight-of-hand, and the strategy has been remarkably effective. 

The Irish hate speech bill goes further than most of its equivalents in other European countries. It will give the state the right to prosecute those who cause offence under the catch-all of “inciting hatred”, and those found guilty could face up to five years in prison. Even more worryingly, a citizen can be jailed for two years simply if they “prepare or possess” material that could potentially “incite hatred”. And so if you have a gender-critical meme on your iPhone, that could be sufficient to see you jailed. 

In the UK, hate speech laws exist in the form of the Public Order Act 1986 and the Communications Act 2003.  Three thousand people are arrested each year in the UK for comments posted online that have been deemed offensive, and in some cases have even been imprisoned for jokes. If we are to tackle this problem, we might start by repealing Section 127 of the Communications Act, which criminalises online speech that can be deemed “grossly offensive”. Of course, no attempt is made to define “grossly offensive” in the legislation, and so anyone could be vulnerable. 

In Scotland, the situation is even graver. When First Minister Humza Yousaf was Justice Secretary, he was instrumental in the passing of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act. Disturbingly, these new laws can see citizens prosecuted for words they have uttered in the privacy of their own homes. I’m reminded of a speech by William Pitt the Elder, delivered in the House of Commons in March 1763:

“The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail, its roof may shake, the wind may blow through it, the storm may enter, the rain may enter, but the King of England cannot enter. All his force dares not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement.”

Evidently, these sentiments would not be echoed by the SNP. 

Given that “hatred” and “offence” are entirely subjective concepts, we should be resisting any attempt to codify in law restrictions against them. No two figures of authority will interpret these terms in the same way and, as human beings with frailties and biases, they will doubtless be tempted to wield such laws against their detractors. If the state is willing to dispense with our right to free expression, there can be no guarantees for any of us. Hate speech laws are an affront to human liberty. It’s time to ditch them for good. 

[backintimeforstuff]

Hi! I love your post about Chinga and Scully memorizing Mulder's Violent Crime profile. LOVE it. I was wondering if you've written or plan to write a fic with that premise? And if you haven't, would you mind if I did (obv giving you credit for the idea when posted)?

Hi !!

Cannot believe I've actually inspired someone to write fic ??? 😅 Amazing 🥰💫

I have zero plans to write about Chinga, so by all means be my guest! It might have been my headcanon initially, but it's everyone's show, so go crazy with your artistic licence :))

I'm v excited to read it <3

(I feel like you asked this in the tags before and I COMPLETELY forgot to message you about it whoops-)

[johnbrace]

Licensing Act 2003 Sub Committee (Wirral Council) 14th June 2022 Part 3 of 6

[thedrarrylibrarian]

I'm so excited to have @tackytigerfic join me in the library today! I greatly admire not only their own incredible writing, but also the way that they cultivate and promote such a positive fandom space. I often find new and exciting fics and art from their blog and I just knew they'd be an amazing guest reccer. Not to brag on myself, but I was right! I loved the fic Tacky picked, and I think you will too!

I do want to give a heads up that this week's fic deals with heavier themes such as incarceration. The tags tell you at the beginning that in this fic Draco is incarcerated, and Harry is in auror training. This fic is also rated Explicit. Draco is a willing participant in making this fic explicit, but if the gray area of consent in a rehabilitation center might squick you, then this fic might not be your cup of tea.

That said, I now get the immense pleasure of welcoming Tacky to give their rec!

I’ve long been a fan of the Drarry Librarian, so it’s a real pleasure to be here today, taking part in the wonderful weekly fandom tradition of Happy Hour!

The Librarian has introduced me to so many new creations through their thoughtfully compiled rec lists, and I’ve always loved their Friends of the Library series. For me, fandom is first and foremost a community endeavour, and I love how the Librarian focuses on building and supporting that community.

I’m so excited to get the chance to contribute to this generous and encouraging fandom space.

I first came across Elaine’s writing through her delicious microficmay work jesus, etc featuring a starkly poetic series of linked fifty-word microfics. It’s a tense, steamy, lush fic featuring Charlie x Draco x Harry, and this snippet was the first piece I read (as you can see, these little micros often work brilliantly as compelling little standalones). 

I was then absolutely blown away by a licence to kill. This is still a WIP with one chapter of two completed, but even that one chapter had me gulping it down and holding my reading bowl up begging for more. It’s such an enchantingly funny premise (hitwizard Draco whose struggle to get his kill licence renewed made me actually, genuinely laugh out loud), with a cracker of a summary that had me rubbing my hands together in glee: Draco Malfoy has a licence to kill. Unfortunately, it expired last Tuesday. OR: how Draco Malfoy learned to stop worrying and love form AK-86-G. 

But despite the fact that I could rave about everything I’ve read by Elaine, the fic I’m here to recommend for Happy Hour is any day now. This is a 16k fic piece of political angst set in a Ministry-run “rehabilitation” centre for former Death Eaters. I am not sure how Elaine makes 16k fly past in one breathless rush, yet still creates something that feels epic in scale; whatever it is, it’s magical.

This fic was first recced to me by not one but two friends with superb taste — @corvuscrowned and @sweet-s0rr0w, who both told me I HAD to read it — but I was experiencing some Drarry burnout that meant I had been struggling with reader’s block. What I really needed was a fic that grabbed me by the throat from the very first line; a fic that brought me on a journey so intense and emotional that I couldn’t tear myself away; a fic so inventive and vivid with world-building that it made me gasp with admiration; a fic with such richly-developed, realistically flawed, truly lovable characters that made me root for them desperately. I got all this and more from any day now — it reminded me so forcefully of why I’m here in fandom, and how much I love this ship. 

This is really a Draco fic — and he’s a brilliant, beautiful Draco, perfectly imperfect, very human, a bit of a dick in the best possible way. We pity him but also really, really want him to be okay. We recognise his flaws, while also seeing the best parts of him even as he struggles. The character development is really topnotch. It hit me right in my soft spots in a way that authors like @astolat and @letteredlettered also do — it’s a very incisive and moving Draco arc. Elaine is very, very funny, but there’s a thread of real sharpness and poignancy under the humour. This, combined with the exuberance and pace of the writing, makes her fics simply unputdownable for me.

Yes, both Harry and Draco are morally grey. Yes, the ending is ambiguous. Yes, this fic deals with trauma and grief and loss and hopelessness and regret. But it also has a lightness and a zest to it that makes a grim subject feel very moving. It takes such skill to write the prosaic rhythms of a life of incarceration, and the smallness of the world behind bars, and make them feel huge and searching. There is a lot of really intense world-building and plotty detail here—political machinations! Undercover spying! Superhot smut! Feelings puppets!—but for me the most magical thing is how Elaine brings beauty and tenderness to the grubby, tedious realities of daily life, and makes the reader fall in love with these two hurt, hurtful, damaged boys. 

I loved this fic, and I hope you do too.

Read all the HP works by oknowiss here on AO3.

any day now by @oknowkiss (16,958 words, rated E)

Draco supposes he should be grateful. 

The rehabilitation centres were the Minister’s idea, or that’s what the Prophet said anyway. Their stated objective is simple: to provide a safe space for low-tier Death Eaters and high-tier sympathisers to reconsider the entirety of their life choices. All guests–because no one is a prisoner here, the literature brags–are to be provided with shelter, food, clothing, and the guided support of a Mind Healer via a programme they call “ideological restructuring,” which is, of course, mandatory. 

As always, if you find a fic you enjoy, please remember to leave the author a kudos or a comment!

❤️ Lots of Love and Happy Reading! ❤️

[deusvervewrites]

All Might saves Touya AU: okay so what of the kids go to Inko here? Even though she's not connected with All Might, maybe something like she had a foster licence, All Might in civilian form was vetting people the Todokids could be sent to, and Inko was the first one he approved of? Not sure how much sense this makes but figured I'd toss it out.

It's a stretch, but one I would accept if it was part of the main premise. But the main premise of this AU was All Might saving Touya, so I generally let the domino effect do it's thing with minimal input

[not-poignant]

ah! (this is the UtB worldbuilding anon) - i see i made the fundamental error of assuming that The Facilities had any actual medically positive societal function in a fic tagged 'dystopian universe' LMAO (/genuinely, am loling at my own self HA) ; id still like to know what the in-universe justification is, esp for the more 'humane' facilities (hv?) but it sounds like we'll get that in-fic from surprise hottie Gary, so!! i am very very much looking forward to it, thank you again for the Content

Yeahhh that tag 'second class citizens - omegas' is a good one for the general direction the dystopian universe is going in as well. :D

Okay let's talk omegaverse and dystopian tropes!

As for the justification: male omegas, because they can't get pregnant, are generally more useful as trophy husbands. Like alphas generally have a biological drive to mate with omegas, most will end up with one, so the idea is to make them as polite and sweet and passive as possible. Many already are those things, but omegas that have been abused can become repressed, or too scared, or 'abnormal' in other ways and in upper class society can end up in rehabilitation centres (most of which just break them so they're at least passive - Hillview aims for something a bit better than that).

In lower class society many male omegas end up working in prostitution, or just end up with an abusive husband and it doesn't matter what they're like or how they're treated. Most are claimed young and have no option to escape their relationship.

It's really common as a trope in a lot of omegaverse content that omegas are generally second-class citizens. They don't have the same rights to jobs, driver's licences, or universities sometimes. They're not allowed to become doctors or other high responsibility jobs. (This is often blamed on the fact that they go into heat on a semi-regular basis (which stereotypically causes them to lose the ability to consent, and they will be fucked by an alpha near them, because they're desperate to be knotted to calm the intensity of a heat - which makes them easy prey for alphas in this state), and a common trope in omegaverse stories is omegas who live on heat suppressants pretending to be betas or even alphas, so they can access the same rights as others, or just don't have to deal with bullshit. This is the premise of my published novel, Blackwood, in my Perth Shifters series).

Efnisien was raised with the hopes that he would 'become' an alpha, and be treated better if he could just be good enough at it - for him that justified the mutilation, the agony, the sexual assault, being beaten constantly by Gwyn, and more - to give you an idea of just how much omegas don't always want to be omegas. Finding out that Crielle has given up on her project and has abandoned him to a place dedicated to making him a soft, passive, complaint omega to be fucked by an alpha in a relationship he has no control over with a spouse he can't choose for himself (arranged marriages are common for omega, and the norm in high society) is pretty mind-shattering for him.

Even if Hillview does it differently, even if he's away from being literally tortured by his family and has people around him who care for him, it's still a pretty profound fall from grace that he's struggling with. And because he's been raised with the worst (but not inaccurate) picture of the worst of the rehabiltation facilities, he thinks he's about to be treated worse than he was growing up.

He's not. But he doesn't know that yet, and we - as the reader (well I suppose I'm the writer but go with me here) - are only learning that over time ourselves.

The fact is, most omegas that aren't Efnisien actually are a lot more placid, docile, gentle, or easily controlled. They are easily taken advantage of. There's less omegas and alphas in this world than betas (though it doesn't seem like it because of the setting, so I need to find a way to get that worldbuilding in there), so they're often left to their own devices, because betas be out here having mostly regular relationships with each other, and the world has generally internalised 'omegas are so helpless they need an alpha to look out for them, so it's better they're in a not great relationship that isn't ideal, than being gang-raped on the streets by random alphas who will take advantage of them' (and sadly, this is sometimes true).

Gary is pretty groundbreaking as an omega psychologist who simply believes in an omega's autonomy. While he's not doing a great job of that in a one-on-one situation, the fact that Hillview is the way that it is already makes it extremely challenging within this dystopian universe. But because he's been raised in a world that has these views about omegas, he has that clash of - this is what I philosophically believe and this is what this centre is for vs. what he's internalised alongside the fact that he's not actually attracted to omegas.

We'll get more into this psychology and the nature of this world as the story goes along! But this is the cliff notes version of where we're at.

I hope that helps anon! As always, you're welcome to ask more questions and some I will and some I won't (mostly around spoilers or what I think is coming up soon in the story etc.) :D