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| Pointless death of this brainwashed teenage bride | Pointless death of this brainwashed teenage bride |
| (about 13 hours later) | |
| Kadiza Sultana, one of the Bethnal Green schoolgirls who travelled to Syria last year during a half-term break to join Islamic State, after being radicalised online, is believed to have been killed by a Russian airstrike on the city of Raqqa. On her arrival in Syria, Sultana, 16 when she left Britain, was married to an Islamic fighter, who was killed. She’d confided to her family that she was disillusioned with life under Isis and was desperate to return home, but could see no way out. Another European female who’d attempted to leave had been battered to death. | Kadiza Sultana, one of the Bethnal Green schoolgirls who travelled to Syria last year during a half-term break to join Islamic State, after being radicalised online, is believed to have been killed by a Russian airstrike on the city of Raqqa. On her arrival in Syria, Sultana, 16 when she left Britain, was married to an Islamic fighter, who was killed. She’d confided to her family that she was disillusioned with life under Isis and was desperate to return home, but could see no way out. Another European female who’d attempted to leave had been battered to death. |
| While the fate of the other British schoolgirls, Amira Abase and Shamima Begum, is unknown, Sultana has not been in contact with her family for several weeks and a number of sources now say that she’s dead. | While the fate of the other British schoolgirls, Amira Abase and Shamima Begum, is unknown, Sultana has not been in contact with her family for several weeks and a number of sources now say that she’s dead. |
| All her own fault? Of course, but still it’s devastating – this is not about Sultana “getting what was coming to her”, or about the killing of a “jihadi bride”, it’s about the pointless death of a headstrong, brainwashed teenage girl. | All her own fault? Of course, but still it’s devastating – this is not about Sultana “getting what was coming to her”, or about the killing of a “jihadi bride”, it’s about the pointless death of a headstrong, brainwashed teenage girl. |
| I’m not trying to argue that Sultana was “headstrong” in the way that teenage girls who sneak out at night to meet their boyfriends are “headstrong”. Nor would I minimise or sanitise the vileness she freely bought into. Sultana would have been aware of Islamic State atrocities – civilian bombings, shootings, beheadings. It’s beyond comprehension how anyone, never mind a young girl, could be “inspired” by that, rather than repulsed. Moreover, Sultana was said to be bright, a good student; how could she have known about their archaic attitude to women, and still believed that somehow she would be considered equal to men, special, important? | I’m not trying to argue that Sultana was “headstrong” in the way that teenage girls who sneak out at night to meet their boyfriends are “headstrong”. Nor would I minimise or sanitise the vileness she freely bought into. Sultana would have been aware of Islamic State atrocities – civilian bombings, shootings, beheadings. It’s beyond comprehension how anyone, never mind a young girl, could be “inspired” by that, rather than repulsed. Moreover, Sultana was said to be bright, a good student; how could she have known about their archaic attitude to women, and still believed that somehow she would be considered equal to men, special, important? |
| But then, isn’t this how groomers operate – making their targets feel unique, noticed, admired? If people accept that children can be sexually groomed online, then why is it so difficult to believe that someone like Sultana can be ideologically groomed – radicalised – by people who know how to cynically manipulate the impressionable teenage psyche? This is how the dogma-flavoured “sweet nothings” unfold. You’re special … You’re exceptional … You’re destined for greatness. That’s how teenagers like Sultana become fired up via the internet. Arguably, the fact that she was clever worked against her; she was resourceful enough to turn her hubris-fuelled fantasies into reality. | But then, isn’t this how groomers operate – making their targets feel unique, noticed, admired? If people accept that children can be sexually groomed online, then why is it so difficult to believe that someone like Sultana can be ideologically groomed – radicalised – by people who know how to cynically manipulate the impressionable teenage psyche? This is how the dogma-flavoured “sweet nothings” unfold. You’re special … You’re exceptional … You’re destined for greatness. That’s how teenagers like Sultana become fired up via the internet. Arguably, the fact that she was clever worked against her; she was resourceful enough to turn her hubris-fuelled fantasies into reality. |
| If you simply can’t comprehend how it could happen then you’ve never met a teenager. | If you simply can’t comprehend how it could happen then you’ve never met a teenager. |
| It’s not being a terror-apologist to know what teenagers can be like. Hormonal, volatile, irrational, painfully vulnerable, and that’s just the resting temperature. At the extreme end, teenagers are children who are completely convinced that they’re adults, with all the arrogance, rebellion and resentment that involves. No surprise then that teenagers are prone to making mistakes, sometimes appalling life-changing ones – bad company, criminality, unwanted pregnancy, serious infections, drugs, the list sprawls on. In Sultana’s case, her appalling life-changing (and life-ending) mistake was to fall for terrorist rhetoric. | It’s not being a terror-apologist to know what teenagers can be like. Hormonal, volatile, irrational, painfully vulnerable, and that’s just the resting temperature. At the extreme end, teenagers are children who are completely convinced that they’re adults, with all the arrogance, rebellion and resentment that involves. No surprise then that teenagers are prone to making mistakes, sometimes appalling life-changing ones – bad company, criminality, unwanted pregnancy, serious infections, drugs, the list sprawls on. In Sultana’s case, her appalling life-changing (and life-ending) mistake was to fall for terrorist rhetoric. |
| Of course it’s not the same as vandalism or shoplifting – no one’s saying that it is. Nevertheless, Sultana was a teenager when she made her mistake, so a “teenage mistake” it remains. People can’t re-frame Sultana’s grotesque decisions as those of a fully grown woman just because they hate what she did, and what she stood for. | Of course it’s not the same as vandalism or shoplifting – no one’s saying that it is. Nevertheless, Sultana was a teenager when she made her mistake, so a “teenage mistake” it remains. People can’t re-frame Sultana’s grotesque decisions as those of a fully grown woman just because they hate what she did, and what she stood for. |
| In a sick way, the government’s “Prevent” counter-terrorism strategy couldn’t have wished for a better outcome. Before Sultana was a living cautionary tale; now she’s become a dead one. And while some may feel that she deserved her fate, for me, it’s hard to know what’s more sickening – her death, or the fact that she was scared and desperate to come home. While I could never condone what Kadiza Sultana did, I can forgive a manipulated teenage girl an appalling mistake, especially when she regretted it, even more so when she died for it. | In a sick way, the government’s “Prevent” counter-terrorism strategy couldn’t have wished for a better outcome. Before Sultana was a living cautionary tale; now she’s become a dead one. And while some may feel that she deserved her fate, for me, it’s hard to know what’s more sickening – her death, or the fact that she was scared and desperate to come home. While I could never condone what Kadiza Sultana did, I can forgive a manipulated teenage girl an appalling mistake, especially when she regretted it, even more so when she died for it. |
| A duke pays taxes? Don’t be so silly | A duke pays taxes? Don’t be so silly |
| It should be noted that if the new 25-year-old Duke of Westminster needs a wife to share his £9bn estate, and would like to meet my eldest daughter, then he should disregard the pathetic jealous waffle about inheritance tax/primogeniture and pop around in the Bentley for a nice cup of tea. I’ll get out the “good” biscuits (the ones that don’t already have bite-marks) and he can have a good look at the wench, get the vet to check out her teeth, tag her, perfectly reasonable courting stuff like that. | It should be noted that if the new 25-year-old Duke of Westminster needs a wife to share his £9bn estate, and would like to meet my eldest daughter, then he should disregard the pathetic jealous waffle about inheritance tax/primogeniture and pop around in the Bentley for a nice cup of tea. I’ll get out the “good” biscuits (the ones that don’t already have bite-marks) and he can have a good look at the wench, get the vet to check out her teeth, tag her, perfectly reasonable courting stuff like that. |
| I know I’m supposed to be modern and feminist and all that, but I’ll just pretend I haven’t noticed… | I know I’m supposed to be modern and feminist and all that, but I’ll just pretend I haven’t noticed… |
| (Sorry about that – I’ve got my “inner gold digger” under control now.) | (Sorry about that – I’ve got my “inner gold digger” under control now.) |
| How heartwarming to see that Hugh Grosvenor has inherited over two elder sisters – are there any other “olde worlde” customs the 7th Duke would like to keep up – bear-baiting, witch-ducking, plagues of smallpox? Along with sexual inequality, there’s the tax kind as well – as the billions are held in trust, they’re unlikely to be depleted. | How heartwarming to see that Hugh Grosvenor has inherited over two elder sisters – are there any other “olde worlde” customs the 7th Duke would like to keep up – bear-baiting, witch-ducking, plagues of smallpox? Along with sexual inequality, there’s the tax kind as well – as the billions are held in trust, they’re unlikely to be depleted. |
| How wonderful to avoid paying inheritance tax like ordinary mortals. No need either for those unpleasant scenes where people have to sell their property to pay for elderly care homes, so that after death duties, their progeny end up lucky to share a fiver and a bag of half-eaten pear drops between them. | How wonderful to avoid paying inheritance tax like ordinary mortals. No need either for those unpleasant scenes where people have to sell their property to pay for elderly care homes, so that after death duties, their progeny end up lucky to share a fiver and a bag of half-eaten pear drops between them. |
| It just goes to show how clever, resourceful and “better than us!” the mega-wealthy are. Or something. While the Tories have successfully fought off greater transparency in such matters (David Cameron intervened at the European parliament with a zest unseen throughout his Remain campaign), it doesn’t mean that ordinary people don’t recognise brazen legal bias when they see it. | It just goes to show how clever, resourceful and “better than us!” the mega-wealthy are. Or something. While the Tories have successfully fought off greater transparency in such matters (David Cameron intervened at the European parliament with a zest unseen throughout his Remain campaign), it doesn’t mean that ordinary people don’t recognise brazen legal bias when they see it. |
| Why a judge’s swearing means so much more | Why a judge’s swearing means so much more |
| Sensitive readers should look away now as my potty mouth may cause offence. When John Hennigan was being sentenced for breaching an asbo (for using racist language towards a black family), he told Patricia Lynch, QC, that she was a “a bit of a cunt”. To which Judge Lynch responded: “You’re a bit of a cunt too.” | Sensitive readers should look away now as my potty mouth may cause offence. When John Hennigan was being sentenced for breaching an asbo (for using racist language towards a black family), he told Patricia Lynch, QC, that she was a “a bit of a cunt”. To which Judge Lynch responded: “You’re a bit of a cunt too.” |
| Judge Lynch is now my new heroine – a kind of goddess of the legal swearbox. I’d suggest that Disney make an animation about her, but there may be a few issues with the script. Joking apart, this incident seems to say something about the evolution of profanity. | Judge Lynch is now my new heroine – a kind of goddess of the legal swearbox. I’d suggest that Disney make an animation about her, but there may be a few issues with the script. Joking apart, this incident seems to say something about the evolution of profanity. |
| Even “cunt”, taboo a decade ago, appears to have taken on a new quasi-acceptability. It wasn’t shocking that it was said in a court of law, just the fact that it was a judge who said it. If no words are truly barred anymore, then it also becomes about the science (art?) of swearing. | Even “cunt”, taboo a decade ago, appears to have taken on a new quasi-acceptability. It wasn’t shocking that it was said in a court of law, just the fact that it was a judge who said it. If no words are truly barred anymore, then it also becomes about the science (art?) of swearing. |
| When sprayed about, even hard-core profanity becomes white noise. It’s only when it’s unexpected, or from someone unexpected, that it has power and impact. Perhaps the takeaway lesson here could be: “Swear less, but swear better.” | When sprayed about, even hard-core profanity becomes white noise. It’s only when it’s unexpected, or from someone unexpected, that it has power and impact. Perhaps the takeaway lesson here could be: “Swear less, but swear better.” |
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