by kierenmccarthy on November 13, 2011
I need your help. And I am counting on you and the power of the Internet to fix an issue dear to my heart.
I have a gorgeous 1966 split-screen VW camper van. And rather cruelly I have left it on its own for basically a year at my mother-in-law’s house because the practicality of having it in the heart of San Francisco is not great (plus we never use our other car anyway).
To cut a long story short, I was starting up the van every few weeks, and asking my mother-in-law’s husband to do the same. But, inevitably, the frequent start-ups lapsed for about three months and when I next tried to start her up, she refused. I thought it was the battery, so I got a man from AAA out to start her up – he said the battery was fine and drove off. The van hasn’t started since.
So today – finally – I decided to have a big stab at getting the van started. I bought some petrol/gasoline to top up the tank (it was low); I connected my portable jumpstarter to the battery to get it to kick in; I even give the top of the carburetor a tap in case the float valve was stuck. To no avail, the van won’t start.
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Popularity: 2% [?]
by kierenmccarthy on May 12, 2010
I have just send a complaint – or “negative feedback” as the website wishes to call it – to the Crown Prosecution Service in South Yorkshire for its prosecution of Paul Chambers for making a (stupid) joke on Twitter. I reproduce it below:
If you also wish to complain, you can do so at: http://www.cps.gov.uk/contact/feedback_and_complaints/index.html
No doubt you have received numerous complaints about the prosecution of Paul Chambers for a joke he made on Twitter regarding Robin Hood airport.
I would like to add my name to that list.
This was a severely misguided prosecution and raises serious questions about the CPS’ ability to manage cases.
I understand you feel obliged to investigate complaints, even when the complainants feel similarly obliged to lodge a complaint for any form of threat made against them.
But as soon as it became clear that this was never taken seriously as a threat and if you had applied some basic commonsense, you would given the person in question a warning.
But to proceed to prosecution on a clearly light-hearted comment on a social network site beggars belief.
If Paul Chambers does appeal – and I hope he finds a lawyer that will allow him to do just that – it is inevitable that the CPS will not only lose this prosecution but be undermined in the eyes of the public.
I sincerely hope this case is being reviewed high up in your chain of command, and I hope that whoever makes the call recognises the ridiculous and insidious nature of this prosecution and issues a formal apology to Mr Chambers.
I also hope this sparks a review of your systems for deciding whether to go ahead with a prosecution. And I hope the whole CPS is also given some basic training on modern social media so you don’t make similar mistakes in future.
Yours sincerely
Kieren McCarthy
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