The Dodgy Tik-Tok Lawyer

I am so psychic sometimes it even scares me.

Last year we had a local solicitor stand as MP candidate here in Birmingham Ladywood constituency. He didn't win, but served the function of scaring Sir Kid Starver a bit, and screwing up the anti-genocide vote, so we ended up with the same Labour MP. Of course I voted Green and am smugly satisfied that I did the right thing.

I went round telling everyone who would listen that if Ahmed Yakoob was elected MP something would come out about him and we would have the rare experience of signing a recall petition in no time (in the UK under certain circumstances a recall petition is automatically triggered and depending on the number of signatures from constituents the petition automatically triggers a fresh election for the MP. The grounds to trigger the petition include imprisonment or suspension from parliament). In fact this prediction didn't require much psychic ability because he was already under investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for spreading false claims about a teacher. So basically he attracted the anti-genocide vote that didn't care about any other standards, and the anti-genocide vote who care about honesty voted Green.

In fact if he'd been elected it would have been the best chance to get a Green MP here, because without the popular Labour MP and without an independent candidate the vote would naturally have turned Green in a by-election during this disastrous Starmerist government. The only time since 1936 anyone other than Labour has been elected in this constituency was another by-election in the sixties when a Liberal MP was elected, but they consistently come last nowadays.

Instead what's happened is he's got arrested under a wider ranging investigation of corruption by solicitors and accountants and is going to be tried for money laundering in 2027. I've had a look at the sentencing guidelines and I don't know the details of what he's charged with but the sentence can go up to 14 years in prison so if imprisoned he wouldn't likely be in a position to stand in the 2029 election and the cadre of candidates he supported for the local elections next year will hopefully be looked at more doubtfully now. 🤞

Finally, if the picture the BBC used is actually from a court appearance, if your solicitor doesn't tell you not to dress as a Peaky Blinder for a court appearance, get rid of your solicitor.

I feel like I know how his trial is going to end. 😂

This post does not constitute legal advice lol.

A Fokawolf Spell

Combining my themes of magic and spirit of place in this one because this post is about two installations by local hero, artist and national treasure (as well as *major* crush for the Hound), Fokawolf. You can find him all over social media but of course I've had to include his picture so any readers who don't know can see how dishy he is. 🥰 Plus he's been known to do his paste-ups wearing Birmingham City Council hi-vis which absolutely tickles me. 🥵

He's possibly best known for his permission work of the Birmingham Screw Driver Company sign in Digbeth, demonstrating that he definitely knows what a Birmingham screw driver is.

However many of his works also draw on magical themes, whether explicitly and implicitly, in the case of these works, the long magical tradition of using images to effe change in the subject depicted, by sympathetic magic.

In the case of his installation at Glastonbury Festival he's put the images of Netanyahu with a target in the urinal and if I wasn't already in love I would be humping his leg like any dog.

He's done a similar installation in a Digbeth pub, unfortunately closed at the moment but which will be reopening in the Autumn.

Anyone want to cross swords?

Spirit of Place: A Selly Oak Tradition

I have commented about this before and only yesterday was pointing out to someone that the spirit of place of Birmingham will look after you if you approach it right, and spit you out if you don't. Shortly afterwards I found myself walking through the Selly Oak area of the city and was reminded of an annual ritual.

I'm sure it happens in other university cities but they're outside the scope of this blog. What happens is that at the end of the summer term (it usually coincides with the Glastonbury Festival), the students' lets on their houses end and they never take all their clobber with them. So either they or the landlord put the stuff out in the street (in the streets running between the Bristol Road and Raddlebarn Road) and the locals come and help themselves to it. 

Please understand that I'm not exaggerating when I say you can literally kit out a whole house and wardrobe for free. Some friends once got a fish tank complete with living fish and had to drive it home very carefully. Yesterday there were people with supermarket trolleys full of stuff.

I didn't have a spare hand yesterday so went back this afternoon with a mental shopping list of some sort of footwear and a cooking pot, and intended to get tomatoes from Aldi on the way home.

So of course I found some work boots (about £60 in the shops) and a pot immediately before loads of unopened tins of food. So I got all that for free and am going back tomorrow because there were still landlords putting stuff out on the pavement. There's nothing more I have in mind but I'm sure I'll find something I fancy.

See, the spirit of the city does actually look after you if you approach it right.