Perry Wacker gets a 14 year sentence. For killing attempting to smuggle 60 people into the UK, he was sentenced to 8 years in prison. For killing 58 of them he was sentenced to a further 6 years.
He should have gotten the death sentence, or at least life-without-parole. Why was he charged with manslaughter instead of murder?
posted by Steven Den Beste
on Apr 5, 2001 -
18 comments
Be careful what you say online. At least if you're in the UK, where an anonymous poster to 2 message boards now faces charges of defamation after the courts ordered the disclosure of their identity. ISP
Totalise used existing law to force Motley Fool to disclose the details of an anonymous poster to their
message boards alleged to have made defamatory comments. Landmark case or storm in a teacup?
posted by Markb
on Mar 23, 2001 -
3 comments
Comic Relief hits the UK yet again. This is a fundraising event based around comedy and comedians that attempts to take the worthiness out of charity by making the day entertaining. Generally it fails. However, highlights of the event this year (both on and off the web) include: A celebrity version of
Big Brother. The pairing of
Graham Norton and Sarah Ferguson.
Hot Naked Robbie Williams doing The Fast Show's Ted and Ralph. And finally:
Mo Morgan will donate £1 for every page impression he gets. Let's bankrupt the bastard.
posted by barbelith
on Mar 16, 2001 -
11 comments
In light of the possible
spread of foot and mouth disease virtually anywhere--I was wondering how restricted UK citizens are. Is travel in the countryside difficult or impossible? Isn't it interesting how quickly movement is restricted and meat taken off the table?
posted by aflakete
on Mar 14, 2001 -
18 comments
Barbecue Wings A £900,000 mirror sculpture destined for a square in Nottingham, UK, will have to be shielded to prevent it focusing the Sun's rays and barbecuing passing birds.
Anish Kapoor's highly polished concave steel mirror is six metres in diameter. Direct sunlight hitting the mirror would be focused into a narrow beam of light as hot as the surface of the Sun, says astronomer Michael Merrifield of Nottingham University.
posted by zeoslap
on Mar 7, 2001 -
15 comments
Yet another rail crash in the UK, and trains are still not back to normal in the wake of the last one. It will be interesting to see how this increases road travel, something the country clearly isn't prepared for.
posted by methylsalicylate
on Feb 28, 2001 -
18 comments
Dan Rhodes is a talented British author whose books have been recommended to me by many web-people, and now he's got a website. It's an opportunity to sample his
Anthropology collection (hit refresh a few times), and boasts a
reviews page which should please fans of the Eggers Po-Mo style. What I think is interesting about Rhodes is how much his little stories remind me of the tiny vignettes you find in, uh, 'daily web publishing'.
posted by freakytrigger
on Feb 26, 2001 -
0 comments
Britain's best footballer, David Beckham, and his wife Posh Spice are almost as important as royalty. That they have agreed to be interviewed by spoofist Ali G is a tad surprising...
read the transcript here.
posted by ecvgi
on Feb 20, 2001 -
5 comments
Libyan gets minimum of 20 years for Lockerbie Bombing by Scottish Court. Why are British courts handing out such tiny sentences? After all, in America it's not uncommon for people to receive 99 years for a single murder. Some people are doing over 10 years for rape alone. This Libyan could have easily received the death sentence if he were in the US, as it was similar in scale to the Oklahoma City bombing.
Yet, in the UK, it's possible to kill people through negligence, and get away with it. Just last month an uninsured driver was speeding, killed a pedestrian, fled the scene, and although found guilty, only received a
driving ban!
Is the UK overly soft in its sentencing? Or is the USA overly draconian?
posted by wackybrit
on Jan 31, 2001 -
23 comments
"States' Rights" hit the UK? First abolishing tuition fees, now providing long-term care for the elderly: the Scottish Executive is making life, um, "interesting" for its progenitor in Westminster. The downside of an unwritten constitution?
posted by holgate
on Jan 25, 2001 -
7 comments
UK Govt. votes to ban hunting in England and Wales. Browsing the web last night, several national polls were showing that more of the British Public were against a ban than in favour. Will the MPs who turned up to vote but not to debate (not very democratic?) live to regret their decision as the debate turns from animal welfare to civil rights?
posted by nico
on Jan 18, 2001 -
29 comments
Britain's Millennium Dome didn't even stay open for a full year. The $1.2 billion Dome was shut down today at 6:00 PM GMT. An Irish company plans to provide luxury housing on the site, and make the building into a high tech buisness center.
posted by riffola
on Dec 31, 2000 -
4 comments
"Brad the Cad" is disciplined, but not fired. This is the man who forwarded an email, describing his sexual prowess to four people, thus starting a world wide fury. Speculation on exactly how he was disciplined includes losing out on his annual bonus.
posted by karenh
on Dec 22, 2000 -
12 comments
First UK TV Millionnaire comes, by coincidence, on the same night that another network shows the last episode of its most popular sitcom, in which the main character dies.
Gosh what a coincidence! Or is it a fix?
posted by nico
on Nov 20, 2000 -
11 comments
Reality tv with a neato science lesson curve. Plus the mom claims to be "one of the ugleist women in Britain."
posted by thc
on Oct 14, 2000 -
2 comments
Why Big Oil Backed The Fuel Protests In Europe -- "Watched from a distance, the oil blockades in Britain look like spontaneous popular uprisings: regular working folk, frightened for their livelihoods, getting together to say, "Enough's enough." But before this David and Goliath story goes any further, it deserves a closer reading...."
posted by johnb
on Sep 21, 2000 -
11 comments
Britain's Traffic Problems Sounds like the UK is trying its hardest to catch up with the US in auto-dependency. The Highways Agency is planning to spend US$1.75 billion on "intelligent transportation" improvements, but local motoring organizations are pushing for more lanes as traffic continues to worsen. [more inside]
posted by daveadams
on Sep 6, 2000 -
14 comments
NHS to ban Ritalin for under-fives? See, I agree with this, but it's politically divisive. The commission on clinical excellence has made a couple of controversial decisions to restrict the prescription of expensive new drugs: Allegra for flu, beta-interferon for MS, and now Ritalin. When there's such demand for the latest and greatest drugs, fuelled by the marketing budgets of the pharmaceutical companies, how do we balance the hopes and wishes of patients against the economic restrictions and clinical scepticism of the authorities?
posted by holgate
on Sep 4, 2000 -
4 comments
chelsea.clinton@ox.ac.uk? The Times is reporting that Miss Clinton is planning to follow in her father's footsteps. Though probably not
too closely... I'd imagine that it'll be easier for her to fit into the college environment once she doesn't have the Secret Service in tow, but I'm still intrigued how she'll get on here...
posted by holgate
on Aug 28, 2000 -
13 comments
AltaVista lies to England about free net access. I am shocked that a company in the honorable net industry could think of such a scam! Shocked I say!
posted by Mick
on Aug 22, 2000 -
7 comments
