Why is anyone surprised the West Midlands Police have been exposed for fabricating evidence to justify banning away fans from Villa Park for the Europa League match against Maccabi Tel Aviv?
After all, the force has a history of stitching people up.
Admittedly, in the past, the Serious Crime Squad was bent on locking up villains but the football fiasco is at one with the WMP’s long and ignoble tradition of falsifying evidence to deliver the verdict they first thought of.
It could just be the oxymoron of police intelligence was even worse than usual and they really did believe Maccabi Tel Aviv played a match against West Ham as described in the report leading to the ban (Chief Constable Craig Guildford blames ‘social media scraping’).
Yet they didn’t bother to check with, let alone consult, those who policed games that really did take place at Chelsea and Stoke City.
All this and a great deal more was made clear in the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee’s meeting with Mr Guildford and soon-to-be-abolished crime commissioner Simon Foster on Monday.
Also giving evidence was Lord Mann, the Government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, who said of the police justification for the ban: ‘I think the evidence has been fitted to try to get a solution—which is a solution, because if you do not have the Israeli fans, there is no conflict.’
After the hearing, former Dudley North MP and Villa fan Lord Austin wrote in ‘The Telegraph’: ‘It’s clear that not only have West Midlands Police failed to tackle the growing spectre of flagrant extremism on their own streets, there is legitimate concern the force is actively placating it.’
Asked by an MP if he still had ‘full faith’ in the Chief Constable, Mr Foster replied with 350 words of waffle ending: ‘The matter has not yet concluded, but to date, I am confident in, and satisfied with, the response that the chief constable has provided so far.’
At a football club, when the chairman says something like this, it’s time for the manager to start clearing his desk.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12/01/police-used-fictitious-game-in-report-led-ban-israeli-fans/
Thursday, December 04, 2025
Monday, December 01, 2025
Waste not, want not for high-flying diners
Birmingham Council spent £36,000 paying off tenants’ rent arrears in October which may explain why they aren’t too fussed about spending £8,895 renting a three-bedroom holiday home in Harborne.
The money spent on preventing homelessness comes from ‘the Government’ (ie taxpayers nationwide rather than just Birmingham taxpayers) and, since 2022, it totals £3.7 million.
As for the holiday home, Noormak Nights, it’s a three-bedroom apartment with some reasonable reviews on booking.com
The council is very accommodating: If you’re still looking for somewhere to rest your head, why not try one of the hotels enjoyed on the council credit card? In October, £10,500 went on hotels including £3,600 for a couple of days at Coulsdon Manor Hotel and Golf Club in Surrey.
The council’s cradle-to-grave generosity extends to funerals too. It spent £18,000 last month with its ‘preferred partner’ Wesley Media for providing audio, visual, and webcasting services for funerals bringing the total since May 2022 to £160,000.
And then there’s the real high life – a meal at 24 Stories, ‘Birmingham’s highest and most spectacular restaurant, with breath-taking views and iconic rooftop cocktail bar’. Starters range from £12 to £21, chicken’s £32, cod £33. A council credit card forked out £363 there on November 1. Nothing’s too good for the workers…
Oh, and while the bin strike is set to continue until after the next local elections, the city that can’t collect the rubbish is spending £8,867,500 buying 375,000 wheelie bins, 345,000 slop buckets and 345,000 external food caddies ‘to support Birmingham City Council's Waste Transformation Programme’.
The money spent on preventing homelessness comes from ‘the Government’ (ie taxpayers nationwide rather than just Birmingham taxpayers) and, since 2022, it totals £3.7 million.
As for the holiday home, Noormak Nights, it’s a three-bedroom apartment with some reasonable reviews on booking.com
The council is very accommodating: If you’re still looking for somewhere to rest your head, why not try one of the hotels enjoyed on the council credit card? In October, £10,500 went on hotels including £3,600 for a couple of days at Coulsdon Manor Hotel and Golf Club in Surrey.
The council’s cradle-to-grave generosity extends to funerals too. It spent £18,000 last month with its ‘preferred partner’ Wesley Media for providing audio, visual, and webcasting services for funerals bringing the total since May 2022 to £160,000.
And then there’s the real high life – a meal at 24 Stories, ‘Birmingham’s highest and most spectacular restaurant, with breath-taking views and iconic rooftop cocktail bar’. Starters range from £12 to £21, chicken’s £32, cod £33. A council credit card forked out £363 there on November 1. Nothing’s too good for the workers…
Oh, and while the bin strike is set to continue until after the next local elections, the city that can’t collect the rubbish is spending £8,867,500 buying 375,000 wheelie bins, 345,000 slop buckets and 345,000 external food caddies ‘to support Birmingham City Council's Waste Transformation Programme’.
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