Posts
Nutters with guns shoot people at random in Mumbai (which I notice some locals interviewed still called Bombay). I don't know when the human race will realise that killing people is a BAD IDEA if you want to be taken seriously in the 'ideas for saving the world' forum. Still, it's been going on since time began and I doubt it's going to stop any time soon. It's unutterably depressing all the same.
Next we have Wacky Jaqui again changing the law on prostitution in the UK with the stated aim of ending the practice. Though the main text is the prevention of trafficking of women and all the abuse and misery that goes with it, the sub-text is undoubtedly the ending of prostitution completely. I wonder what part of the phrase 'oldest profession' our well-meaning Home Secretary doesn't understand and, since clients are to be responsible for ensuring that the women they are hiring aren't trafficked, how she feels about seconding 'johns' into the police force? We have a whole new branch of law enforcement folks, in which the purchasers of women's favours are tasked with determining their employment and immigration status. Since the Home Office can't seem to do this effectively with all the resources at their disposal, I'm not sure how Joe Public, or John Public, is expected to vet their prospective partner with any degree of accuracy. But then it's obviously a way for goverment to outlaw prostitution by the back door if you'll pardon the expression. Good luck with that one.
Oh and the 'Wacky Jaqui reclassifies Wacky Baccy' saga continues with the Government determined to reclassify cannabis despite all advice to the contrary. Advice from experts they themselves employed to advise on the re-classification. Even the members of the House of Lords, not renowned for their rampant drug taking or stoner-support, think this is a bad idea. Jaqui appears to have received her instructions from ACPO and is determined to do all in her power to keep them sweet.
There have also been warnings from prominent academics that 24-hour rolling news and the speed thereof is bad for our society. Oh really? The recent tea-cup tempest kicked up by Her Majesty's Opposition about whether Gordon and Alastair were considering a rise to 18.5% for VAT is just one example of the kind of nonsense we have to endure daily in order to fill the bottomless cup that is rolling news. Perhaps chamber pot would be a more appropriate metaphor since it more accurately describes the kind of shit, piss and wind with which we are provided daily. For goodness sake, surely any Government has to consider all possibilities and permutations. Are we to be assailed with an infinite number of potential solutions some of which will be so far out of the park as to be rejected out of hand by even the most reactionary administrations. Ho hum, so it goes.
