But why should they worry about the law when the chances of any individual officer getting prosecuted for anything is so small they could probably take their identification numbers off and beat an innocent man causing his death in front of video camera’s and get away with it.. oh wait they did that already.
There’s a ptotest about that decision this
Friday · 12:00 – 14:30
outside the Office of Department of Public Prosecution
Rose Court, 2 Southwark Bridge, SE1 9HS
London.
They really can’t stop them selves it seems, proving that they can be just as keen on controlling every aspect of our lives as the last lot. To counter the cultural pressures of thin models our new equalities minister has it seems decreed that the new approved size and shape to aspire to is size 14 and buxom. She will apparently be holding a body confidence summit to try to persuade fashion editors to impose a new body fascism on the fairer sex in this country. No longer will they need to aspire to being thin, instead they’ll just have to worry if they’re buxom enough and are they more hourglass than egg timer.
The idea of not dictating role models presumably wasn’t an option. But as now thin is undesirable and obviously being over weight remains a horrendous crime it can’t be much longer before we have a single government approved body type. Obviously banning veils/niqabs and other facial covering will make it easier to identify people who fail to achieve the new government approved look.
I look forward to seeing if Laurie Penny will be complaining about this for dictating body shapes to women, or if it’ll be ok as it presumably isn’t the evil Bikini body
Rather than actually righting something I’m just going to point at other peoples writing for being far more readable than I.
Firstly what I hope is old news to everyone reading this, LegIron has published a book of his short stories which judging by the ones he’s posted on his blog should be an excellent read. Free to download as PDF or better yet go buy it (currently with discount code).
Utterly unrelated I’ve been pointed at a new (to me) blog: Still Drinking it’s a US blog and from what I’ve read so far not political but an excellent read – least ways if you’re a somewhat older goth who’s also still drinking it is. Go read an enjoy it’ll be a nice break… honest.
Just working back through a load of left open and forgotten browser windows and came across Iain Dales, second misguided piece about the EU banning a dozen eggs*
And was reminded of the following rant/observation made by a friend of mine:
“There seems to be an obsession with misreporting EU legislation and yet, the actual real-bad legislation never gets very much reported, if I was into conspiracy theory I’d say that it was deliberate so bad-shit could just be hidden in the lies and crap but that’s unfounded because the British government have actually been quite good about some of the bad EU law and fought it , and lost.
The British government did a really good campaign on trying to fight the tax-flattening on pleasure craft fuel which was forced on us by the EU. In the past, pleasure boats could use pink-diesel and not be taxed on it anything like as much. Forcing pleasure craft to use fully taxed diesel has pretty much destroyed Britain’s pleasure-craft industry for all but the rich now, which in turn will destroy the economy of a lot of places…
But was that reported? Not much… Nothing like as much as some bollocks about not being able to sell eggs by the dozen any more.
Sure, a bunch of Scottish islands and a whole bunch of people who make their living out of the canal boats will go bust, but that’s nothing compared to … Well, eggs.
As it happens, the Brits complied with the fuel thing but accidentally forgot to employ any inspectors to make sure people were listening and not filling with pink… there is of course the other problem that most boat tanks will have remnants of pink diesel dye in them anyway so it’s practically impossible to test.”
So whilst you’ll still be able to buy a dozen eggs from a ruddy cheeked farmers wife, chances are you won’t be on a relaxing canal boat holiday when you do so.
This topic has already been covered incredibly well by other people so I’m actually going to just link to them, adding my voice to the many disappointed but not at all surprised voices responding to Mr Cleggs “shock” revelation that having asked the public for comment on what laws to repeal/amend he’s as much intention of listening as the last lot did with the “petitions to number 10″. Which is of course to say none at all – it would seem that the consultation is once more just a way to have some useful “quotes from the public” to wave around when they impose what ever they’ve already decided to impose on us – though not of course themselves as the most popular law to amend is the smoking ban which doesn’t apply in the palace of Westminster.
Seen over at LegIrons a very neat explanation of how the fiscal stimulus works. I quote in it’s entirety:
“It is a slow day in the small Minnesota town of Marshall, and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody is living on credit.
A rich tourist visiting the area drives through town, stops at the motel, lays a $100 bill on the desk and says he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs before selecting one for the night.
1. As soon as he walks upstairs, the motel owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.
2. The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer.
3. The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill to his supplier, the Farmer’s Co-op.
4. The guy at the Farmer’s Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her “services” on credit.
5. The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel owner.
6. The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the rich traveler will not suspect anything.
At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, picks up the $100 bill and leaves town.
No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now out of debt and looks to the future with a lot more optimism.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how Stimulus works. ”
Of course the libertarian observation would I suspect be – that they could have achieved exactly the same thing locally amongst themselves without any need for external intervention if they’d been so inclined. But then I’ve always wondered in my now doubt incredibly naïve way -how much debt there really is out there and who actually owes who what if all the inter-lending was tallied up and cancelled out. Obviously this would no doubt cause the end of civilisation as we know it, and isn’t how global finance work etc… but I’d still be really interested to know what the real levels of debt are.
It would seem that over at Labour Lost they thing that people don’t actually really rather despise the current Labour party and that they’re not as unpopular as the Tories used to be. The Appalling Strangeness disputes this idea, so if you dislike the current Labour lot as much as the Tories of yesteryear go on over and say “Hi” – and add you name to those that do actually “hate and revile” labour.
In the meantime have a cartoon (Thanks to Ara).
(In other news work is excessively busy – so I’m being even quieter than usual. Just in case you’re wondering.)
