I’m not a Whitby local, but due to being of a dodgy Gothic persuasion I seem to have spent quite a bit of time there over the last 10 plus years. For anyone who’s never been there it’s a lovely place and well worth the visit, but it’s been the suspicion amongst some gothic Whitby goers for a while that Scarborough council (which covers Whitby as well) has been rather jealous of Whitby’s popularity and has tried to push events out of Whitby in the hopes they’d end up in Scarborough. A quite laughable hope in the case of the goth events at least. With this suspicion of animosity from the larger town where the council is based meant that I wasn’t hugely surprised when I got pointed towards the Real Whitby Magazine and their reports of the neglect of the town, it’s harbour, bridges and general infrastructure. I was surprised at the scale of the neglect and the level of damage being risked to the local economy (which wouldn’t help Scarborough any) as Whitby is still a working fishing harbour.
Beyond the local fishing industry Whitby also has rather a good tourist industry, so that state of disrepair the harbour piers have been allowed to get into seems to be an exceptionally stupid double blow. In the spirit of modern activism there is an on-line petition to try and persuade Scarborough council to actually maintain the infrastructure they’re responsible for so if you’ve ever been to Whitby you might want to consider signing the Save Our Whitby Piers Petition.
Due to having had a bit of social life this weekend I’m a tad behind with the obligatory comment on the September 11 anniversary – but as it’s apparently compulsory I can’t let the date pass uncommented. On the bright side it also means I can largely just link to other people that have said what I want to say so much better than I would. Let’s start the ball rolling with Penn and Teller (H/T Angry Exile)
From how we’ve reacted to that one incident and the subsequent nonsense in London – has basically meant that from the get go we’ve lost. We’ve allowed ourselves to be terrorised, and in defending our culture of freedom our politicians have destroyed it, and our media have taught us to be afraid. In the UK after attacks less successful than anything the IRA ever did. We’ve introduced draconian laws and sacrificed numerous liberties to save ourselves from a lesser than risk than being hit by a car. As the wired article says some people suggest that looking at the risk that way doesn’t account for the impact it has on society. However again as the wired article observes the terrorist doesn’t get to change our laws, our politicians do.
The risk, in other words, is a political risk. The culture of fear: It’s a bipartisan race to the bottom. And it’s why the National Security State constructed by the George W. Bush administration has found a diligent steward in President Obama. Asked recently if the post-9/11 security apparatus might diminish soon now that al-Qaida looks weak, Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, replied, “No.”
And it’s not much different over here, no matter how low the risk the politicians have to be seen to be doing something for fear other politicians will use the next attack no matter how pathetic it is as a stick to beat them. Even if you accept that the “war on terror” is needed to counter real and serious terrorist threats, well I’m afraid that the politicians and the media would have us be scared of the wrong terrorists. Out of the 249 terrorists attacks in Europe in 2010 three of them were carried out by Islamists. That’s it three whole attacks, and of the people arrested for planning terrorist attacks 53% weren’t related to Islamist attacks*
So it would seem to me that we’re letting our politicians waste huge amounts of money, destroy our liberties and enact draconian laws to combat the wrong threat. Whilst our media scares us with an ineffectual bogeyman whilst not mentioning people that seem to be doing a better job of blowing other people up. Surely the best way to remember and honour those that died in the attacks in New York and elsewhere would be to take the same approach as we took with the IRA – carry on as usual and don’t destroy our own culture for fear the bogey man might get us?
* Yes I know I swapped which way I quoted the stats, also just using Islamist as that’s what the data i’m referencing used.
Over in Ireland they are apparently going to remove the legal protection afforded to things told in the confessional – for the sake of the children of course. At the moment it’s just in the case of someone confessing to “sexual abuse” where there is planned to be mandatory reporting required.
Now I’d hope that the Irish clergy will have the courage of their convictions and not break the seal of the confessional and suffer prison terms if it comes to that as from a religious point of view that it s the correct thing to do. Now that priests will have to report such things is the headline but the BBC goes on to say:
“Anyone who fails to declare information about the abuse of a child could face a prison term of five years.”
If that’s actually accurate then that also covers solicitors and therapists and doctors, who if I recall correctly also don’t have to pass on information to the authorities if told about wrong doing by their clients – and that phrasing covers far more than outright confessions. The whole privileged information thing, and that smaller note seems to me to be a whole thin end of a wedge type thing. After all once it’s established that one sort of crime is worthy of breaking the various long held rules of confidentiality a degree of mission creep would seem rather inevitable. So mandatory reporting of all offences, and with a five year penalty for not reporting probably best to report anything even said in jest just in case it turns out not to have been a joke.
If it flies in Ireland, anyone want to hazard a guess as to how quickly it’ll be tried over here?
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