PLATFORM SMOKING

A woman was this week thrown on to a railway track. Apparently she accosted two men who were smoking on a station platform in spite of notices saying smoking was forbidden. They threw her on the track and she was fortunate that other passengers got her back with only minor cuts and bruises before the next train arrived. Also she missed the live rail (electrified track). Well the men's response seems more than a little extreme but perhaps the experience will teach her not be such a busybody. As far as one can tell from TV images of the station the platform was wide open to the elements so smoking could not really be a problem any more than it would be in Raigmore Hospital car park where smoking is also forbidden.

PENALTIES FOR ASSAULT

In Scotland new guidelines issued by the Crown Office have advised that people accused of "minor" assaults (apparently defined as those requiring less tha three stitches) should no longer be prosecuted before a court but be subject to a fine of up to £300. Previously a court might, and often did, hand down a prison sentence. Our police are rapidly becoming little more than tax-collectors. Politicians, prosecutors, the legal profession, lily-livered judges are failing in their duty to the public. And on my way back from the newsagent's shop there is a notice attached to a lamp-post advising me that it is an offence to drop litter and I could face a fine of £2000. Pity I'm the sort of person who doesn't go round knocking old ladies on the head as it looks like a cheaper hobby.