PARKING

Saturday and a large car park full. Some parkers are totally moronic and lacking in consideration.

RECIPE BOOKS

Wednesday's Daily Telegraph had a story that a government study has found that some recipe books are easier to read than others. The Department of Innovation, Universities and skills has found that some recipes with long sentences and complicated words mean that users need to be equipped with GCSE standard reading skills.
Well isn't that what children are supposed to finish up with these days? Or do their "civic" lessons not leave enough time on the timetable to master reading? Anyway the implication seems to be "Nigella bad, Gordon and Nigel good". Haven't the government got better things to do? When I buy a cookery book it is nice to get one with easy straightforward dishes. And for the process of cooking to be described in a way I can understand. Some writers can make anything complicated — just don't buy a cook book written by a man whose normal job is writing manuals for video recorders. But I don't need the government to interfere. Why stick at recipes anyway? What about novels? Lets see how Salmon Rushdie compares with Agatha Christie. And that guy Chaucer has a lot to answer for — but it's too late to rap his knuckles.

POLICE AGAIN

There has been correspondence on the letters page about children's outdoor play. One yesterday from a Janet Norton (of London) says that when she takes her children to the local park the playground has often been vandalised and beer cans and worse (her word) are strewn around.
On Monday a Mark Fenton from Lancashire relates that he passed a children's play area whilst walking his dogs. A group of about 10 youths were drinking alcohol and smashing bottles so that the area was strewn with broken glass. Walking on a short distance he came across a policeman sitting in his car and told him what was going on. The officer basically told him to go away and report it to the council. The officer remained in his car for another 15 minutes. Anything for an easy life. There is, I believe, a connection between these two stories.

AIRGUNS

The Scottish Executive are proposing a ban on airguns. To some extent this is political posturing as weapons control is at present a matter which is reserved to Westminster. A ban would have minimal effect. Restrictions on firearms were tightened after Hungerford and again after Dunblane when it became illegal to possess a pistol/revolver/automatic weapon/rifle. Nevertheless as we have seen in the past three weeks a large number of teenagers seem to have no problems in getting hold of one. I expect the illegality just increases the value as a "status" object. Unless the police make a determined effort to prosecute anyone they find with such a weapon, and the men in red dressing gowns send them to prison, new laws are a waste of time.

BEAT BOBBIES

For several days now the press and TV have been reporting on the search for the teenage killer of Rhys Jones an 11 year old boy. Arrests have been made of several teenagers who were then released. Once again police have been appealing for witnesses and/or information that could lead to the killer. Of course if there had been bobbies on the beat, as some in the community had requested, they might have built up a rapport and known what was happening on their patch. As things stand police seem to zoom into an area after disaster strikes and might as well be men from Mars.

EMIGRATION

So the latest figures show that record numbers of Britons are leaving the country. Not too hard to see why as the country under Labour and Blair has turned into a shambles. Labour being aided by the police, the men in red dressing gowns, others in the legal profession, and miscellaneous human rights activists. In the last fortnight we have seen two ordinary decent people murdered by teenage yobs. One got out of his sister's car to remonstrate when youths threw chocolate into the car. He didn't get out to start a fight — just to ask why the lad had done it. He was killed. And in Warrington a family man was killed when he went out to speak to a gang who were vandalising a mechanical digger. In the second case it seems that gangs of youths were a frequent problem as they are in many areas. The police do a good job of catching murderers (I'm often surprised at their success rate) but if they were more pro-active in dealing with "yobbery" there wouldn't be as many murders.
The other case that has been in the headlines is that of the Italian murderer of Stephen Lawrence who may be released next year but is unlikely to be deported. This is a result of an EU directive and, more marginally, the Human Rights Act. On release he will be able to join Afghan hijackers who are also at liberty to remain in this country. Apparently if they were deported they might not be treated very nicely. There is a massive legal industry devoted to helping the dregs of humanity. The two judges on the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal that decided Chindamo's case earn around £100,000 a year (there was also a lay member). But there is an army of solicitors and barristers working in these areas, all paid for out of legal aid — ie by the taxpayer.

BBC

The BBC sinks further into the gutter by the hour. Earlier this week it was announced they had been fined £50,000 for rigging a children's phone-in show. As a letter to the press pointed out no-one got sacked and the fine comes out of licence money. The great British Public has to pay for the sins of this wretched corporation. The latest scandal was a film of a Year with the Queen. One episode dealt with a photo shoot by Annie Leibowitz. A trailer was produced to market the film. Peter Fincham, Controller of BBC, had the trailer shown to press and sure enough the next day the UK papers had images/stories of the Queen stomping out of the session in high dudgeon after Annie had suggested she remove her crown. Except the trailer was in the wrong sequence. Queen complaining about heavy, hot, ceremonial dress came before she met Annie. Of course Peter doesn't regard it as a resigning matter — why should he when he's on such a cushy number? The BBC just don't get it: nobody trusts them as impartial purveyors of truth any more.