We've got too many laws

I suspect I may have covered this before, but Ken Clarke getting himself all in tangle today over sexual assault versus rape kind of makes my point.  If the ones making the laws don't know what they are, what hope have the rest of us got?


My suggestion, for what it's worth, get each MP to state, in full, every law they can remember.  The laws that they can all remember, we take forward, everything else gets dropped.  If there are any left at this point, it shouldn't take too long to review them and re-write them in terms that real people can understand.  After that if you want a new law, then fine, but you kill an existing one off first.  On this basis we shouldn't have situations where somebody is ignorant of the law, because by now it's sufficiently simple for 600 odd MPs to understand after all.  Until that point, ignorance of the law should be a justifiable defence, I for one have no idea what most of the laws in this country are.

Go on, I'll have a punt as well

Seeing as the world and his dog seems to have passed comment, I may as well join the affray.

It seems the buttered potato won it, dramatically according to yougov, no surprise if you read Craig Murray's blog. It was a more animated debate that's for sure but Nigel Farage seemed to do better in a two minute interview than any of them. 

I've got issues with all of the "big 3" here's hoping the smaller parties and independents make a sizeable dent come next week!

They still don't get it

I just heard McDoom on the radio at lunch time.  He was being asked "what were you thinking when you claimed your cleaning costs on expenses?"

He started to waffle on about how he had 2 residences (3 if you include Chequers) and that he needed a cleaner and how it was only fair to pay her a decent wage.

I have no issue with any of that but the point you so blatantly missed that the young lady was trying to make is "yes, but what on earth made you think it was OK to claim it on expenses and get the tax payer to fork out for it?"

You lot are towards the top end of the salary scale, you get all sorts of things paid for on expenses that us in the real world don't and yet you still think paying for a cleaner this was is somehow acceptable!

New health care initiative for the elderly

Worth a gander!

HT | Dick Puddlecote

Joining the BNP doesn't make you a racist bigot

I just heard about this on the radio while I was out at lunch time.  Inevitably we had the whining righteous on bleating about how they would take their kids out of school if one of the teachers joined the BNP or how they, as a student, may be discriminated against because a teacher was in the BNP.


I've news for you folks, joining the BNP doesn't make you a racist bigot, you need to be one of those already before you join.  At the moment there will be racists teaching in schools, certainly the left wing economics is a good match, membership, or not, to the BNP isn't going to make a jot of difference.


Personally I applaud the outcome of the report, and also think Police and Prison Officers should also be allowed to join, not because I support the BNP, as you may have gathered, I don't, but because I support freedom of choice.  Something this current government seems keen to eradicate and Cameron seems to have no answer to.


There is an alternative to consider however:

Mothers who use buses' wheelchair areas for buggies labelled an 'anti-social menace' by Government

Mothers who use buses' wheelchair areas for buggies labelled an 'anti-social menace' by Government

Please, let them on the buses, it keeps them from standing 3 abreast on the pavements nattering about fuck knows what and preventing anybody else getting by.

HT

Al Jahom

Ambush Predator

The new dog laws

So the government want to introduce new laws (something they do well, even if it's something we wish they were less proficiant at) due to the number of dog attacks.


I have a dog, a big fluffy Rough Collie that tends to have kids going "ahhh" and wanting to hug him. Would he bite a child? I have to say that unless the child physically hurts him or produces a grooming brush (don't ask) then it's more likely they'll need a fresh change of clothes due to being covered in slobber! Even so, you can never be certain so we do warn them to be careful.


When it comes to insurance and tagging, he has both and and ear tattoo and a small scrap yard's worth of id tags round his neck. So am i personally affected by the proposed new legislation? No, because we already meet the requirements, but then our dog hardly meets the definition of dangerous either.


So why am I blogging about it you may ask? Well firstly I object to creating new laws when existing laws are fit for purpose but are not being upheld. Second, Mr. Knuckle-dragger with an untrained and therefore potentially dangerous dog won't comply. Thirdly lots of old folks with dogs that never leave the house won't be able to afford to comply, so being law abiding people they are will drop their companion off at the local animal centre, more than likely resulting in a healthy animal being put down when no home is found for it.


Clarkson has also covered this

Climate Change

I tend to sit somewhat on the fence with all the climate change stuff.  Yes the climate is changing, but then it always has.  Are the recent changes catestrophic and a one way path, I have no idea, and so it would seem it is with the experts.

In September 2008, following getting the summer prediction of it being a BBQ summer spectacularly wrong, we have the winter prediction from the Met Office:

The Met Office forecast for the coming winter suggests it is, once again, likely to be milder than average. It is also likely that the coming winter will be drier than last year.

And yet, on the 5th of Jan 2010, now we are actually in winter we have headlines of:

Britain facing one of the coldest winters in 100 years, experts predict

So, which "experts" do you believe (it's easy to be an expert in hindsight) and what confidence do we have that anybody has any idea what the climate is going to do in the next 12 months never mind the next 10 years.