Trim That Bush, Citizen!

Or else...

Company director Robert Johnston, 51, and his wife Nicola, 48, were fined the maximum amount when they were found to have breached the terms of the order forbidding them from letting their conifer hedge reach 19ft.

Ahhh, the ASBO. Truly, New Labour's finest contribution to the justice system. Keeping us safe from unruly street youths vegetation...

They are, amazingly as it may seem, still proud of them too!

The Johnstons say that the neighbours who made the original complaint moved out a year previously and claim they were not kept informed by the council of the court proceedings.

A likely story?

Mr Johnston, a company director, today expressed shock at the fine.

'I asked the officer at the council if the complaint still applied because the neighbour had moved out and she said she would get back to me,' he said.

'I haven't heard anything since and that was about a year ago.

'We weren't told anything about a court hearing. I wouldn't have let it go to court. I really had no idea what was going on.'

Who do we believe? I mean, it's not like councils are famous for incompetence, is it..?

Nan Down!

A grandmother broke her wrist in three places after slipping off the wall of a seaside paddling pool.

And what was a grandmother doing on the wall of a paddling pool?

Well, if the term ‘grandmother’ tends to conjure up a little, apple-cheeked old lady, better not linger on the accompanying photo…

Mary’s grandsons, aged 18, 11 and five, and her ten-year-old granddaughter set off along the rocky wall around the pool, which is covered in slippery seaweed, to reach some other children who were crabbing.
The five year-old slipped, but was grabbed and lifted to safety by his eldest brother.

The shock of seeing her grandson lose his balance caused Mrs Chalk, who had gone with them, to fall into the pool, where she landed awkwardly and broke her wrist in three places.

Hmmm, well, if you’re going to walk along a slippery, seaweed-coated wall, then clearly you only have yourself the council to blame…

Wait, what?

She said: “It is not safe at all. They shouldn’t let anyone, adults or children, along that wall.

“It is just waiting for a child to slip over and kill themselves.

“I’m just glad it happened to me and not one of my grandchildren.”

And how exactly are they supposed to stop idiots like you from climbing on the wall, and letting their five year olds climb on the wall? Build another wall around that one, perhaps?

And she wasn’t the only adult in the party, either:

Her son Lee, 41, who went to try and help his mum after she fell, also slipped on the wall and cut his hand on a shell, but did not need medical treatment.

Sherina Chalk, from Orsett, said: “It was so upsetting.

“My poor mum was in so much pain, but she tried to keep her wrist under the water so the children couldn’t see how badly it was broken.

“We certainly won’t be taking our family down there again.”

No doubt that big cheer you just heard was the long-suffering residents of Canvey…

Andrew Smith, contracts officer at Castle Point Council, said: “We are very sorry to hear about Mrs Chalk’s accident. This is the first we have heard about it, as it was not reported to us.

“There are safety signs at the pool, but it is a matter of common sense for users and parents to see that some areas are covered by the natural growth of weed and to be careful. After all, this is a beach.”

Indeed.

Life’s a beach, and sometimes you fall off a wall, Mrs Chalk…

Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid...

It seem to be the case that ideas (particularly of the politically-correct sort) spread over here from the States. I really, really hope not, in this case:

Did you know the Justice Department threatened several universities with legal action because they took part in an experimental program to allow students to use the Amazon Kindle for textbooks?

Huh..?

Last year, the schools -- among them Princeton, Arizona State and Case Western Reserve -- wanted to know if e-book readers would be more convenient and less costly than traditional textbooks. The environmentally conscious educators also wanted to reduce the huge amount of paper students use to print files from their laptops.

And that's when the trouble started...

It seemed like a promising idea until the universities got a letter from the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, now under an aggressive new chief, Thomas Perez, telling them they were under investigation for possible violations of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

It seems that, although the Kindle did text-to-speech, the menu system wasn't fully accessible, so requiring the assistance of a sighted person to fire it up. And...

What's that? It's still better than a normal book in those respects? Well, yes, true, but that cuts no ice with fanatics.

In subsequent talks, the Justice Department demanded the universities stop distributing the Kindle; if blind students couldn't use the device, then nobody could. The Federation made the same demand in a separate lawsuit against Arizona State.

Now, surely, you're thinking, the market will resolve this, by making their products disability friendly with an upgrade, yes? Yes, indeed.

Is that good enough to suit the government. No. Of course not...

One obvious solution to the problem, of course, was to fix the Kindle. Early on, Amazon told federation officials it would apply text-to-speech technology to the Kindle's menu and function keys. And sure enough, last week the company announced a new generation of Kindles that are fully accessible to the blind. While the Justice Department was making demands, and Perez was making speeches, the market was working.

But as Amazon was unveiling the new Kindle last week, Perez was sending a letter to educators warning them they must use technology "in a manner that is permissible under federal law."

You see, there's nothing in the world more dangerous than a zealot.

Oh, except, of course, a zealot with power and a hungry ambition to extend that power:

Now, Perez is at work on a far bigger project, one that could eventually declare the Internet a "public accommodation" under the ADA. That could result in a raft of new Justice Department regulations for disabled access to all sorts of Web sites.

Let's Just Skip All That Pesky 'Trial' Stuff, Shall We?

Motorists accused of throwing litter out of their cars should face fast-track justice and instant fines, town hall chiefs said yesterday.

Something wrong with that sentence? Let's look at it again:

Motorists accused of throwing litter out of their cars should face fast-track justice and instant fines, town hall chiefs said yesterday.

Ah, yes. That's it.

At present police or local authority officials who want to fine a motorist accused of littering cannot enforce the penalty if the driver denies the offence. They have to go to court to prove the identity of the person who was littering. Councils want an amendment to laws so that fines automatically go to the registered owner of the car or truck....

Yes, it's yet another attempt to stick their hands in our pockets and rummage around for any loose change that we haven't already given them in taxes and rates...

Local government leaders said that the fines would clean up roads and streets as well as raise cash to pay for services at a time when cuts are imminent.

To pay for services, eh? What sort of services?

More Owl Enforcement Officers? More People Collection HR officers? More FrogBusters?

I Think I Need A New Hobby....

...something to do on my days off that will torment the helpless, frighten passers-by, amuse the YouTube crowd, and, above all, not run the risk of attracting unwelcome attention from the authorities.

Hmmm, what to do, what to do....

Police considered that no offence had been committed and no-one was arrested but police enquiries continue she said.

*snaps fingers*

That's it! I'll get a large, vicious mastiff-type dog and set it on random drunken members of the public! Perfect!

This Town Doesn’t Need ‘Life Breathed Into It’…

..it’s going to need full medical-intervention-grade life support before long:

Drinkers and smokers could be targeted in a bid to change Colchester after dark.

I’m tempted to say ‘Change it into what..?’ but I think I already know the answer…

More than 40 recommendations have been made by a task group to breathe life into the town from 6pm to 9pm and stop it becoming a no-go area after 9pm.
Ideas include an early warning scheme where police will warn pubs not to serve customers they have identified as having drunk too much already.

Another plan is to ban outdoor smoking areas from the streets and improve taxi marshalling in Head Street and Queen Street.

Now, I can see the sense in cracking down on unruly, rowdy drunks.

That is, after all, what we’d all prefer to see, rather than blanket bans and revision of the licensing laws. It’s sensible, and a proper use of council and police time.

But banning outdoor smoking..?

When was the last time a smoker made me fear for my life, or was sick on my shoes, or started a fight with another smoker?

Or stole some private property from a complete stranger? That seems to be something exclusively confined to the smokeophobes…

A report is to be presented to Colchester Council’s policy review and development panel on Wednesday, September 1.

Nick Barlow, chairman of the task group, said: “We get lots of people complaining about the town centre at night, so we were looking at what can be done to improve the experience.

“People think there are simple solutions, but it is quite a complex issue.”

Is it?

Drunks and vandals are simple criminals, causing simple crimes. Smokers are neither...

His biggest desire is to see a cultural change with people taking part in all kinds of activities.

Mr Barlow added: “If we get a greater mix of people out for different reasons, it changes behaviour and makes people out drinking more conscious of their behaviour.”

Does it?

I think you’ll find that if you are prepared to get hammered and cause trouble, you’ll do it no matter who happens to be around…

And what other kinds of activities does he want to see to supposedly get ‘a greater mix of people’ in Colchester Town Centre at night? Anyone able to figure this out, because I certainly can’t!

It seems to me that what people want to do in Colchester is drink and smoke and get a taxi home. Why not try making that easier for them, rather than harder?

But we all know what this is. Just another front in the ongoing war against a perfectly legal activity, and moreover, one that brings in a great deal of tax revenue.

“With the decline of clerical power in the 18th century, a new
kind of mentor emerged to fill the vacuum and capture the ear
of society. The secular intellectual might be deist, sceptic or
atheist. But he was just as ready as any pontiff or presbyter
to tell mankind how to conduct its affairs. He proclaimed, from
the start, a special devotion to the interests of humanity and an
evangelical duty to advance them by his teaching. He brought
to this self-appointed task a far more radical approach than his
clerical predecessors. He felt himself bound by no corpus of
revealed religion. The collective wisdom of the past, the legacy of
tradition, the prescriptive codes of ancestral experience existed to
be selectively followed or wholly rejected entirely as his own good
sense might decide. For the first time in human history, and with
growing confidence and audacity, men arose to assert that they
could diagnose the ills of society and cure them with their own
unaided intellects: more, that they could devise formulae whereby
not merely the structure of society but the fundamental habits of
human beings could be transformed for the better. Unlike their
sacerdotal predecessors, they were not servants and interpreters
of the gods but substitutes.”

Paul Johnson, Intellectuals, 1988.

Comparing Like With Like

Polly Toynbee gamely sallies forth to lead the charge against the awful, awful coalition government that plans huge cuts in the public sector (unlike the huge cuts in the public sector proposed by Labour? Polly never mentions those..):

Professor Julian Le Grand, Tony Blair's adviser who created the quasi-markets of the NHS, talks of the public sector's "knights and knaves", prescribing competition as an antidote to laziness or absenteeism. Indeed, everyone can cite cases of knavish behaviour – the bloody-minded GP receptionist, a sullen council jobsworth or disobliging clock-watchers shutting down switchboards at 4.55pm, regardless. Bad service is unforgivable in public servants, but it is rarely compared fairly with knavish behaviour in the private sector: what public service would dare tell you to stay in all day to get a washing machine repaired without a fixed appointment? Or deliver goods unannounced so they must be queued for at some distant depot?

The problem being, Polly, that if I find a private sector company offering a service that doesn’t suit me, I can go somewhere else.

Not so with the public sector, eh?

For more detailed critique, see Angry Teen's take on it.

Blaming The Victims (Again)

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

The Scientist Proposes, The Bureaucrat Disposes…

Stocking up on vitamin D supplements and enjoying the summer sun could cut the risk of a host of diseases.

An Oxford University study has linked the vitamin, which is made when our skin is exposed to sunlight, to the activity of more than 200 genes in the body.

Some of these genes are already known to raise the odds of multiple sclerosis, diabetes, arthritis, dementia and some cancers.

Boosting levels of the vitamin could keep illness at bay, said the researchers.

Hurrah! Finally, science works for us!

Expert Sreeram Ramagopalan recommends 50 micrograms a day - the equivalent of ten multi-vitamin pills.

Hmm, might be a bit expensive. Is there a cheaper option?

Britons should also make the most of the summer sun by sunbathing-without sunscreen for 15 to 20 minutes a day.

Splendid!

A free source of a health-giving substance. What could be better? There’s no way the government could possibly cock this u…

Oh. Wait:

Government scientific advisors are looking for ways to boost levels, with options including fortifying milk and other foods.

Oh, fantastic! It’s going to be the fluoride in water/folic acid in bread ‘resolution’ all over again, isn’t it?

They just can’t help themselves, can they?

We will now have the Righteous clamouring for another additive to all our food so that Mr Kamil from No. 26 can still swathe his wife and daughters in yards of cloth when out in public, and Ms Cholmondly-Warner at No. 84 can still ensure that little Arabella slaps on the Factor 5000 sunblock before setting foot out in the garden on sunny days….

Fighting Back…

Christopher Booker’s column in the ‘Telegraph’ lays into the police and RSPCA:

Norris Atthey is a retired military policeman who for some years has been trying to defend one of the last pockets of red squirrels left in England… After trapping them, Mr Atthey has quite legally shot hundreds with an air pistol, very much more humane than hitting them over the head in a sack, as Natural England and other wildlife bodies prefer.

And so Mr Atthey was a little annoyed to read his morning paper to find out what other (presumed) wildlife defenders had been up to….

Mr Atthey was outraged when a Burton window cleaner was recently given a criminal record and lost £1,547 in costs after being prosecuted by the RSPCA for drowning a grey squirrel. He publicly challenged the charity by announcing that he had drowned one too.

Did they sense a trap, and stay safe in their holes?

Reader, they did not:

The ever-zealous RSPCA rose to the bait, knocking on his door to demand an interview. He responded that he had no more to say, beyond his published statement.

And there it would have ended, except….

Next morning, the RSPCA official returned, summoning two policemen to arrest Mr Atthey for “causing unnecessary suffering to an animal”.

I’m surprised the police were so co-operative, given that reciprocal assistance is so often not forthcoming…

But it was more than just assistance they got:

He was handcuffed and taken to the police station at Bedlington, some miles away, where he was held for nine hours in the cells. Eventually he was interrogated for an hour by an RSPCA official, with a policeman standing mutely by, before being released.

Without charge? It seems so. No charge is mentioned.

And isn’t it a little surprising that the police take no part at all in the interview?

Christopher Booker certainly thinks so:

Why was Mr Atthey arrested on the orders of the RSPCA? Why was he handcuffed, and imprisoned for nine hours? When I put this to Northumbria police, they replied that “the RSPCA is leading this investigation” and that “the arrested man remained with police until suitable arrangements were in place for an interview to take place”.

What? Seriously?

This provokes much wider questions, also raised by other cases reported in this column, such as that of Alan Brough, who was held by Carlisle police for six hours while the RSPCA took away his 90 fell ponies, and who immediately went and hanged himself.

Another case that hasn’t got half the publicity it deserved…

The RSPCA, that once-admirable charity, now often seems to pursue animal-lovers through the courts simply to win the publicity that keeps its £115 million a year in donations rolling in.

Which, as with all charities that grow too big, seems sadly inevitable.

But it’s the shameful police action here that’s all the more surprising:

And why do the police now regard themselves as the charity’s enforcement wing? What an admission from Northumbria police that they seek to justify holding a 66-year old man of impeccable character for nine hours by saying “the RSPCA is leading this investigation”. When did Parliament empower RSPCA officials (all ordinary members of the public) to order our police around like this?

Good questions.

Mr Atthey seems determined to find out:

theredsquirreldefender

Just to let supporters know the latest.Having already taken expert advice i have formally lodged an official complaint to Professional Standards of Northumbria Police for unlawful arrest and imprisonment.Have also complained of improper use of police premises by permitting someone of no standing ( RSPCA) to lead an interrogation.Have also requested the Inspecorate of Constabulary to investigate whether correct procedures have been adopted in relation to guidelines issued by the Association of Chief Police Officers.in assisting the RSPCA.I have to stress that I am absolutely delighted that the RSPCA have taken the bait.it is a bonus that the Police have responded in the manner they have.I am now considering setting up another group for endangered species. Honest, law abiding, decent respectable members of society. It is obvious that the police do not see themselves as serving society.

Can’t really argue with his conclusions, can we?

Update: Subrosa asks questions too...