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Women are more at risk of dying in cycle accidents, it seems, because they are more likely to obey the law and stop at traffic lights than the typical male ‘warrior of the road’ [see article in The Times: Women cyclists 'risk death' by obeying traffic lights]. After endless close shaves or nerve grinding moments, [...] There’s much to inspire disgust in the Virginia Tech massacre – obviously the hideous acts and resulting toll of dead, injured, terrified, bereaved and traumatised but also the excess of righteous hindsight about what should have been done and the gun lobby arguing for guns on campus and that armed self defence would have prevented [...] The Independent on Sunday reached a new peak of absurdity last weekend when it blazed over its front page: Cannabis – an apology and reversed its 1997 campaign for legalisation of the dope, apologising to its readers for leading them astray. The Indy frets that: Record numbers of teenagers are requiring drug treatment as a [...] I fear it was a terrible move to axe the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation into the Al Yamamah (“the dove”) arms deal between UK and Saudi Arabia. All parties have been stressing (implausibly) that the decision was not economic – supposedly 50,000 arms-related jobs at stake. For example, see SFO’s terse statement. It’s obviously [...] There are many annoying things about the mobile phone companies – roaming charges, poor coverage, high charges etc etc. But one of the most annoying things has been their tacit collusion in mobile phone crime. The motive for collusion is clear – when a mobile is stolen, it is replaced with a new phone and [...] Am I alone in feeling little sympathy for these guys? Fact: there was a massive fraud at Enron Fact: a lot of ordinary people were fleeced and hurt Fact: many financial institutions facilitated the fraud Fact: the FBI has a plausible case (see indictment & complaint) There is something nauseating about the media campaign to [...] The Home Office finally put a stop to its plans for police force mergers (The Times). The mixture of big-gesture, tidying-up and map-redrawing instincts that were driving this (with the flimsiest evidence base as a cover) were thwarted the moment value-for-money became a consideration. The ambition for reform has been steadily watered down from the [...] What is the opposite of ‘common sense’? ‘Stupid’ could be right. Or ‘arbitrary’. But one opposite might also be ‘principled’… meaning that you stick to deeply-held principles, even if they give you discomfort in specific cases. Conservative leader David Cameron called for “human rights with common sense” as he promised to repeal the Human Rights [...] After weeks of pain over prisoners let out, illegal aliens let in, and criminals let off, the perpetually distressed Home Office reacts to its plight like a giant squid, discharging vast quantities of a dark inky substance into its surroundings – that is vicious newspaper copy about the nation’s most hated species… see left. The [...] Letter from me in The Times… The paper had an absurd front page saying “Support for Met Chief crumbles” because the police minister, Tony McNulty, refused to say the position of the Commissioner of the Met police, Sir Ian Blair, is safe in advance of publication of the inquiry into the mistaken identity and shooting [...] It’s hard not to dislike intensely Professor Sir Roy Meadow – the ‘expert’ witness that consigned Angela Canning to gaol and her family to utter misery on the basis of completely incompetent statistical assertions designed to shore up his idiosyncratic theories about sudden infant death syndrome. And he has never even apologised. So good news [...] |
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