There’s one of those diplomatic storm in a teacups brewing over the fact that Cécilia Sarkozy chose to go shopping rather than have a picnic with George Bush.
Now I hate shopping, but I think I’d make the same choice – at least if I didn’t have the option of giving him a piece of my mind.
Over on Comment is Free I have a piece on the difference between the public (retail, cheerful, glossy, expensive) side of the refurbished Brunswick centre in London, and the private(sheltered housing, dingy, dirty, cement, echoing noise and misery).
Somehow it doesn’t surprise me that when comparing my views to those the US presidential candidates, I had to look up the one with whom mine most squared: Dennis Kucinich.
Here’s the list of how much I agree:
Kucinich 63 (you have no disagreements with this candidate)
Gravel 45 (disagreement – No Child Left Behind)
Obama 41 Border Fence, Same-Sex Marriage
Clinton 35 Death Penalty, Border Fence, Iran – Military Action, Same-Sex Marriage
The test is here
(I did leave out some on subjects I know nothing about.)
… the Labour government’s approach to anything uncomfortable is in evidence again in the latest crime bill, the 54th of this government. (Who’s to blame for the rampant fear of crime? All of the evidence points to the government.)
As the Observer reports today, it is turning the clock back 25 years to jail prostitutes simply for being prostitutes. I mentioned this in a piece I wrote for Comment is Free on the campaign for Safety First for sex workers. As Observer reports:
The threat of tougher measures also appears to be at odds with the government’s beliefs. The use of ‘traditional’ enforcement involving police crackdowns does not appear to reduce disorder, Home Office research indicates .
Some 3,500 prostitutes a year are brought to court or cautioned for soliciting offences. Allowing courts to detain prostitutes could see thousands in prison over the next decade, according to experts, who believe the new powers will prove popular with police and magistrates frustrated by the number of offenders who default on fines.
So it doesn’t make any sense on the grounds of evidence, it threatens to worsen an already awful situation in the jails, but it will make the Daily Mail happy. Anyone else getting a sense of deja vu all over again?
I’ve been contemplating the insanity of sewage systems recently – and here’s the alternative. (Hattip to Green Reading.)
Just a pity that the idea hadn’t got across to my grandparents, who had a holiday home at Fitzroy Falls in Australia where there was no sewage – only a garbage bin under the loo seat. Now emptying that wasn’t fun – but they’d missed out on the composting materials bit….
We all know how fake the claims of the Labour government are to green-ness, but a Guardian piece sets out the figures on just how bad.
That’s well worth reading, but don’t follow the next link unless you are in a resolutely good mood: Bill McGuire suggests that signficant climate change could induce a storm of volcanic activity.
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