NAY TO DNA Thursday, Sep 20 2007

At last a bit of common sense. The Nuffield Council on bioethics has called the idea of a National DNA Database unjustified. This follows a judge who suggested, recently, that the whole UK population should be on the database.
At the moment there are some 4 million people on the database, who have committed a crime, or been suspected thereof. The latter should have been immediately removed once innocence was confirmed.
Do we live in a free country or not? If we do, then our only infringements to freedom are to pay our taxes, live by a fair common law, and defend the country if required. As for anything else, we have the right to tell government to get lost.
Well I’m saying it now.
Keep out of our lives!

© Anthony North, September 2007

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GIRL GANGS Wednesday, Aug 29 2007

The Metropolitan Police Authority have advised that all-girl gangs have now become a problem in the UK. Further, boy gangs are also now using girls as ‘honeytraps’ to lure victims into secluded places to be beaten and robbed.
This isn’t necessarily a new trend – in the early 17th century a Moll Cutpurse became notorious as a robber and highwaywoman – but today, more and more girls are finding a violent gang a good option.
This is, of course, a natural outcome of the success of feminism. With an absolute idea of equality, women are entering the world traditionally populated by men, and the dark side of this would be the popularity of female violence.
Far better, wouldn’t it have been, for feminism to have encouraged the idea of ‘equal but different’? If this had been so, maybe the less savoury elements of a ‘man’s’ world would not have spilled over to the feminine.

© Anthony North, August 2007

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DISHONEST BRITAIN Monday, Aug 6 2007

We’re all a load of liars. So says a recent survey of 2,000 people by Royal and Sun Alliance. Indeed, two thirds of people admit to lying, with the other third … well, they’re most likely lying anyway.
It seems 41% of people regularly lie to friends, whilst 45% will lie to bosses and people in authority. Some 62% of men claim to lie ‘for an easy life,’ whilst 65% of women lie so as not to cause worry.
Noble reasons, then. Well, maybe, but it leaves us with the reality of a dishonest population. One area where this obviously has an effect is the growing field of conspiracy theory. If we’re all lying all the time, then we’re all conspiring.
This will, of course, reflect on government. If we all lie to government all the time, then they will have a false understanding of the population. Hence, they are bound to get things wrong and make us feel they’re conspiring against US.
But most importantly, at what stage does this natural lying become a criminal act? That is what the survey was all about. At the moment, only one in five admit to bumping up an insurance claim.
Yea, right!

© Anthony North, August 2007

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TESCO COPS Monday, Jul 16 2007

Police shut 14 Tesco stores. They soon re-opened, and we’re told it had nothing to do with extremism, but the Police are keeping their mouths firmly shut regarding what it was all about.
Hints have, of course, leaked. The most likely explanation is a loner criminal attempting to blackmail the stores. This kind of thing has happened before, but this time there is something worrying about it all.
This worrying aspect is the fact that the Police are refusing to say what it is all about. Sometimes this is necessary, such as if someone has been kidnapped. But the vital thing in such cases is that we don’t know a crime is on-going until it is over.
We plainly DO know, this time, that something is going on. And I don’t think I’m alone in thinking there is no sensible reason why the Police are not giving us more information. Which leads me to the conclusion that they’re treating the British public with contempt.

© Anthony North, July 2007

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NO SUPER CASINO, THAT’S SUPER Sunday, Jul 15 2007

It is hard to explain my relief that Brownski has decided against the Super Casino. So many conflicting thoughts sweep through my head. My relief has nothing to do with gambling – there are plenty of gambling opportunities in the UK as it is – but with the obvious implications of such huge casinos in Britain.
Of course, let’s not give Brownski the credit for this. First of all, we must worry about his sheer power to decide such a thing by himself. Then we must also remember that he was a major player in the government that agreed it in the first place. It strikes me like a simple goodwill gesture to con us he’s a nice bloke. Don’t believe it.

BIG VERSES SMALL

So why am I against the Super Casino? First of all, there is my reluctance to go for anything big, and the government’s increasing need to get rid of the small. This view is fuelled by big business, who claim the ‘big’ option leads to the most cost effective efficiency.
This may be true – to a point – but the obvious spin-off is that obligation to the customer declines. In a sensible world, a good business is one where a consumer has real power and influence over the business.
Only in this way does a business feel the need to look after the customer. But if they’re big enough, an individual customer can do them no harm, and the bosses are too remote for the customer to have an input. The ‘small’ requires observance to the customer; the ‘big’ means they don’t have to give a damn.

ORGANISED CRIME

A further problem with the ‘big’ is that it becomes more attractive to organized global crime. And this is particularly so in a business that is traditionally associated with such crime in the first place.
One of the great successes of the British Police is their ability to keep out of the country the worst effects of organized crime. Here, such a practice is on the small scale and ad hoc. But as soon as big casinos are thought of, Mafia is straight there to take over. Just look at Las Vegas to see how it works.
This relationship between Mafia and big business can be seen at work in every country where capitalism takes off in a big way. For always, before super-capitalism breaks out, you have a crimewave as Mafia organizes itself before disappearing into the capitalist woodwork.

© Anthony North, July 2007

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COCAINE CAPITAL UK Tuesday, Jul 3 2007

The UK has become the cocaine and heroin capital of Europe. The latest UN report says there is a decline, or leveling out of the problem, in other European countries, but the UK seems to steaming full ahead.
The UK’s cocaine market is said to be over 900,000 strong, but it does point out a slight reduction in cannabis use, most likely due to new scientific findings following its virtual legalization.

A CULTURE THING

Why is drug use so prevalent in the UK? One obvious reason is that there is a lack of direction and meaning in the UK. Once a thriving national culture, the days of a sense of Britishness are in decline.
Coming in line with a reduction in the power of families to police themselves, this leaves many young people without direction and meaning. The result is they do not know who they are any more, and more open to peer pressure.
To this we can add the increasing materialism in the UK. To many, religion may seem a bad thing, but it gave understanding of a form of spirituality above the material values we share.

BATTLE FOR THE SOUL

Throughout history this has been of value and comfort to most people. And intriguingly, experiment after experiment has shown that drug use can be seen as a chemically-induced form of mystical experience.
Of course, it is fake – true spirituality requires you take spiritual standards into the rest of your life, and not just experience the spiritual for ‘escape.’ But drug use can be seen as a substitute for what materialism denies.
This state of affairs is an obvious spin-off of the rise of liberal standards in society – standards that are essentially atheist in nature. And a further outcome of this is, of course, the libertarian notion that rarely says ‘no.’

© Anthony North, July 2007

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MIDDLECLASS CROOKS Friday, Jun 29 2007

The middleclass in the UK are the most crooked area of society. According to a Keele University report two thirds admitted offences such as tax evasion and inflating insurance claims.
One possible answer comes in the knowledge that 82% of those surveyed said they had been victim of shady practices by others. Hence, it has become a ‘dog-eat-dog’ society, where everyone is out for themselves.

TWAS ALWAYS THUS

Of course, the reality is, it was always the same. The problem may be worse today, but the middleclass have always believed they were entitled to ‘perks of the job,’ and using their social standing to their own advantage.
The view of the middleclass as a mild mannered elite may well have been true, and deterred many from illegal behaviour, but beneath this we must remember that the middleclass is a product of a capitalist society. Only with the rise of the entrepreneur did the class require status.
Entrepreneurs led to complication in society, which required the other professions, from engineers to doctors, and teachers to educate the young for continuance of the capitalist system.

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

And at the root of capitalist society is ‘survival of the fittest’ - profit, betterment, in individual terms. So in many ways, the middleclass are simply doing what society expects of them.
If this stinks, maybe we should look at society, and the nature of capitalism, that created them in the first place. But this doesn’t account for the idea that the middleclass are becoming even more crooked today.
Maybe the answer to this is that there isn’t really a middleclass any more. As capitalism becomes more successful, more people reach affluence and rise into ‘middleclass’ status. The time must come when we ask: is this any longer an elite, or the societal norm.
If the latter, then any elitist standards towards NOT being crooked would be removed.

© Anthony North, June 2007

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CYBERBULLIES Wednesday, May 30 2007

Bullying of teachers on the internet and mobile phone is rocketing. So says the teacher’s union NASUWT. Comments are becoming more prolific and vicious, leaving many teachers in fear.
The problem is, of course, wider than this. New information technology is allowing a whole new area of crime – and I don’t just mean identity fraud, hacking, etc. Crimes are now being committed specifically to be recorded and put online.
This is, infact, an inevitability of human nature. A crime is made much more likely if a degree of ‘impersonality’ can be achieved. Filming something, or posting vicious comment, is impersonal in terms of actual human contact, and therefore more likely to happen.
But much more important is our need for creativity and expression. Every lout and bully can now have access to information technology that used to be only available to the film maker or writer.
As such, everyone can become director of their own art form. Of course, we may not accept the result as art, but art is a personal interpretation. To the lout and bully, art is quite possibly what it is.
I think it is inevitable that this problem will increase. Expression, you see, is what mankind is all about. Sadly, this can provide the best, but also the worse, of what it is to be human.

© Anthony North, May 2007

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DON’T HUG A HOODIE Friday, May 18 2007

David Cameron has said he believes in punishing teenage yobs. This is not back-tracking on his ‘hug a hoodie’ declaration last year for he never said it. Rather, he was intimating that we try to understand them, but punish all the same.
His new message has stronger emphasis on punishment. However, the furore over his ‘supposed’ comments need clarification. Believe it or not, most kids who wear ‘hoodies’ are perfectly law abiding. Let’s first separate them from the yob.
Once this is done, we are dealing with a small minority of kids, but this adds up to ten of thousands, creating terror in housing estates and city centres. Most of these will grow out of it and become responsible adults. But some will not.
The hard core of this minority certainly need punishment – I like Lord Tebbit’s intimation that we hug them very hard. But for the remainder, nothing cools a yob down more than embarrassing him.
I can think of no greater embarrassment than chasing him to give a hug.

© Anthony North, May 2007

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HUSTLE Friday, May 11 2007

I wish I didn’t like Hustle. Last night’s episode (BBC1 UK – 10 May) featured the team of Grifters on a horse racing con. The usual nasty, greedy mark was identified – they always seem to go for the nasty guys, as if modern day Robin Hoods.
The plot revolved around convincing him to buy a race horse that couldn’t race, with the sub-plot of the introduction of a new member to the team, with Mickey Bricks departed to Australia. Enjoyable hokum from beginning to end. But …
I wish I didn’t like Hustle, but I do. I wish I didn’t like it because it gives a totally wrong impression of the con man. For believe me, after studying them for years, I can assure you they are not like that.
Rather, the average conman is an ego who has to be on the take, for that is the only way to validate himself. The reality behind the ego is of a pathetic, under-confidant waster who just doesn’t fit into the world because he cannot be bothered.
I wish I didn’t like Hustle. It gives a false impression. But that’s entertainment, folks.

© Anthony North, May 2007

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