About time too

[Suff]

The direct of public prosecutions has new guidelines on prosecution for electronic messages or posts.

However I still think they have it wrong. Children need to learn restraint or they will become adults who think they can do what they want and one day in their life becomes the barrier between unreasonable restraint and harsh unremitting action against them.

Our society ran the risk of becoming like Japanese society, where the outward view of what is said and done is utmost politeness, yet the underside is sordid, seamy and riddled with insults and aggression.

One of the things which has stood Britain in good stead over the centuries has been a tendency to common sense. We need to find that again, fast, or we will spin out of control as a society.

[cromwell]

One of the things which has stood Britain in good stead over the centuries has been a tendency to common sense. We need to find that again, fast, or we will spin out of control as a society.

Amen to that.
I think there is still plenty of common sense in society; unfortunately this doesn't include the people who rule us.
I read once in a book by George Orwell about the Vicar's wife.
She was convinced that the villagers in her husband's parish would be so much healthier and happier if only they would listen to her.

Well the Vicar's wife is in charge today and no mistake; and we will listen to her; she will make sure of that!

The Labour party especially knows what is best for us; so we will eat our five a day; we will drive at 20mph in towns; we will pay more tax on sinful non-green things like beer, fatty food and petrol; takeaways will be banned within 500 metres of a school and schools will be surrounded by security fences with locked gates.

This stuff is so bad now I don't know if we can ever get any sense back into politics.

[Suff]

Where is Fawkes when you need him. Well a successful one anyway......

My mind wonders how much better it would be if the population petitioned the Queen to ban all currently sitting MP's from Government as having comprehensively perjured themselves.

I wonder what THAT government would look like at the next election... Certainly it would be interesting....

[Oojamaflip]

Well the Vicar's wife is in charge today and no mistake; and we will listen to her; she will make sure of that!

The Labour party especially knows what is best for us; so we will eat our five a day; we will drive at 20mph in towns; we will pay more tax on sinful non-green things like beer, fatty food and petrol; takeaways will be banned within 500 metres of a school and schools will be surrounded by security fences with locked gates.

Cromwell, your post made me smile. But sadly, it's very true.

[Workingman]

I am not happy about any of this.....

Germany is making attempts to ban right wing political parties. Left wing parties are banned in right wing societies. Islamists ban or heavily censor non-Islamic texts. Yesterday the BBC pre-moderated blog posts on the Hillsborough inquests - those not in favour were eliminated.

Voices of discontent should be heard. They might not chime with your views or opinions, but unless they are allowed to be seen/heard they go underground. That, in my opinion, is far worse and more dangerous than them being out in the open.

The other thing is that we should grow a thicker skin. Far too many are using current laws to quell outspoken, but often not offensive, freedom of speech.

The chant of the censors is:
"We can say what we like because we are right, the rest of you must shut up or we will accuse you of an ism or of being an ist."

[Aggers]

I am not happy about any of this...The chant of the censors is:
"We can say what we like because we are right, the rest of you must shut up or we will accuse you of an ism or of being an ist."

I'm not happy about any of this, either.

I support the idea that a law should be obeyed, even if a person does not agree with it, but I think it is terribly wrong that
it has now become impossible to express disapproval of a law without running the risk of being accused of some form of 'ism'.

This is a serious threat to free speech.

[cromwell]

I have to agree with Aggers and WM. I may not agree with someone else's politics but feel they have the right to their views.
Increasingly now though, there is a narrowing of "acceptable" views.
We are becoming a very prissy, clutching-at-our-pearl-necklace society.

The left do not seem to comprehend the massive irony when they say "We must be completely intolerant of intolerance, in order to show what a tolerant society we are".

I read somewhere recently that in this country now people are taught what to think, not how to think; and by gum, that's true.

It probably helps to explain why when someone starts to lose a discussion, they can resort very quickly to slogans and insults; they lack the capacity to weigh evidence and argue logically.

[Oojamaflip]

I have to agree with Aggers and WM. I may not agree with someone else's politics but feel they have the right to their views.
Increasingly now though, there is a narrowing of "acceptable" views.
We are becoming a very prissy, clutching-at-our-pearl-necklace society.

The left do not seem to comprehend the massive irony when they say "We must be completely intolerant of intolerance, in order to show what a tolerant society we are".

I read somewhere recently that in this country now people are taught what to think, not how to think; and by gum, that's true.

It probably helps to explain why when someone starts to lose a discussion, they can resort very quickly to slogans and insults; they lack the capacity to weigh evidence and argue logically.

Excellent post.

I agree with you all.