ASBOlute Bullshit

Surprise, surprise I have once again found something about British society that annoys me greatly. This one is pretty pathetic.

I read an article today about a 64 year-old man who was served with an ASBO (Anti-Social Behaviour Order for those unfamiliar with the term). This in itself is nothing special as people are served with ASBOs all the time. However this man was served with an ASBO for............wait for it............swearing at his TV.

Funny, right? Oh but it gets better.

It was not just that this man was prosecuted for swearing at his own TV that I found amusing, but also the fact that the program he was swearing at was Question Time. Yes that's right, shock horror, someone felt the need to swear at a panel of politicians while they rambled on trying to defend their policies against the critical questioning of an audience of voters.

The man apparently disturbed his neighbours with his swearing and they felt it necessary to report it to police. They clearly didn't agree with his political views.

I, personally, believe this to be a great injustice. What kind of world do we live in where a man can no longer dislike politicians in the comfort of his own home without fear of prosecution? This isn't the People's Republic of China. Yes, this mans swearing was caused by excessive drinking after work, however the man in question was in his own home, never intended to disturb his neighbours and was severely punished when he clearly showed remorse for any disturbance he may have caused.

Unfortunately it is not solely that this man was punished for his political views that upsets me. On Saturday night I was mugged in the street while with a friend. It's ok my friend was fine and all I suffered was a head-butt and I'm down £5 that fell out of my pocket. Honestly, this could easily happen to me on an average day at school. The real problem I have with this situation is a legal system that feels the need to punish a 64-year-old man for having a political opinion and accidentally waking his neighbours when there are clearly violent people, who have proven themselves to be dangerous, wandering the streets at night.

The idea of an ASBO is to prevent anti-social behaviour, yet somehow the legal system of this nation has allowed the development of an entire generation of people who clearly have no ambition in life other than to be exactly that, anti-social.

It doesn't surprise me that the majority of violent crimes in the world are left unreported when legal systems around the world make such a mockery of themselves. I'm not saying any nation in this world will ever have a perfect legal system. It is practically impossible. However, after being directly affected by something that was clearly a crime, to see someone be criminally prosecuted and punished for something so ridiculous that it barely scrapes in as an ASBO is more of a kick in the teeth than actually being attacked.

In other news I am hoping to get the vlog up this week at some point. I know I've said that before so don't quote me on it. Hope you are enjoying this decent English weather and have had a better weekend than me.

Till next time......

A future failed for all.....

It has been a long time since my last post and for this I apologize; however you'll be pleased to know today I'll be covering everyone's favourite topic, politics, and what a fantastic failure politics in this country has become.

Yes that's right the future of the United Kingdom looks bleek. For those of you that have taken any notice of the British election campaign there is very little sign of hope for the next generation in a nation that just over one hundred years ago controlled most of the world.

There are several reason that I have come to this depressing conclusion, the first of which being the absolutely amazing ignorance of the Labour Party.

Oh sorry......let me be more specific.

At Nottingham University a couple of weeks ago, Gordon Brown, in all of his wisdom, released five election pledges that will help Britain recover from the recession and everyone will be happy. I know Scotland might be socially on a different planet but seriously Gordy?

Yes these five pledges seemed extremely hollow and were riddled with holes such as where will the money come from, how do they plan to do it and is an election plan something that you should base on five short sentences? Unfortunately (and I use this word because it truly is unfortunate) this five pledges were not what concerned me most about the Labour Party's campaign. It was in fact the campaign slogan which surrounded the PM while he gave such a lackluster speech.

Anyone else spot it? The leading political party of the United Kingdom, the nation from which the modern English language originated, cannot come up with a slogan that includes any form of correct grammatical structure.

A future fair for all.

"Come on everyone, screw the election lets all go to a carnival."

A future, fair for all. A fair future for all. Either of these would have been perfectly acceptable yet somehow with all of resources available to Labour's PR department the still manage to make themselves look even less intelligent than they already appear.

Through a legal technicality I am allowed to vote in the United Kingdom. I pay taxes why the hell not? But do these people really expect me and any other person who hasn't recently suffered major head wounds to vote for them? As a party you can't master basic grammar but you want me to trust you with the next few years of my financial well being, public safety, job security, education, transport and everything else the government (which is currently the Labour Party) has failed at for the last four years? Well maybe you can work on some English skills Mr. Brown. What does g,e,t,f,u,c,k,e,d spell?

Anyway I think you can guess by now what I think of Labour Party. It makes me sad to some extent how hopeless they have become and it scares me to think what could happen if they are re-elected. Guess we'll find out on May 6th. In the mean time, over the next few weeks, I shall be pointing out the flaws, and maybe if you're lucky strengths, of the other various parties that we shall soon be putting our faith in. I might even review the E4 Party for those of you who have seen the ads :D

Till next time.....