I’m an atheist. This, the school two of my children are about to realise, means I seriously resent them being told the attendance of a religious ceremony is mandatory.
I could understand this from, for example, a Catholic school, but this one isn’t. Interestingly when the school say mandatory, they mean it. Apparently it includes not only those humanists amongst their charges, but Muslims and other theistic kids.
Having said that, if there was one thing that could sway me into believing in a deity, it would be this.
George, I think God is trying to tell you something…
November 28th, 2005
There’s an ad on TV at the moment where people are drawing guns and shooting each other.
Except they are using their hands and not guns, so the random cold-blooded killing is oddly funny.
This in itself isn’t unique. It was used as a gag in Spaced years ago, and I expect they weren’t the first.
Microsoft’s banned Xbox360 ad copies the same idea.
I’m not entirely surprised by the idea being blatantly lifted; after all they chose to launch the original Xbox in the UK on World Book Day, which was, erm, curious timing.
IBM used to use the motto “THINK” in their offices to inspire their engineers. I think Microsoft could well do with adopting it for a bit.
November 27th, 2005
I’m not going to make a fuss over Ian Blair now calling for a public debate on the shoot to kill policy he instigated. There’s so much that can be read into him back-pedalling publically that I don’t feel I could add anything useful.
I was very sorry to hear about the death of Sharon Beshenivsky on her daughter’s fourth birthday.
That’s simply horrible, a permanent emotional scarring for the entire family deeper than that caused by her death alone.
There’s an odd mixture of how this is being reported by the UK press.
There are the usual knee-jerk calls to arm all police, and these ignore a basic fact: The reason two beat coppers were sent rather than an armed response unit was simply down to it being reported as a disturbance, not an armed robbery.
They were the nearest officers and therefore attended.
I’ve also read a few comments about how ineffective their body armour was - truth be known that the typical body armour the police on the beat wear is designed to stop knives more than bullets. Stabbings are far more frequent in this country than shootings.
We had an ex-chief constable suddenly declare his
target="_blank">support for the death penalty. But only for those who kill Police officers.
Lord Stevens said “Because, hard though it may seem, murdering someone you know is a police officer IS different. You are not just killing an individual, you are attacking everything they represent. A police officer is someone you and I have chosen to defend and uphold the very basics of our society, our state. We appoint them guardians of what we have decided is right and wrong.”
To my mind that’s a bizarre statement. Deeply so.
I blinked in disbelief when I heard it for the first time.
Lord Stevens appears to believe that a Police Officer is worth more than the people they serve.
In what way is that the case?
Yes, the Police do a valuable job, one I wouldn’t do.
But equally I wouldn’t elect to be a Surgeon, a Fireman, a professional sky diver or a dinner lady.
Each of those jobs has either an element of risk I don’t wish to take (I drive along the A1001 every day, that’s enough for me, thank you) or pressure to deliver a result which could ultimately affect someone else’s life.
How about your job? If you don’t go in tomorrow, could someone potentially die?
No, me neither. The canteen would sell one less baguette, and there’d be less sarcasm in the office, but otherwise life would go on for everyone I come into contact with via work.
I’m a small cog and the machine would carry on without me.
But ultimately even if someone in those profession doesn’t show up, or dies, the world will still be turning.
Someone will be found to replace them.
Every government has a deputy leader, every store has a deputy manager, every married couple has a husband.
There’s always someone else available to carry on running the show.
Even if we discard Lord Steven’s comments, how can this be put into perspective?
He didn’t call for this when WPC Yvonne Fletcher died.
Nor did he call for the death penalty when a member of the public was shot dead in the same area of Yorkshire as WPC Beshenivsky.
That death, which went mostly unreported seems to have been handled entirely differently by the authorities.
Last night they showed the Police cordon of the street where WPC Beshenivsky died. A forensic team was scouring the entire street, inch by inch.
I’m not sure why.
There are eye-witnesses from the travel agent that was held up.
There is the other officer who was shot, and the Police have already arrested six people.
I’m not aware of what evidence they need to gather, why they need to go to these lengths - it’s almost like they feel the need to publically demonstrate something.
Nor do I really understand why the suspects have been returned to Yorkshire for questioning - with the best will in the world they aren’t going to be treated with the same level of impartiality that they might have by another force.
Professionalism doesn’t come into it.
This isn’t about bearing a grudge, this is merely human nature.
Of course, there is also the curious logic of the West Yorkshire Police hailing their prototype city-wide CCTV surveillance system as crucial to their success in the matter.
Apparently this somewhat Orwellian system managed to track the suspects car around the city.
At its launch in May, Chief Supt Geoff Dodd of West Yorkshire Police, said: “I believe that this is the best investigative tool we have had since the introduction of DNA analysis. ”
“The bottom line is that if a stolen vehicle comes into or out of Bradford city centre we will know about it”.
But in this particular case, they then let it go all the way to London before stopping it.
Odd, but I’m not scared of odd Police behaviour.
I’m way too busy being terrified of this:
November 22nd, 2005
