Quote Of The Day

Garry Kasparov:

The difference between a genius & a politician. Alan Turing invents a computer to crack encryption. David Cameron wants to ban encryption.

 

Just Because You Got Stabbed Doesn't Make You An Expert

We have laws against inciting violence so what exactly is Stephen Timms proposing here:

An MP stabbed by a high-flying university student inspired by al Qaeda told how it was like a "bolt out of the blue".
Stephen Timms backed calls for an overhaul of websites hosting terror videos as he said Roshonara Choudhry's online radicalisation was "puzzling and alarming".

Indeed given that he acknowledges that his assailants radicalisation is "puzzling" he appears to acknowledge that he doesn't actually understand what motivated her so he is essentially calling for a ban on a wide range of unspecified material.

Icelandic Strippers- Cold & Banned

This is almost a mirror image of the "ban the Burqa" debate:

Iceland has banned striptease shows, making it an offence for any business to profit from the nudity of its employees.

.....

"They are closing striptease (clubs) because they think there is prostitution there," said Asgeir Davidsson, owner of Iceland's largest strip club, Goldfinger.

"They think there is organised crime. They have been thinking this for 12 years. They have had the police running around, and they have not found anything."

As in the burqa debate, professional busy bodies want to control what women wear ostensibly on the grounds that the women are being coerced into it, even though such coercion would already be illegal. In both cases it seems more like a pretext to prohibit something that they want to ban for reasons of personal distaste than the true motivating factor.

I have never set foot in a strip club and wouldn't want one to be open next door to my home or outside a local school, so I'm hardly an enthusiast for lap dancing clubs, however unlike the Icelandic parliament I don't consider my personal tastes to be a grounds for ordering other people about.

Yeah That'll Work

Alan Johnson is responding to the Islamist march through Wooten Bassett in traditional New Labour fashion- he's banning the groups responsible. Not only is this highly authoritarian it is also completely pointless, as the article explaining the background to the ban explains:

The group is already proscribed under two other names – al-Ghurabaa and the Saved Sect or the Saviour Sect.

So they were banned before , but reformed under a different name which is exactly what they will do again. If the purpose is to marginalise the group then it won't work but if the purpose is to make Alan Johnson seem tough then it may well be effective.

Strange Laws

Officers are examining whether any crime was committed, and looking into suggestions that Woods may have been driving without shoes, which is illegal in Florida

What!?

The dangers of shoeless driving escape me.

Miliband Balls It Up.

After Ed Balls pledged to deal with the BNP members becoming teachers David Miliband helpfully shows why it is a bad idea, beyond the simple civil liberties issue.

Even if a ban on members of racist and neo-nazi organisations like the BNP was desirable, who could trust the government to apply it honestly when people like David Miliband are sufficiently unscrupulous to smear any opponents as racists and neo-nazis?

Incidentally does Balls know how many BNP members are currently teaching and whether they have brought their racial attitudes into their job? It certainly doesn't seem to be a particularly pressing problem though I stand to be corrected.

Unenforceable Law Proposed For The Children.

Oh FFS!

Banning Stuff

I see people are campaigning for a ban on various 'legal highs':

A TOP Government health expert last night urged T In The Park chiefs to ban sales of “herbal highs” — over fears the legal drugs could kill a reveller.

Professor Les Iversen claims some are hundreds of times more powerful than many outlawed substances.

He and fellow specialist advisors are compiling a list which they will recommend Home Secretary Alan Johnson makes illegal.

Because obviously festivals are famously effective at keeping out illegal drugs.

Prof Iversen said: “Unfortunately nothing will be passed in time for T In The Park. I am a scientist, not a legislator, but the dangers should be clear to organisers.

He is a scientist and has scientifically investigated the effects of the drugs, they're bad, but he cannot deduce the correct policy with respect to drugs purely by looking at what effects they have on users.

Quote Of The Day.

Kevin McKenna on the workings of the Banning Chamber a.k.a. the Numptydrome* a.k.a. the Scottish Parliament:

After that, it became a feeding frenzy as MSPs and councillors realised how easy it was to ban things. Soon there was a bill to ban fur farming. And only after the legislation was passed was it discovered that, er ... there were no fur farms in Scotland.

* I didn't coin the term "Numptydrome" but I can't recall where I saw it so can't credit the creator.