Tasteless Jokes Invalidate Elections Apparently

I heard a story on the radio about a Derbyshire councillor who has been sacked for making a joke about the two murdered police women last week.

He sounds like a dick, and I would not vote for him- but there's something very dodgy about the notion that elected representatives can be sacked for doing something completely legal.

Who has the power to overrule the electorate and invalidate the election just like that?

David Cameron Evicted For Urinating In Street

The top story at the Northampton Chronicle & Echo is this:

BREAKING NEWS: David Cameron evicted after neighbours complain of drunken anti-social behaviour, foul language and urinating in the street

An important story to cover I am sure you will agree.

National Hookers Service

I don't really object to councils spending money for disabled people to visit prostitutes and lap dancing clubs. No more than I object to spending money on them visiting the theatre or the shops anyway, because the underlying assumption behind the objections to spending the cash this way is that disabled people should have to suppress any politically and socially undesirable urges if they receive any help from the state.

For the genuinely disabled, receiving assistance from the state should not compel them to allow their lives to be micromanaged according to other people's moral injunctions.

In fact in so far as sex is a basic human want perhaps we should nationalise prostitutes and create a National Hookers Service which is free at the point of use for everybody, in the interests of fairness and social justice and all that crap.

Just Hold The White Stick Outside The Window.

Hooray for Portsmouth City Council for providing suitable braille materials for blind taxi drivers.

Okay I'm guessing they aren't really intending to have blind taxi drivers being guided by dogs in the front seat and it is probably just an automatic braille translation services that they offer for all official forms.

Of course severe visual impairments are practically a requirement in the minicab industry.

Localism & Postcode Lotteries.

Tory spokesman Grant Shapps has been criticised for denouncing the 'postcode lottery' of IVF treatment because he also advocates "localism" of which "Postcode lotteries" are an inherent part.

However localism is about devolving power down to elected local bodies not to unelected quangoes. Whilst I dislike the cliche "postcode lottery", there is every reason to be aggrieved when one receives an inferior service than people living in a different area because of the decisions of unelected appointees- like the people who sit on health boards.

Shapps is therfore quite right to highlight the wildly uneven level of service being delivered in different places.

Lessons To Be Learned.

The people who oversee catastrophic failures in child care are also not very good at investigating catastrophic failures. Who knew?

Don't worry though, because lessons will be learned.