The law is indeed an ass. How are the coppers supposed to sort out those who are hunting legally from those who are not? You can kill a fox legally with hounds as long as it was not your intention to do so. You can chase a fox with 2 hounds, but you're a criminal if you use 3 or more, unless you are bringing along a bird of prey, which can be anything from an eagle down to a kestrel. You can hunt rabbits with lurchers, but not hares. Rats are fair game, but if your terrier should happen to kill a mouse you are liable to have the full majesty of the law land on you like a ton of bricks. Cats, however can kill mice perfectly legally.
In the meantime the animal lovers on the backbenches have no problems with the extermination of deer in the Highlands where helicopters are used to chase the beasts to waiting guns, but this is of course government business and there is no enjoyment by toffs, so it is all right then.
So Tony finally got his terror law after a 32-hour game of ping-pong with the Lords. Although it was in the end somewhat watered down, he managed to avoid the so-called "Sunset Clause", which would have seen the bill self-destruct after a year. Instead he conned the Conservatives and the Liberals to accept that the Act would be looked at again in 12 months time and then discussed and changed if it was felt neccessary, a virtual "Sunset Clause" in other words. Not quite, I think. If there are problems with the act, and there sure will be; if the Government doesn't accept any changes, the act stays
I know that there are quite a few people that are giving the Government kudos for trying to save lives by battling the terrorists, even if it means that we will have a virtual police state in this country. "If we can save even one life, it will be worth it" Right.
After the Hatfield rail crash 5 years ago Railtrack was pressured by our Esteemed Leader to accept a higher level of risk to the passengers in order to get the services back to normal.
During the last 50 years 8 million people have died as a result of smoking. But of course the Dear Leader wouldn't dream of interfering into what is a personal (and taxable) choice in a free country.
A father of 2 with no previous convictions was given 5 years behind bars recently for firing 2 warning shots with a gun made to look like a mobile phone after having been stabbed in the street. A spokesman for the Nottingham Police said: "This just shows the length people go to to get hold of lethal firearms and conceal them" There was no mentioning on why people felt the neccessity to do so.
The teenager who was seen on CCTV carrying a cigarette lighter that looked like a gun was a bit luckier. He only got 12 months in jail.
And then it was the 48 year old female teacher who finally snapped after yobs had terrorized her family for almost two years. She fired a (perfectly legal) pellet gun into the sidewalk to scare off a bunch who were vandalizing her son's car. She got 6 months.
John Reid, recently accused the Tories of illegal moves under the 1948 Act which set up the NHS. Yet New Labor is trying to overturn the Magna Carta.
THE TASTIEST TART IN TOWN.
- The title, subsequently withdrawn, of a baking competition in Neath, near Swansea.
I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep. --Talleyrand
A chap living just across the river from us recently received from the Council a fixed penalty note of £50. in the mail for having discarded a cigarette stub through his car window. Serves him right you might think, except he has never smoked in his life, so he wanted to know how this all came to be. It turned out that someone had pointed the finger at him anonymously, but the Council refused to retract the fine unless he could prove positively that he had not been in the area at the time of the "incident". So it seems that even local councils now have taken a leaf out of the Government's book; you are guilty if you are accused of anything, and it is up to you to prove otherwise.
As an aside this chap collected a bucket full of cigarette butts discarded outside Council Hall by Council workers.
And then there was the chap who was ordered by the Council to reduce the height of his Leylandii hedge under the new act or face a court order. So he trimmed the hedge and was booked for disturbing birds during the breeding season.
I see that the Nottingham Police Force has had to contract out murder investigations as most of the officers were too busy filling out reports to the Government.
Spring is here, and the grass is growing. I've got the old lawnmower out of the shed and into action. We've also had gardeners in to cut the Leylandii down to a more managable height; the old greenhouses that were smashed up in the winter storms have been replaced, and I must really do something about the old apple trees as they are in need of a major pruning operation.
Kiyoko has had a complete Spring clean of the house (her uncle and aunt will visit next month).
Anyone visiting Heimbu will have noticed that our furniture is not exactly of the modern kind. It stretches from Jacobean through Georgian and Victorian and stops in the Edwardian period. Unfortunately the drawing room settee and chairs have become so threadbare that it is dangerous to sit down, so we had an upholsterer in for an estimate. After much measuring and hawing he said he could do it for £3,000.-
In the end Erling saved us a lot of money. He found a similar suite in perfect condition and of better quality on E-bay for £280.-
Aki called down on her mobile from Edinburgh just before Easter to tell us she had been busted for carrying a folder with a lockable blade. Seems she was sitting in her garden cutting bailer twine (she uses it to keep her old Landrover from falling apart) when the plods struck. I told her to point out to the forces of law and order that the said knife was perfectly legal as a working tool for a vet, and that we would sue the pants off the force for harassment if they insisted on booking her. They left pretty sharpish after that.
This year's Council Tax has just dropped through the mail slot. I now have to pay more than £1,500.- which is a thousand pounds more than when we bought the house. Complaining to our local (New Labour) councillor I only got the reaction that "If you choose to live in a big house you have to expect to pay more than the rest of us". Now why is that? The tax is supposed to pay for Council services (which have been much reduced in recent years). Do people living in big houses benefit more from libraries, refuse collection and street lighting than people living in modern shoeboxes?
We have all been informed that we can no longer expect the Government to provide for us in our old age, as there will be no money left after servicing the pensions of politicians and civil servants. Children will now have to look after their parents like they used to do. Which is fair enough if only the Government would leave the poor children with any time and money to do so. The problem is that when after the war they promised to look after us from cradle to grave in exchange for the greater part of the money we were earning, this was seen by many as a fair deal. Now they don't want to look after us ano more, but they still want the money.