Ever get the impression that your government really wants to scare the hell out of you?

and one spoof, thank goodness!

I’ve written on rape before here:
It makes me furious when people treat this issue as if it is about advocacy. It isn’t. It is about justice. The nature of most rape in modern society is such that it is very hard to prove. Because of this most perpetrators will walk free. [...]

Watford Borough Council has banned parents from entering a playground with their children because they haven’t been checked by the Criminal Records Bureau. Parents are instead supposed to leave their children with council vetted “play-rangers”

Councillors in Watford claim they are only following Government guidelines and cannot allow adults to walk around playgrounds “unchecked”.
But parents branded [...]

Kevin Myers has won a bitter victory against those who have tried to criminalize his views in Ireland.
Just under a year ago Mr. Myers wrote an article headlined ‘Africa is giving nothing to anyone — apart from AIDS’, a punchy attack on Western aid for Africa which included such though provoking extracts such as this:
But, [...]

…according to the Australian newspaper.  How embarassing that we can now be written of in such terms.

Ok,  at the risk of seeming a little obsessive in my criticism of this man,  I have to note that he almost always includes at least one bit of really sloppy thinking or research in everything he writes.  In a profile of Andrew Sullivan of The Daily Dish Hari writes:
This question cuts to an unacknowledged [...]

I’ve commented before on the idiocy of government thinking on rape.   In fact I used the parable of Jordan and Peter Andre to make the point.
Turns out it isn’t just the government with a shaky understanding of the rule of law, but also BBC employees and ‘rape campaigners’.
From the Today programme this morning:
Interviewer:
and your argument [...]

In Kyrgyzstan it's the law that foreigners have to carry their passport about with them at all times and show it to police when demanded, which it often is.  Experiencing this unpleasantness reminds me why ID cards are a Godawful, idiotic, unBritish proposition.
On a positive note, the Ala-Archa gorge is lovely, even if there is one heck of [...]

Rowan Williams set out to discuss:

the social meanings of anti-religious language or behaviour

which is interesting. The first mistake he makes is where he describes a tension:

The liberal concern for the rights of minorities has been in tension with the liberal commitment to free speech 

where he confuses the traditional liberal concern that minorities should have the same [...]

For anyone who doesn't know what the Serious Crime Bill is, it's an interesting piece of legislation which started in the Lords and is currently making its way through the House of Commons. The bill would allow the High Court to issue Serious Crime Prevention Orders. According to the legislation such orders could restrict who a person [...]