CYCLISTS MUST WEAR HELMETS, SAYS ASA.

It isn't only the Labour Party that loves to ban things "for our own good".

The organisation 'Cycling Scotland' (a ridiculous name, I might add) has produced a television advertisement designed to promote driver awareness of cyclists; apparently it shows a cyclist and encourages drivers to give such road users the same amount of space as they would a horse. Pretty simple and pretty obvious, one might think, but not to the autocrats at the Advertising Standards Authority.

The problem seems to be that the cyclist in the film is not wearing a helmet. Although wearing a helmet is not a legal requirement, the ASA has ruled that that not wearing one is, in their words, "socially irresponsible" and they've ruled that the advertisement must not be shown again.

I have no idea who are the members of the ASA but it's clear that they are another bunch of left-leaning liberals who are determined to impose their social standards on the rest of us. Their role is to ensure that advertising is fair, honest and legal, not to rule as to its "social responsibility". Given the nature of many of the advertisements which pass scrutiny with no problem - I think particularly of the many highly irresponsible ones for 'Pay day Loans', not to mention the utterly corrupt 'Insurance for the over-50s market' - one has to wonder, in any case, how the ASA determines what is and what is not "socially responsible".

Of all of the reasons for Scots to vote for independence in September, removing themselves from the ambit of this interfering organisation must be one of the most compelling.

BAN SMOKING !!

Representatives of the Labour Party, and many others who believe that they know best and should set the rules that the rest of us must follow, are at it again.

It's reported today that Labour Peers in the House of Lords are to table an amendment to the "Children and Families Bill" which would make it illegal for anyone to smoke in a car in which children are also travelling. The Labour Party has also said that if the amendment is not supported, they will include such a proposal in their manifesto for the next election.

I am no supporter of smoking, which I see as being a dirty, smelly, addictive and unhealthy habit. If it was truly banned tomorrow, so be it, but the way in which governments keep tinkering with the law surrounding it is pointless and stupid. Should the Labour Lords get their way with this latest piece of nonsense, it will introduce yet another largely unenforced and unenforceable law into the vast array of madcap social legislation which already exists. How on earth will the police monitor offenders ? How many offenders will ever be caught ? What penalties will they suffer ? Will this be another money making scheme for local councils to exploit, with excessive fixed penalties for the handful of miscreants who are captured, while the vast majority of offenders go unnoticed and unpunished ?

When we have so many much more pressing problems, how is it that our masters can find so much time for the pursuit of such nonsense ?

MIDDLE CLASS TO PAY EXTRA FOR STATE SCHOOLS ?

Anthony Seldon, headmaster of the innovative 'Wellington College' has a new idea; he wants to stop those with a bit of money from accessing state education for free.


Notwithstanding that anyone earning much more than £40,000 a year already has 42% of the excess stolen by the government at source, Seldon now wants higher earners, whom he defines as families with an income of over £80,000 a year, to have to pay if their children go to the 'most popular' state schools; presumably this would be regardless of whether the school in question was simply the local school. He believes that such an approach would break what he sees as the 'middle class stranglehold on top state schools' and would provide funds for reinvestment in other areas of education. As an aside, he also says that 'poorer pupils' should fill a quarter of private school places.


Seldon’s views have been published in a report he’s produced for the left-of-centre ‘Social Market Foundation’ and are another attack on everyone who has anything. Conflating the ‘most popular’ schools with the ‘best’ would hand socialist councillors and ministers a heaven-sent opportunity to milk the so-called rich wherever they live. The reference to a ‘middle class stranglehold’ is so nebulous as to be useless in any arena other than that patrolled by the left wing politicians who hate anyone seen to be ‘middle class’.


I haven't read the report, only the media reports of it, but there is no indication that Seldon has taken any account of the variation of earnings across the country or, indeed, the variation in schools and educational standards across the nation. He doesn't appear to have paid attention to the aspirations of those of 'middle class' who want to get the best for their children from the assorted, and significant, taxes that they already pay. His approach seems to be focused on money rather than education and it would be the children of the middle classes, those on whom the future of the country depends, who would suffer.


In all honesty, if I was younger and with children, I'd be booking my tickets and leaving this benighted country. As John Betjeman once said of Slough 'It isn't fit for humans now'.

MIKAEEL KULAR CASE HAS ECHOES OF MADELEINE McCANN.

The discovery of a body thought to be that of the missing child, Mikaeel Kular, can be no more than was expected.

The disappearance of the 3 year old a couple of days ago was always suspicious and his mother's suggestion that he must have got up in the middle of the night, dressed himself and somehow got out of his home unaided was always going to test the credulity of more intelligent people. The supposed 'sightings' of the boy wandering around on his own were no more than the usual demonstration of the extent to which some crave attention; if, indeed, people had seen a small child on his own, why hadn't they done more than simply tell the police ?

As is so often the case when small children go missing, it looks as though the culprits were close to home. Despite the hue and cry, the local police must have known this from the beginning and will undoubtedly have been watching the family closely throughout. The only people who seem not to have accepted the probable truth were the Kular family's neighbours, perhaps understandably, and the media, most specifically the BBC, which, as usual, milked this tragic story for all it was worth.  

One's thoughts return to the story of Madeleine McCann, another 3 year old who went missing and who has been sought high and low, far and wide, while the media, and others, have profited from the story. What happened to her ?

SAME OLD LABOUR, SAME OLD INTERFERENCE.

Having committed to interfering with the energy industry should his party win the next general election, Ed Miliband is now threatening to get involved in the banks.

No one can support overcharging by the energy companies or profligacy in the banks, but one suspects that the truth of both issues is nowhere near what Miliband would have us believe. The banking crisis was, undoubtedly, a partial consequence of the actions of those banks, though it's also the case that the Labour government had its greasy and grubby hands deep in that particular mire too. As for the energy companies, I'm far from convinced that they do overcharge to the extent that is claimed, though they certainly do make their tariffs and bills as confusing as they can.

Whatever the shortcomings of these major industries, the one thing that would be guaranteed to make them less efficient, less commercial and less reliable would be more government interference in their running.

Same old Labour, same old meddling and same old mess.