NO BRAIN DAY

Just to show that it isn't only Bexley councillors who don't have the brains they were born with, I thought I would return to the issue of councils issuing fines, summonses and carrying out other pointless exercises in the enforcement of mindless regulations in the face of common sense.

Last July, I highlighted the case of Oxford City Council issuing fines of up to £2,500 to homeless people who have no money or assets. That edition also referred to the earlier case where Tower Hamlets Council issued a £150 fine to a five year old girl for illegally selling lemonade from a roadside stall.

Here we have Leicester City Council issuing a £70 fine to a motorist for stopping his car in a bus stop on Christmas Day when there were no buses running. The poor fellow was doing a Good Samaritan act by giving a homeless man some food and clothing: he should have know better. Homeless people should be given fines, not charity. Serves the fool right.

*Stop Press - Leicester City Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby has stepped in and cancelled the fine. He first said it was issued correctly but has obviously seen some sense. Well done.

BULLY BOYS IN BLUE.

Sadly, it seems that the practice of using the Police Force as private enforcers and bully boys by local politicians in order to stifle and silence criticism is not only a problem for Bexley residents. Malcolm Knight, author of "Bexley is Bonkers" blog has been on the receiving end of this treatment on a number of occassions by Bexley Police and is currently facing a court hearing as a result of Kent Police jumping through hoops at the behest of another Bexley councillor.

There is now this story of how Suffolk resident Tony Boxford was threatened by his local Police who turned up at his home making vague threats against him after he made comments about how the council was spending residents tax money. There is also a case pending against another person (I don't know his name at the moment) but is allegedly being considered for prosecution when he reported that a local community group was lying about being a registered charity when they weren't.

JUST WHEN HE THOUGHT THINGS

COULDN'T GET ANY WORSE..........................

Poor Jeremy Corbyn; with the Tories in complete disarray over Brexit and a leader that couldn't find her arse with a map; he should be cruising ahead in the polls. Unfortunately, he still can't let go of his instinctual kow-towing to the Kremlin's anti-EU stance left over from the cold war and isn't able to offer up any credible opposition to the "let's fly headlong into disaster" position of his Brexiteer opponents. Then, to cap it all, Gerry Adams backs him as the next Prime Minister.

What is he going to have to do to change his luck?

RULES IS RULES INNIT

Part of a penalty notice issued to homeless
people in Oxford

Any of you following the story of how Tower Hamlets trading standards department tried to fine a five year old girl £150 for selling lemonade without a permit will be pleased to know that it's not only London council officials who are lacking in any common sense.

Hot on it's heels comes this next story, this time from Oxford City Council who think it's a good idea to fine homeless people £2,500 for leaving their belongings in shop doorways.

While I can see the need to do something that could cause a fire hazard, I have to ask myself  the question "does it make sense to threaten someone who is homeless, has no money or assets with a financial penalty for breaching local by-laws?" The answer of course is "yes", because that's what the regulations say you should do.

The fact that your threat is completely meaningless, cannot be enforced and will have no effect doesn't matter. What matters is that you have complied with the regulations by issuing the threat and, to those in authority, that's all that matters.

The picture illustrating this piece is of an actual homeless person selling the Big Issue in Oxford although by now he's probably been chased off his patch by a criminal gang. Those of us living in Thamesmead know that all the Big Issue sellers around here are Romanian millionaires.

Venezuela

I stole this picture off the Al jazeera website
because it rather sums the place up.

According to my Google search, Venezuela is "a country on the Northern coast of South America with diverse natural attractions". 

According to Wikipedia, it became an independent country in 1830.

According to the Thamesmead Gump, Venezuela is a tin-pot Latin-American banana republic that's hardly seen a day's peace in all it's nearly 200 year history.

It has been constantly torn apart by a succession of revolts, revolutions, constitutional crises, assorted attempts at democracy which have usually ended in economic collapse, presidential impeachments, corruption, embezzlement, often all at the same time.

So why, I ask is the news media full of stories about the latest round of riots, demonstrations and yet another election? It seems to be headline news in all the main media channels and I have to question why we are suddenly so interested in the place. The BBC for instance, can't stop talking about it.

Perhaps we're planning to make it our new main trading partner after Brexit, who knows?