2 Big Stories
Woman loses appeal against noisy sex
You might have thought Gordon and that letter would be the big story, but the BBC website says differently, with this rated higher on the Most Shared and Most Read charts by yesterday evening.
And why not? It’s got sex, crime and something odd – just the sort of story we, the Great British public, relish.
“The noise sounds like they are both in considerable pain. I cannot describe the noise. I have never ever heard anything like it.”
But, in case you want your big stories to have a serious political edge, there are other issues.
In our modern sexually liberal age, when few activities between consenting adults are forbidden, is noisy sex where society draws the line?
The defendents tried to claim that their human rights were being breached – a claim thrown out by the judge. Where does that leave those claiming the Human Rights Act is a criminals charter? Do they have the evidence to back up their claims?
And what of the ASBO, which seems to have utterly failed. Was that really the best way to restore harmony to the troubled community?
Should we be listening to Lembit a little more
The Daily Mail reports that an asteroid missed the Earth by a wafer-thin 8,700 miles last Friday – and was only spotted by astronomers fifteen hours beforehand. Where’s Bruce Willis when you need him?
2 Must-Read Blog Posts
What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:
- Dazmando at Bracknell Blog wonders why computer games fans get picked on (maybe MPs are just really upset they can’t finish the games).
- Which former Prime Minister appeared to support PR? Sara Bedford has the answer.
Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.
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5 Comments
“Should we be listening to Lembit a little more?”
Not according to the Mail:
Similar sized objects pass by this close to Earth about twice a year and impact on the planet about once every five years.
Astronomers believe the object, called 2009 VA, would have almost completely burned up while entering Earth’s atmosphere, causing a brilliant fireball in the sky but no major damage to the surface.
The tags for this are brilliant; at least they are if, you do as I did, and you assume them to refer to the first of these two stories!
“The court heard Sunderland City Council recorded levels of up 47 decibels.”
What? That’s the noise level of a quiet street. Even a normal conversation is 60 dB. Did the reporter get the number wrong? And why did neither the BBC nor reports in newspapers check the number, or bother to explain how loud (or quiet) it was?
As to 2009 VA – something that size hits us quite often; one exploded over Indonesia last month (see http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/). It’s the bigger ones we need to worry about – and on that subject at least, Lembit is right. It’s understandable that people are sceptical though; it’s one of those risk issues where the chances of the event are very low, but the consequences if it happens are very high. How much should we spend to reduce the risk of our annihilation, if that risk is low but finite?
Chris Grayling’s comments today on retention of DNA samples that there is no time for the Government to change the law before the next election are disingenuous.
Last Thursday 5 November, the House of Lords voted on a Conservative amendment – supported by the Lib Dems – on this very issue to reduce the amount of time innocent people’s DNA could be retained on the police database. The amendment was to bring England and Wales in line with Scotland and meant samples of DNA from people who had not been charged with an offence would be destroyed after 3 years.
When it came to the vote, however, only 15 Tory peers turned out. That’s less than 10% of Conservative peers in the House! The Government won 57:45 – by 12 votes. It could easily have been a comfortable victory on a crucial issue… What an opportunity wasted.
Have a look at the voting results here: Following the comments from Chris Grayling today on the Conservative position on retention of DNA samples from innocent people, I wanted to draw your attention to the results of a vote on this exact issue last Thursday 5 Nov in the House of Lords. The Tories tabled an amendment to the Policing & Crime Bill to bring in the Scottish system of retaining DNA for 3 years – supported by the Lib Dems – but when the amendment was put to the vote only 15 Tory peers turned out. That’s fewer than 10%. The Government won by 12 (45:57) – if the Tories had taken the issue a bit more seriously it could have been a comfortable victory. It was an opportunity wasted.
You can see the voting results here: http://services.parliament.uk/LordsDivisionsAnalysis/session/2008_09/division/20091105/number/4
I know it was a flippant comment, but is inaccurate to say the least.
I’m glad that Chris Huhne, following prompting from Delga, got in touch with Backlash and Consenting Adult Action Network to oppose the Government’s ridiculous restrictions on , and hope we will continue to fight for the right of informed, consenting adults to enjoy activities in private without interference from the state.