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The Revenge of Winston Smith

Observations on the absurdity of everyday life interspersed with rambling rants against religion · big brother government policies · conservatism · right-wingers and obsessive capitalists · xenophobes, racists, sexists and bigots in general · tabloid journalism · the Daily Mail · self-professed moral guardians..... and much much more!

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"Take that, pigs!"

Posted by Tim on Thursday, July 21, 2005 | Permalink

A 15-year-old boy has won a landmark High Court challenge to the legality of child curfew zones used to tackle anti-social behaviour [BBC News story].

This story really made my day, for two reasons. Firstly because I like the fact that a 15-year-old had the guts to stand up and point out that not all people under a certain age are yobs. Secondly because it's a kick in the teeth to the members of the police who think that everyone is a potential criminal and should be treated as such. I had a few "dealings" with the police when I was younger and the vast majority of them seemed to like their jobs just a little too much (I always wonder what sort of a person would want to become a police officer in the first place).

Many of the comments from the BBC's have your say on the subject show the usual type of ignorance: "Kids are not citizens with rights", "Movies and video games are to blame" and "Two words - National Service" (I can think of two words I'd like to say to that person).

The one that made me laugh was "In my day, a good smack on the back of the legs had the desired effect". Ok, as a parent I know that occasionally a smack is the only way to deal with a young child having a tantrum, but somehow I can't see this working on teenagers . . . corporal punishment had been abolished by the time I was 15 (1987) but I still couldn't imagine at that age just standing there and let some teacher whack me with a big stick.

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