the fourth place

the problem is the general collapse of trust. Almost every human relationship that was sensibly regulated by trust is now governed by law, with cripplingly expensive consequences.

Boris Johnson on the suspicion levelled at male interaction with children. As somebody who has literally declined to intervene as a child ran towards a road *, I can quite agree with Boris that its all gone bonkers.

Unfortunatley, Boris gets caught up in Cameroonie centrism:

I blame the media, I blame the judges, I blame the lobby groups, and in particular I blame the cowardly capitalist airline companies that give in to this sort of loony hysteria.

Oh come on, blame the media, for sure, but big business respond only to great public pressure and the force of law. Moving people around in flight and treating customers with suspicion costs money.

* the road was some distance away

A certain Paul Neath, all credit to him, has set up a petition on the brand spanking new petition engine at the number 10 web site:

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to scrap the proposed introduction of ID cards

It is the second most popular petition on the web site, after a demand to repeal the Hunting Act 2004, which I also signed up to on the basis that a 41% minority should not be allowed the force of law (and riot police, no doubt) to spoil the fun of another minority.

Anyway, it is far more important that a tiny minority of bully boy civil servants and an unknown fraction of the 22% of people who voted Labour at the last election don't get the force of law, (and certainly riot police) to force you into being watched judged and categorized by an invisible army of beaurocrats.

So, get over to the PMs web site and let him know how you feel.

PS while you're there

excellent news all around.

There are some very high numbers on the list