News from Blighty – Peter Saunders reports - The Centre for Independent Studies
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News from Blighty – Peter Saunders reports

BBC news this morning (Wednesday 25/11/2009):

Item 1:

The Supreme Court (when did England get a 'Supreme Court'?) is expected to rule today that people who go into the red without permission (i.e. people who steal money from their bank) have been overcharged.* Banks will now have to pay these fees back to them. The banks will make up the loss by introducing bank charges for everyone else who stays in the black. Unbelievable! I'm livid. It is 7.02.

Item 2:

The government is to require all schools to teach children from the age of five about domestic violence and sexual equality. I can't bear it! They've given up teaching long division and the date of the Battle of Hastings, but Peter and Jane will now sit around a table with teacher and discuss sex equality. Steam starts coming out of my ears. It is 7.03.

Item 3:

An inquiry into a climate change protest in London last year finds the police were too heavy-handed. Some spotty Herbert explains to a reporter how they set up tents on a main road in the City of London, as this was a right and a freedom that generations have fought for, yet there was no mention of the rights of City workers to be able to get down that street and go to work! They also explain that the police were too heavy-handed in moving them. I am now puce in the face as I yell at the TV screen. It is 7.04.

Item 4:

We have too much salt in our diet. Salt apparently is a major cause of high blood pressure …

* In the end, things didn’t turn out as bad as feared: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/consumer_affairs/article6932637.ece.

Peter Saunders is Distinguished Fellow with the CIS.