Welcome to zero tolerance British style

There was a time when the British police had a reputation for heavy handedness, witness the battle of the beanfield and the miners strike. Twenty years on, the politics may have changed, but the heavy handedness remains. Welcome to zero tolerance British style, where the middle classes get punished for their politically incorrect behaviour. Whereas the authorities in America have cracked down on graffiti, urination in public, and anti-social behaviour, their British counterparts have focused on the "mindless thugs" who go three miles an hour over the speed limit, or who make insensitive comments about police horses. Meanwhile, the real criminals literally get away with murder.

When I recently read this storyabout a man being arrested for calling a police horse gay, I thought I must be reading a Monty Python sketch. Of course I hadn't reckoned with the dunces who run the Thames Valley Police.

Late in the evening on Bank Holiday Monday, Sam Brown, an Oxford University undergraduate, inquired of a mounted policeman on Cornmarket Street: "Do you know your horse is gay?" Also, "I hope you're comfortable riding a gay horse."

Within minutes, young Mr Brown was surrounded by six officers and a fleet of patrol cars, handcuffed and jailed overnight, after which he was fined £80. A spokesperson for Thames Valley Police told the student newspaper Cherwell that the "homophobic comments" were "not only offensive to the policeman and his horse, but any members of the general public in the area."

Maybe the Thames Valley police aren't paid to think, they should at least remember who they're supposed to serve.

Time to put the genie back in the bottle?

The FPA's latest booklet on sex education has certainly got a lot of adults complaining. One thing is for sure, it will get a lot of children's tongues wagging.

The family planning industry have spent the past 25 years preaching the same mantra: "Tell kids everything they want to know about sex and the number of teenage pregnancies will start falling". Except the opposite has been happening. And the more teenage pregnancies rise, the more graphic and explicit the sex guides become, the latest booklet is no exception.

Anne Weyman, Chief Executive of the FPA (Family Planning Association) is quoted as saying:

"...Young people are exposed daily to a range of contradictory messages about sex and they need clear guidance to make sense of it all..."

which is precisely why the FPA have bought out a guide telling 13-16 year olds how to say no...whilst simultanously telling them how to give a blow job.

It's a bit like trying to cure drug abuse by telling crack addicts where to inject themselves.

Maybe it's time the FPA and their friends woke up to reality. Kids don't need peer pressure to have sex when they have their own teachers telling them how to use a condom. Contrary to the argument that kids don't like being told what to do, that's precisely what teachers are doing. Teachers wield more influence than they realise, it's about time they used it.