Monday, August 16, 2010

It's society's fault

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Took a stomp around the old village today. Climbed some stiles, chased some sheep, ate a few early blackberries and some lovely little yellow plums that are coming ripe now. Breathed the free air of England. 22 degrees today, described by a friend yesterday as "hot and humid". I did not manage to refrain from laughing, I'm afraid.

Stopped at the Sportsman's Arms for a half pint of cider and a read of the newspaper on the way home.

This item in the Chester Chronicle struck me especially:

A woman was nicked by police this week for stealing a handbag at a children's party she had arranged. It seems that she did it on the spur of the moment, after three extra children showed up to the party unexpectedly and she didn't have the extra 30 quid to cover the costs.

She was sentenced, in addition to a sort of house arrest between 7 pm and 7 am, to attendance at an "enhanced thinking course".

Her counsel, a woman, said that her client had re-offended because she had not been able to attend the enhanced thinking course to which she had previously been remanded for a similar offence.

It was "through no fault of her own" since "no course had been available".



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1 comment:

Dominic said...

It's far too confusing.

Telling the difference between what we used to read and understand as parody in the Peter Simple column in the Telegraph, or the coverage of the Neasden police in Private Eye, and real news.

They've all merged into one. Everything is real, so nothing is real. EXCEPT FOR THOUGHT-CRIME. Obviously. Something like that. Ridiculous