(no subject)

How long after 11 November are you supposed to stop wearing your poppy? Is it the next day, or the next Sunday, or 10 days, like Christmas? If you keep wearing it, is it bad luck? What would this bad luck entail, exactly?

(no subject)

Noble Lords just voted to delay the implementation of the government's Compulsory 24-Hour Binge Drinking (End Of Civilisation) Act 2005, so it can be completely redrafted until it doesn't actually mention alcohol licensing at all and instead blathers on for eight hundred pages about what a marvellous job the armed forces are doing.

I suspect that this overturning itself can and will be overturned, as it

(a) wasn't particularly well attended (130 to 97), suggesting that party whips knew it wouldn't have much effect;

(b), like the Daily Mail, wilfully misunderstands the point of, the reasons for, and pretty much every salient fact with regard to, the legislation; and

(c) is odiously hypocritical, as anyone who has to share a lift with a fair few noble Lords can attest. Oh, right, that's their "cologne", is it?

---

The noble Lord, Lord Avebury, enlightens us:

"... in the worst case, throughout the area there would be on average another three hours' drinking at every one of the 685 outlets [in Soho]. If there are 300 people per establishment consuming a couple of pints an hour, that makes an extra 1.25 million pints consumed during the extra time, causing a significant amount of additional harm - and the same arithmetic could be done in every area of our towns and cities where the concentration of late night drinking has already led to... mayhem".

(The ellipsis at the end is because I cut out a few words, not because Lord Avebury is given to dramatic pauses.)

I'm not taking issue with his description of town centres at night as "mayhem". I'm taking issue with his attempt to scare the bejeezus out of us with figures. 1.25 million pints! Sure and none of us will be safe in our beds. Meanwhile, only the truly foolhardy would even try to visualise the sheer amount of curry that is served in the Soho area alone every Friday night. Gallons! Thousands of 'em! Think of that little lot swilling around the backstreets and drowning children in its tide of filth! By God, the government should do something.