The world has gone mad I tell you

Monday is officially getting up my bloody nose! I wrote something this morning, and then my laptop died and I lost it. I can’t even remember what it was about now, which probably means I’m getting Alzheimers too, great!

Astute readers of this diary will note that recently I was approached in Toys are Us, for taking this picture…

Cute isn’t it? But apparently parents are “prohibited” from taking pictures of their own children in the shop. Not one for rolling over and accepting the inevitable, I informed the shop assistant, with the utmost courtesy of course, that she was talking out of her arse, and that it is perfectly legal to take pictures in a public place, unless she thought I was a terrorist. And she responded, exactly as I expected her to, with, “there is a notice on the door as you come in sir”.

Why is it that they expect me to believe that posting a notice in the window constitutes a “law”? What say I post a notice in the window saying “No Breathing”, would that mean it was against the law to breath? Actually I put the camera away, since I had already taken the picture I wanted, but this sort of thing is getting ridiculous, and people need to be challenged. I read today on the BBC website about a chap who was approached by security guards at a shopping centre and told to stop taking pictures. There are some quite chilling quotes in the piece.

“A security guard told him it was illegal to take pictures in the centre”.
No it isn’t. Exactly what legislation would you try and use to enforce this policy?

The guard moron called the police, and the police told Mr. White that there were “clear signs saying no photographs were allowed.”
Yes I’m sure there were. Again, does that mean anyone can put up a sign and make a law? In my mind that is a case of the police being deliberately misleading.

One officer apparently told Mr White that he could confiscate the camera phone under prevention of terrorism legislation.
Bullshit! If you use the prevention of terrorism act you have to have reasonable cause to believe that someone is a potential terrorist. And Mr. White was taking pictures of his daughter eating ice cream, well dodgy.

“it is not our intention to – and we do not – stop innocent family members taking pictures.”
Yes you did, idiot!

I think the police should have their arses kicked here. They should be wasting their time on stupid things like this that they can’t enforce anyway. If they had arrested this man under the prevention of terrorism act, it would never have even got as far as court. It would have been a total waste of resource. They probably have left themselves open to allegations of wrongful arrest and police harassment. This sort of thing gets right up my pipe. I’m making a conscious decision to ignore these rules from now on, and I’m boycotting Toys are Us and that shopping centre, petty bastards!

I think all this bollocks is down to Europe. Apparently new EU legislation is about to prevent children from blowing up balloons or blowing those whistle things that curl out with a feather on the end. Too dangerous you see, utter death traps those balloons. Also magnetic fishing games are absolutely lethal. A small child could choke on one of those fishing rods!

In fact the news is full of this bullshit if you just browse a bit. Here is a story from the Telegraph about a man who was fined £75 for littering. He had been brushing his dog in the park and dropped hair on the ground. He was in fact original approached by a special constable who thought he was impersonating a police officer! To be fair, he was let off the fine and received an apology. I’d have chinned the special!

And here is a story about a church which has stopped changing light bulbs because health and safety regulations mean that they have to put up scaffolding at huge expense every time one breaks. Apparently it costs £500 to erect the scaffolding and they therefore wait until a significant number need changing before the money is spent. What gets me is, who the hell would know? Why don’t they just change the bloody bulbs at 6am and claim it never happened?

It’s madness I tell you.