Ooh err missus, it has been a wee while since I have awarded my prestigious and internationally renowned Prats of The Week Award.
Time therefore to get awarding!
This week it goes to Warwickshire Police.
For why?
Well my old muckers, they recently had an "initiative" to bring in some extra manpower to help them run speed traps.
Who did they bring in?
Why, Boy Scouts of course!
Yes, you did read that correctly, the police used the services of 1st Shipston Scout pack (aged 10-14) to help them catch speeding motorists.
The Scouts spent a day in January using a laser speed gun with three police officers and three police community support officers, on duty at the traps at Shipston-on-Stour Warwickshire.
The 24 motorists caught by the Scouts were offered the choice of accepting a verbal and written warning about their actions, both delivered by the Scouts, or the standard punishment of a £60 fixed penalty and three points on their licence.
Is it me, or is there something decidedly creepy and unpleasant about granting a child the right to admonish an adult in this manner (shades of 1984 and "thought crime" accusations leveled by children against their parents spring to mind)?
The most "amusing" part of this whole scheme was the response by a spokesman for Warwickshire Police to media enquiries.
For reasons that only Nanny can explain, the key issue as viewed from the perspective of the police seems to be the fact that those who took part wore "high viz" jackets (over to you on that one Tonk:)).
The spokesman said that all those involved wore high-visibility jackets, and the speed checks took place on roads offering 'clear visibility' to drivers and those taking part.
So that's OK then!
Well, I suppose as the Scouts already have their own uniforms it is (in Nanny's eyes at least) just one simple step to drafting them into the police.
Warwickshire Police, well deserving Prats of The Week!
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Yes Ken, does sound like shades of the Junior Spies. Perhaps Brownies have now been renamed the Junior Anti-Sex League?
ReplyDeleteAlthough neither Christian nor an ex-Scout I feel this despicable little act demeans Baden-Powell's ethics.
As for the hi-viz jackets, just goes to show how central are these clown-suits to Nanny's thinking. I regularly see "snakes" of primary school-kids walking past on the pavement, duly togged out in their little hi-viz jackets. Nothing like getting them used to their future uniform at a young age.
Mao had his little red book, Nanny has her hi-viz.
Morning Ken,
ReplyDeleteI actually stand out in the street because I am one of the few not clad in a hi-viz jacket.
Anyway, no need to worry, the Brownies have been sent to fight on the frontline in Afghanistan and the Boys Brigade are peace keeping in the Sudan and overseeing the elections there.
I do hope that every caught driver was CRB checked before they let the Brussel Sprout bollock them otherwise, think of the risk to the kid!! :-)
I wonder if any disgruntled driver sought out the "Bollocking Brussel" later to administer a sound beating for being Nanny's little helper...
This silly situation illustrates what Nanny has been doing for some time namely, treating adults like children and children like adults...The country has gone bonkers!!
Regarding snakes of school kids in hi-viz....I too see these outside my house. The adults wear orange hi-viz, the carpet rats...opppps sorry, school kids, wear the yellow ones. It does appear that everyone these days wears hi-viz....I was over Blackbushe Market recently and noticed there were a couple of specialist hi-viz supplier stalls on the market selling everything from jackets to hats through trousers and shorts....Is hi-viz a new British fetish?
Oppps, nearly forgot....
ReplyDeleteJust laugh at hi-viz; you know you want to!!
Hi-viz shorts? I might try those next time I'm down Old Compton Street.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in the Scouts , we were taught how to subvert authority by using our own minds and bodies.
ReplyDelete-BornMouth
@Archroy
ReplyDeleteNothing new in hi-vis shorts. Common summer attire of the sartorially discerning workman when I lived in Sweden.
Manc said...
ReplyDelete@Archroy
Nothing new in hi-vis shorts. Common summer attire of the sartorially discerning workman when I lived in Sweden.
Hi-viz shorts and tall, blonde, Scandinavian outdoor types?
Definitely Old Compton Street material!
This is my local plod!
ReplyDeleteDisgusted, Tunbridge Wells said...
"Although neither Christian nor an ex-Scout I feel this despicable little act demeans Baden-Powell's ethics."
As an ex Scout myself, I couldn't agree with you more! The only circumstances when it might be acceptable for the Scouts to work alongside the police would, in my opinion, be in times of war or other major national emergency, but even then not as spies or to enable policing to be done on the cheap. Lord Baden_Powell must be turning in his grave at the way his great ideals have been warped.
Disgusted, Tunbridge Wells also said... "As for the hi-viz jackets, just goes to show how central are these clown-suits to Nanny's thinking. I regularly see "snakes" of primary school-kids walking past on the pavement, duly togged out in their little hi-viz jackets. Nothing like getting them used to their future uniform at a young age."
Funny you should mention this, because I went swimming at my local leisure centre on Tuesday, and as I was leaving, I was gobsmacked to see a school arrived with many of the children wearing hi-viz vests. What exactly were they in danger from? I have walked and cycled miles without one of these abominations, and not come to any harm as a result. Even bus drivers wear them these days! I would respectfully suggest that the only people who need to wear them are those working on the railways and in other genuinely dangerous environments. If memory serves me correct, didn't the Nazis force their children to wear 'uniforms' -- the 'Hitler Youth'?
Tonk said..."I was over Blackbushe Market recently and noticed there were a couple of specialist hi-viz supplier stalls on the market selling everything from jackets to hats through trousers and shorts....Is hi-viz a new British fetish?"
I've seen market stalls selling these things too!
My Lord;
ReplyDeleteI fear that because Ester Rantzen (not sure about the spelling) made such a mockery of the "Council Peaked Cap," Nanny has moved to a "New symbol of authority" namely the Hi-Viz jacket. It is up to us all to ridicule this too so that it gains the same level of contempt the peak cap enjoyed.
I too notice here in Wokingham that bus drivers wear hi-viz vests in their cab; is this to show they are bus drivers? Is society so dumbed down that no one, other than readers of this blog, can't guess that the person sat in the bus drivers seat behind the steering wheel is the driver?
Just laugh at hi-viz.
Hi-Viz; just say NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The police seem happy for children to stand adjacent the the highway, and act in a manner that may be 'distracting' to drivers. Then signal them to stop, sufficiently near to enable the kids to deliver the 'warning'
ReplyDeleteThis must mean that their manner of 'driving' was considered safe - and that speed was the ONLY matter considered.
[As enny-fule-noe - in a 30 limit, "29mph = safe"]