Smoking ban is go, allegedly.

[zotz]

Decided unanimously, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3996587.stm">according to the BBC. Still, after the huge margin in the entirely fair and unbiassed public consultation, what else were they going to do.

Also, am I right in thinking that the inquest that found that two policemen had unlawfully killed a man (who was carrying a table-leg in a poly bag which they believed was a shotgun) had been told by a pathologist that said dead man had been shot in the back of the head rather than the front?

Ah. Side of the head, apparently, facing slightly more away from the officers than towards. Strange that more hasn't been made of that point.

Comments

[juudes.livejournal.com]

I think a pertinent point was that the informer had mistaken Mr Stanley's Scottish accent for an Irish one, which says quite a lot about how Celts, and Irish people in particular, are viewed by the general population.

[shaunotd.livejournal.com]

Not really - it just says that the same twat who couldn't tell a table-leg from a shotgun couldn't tell an Irishman from a Scot.

[juudes.livejournal.com]

If the chap had been English, would anyone have leapt to the conclusion that he was carrying a shotgun?

[shaunotd.livejournal.com]

Who knows?

His thought's might've gone "There's someone with a funny accent, possibly Irish...that thing he's carrying must be a saw-off, better call the Fuzz" or maybe "That guy's carrying something that looks like it could be a shotgun in that bag...best call the police to check it out...right, I need to give the a description..."

One of the first things he'd say to describe the man would be *anything* that marked him out from the (English) majority. Like his accent.

Whatever, you can't infer from the actions of a single, unidentified person that the English public in general thinks all Celts are terrorists. I think that's reaching *just* a little...