Sunday 2 December 2012

Dishcloth Packaging of Liberty


I hear Grayson Perry has gifted some of his "tapestries" to the nation. I'm sure the nation will be gratified to have something to wipe the dishes with.

Australia has implemented not-so-plain packaging for cigarettes, depicting all the nasty diseases one can get from smoking. I wonder if plain-packaged cars will be next, depicting hideously tangled road wreckage on the paint job, or booze bottles showing cirrhotic livers on the labels?

Shami Chakrabarti of civil rights group Liberty has said that the Leveson press reform proposal would be illegal and contravene the Human Rights Act. Given the foregoing, she could not support it. Now that presupposes that the Human Rights Act is itself perfect in every respect. I don't suppose it has crossed her mind that the Human Rights Act is an imperfect piece of legislation and itself requires reform.

The crux of her argument is that the press would be subject to a higher degree of regulation than anyone else.  Personally I feel that those with greater power should be regulated to a higher degree than those with less power. The whole purpose of the Leveson proposal is to curb the abuse of excessive power by those with deep pockets. It's not a level playing field - and that's what human rights should be about.


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