Now I've read everything. It seems women who receive wolf-whistles are going to be able to ring 999. Such whistles and 'cat-calls' are going to be classified as, wait for it... Hate Crimes. That's it. This country has officially gone mad. All this kind of ultra-PC gibberish does, is trivialise really serious sexual harassment and real sex crimes. Perverts who film up skirts or grope women on the underground trains or drug their drinks at night clubs need to be caught, shamed and punished. Builders who whistle at a pretty woman in the street cannot possibly be a priority for the 999 emergency service. This is utterly ridiculous.
Another article for @Ponders Revisited & @ForestHillBilly https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-50173577
I don't agree that this is a crime that requires one to phone 999. There is no doubt that some women find this intimidating. Are you saying that it is alright to intimidate Women? There are degrees of harassment and this is one of them.
I've often wondered if anyone would notice if the government went on strike, and now it seems we are about to find out. Whenever I went on strike I had to take part in a secret ballot, and I lost money for each day out. Hopefully the law of the land will be applied to Bonking Boris &Co.
Are you saying that a wolf whistle is a hate crime? Political correctness has corrupted even the language we speak. Here's how it works. Step 1: create a sound-bite term, "Hate Crime". Step 2: decree that all "Hate Crimes" are indefensible, and every right thinking person should be disgusted by them. Step 3: Declare that more and more increasingly innocuous actions - wolf whistling in this case - are "Hate Crimes". Pure 1984. This is how some so-called 'liberals' use fascist methods to breed intolerance and paranoia to further their aims, while wrapping themselves in a cloak of self-righteous outrage at supposed bigots of the right. These 'liberal' fascists are no better than racist yobs who vote for the BNP or the EDL.
I thought I made it clear that I didn't think it was a hate crime. But some women find it unpleasant and some intimidating, my daughter included. As a good looking young lady she would avoid going past a group of workmen. Some women can handle it, some can't, it doesn't make it right.
Lots of things in life are unpleasant / intimidating / not right. The over-stretched, under-resourced emergency services can't be expected to remedy all of them. And for the record, I was not suggesting that wolf-whistles were 'right' or OK. Such expressions are uneducated, left-over behaviour from a time gone by, when openly remarking on how fanciable or shaggable a woman might be, was acceptable social behaviour to many blokes - even though I would still maintain that most wolf-whistles are not intentionally malicious or meant to intimidate. I do accept that there will be circumstances where a wolf-whistle might cause discomfort or intimidation. That's why it is not an acceptable way to behave nowadays in the view of most reaonable people, in this time when objectifying women is rightly no longer tolerated. But it is plainly obvious to everybody except the most anally retentive PC zealots, that a wolf whistle is not justifiable grounds for a 999 emergency call. Let's keep some sense of proportion here, for pity's sake. By the way... I'm not a fan of flogging, it's a bit too old school for me. But I wouldn't mind seeing the stocks make a comeback, complete with rotten fruit to pelt offenders with. I'd start with Lib Dem MP's, and those ER twats who disrupted the tube journeys last week, along with the wolf-whistlers.
But it is plainly obvious to everybody except the most anally retentive PC zealots, that a wolf whistle is not justifiable grounds for a 999 emergency call. I agree it is not justifiable grounds for a 999 emergency call. Nobody is disagreeing with you @lardiman.
What I wonder is if the press have managed this story for their own requirements, If a lady walks past a building site every day for months and on one particular day she gets wolf whistled then this does not deserve to be reported.... if however she gets wolf whistled every day which makes her uncomfortable then she should be able to report this to the police (perhaps not on the 999 number) but isn't there another number for less urgent matters?
Glad to see Margaret Hodge being called to account over the Islington child abuse scandal. My brother was a social worker there at that time, and any attempt at whistle-blowing met a dead-end, and all roads led to Ms Hodge being at the centre of the cover-up. A few chickens will hopefully come home to roost.
Indeed there is. And hopefully a degree of police intervention will see an end to such neanderthal behaviour.
Agreed. And this issue is (of course) infinitely more serious than my wolf-whistling post, which was just something silly that caught my eye one morning in The Sun. Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson has more than a little explaining to do as well, regarding the VIP perv lies of Carl Beech. Some senior coppers have acted with extremely poor judgment there as well.
Those rumours about the paedo ring at Westminster were around for ages. I heard them so many times I thought they must have some substance, turned out to be a load of lies, but the Islington story is genuine, my brother told me at the time about it; it was a very stressful time for those who wanted to bring it to light.
Recently I've heard tales of woe from English orchards. Apples have been left to rot on the trees apparently, because nobody from other EU countries wants to come over here and be paid a pittance to pick them. Now I see that our "traditional Christmas threats" such as pigs in blakets, may be in short supply this year. The reason? You guessed it. Nobody from other EU countries wants to come over here and be paid a pittance to make them. Now I don't know about you chaps, but I'm detecting a common thread here. Something about foreigners being paid peanuts to do seasonal work. It wasn't quite so bad when the Pound was actually worth something, but now they are just not having it. I have no sympathy whatsoever. Orchard owners and Christmas treat makers - if you want the job done, pay a decent wage to your workers. Then you'll find there are enough UK people who'll step up and take your jobs. And if that means apples & little sausages wrapped in bacon are a bit more expensive in the shops, then so be it. Stop exploiting working folk.
It is the Supermarkets who are exploiting the providers. The margins are tiny, the same with milk and other products. I think everybody knows my feelings on Supermarkets.
I'm no fan of theirs but several of the fashion chains around my office have been targeted, the human chains etc were delaying my commute for two weeks!
Plenty of support for Bonking Boris despite his broken promises. People saying he did as much as he could. But in the leadership campaign Jeremy Hunt said he would try his hardest to get a deal through by Oct 31st, whereas Bonking Boris said he would get us out. That's why he won.