Shaving cream

[LHC]

My view is unchanged. Egg attacks on the likes of David Cameron, John Major and John Prescott never resulted in custodial sentences. Leila Deen who threw green custard at Peter Mandelson was merely cautioned.

The only comparable levy I can find is a lady who threw a pot of red paint at Ted Heath on the steps of No.10. She was handed down a three month sentence - and that was suspended.

I did not suggest this person should get off scot free, but his main offence seems to have been assaulting the dignity of this particular person. That said person was appearing before a parliamentary committee in regard to accusations of criminal conduct, that job could be said to have completed already.

Now back to Grocer Ted and that pillar box red daubing. Here's a wonderful backstory piece by a journalist who witnessed the attack at close quarters when he was just four years old:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/lif...icle545382.ece

The main difference between these attacks is that the idiot May-Bowles was disrupting a parliamentary enquiry rather than throwing eggs at a politician on a walk about. The Judge's sentencing comments made a particular point of mentioning this aspect of the case and I am sure that it was this contempt for parliament that resulted in a custodial sentence.

In deliberately aping Murdoch's statement to the committee, his comments on being found guilty (that this was the most humble day of his life) could also have been considered as contempuous of the legal process.

Therefore, I'm not surprised that he got sent down.

As a self-styled 'activist', his intervention was particularly daft. He interrupted proceedings at a vital point and ensured that the public were excluded from the rest of the hearings. He also made the dirty digger look almost sympathetic.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

well said LHC

[Chris Newman]

Sadly the suds removed some of the nasty smell that hangs around Merdedoch. I hope that effect is only temporary.

[Ariosto]

x

[Anna]

You will never be accepted here as a reasonable human being as long as you preach these obscenely religious doctrines.

Oh come on Ariosto, you know we have a special relationship with our cousins over the pond. If it weren't for the Yanks we'd all be speaking German!

Ho, Ho. Only joking of course. Now, getting back on topic. He commited an assault, was sentenced. That's sort of end of isn't it? Couple of weeks inside will provide him with months of material for his comedy routine. Stupid thing is, he tweeted all along he was going to do it, why did the Police not have their iapps turned on?

[Ariosto]

Oh come on Ariosto, you know we have a special relationship with our cousins over the pond. If it weren't for the Yanks we'd all be speaking German!

Ho, Ho. Only joking of course. Now, getting back on topic. He commited an assault, was sentenced. That's sort of end of isn't it? Couple of weeks inside will provide him with months of material for his comedy routine. Stupid thing is, he tweeted all along he was going to do it, why did the Police not have their iapps turned on?

Yes, Anna, I agree with you.

[scottycelt]

You will never be accepted here as a reasonable human being as long as you preach these obscenely religious doctrines.

[hackneyvi]

Other people's ...

Personal dignity is over rated ...

I'd say.

I find myself quite 'precious' about my own.

[Ariosto]

Other people's ...



I'd say.

I find myself quite 'precious' about my own.

You may well have a point.

However, being a peace loving amiable sort of bloke I think I will leave other people to comment and bow out. Maybe it was a mistake to invite comments on this subject.

[hackneyvi]

The sole purpose of giving someone a pie in the face is to strip them of their personal dignity. Not funny, no matter how much you personally dislike the victim. What if someone walked up out of nowhere and pied your elderly father? Your wife, your son, your daughter? You'd want to throw the book at them, and rightly so.

I don't agree with this, cavatina. Stripping someone of their dignity can be quite the right thing to do; being loving isn't always the way we are and isn't always the way to achieve a justly-desired end.

There are some times when having had my elderly father 'pied' might have been good for him and good for the rest of the family. My brother - in the right circumstances, I believe - would have laughed and taken the point or set it aside, as he thought was fair.

I'd like to have seen Murdoch successfully pied at most other times in the last 25 years but not unsuccessfully pied on the day and at the time in question. Nor, for example, by someone revenging on him for what his 'free press' said about Liverpool fans the day after 96 people died at a football ground in Sheffield. The context of an act is important to understanding and accepting it.

Murdoch pied in the street; pied at his birthday party (when all he'd have wanted was for the dozens of politicians he'd invited to leave him alone); Murdoch pied on the way out of Downing Street etc etc. All of those times would good ones for the stripping of his dignity.

Personal? Professional? I wouldn't have minded which.

[Flosshilde]

I don't agree with this, cavatina. Stripping someone of their dignity can be quite the right thing to do; being loving isn't always the way we are and isn't always the way to achieve a justly-desired end.

There are some times when having had my elderly father 'pied' might have been good for him and good for the rest of the family. My brother - in the right circumstances, I believe - would have laughed and taken the point or set it aside, as he thought was fair.

I'd like to have seen Murdoch successfully pied at most other times in the last 25 years but not unsuccessfully pied on the day and at the time in question. Nor, for example, by someone revenging on him for what his 'free press' said about Liverpool fans the day after 96 people died at a football ground in Sheffield. The context of an act is important to understanding and accepting it.

Murdoch pied in the street; pied at his birthday party (when all he'd have wanted was for the dozens of politicians he'd invited to leave him alone); Murdoch pied on the way out of Downing Street etc etc. All of those times would good ones for the stripping of his dignity.

Personal? Professional? I wouldn't have minded which.

Couldn't agree more, Hackney - including the point about family members (including - or especially - my father)

[scottycelt]

It (hopefully not a pie) strikes me that we may have a few eternal students in our midst. You know .. the sort of thing our current PM used to do in restaurants when he was one and from which he has now hopefully moved on.

I agree with Cavatina about the right to dignity of every human being (and if that seems like an obscene religious doctrine to some these days, well that's just tough!).

I also find it curious for someone's race/nationality to be referred to as if that should somehow be a bar to expressing a perfectly reasonable opinion on this generally very fine and open-minded forum.

And 'pieing' your very own father? ... apart from doing it to dear old mum or granny, it doesn't get much worse than that, as far as I'm concerned

I had many shouting-matches and arguments with my own dad, but I knew even then that he was always the best and truest friend I was ever likely to have.

As for Murdoch, there was nothing illegal or wrong about the man visiting (after being presumably invited to) Downing Street. If any pie-throwing were now to be made compulsory in our brave new world, I'd be much more likely to be having current and former Prime Ministers, both Labour and Conservative, in my sights.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

to mock or not to mock ...... it ain't about the pie, it is about where it was thrown ...