Warning On Cannabis

At last - a television campaign aimed at warning teenagers of the mental health problems associated with cannabis.

The Guardian today reports that, while it is not the first anti-cannabis advert to appear on British television, it is the first to target 11 to 14-year-olds.

Like many, I used to think that cannabis was no real big deal, and was a drug on par with alcohol and cigarettes. I now know that it isn’t. Its ability to trigger long-term mental health problems is far greater than we thought 10 years ago. Or rather, more of us are now aware of the mental health risk.

According to figures quoted in the Guardian, 10,000 11 to 17-year-olds were treated for cannabis use in 2005, 10 times the number a decade ago.

I have watched the advert on the Guardian site. It is hard hitting. I have seen that kind of thing happen to people. A cannabis-user who experiences that level of paranoia doesn't have to have been using the drug for very long.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/video/2009/feb/13/advertising-drugsandalcohol

Well done to Frank, the Home Office-run drugs advice and information service promoting the ad. The campaign is well worth the £2.2 million the government spent on it.

First Past The Post in Israel

The first thing that needs to be understood about the Israeli elections is that the election took place under a first past the post system.

Therefore, Kadima's 28 seats is more than Likud's 27 and means that Kadima is the winner. Period.

If the right wing is stronger as a whole when you add Yisrael Beiteinu to the equation, tough. That is the way first past the post works.

I support Livni's decision to reject a coalition and I think that her alternative of a rotating premiership is a much more practical and sensible solution.

Isreali Elections

Early reports indicate that Tzipi Livni's centrist Kadima Party is narrowly ahead of Benjamin Netanyahu's right wing Likud Party.

I hope she wins.

Bank Bosses and Bonus Culture

The BBC has reported today that former banking bosses have apologised unreservedly for their part in the economic crisis.

Former Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Fred Goodwin told the Treasury Committee that he “could not be more sorry” for the failure of the banks. He, and other former bank chiefs, also admitted that the bonus culture had contributed to the crisis and needed to be reviewed.

However, in the same BBC report, Sir Fred came out with the line that if bankers felt they weren’t paid enough, they would leave.

That is a pretty low and irreponsible excuse in the midst of a gushing apology.

Sir Fred’s salary is £1.46 million a year. Isn’t there enough job satisfaction in that?  And just where, if they don’t think a salary of hundreds of thousands of pounds is enough, do these bosses think bankers will go if they are not paid the bonuses that bring this country to its knees?

Maybe, and this is just a long shot, they might actually spend time thinking about other things besides their next cash fix.  

The Thought Police

The front pages of The Telegraph and The Guardian today make chilling reading.

Telegraph journalist, Martin Beckford, has unearthed a document passed by the Department of Health last month, which equates NHS staff talking about religion to harassment under disciplinary and grievance procedures.

Alan Travis from The Guardian has relayed a House of Lords report, published today, stating that Britain has constructed one of the most extensive and technologically advanced surveillance systems in the world; a system which risks undermining our basic freedoms.

CCTV is a mixed blessing. It does help to solve and deter crime. However, putting cameras up all over the place chips away at the very freedoms we are trying to protect. The very anxious begin to think that because a lift is not equipped with CCTV, anyone travelling up and down in it is “at risk”. And the sanctimonious come out with the blackmailing line: “If you are not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about.” If former Home Secretary and ID cards fan, Charles Clarke, was travelling alone in a lift listening to his I Pod, I doubt he would be the kind of man who would break into a dance. However, some of us might. But if there was a camera there, we might think again. And who would be watching? It all feels a bit creepy.

Martin Beckford’s report in the Telegraph contains a strong quote from Dr Peter Saunders, the general secretary of the Christian Medical Fellowship. “One of our cherished freedoms is that of freedom of speech, which enables us to have important debates about crucial issues,” Dr Saunders is quoted as saying. “But we’re seeing a culture of thought police emerging.”

There is also a thought-provoking quote from Neil Addison, a Roman Catholic barrister who specialises in religious discrimination cases. “To what extent do you stop ordinary conversation?” he asks. “What they’re doing is saying you cannot even talk about religion and that means a whole area of human experience is cut off.”

We should stand up for our civil liberties and resist George Orwell’s 1984.

British Neuroticism

Snowfall is one of the best opportunities the British have to prove there is truth in the cliche that Britain is the world's most neurotic nation.

Just watching the BBC News this evening I couldn't help myself from telling the earnest-looking reporter, who was talking to us all like a parent worried that their child might step outside the door without a coat on, not to make the British any more neurotic than they already are.

Award-Winning Tragedies

(Note: If you have not seen The Reader or Revolutionary Road, or read the books, and you don't want to know what happens, then don't read on!)

Kate Winslet won two Golden Globes for her performance in The Reader and Revolutionary Road and is now up for the Baftas and the Oscars.

She is excellent in both and they are good films.

However, it is hard to escape the fact that the two characters she plays kill themselves off at the end.

Does one have to die in a tragedy?

I think not.

If our heros, heroines, villains and tortured souls all killed themselves off - directly or indirectly - what would that mean for the rest of us?