Standards drop
THE tearing down of St George’s flags while pennants for Palestine flutter unmolested is symptomatic of the rank double standards unfolding in our cities.
In both Birmingham and Tower Hamlets, East London, Union Jacks and crosses of St George are being removed.
Tearing down of St George’s flags while pennants for Palestine flutter unmolested is symptomatic of the rank double standards unfolding in our cities
Laughably, the councils claim they are a health and safety hazard.
Yet apparently no such threat exists if the flags are for Palestine or Pakistan which somehow stay in place.
No one wants to see sectarian division in our communities.
But as has been seen during the asylum hotel protests in Epping, punishing only one side simply stokes up more resentment.
That in turn will inevitably be seized on by far-right and far-left activists bent on tearing our society apart.
This toxic one-sidedness is a dangerous recipe for disaster.
Stop the filth
THE Children’s Commissioner’s report into online pornography makes for grim reading.
Kids are being bombarded daily with “violent, extreme and degrading” images.
Such is its heavy prevalence, many youngsters stumble across it by accident while innocently scrolling.
Rightly, Rachel de Souza blames the social media companies for allowing platforms to become harmful sewers.
Powerful algorithms let criminals flood our kids’ minds with sick content without fear of being caught.
The Online Safety Act is doing little to stop the flow — while having the unwanted effect of suppressing free speech.
It’s high time the social media companies took responsibility.
Stolen justice
IN almost every area, the authorities are failing us on shoplifting.
Record numbers of shoplifters are being let off without a prison sentence.
Any shopkeeper who dares take them on — like Rob Davis who put up a sign branding them “scumbags” — ends up being hounded themselves for doing so.
The answer to this plague cannot be Labour’s soft justice approach which means even LESS prison time.
Only proper punishment — and tackling the root causes of gang violence and drug addiction — will ever work.
Mr & misses
THE constant chipping away of common sense in public life is fast becoming beyond parody.
Just a few days after one council tried to ban the term “mums and dads”, a second authority wants to end the use of “husband and wife”.
Why are a tiny and vocal minority allowed to police what we think and say?
You didn’t vote for it and shouldn’t have to put up with it.
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