Another dose of Home Office madness - Save Our Swords

[amberb_uk]

Many Flisters will remember that earlier this year I posted links to the petition on the 10 Downing Street website and links to the Home Office consultation on changing the Offensive Weapons Act to include 'imitation katanas/Samurai swords

Comments

[amberb_uk]

Such is the way with politicians, surely - at least for about 200 years or so since the rise of the popular press (and with it the populist politician - eg. Pitt is the first notable example I can think of)! It's not so much the press is to blame, but how politicians handle (or don't) public visibility and end up trying in increasingly dumb ways to grab attention.

Stupidity and arrogance in polititicians also, sadly, transcends party boundaries. We used to say in the party HQ when I worked there that the dumber the statement or law proposal, the more junior and desperate the Minister! It was right then, and it's still right now methinks *grin*.

Mind you - it also does have to be said the Home Office is one of the worst jobs. Only those whose popularity is on the wane or who are always going to be second-raters get stuck there, on the whole. The stars (like David Milliband) and the stalwarts (eg Alastair Darling) go to the more 'glam' places like Treasury, Education, Foreign Office, Environment etc where they get to be more high-profile and thus act with less desperation.

Or am I just hideously cynical about politics after too long as a grassroots bod and then working as a Westminster insider? Whowouldathunkit! ;-)