Tuesday, September 03, 2002

Ken sets Easter deadline for car scheme. Politics: Congestion charges in the capital will be scrapped if they fail to make an impact after a two-month trial period, the London mayor, Ken Livingstone, said today. [Guardian Unlimited] Red Ken can expect to be eternally popular with the driving classes when he charges people a fiver a car to drive into central London during the day. When he was head of the GLC (oh those halcyon days!) he imposed a ban on trucks during day time hours - and that worked. He also banned people from feeding the pigeons in Leicester Square - not one of him most popular acts - when he became Lord Mayor, and the place became a sorry sight full of starving birds - but they are a health hazard. You can always rely on him for a bit of controversy. 3:55:03 PM

Girl to get tracker implant to ease parents' fears. see the [Guardian Unlimited] - more on the girl with the microchip - unlike the Daily Mail, however, the Guardian questions the battery mechanism which the inventor admits to having problems with. French Authors Thank Heaven For Little Girls.  see [Plastic: Most Recent] meanwhile the ever laissez faire french are causing moral outrage in the US with the publication of two books by french authors that explore the sordid world of the paedophile. Is it art or is it pornography and should we ban books. My guess is, unless they are high art indeed, these books will not make their way into the public library so, unless somebody goes out and buys them, they will not make their way into the home - unlike some of the dross TV inflicts on us. It was a french man, Truffaut, who gave us that wonderful movie about censorship - Farenheit 451 - which is the temperature at which books burn. 10:01:52 AM