The UK Government’s
new Injunctions to Prevent Nuisance and Annoyance (IPNAs), which were intended to
complement ASBOs but to be easier to grant, have been criticised by religious
and civil liberty campaigners from across the political spectrum. The
injunctions can be granted if someone “has engaged or threatens to engage in conduct
capable of causing nuisance or annoyance.” Christian groups have pointed out
that IPNAs could in theory be used to remove street preachers or carol singers.
There have been
various reactions to the Supreme Court’s dismissal of the appeal by Christian
bed and breakfast owners against being fined for their “married couples only”
policy. Some praised the couple for their dignified stance: “I expected to find
thinly disguised homophobia, but instead found a couple bewildered to be on the
wrong side of the law for merely practising what they believe,” wrote one
journalist. The Independent took a harder line, claiming that the couple could
not be considered to be ‘martyrs’ because practising what the Bible says
regarding homosexuality is ‘mediaeval’. And a barrister identified a key judicial
problem with this decision: “The problem here is, as John Stuart Mill put it in
On Liberty (1859): ‘The only purpose for which power can be rightfully
exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to
prevent harm to others.’ But the only harm [identified in this case] was that
when the Bulls’ house rules were explained to Preddy and Hall, they found it
‘upsetting’ and ‘very hurtful’. Even in the touchy-feely twenty-first century,
where self-esteem is seen as so important and so fragile, this is pretty lame.”
A Labour MSP who
voted against the Same-Sex Marriage (Scotland) Bill in the Scottish Parliament
has said that “Since indicating that I did
not intend to support the redefinition of marriage, my religion’s been
disparaged, I’ve been branded homophobic and bigoted, I’ve been likened to the
Ku Klux Klan and it was suggested that I be burnt at the stake as a witch.”
A
survey within the European Union discovered that 96% of people believe it is
vital to protect intellectual property rights, but 42% also believe it is
acceptable to download music and films illegally for personal use; 9% admitted
having done so in the past year. There were marked differences in illegal
downloading according to age, gender and education; the most prolific
downloaders are young (15-24 year olds approximately 13x more likely than
over-55s); well-educated (those with higher education are 4.5x more likely);
and male (2x more likely).
In
football, the allegations about match-fixing in England have focussed on three
non-league teams from Essex. One of them, Billericay Town, played a league game
that was attended by just 408 spectators, but over $1 million was staked on the
game on Asian betting exchanges – more than was gambled on Barcelona, who were playing
on the same evening.
And
finally, a new book by a neuro-scientist reveals how he unexpectedly discovered
that someone he knew very well was a psychopath. He was reviewing brain scans
of murderers, schizophrenics and depressives to see if their scans showed low
activity in areas linked to empathy, morality and self-control. One day, he
turned from these scans to another set of scans taken from his own family for a
study on Alzheimer’s, and he noticed one scan that was “obviously pathological.”
It was from his own brain. He could find no fault with the scanner, but he did
find (at his wife’s suggestion) seven distant relatives who were alleged
murderers. He admits to being “obnoxiously competitive”, but has now changed
his views on how people’s genetics determine their path in life.
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