...for the "beyond parody" files:
Britain's Daily Mail reports that:
"A gardener has been ordered by council chiefs to remove three foot high barbed wire ringing his allotment - in case thieves scratch themselves climbing over it...
"Bill Malcolm, 61, took the drastic step of installing the wire in a bid to prevent burglars raiding his tool shed and ransacking his vegetable plots.
"Intruders have struck three times in four months, stealing more than £300 worth of hardware, including spades, forks and hoes as well as destroying his potato patch...
"A spokeswoman said: 'With regard to the barbed wire, when this is identified on site, we are obliged to request its removal or remove it on health and safety grounds to the general public as this is a liability issue..."
Laugh? Cry?
Shoot somebody?
Britain today. California tomorrow. Kansas the day after tomorrow. Relentlessly, remorselessly, the contagion spreads.
For some reason, I am reminded of these lines from The Duchess of Malfi:
CARIOLA: Hence, villains, tyrants, murderers. Alas! What will you do with my lady?
Call for help!
DUCHESS: To whom? To our next neighbours?
They are mad-folks.
Comments (4)
Such reassuring advice from the police, too,
'These have mainly been from sheds and our advice to allotment holders is not to leave anything of value there. Expensive items like strimmers should be taken home."
Basically, nobody is allowed to stop thieves. Just don't leave anything they want to take. Sorry. Too bad. And if they tear up your vegetables, well, that's too bad too.
I notice the environmentalist aspect to this. The "post and rail fence" that surrounds the area is the only one allowed because it's a "green area." Barbed wire, though more effective, isn't scenic.
Posted by Lydia | October 9, 2008 3:38 PM
And, like the tens of thousands of Germans who massed in Cologne a few weeks ago, ostensibly to demonstrate in favour of European "anti-fascist" values by opposing an anti-Islamization rally, they mistake their madnesses for reality. Sometimes, when people embrace such illusions so tenaciously, there is nothing that can be done to arrest the downward spiral. The devil take them - at least he'll be claiming his own.
Posted by Maximos | October 9, 2008 3:41 PM
But I feel sorry for the guy with the vegetable garden in the process. Just trying to live his life and do normal, wholesome things like growing some of his own food.
Posted by Lydia | October 9, 2008 5:12 PM
This lunacy is not at all surprising.
I heard news just a few months ago elsewhere that store managers would be criminally prosecuted should stolen shopping carts be found outside the immediate vicinity of their stores.
Madness.
Posted by aristocles | October 9, 2008 5:19 PM