Liadnan

I suppose it's an intensely parochial issue, limited in interest to any but the handful of you who live in or have some connection with Hampstead, Highgate, or Camden Town, that the Hampstead Ponds may be closing. But I think it goes beyond the loss we're facing: if the Corporation of London* can't find a measly £200,000 in its petty cash drawer then the economy of this country is in deep, deep shit.

Heard from a politician on Radio 4 this morning: "a quicker and faster response" (by the police). Quicker and faster, my word.

And some of those in favour of a law to ban incitement to religious hatred are arguing that it should, for instance, be useable against another Salman Rushdie. Which makes me fairly fundamentally opposed.

*note for those who don't know about the insane complexities of London government, the Corporation is the local authority for the City of London -the Square Mile, not the metropolis of Greater London-, is the richest local authority in the country, dates its privileges back to before the conquest (you'll occasionally find the rather dubious claim that it wasn't conquered by William, it made a peace treaty with him) and tends to manage to get into any statute dealing with land law or local authority powers some clause along the lines of "but not in the City of London". Which is why it's the only feudal tenant-in-chief left where that status actually has some meaning, I think.