Into The Bearpit

‘IT is indeed a slippery slope from playful mooning to a life of crime and incarceration behind bars that no amount of herbal tea can prevent.

Currently serving 15 years for drugs offences

What we need is hard legislation from central Government. The temptations for youngsters in today’s Britain are manifold. It is time to nip them in the bud.

And the plan to do just that has already begun, as the Telegraph leads with the intriguing headline: ”Big Teddies ‘Lure Children To Gambling’.”

The Government believes that, in making the prizes at seaside amusement arcades seductive to children, the little loves will be sucked into a spiral of gambling addiction.

So teddies must be made smaller. How small is not stated, and as yet there is no Government Teddy Tsar detailed to oversee a task force and an army of Teddy Police to enforce the rules.

But the Department of Culture Media and Sport, which oversees such vital matters, is keen to press home the plan.

”The Government believes that children should be able to play these machines,” it says, ”but the stakes and prizes should discourage them playing them too much.”

Pah! In showing show much it cares the Government displays obvious signs that it has failed to do its homework.

A quick trip to the Happyland Arcade will see them right as they try to fire three crooked darts into a board to score enough points to win a revolting green ”cuddly” acrylic gorilla; endeavour to use the skill of a surgeon to remotely manoeuvre a grab arm over a pit of nth-rate toys; and look on’

Posted: 26th, January 2005 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink