There Is No Longer Such Thing As Society

Margaret Thatcher's oft-repeated, out of context, denial of the existence of society generally raises hackles in many. The implication being that the public cherish such an intangible entity and would rue its passing.

Too late. It's long gone.

A headteacher has unlawfully fined the parents of pupils caught smoking in their school playground.

Margaret Peacock, head of Elliot School in Putney, wrongly claimed powers under the 2007 smoking ban to issue the £50 penalties.

Ms Peacock sent letters to the parents demanding the £50 and warned them that if they did not pay, the school's governors would face a £2,500 fine. In the letter, she wrote: “The law, which came into force on 1 July 2007, prohibits smoking on public property.

“Your child was part of a group of girls seen on CCTV who were involved in smoking on the school site and therefore a fixed penalty fine of £50 has been imposed.”

She added: “The governors, as employers and owners of the property, have a duty to enforce this law and have the right to fine any person £50 for breaking the law.”

Yes, she's an arrogant empire building bastard, but that's not the point I'm aiming at here. Just check out some of the appended comments

"I'm disappointed that such a law does not actually exist. What a shame"

"OK,2 things here. She's 14 years old. She was caught smoking in School (be it the playground). I don't want my own children hanging round people like that. I hope aswell as the fine, the child got a hefty detention"

"This story is beyond belief, I can't believe the evening standard actually believe an injustice has been done."

"The teacher should have got a medal instead of a fine"

"I think that head teacher shoudl have been awarded something for such outstanding public service - and the fine should most certainly stay in place"

"What a smart headteacher. And what a dumb Evening Standard ! Whose side are you
on ?"

Forget divide and conquer. The division is now deeply embedded and, if comments such as this are a guide, the public has been comprehensively vanquished.

The debate is no longer whether society exists or not. We've now got to ask ourselves if the British public can be bothered to protect it anymore.

Let's talk about the teacher for a moment. She has massively exaggerated a minor problem, hugely over-estimated her powers as a teacher and, in doing so, misrepresented a legal statute to extort cash from parents. If she did so on purpose, she should be arrested and charged with attempted theft, fraud, or deception. If she wasn't aware of how wrong her initiative was, she is clearly not fit to impart wisdom to kids. Either way, she fully deserves to receive her P45.

Yet many are willing to overlook her woeful incompetence because they hate smokers, young blacks, or incredibly, traffic wardens.

I had some sympathy till I read the mother is a traffic warden, she now knows what it's like to receive an unfair fine.

Irony doesn't get more egregious than this. Yes, the mother is a traffic warden, so therefore it's payback. That appears to be the frame of mind of these odious cock sockets. Hmmm, let me just delve into that particularly perverted logic. A traffic warden imposes hefty fines for fairly trivial matters to raise money for the local authority, which is unfair however legal. So it's perfectly OK for a teacher to bastardise the law and ... illegally impose hefty fines for fairly trivial matters to raise money for the local authority.

Government have divided us so completely that this is the level of self-centred debate now. Do we wish to be beaten with an authoritarian club encrusted with nails, or with glass?

And while everyone goes all Daily Mail, the fact that an ignorant fuckwit has thrown another illiberal stick on the country's bonfire of common sense is almost entirely ignored.

Fuck the law, fuck standing up to horrendous local dictators, in fact, fuck society and community in general. Who needs it?