Hoodies, Baseball Caps and Ganja, Oh My
Fresh from his accountability moment, Tony Blair is tackling some of the thorniest issues facing British society: criminalising “hoodies” and baseball caps while keeping marijuana decriminalised (despite a “get tough” pre-election stance). In the midst of a moral panic, Blair recently came out in support of moves to ban the wearing of hooded leisure tops in public, especially when coupled with that nefariously potent symbol of evil: the baseball cap. Meanwhile, the committe whose recommendation resulted in the Commons reclassification of cannabis in Britain to a Class C drug (a misdemeanour equivalent to possessing a prescription drug without a valid prescription) says it sees no reason to reverse its decision, even as Olympians are tarred and feathered. Meanwhile, sales of verboten hoodies can only increase, while cannabis becomes distinctly less cool.
Those who sneer at the PM’s condemning of hooded tops as a simplistic attempt to deal with complex issues of social disaffection would do well to consider the almost complete absence of young women tied to railway tracks since top hats and waxed moustaches slipped out of fashion. It’s time to stamp out burglary by banning black and white hooped T-shirts and those little black masks. Tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime.
They could always claim they’re wearing a hijab, then sue anyone who mocks them under the new Racial and Religious Tolerance Act.
the thing about this is where will it stop. They are trying to classify these socia-economic deprived people so they can exclude them from figures and the moral bandwagon has something to point the finger at. It a smoke screen to detract from real issues such as Iraq etc.