Sticks and stones and words are all very, very, bad

Sticks and stones, eh?

There's a bloke on a bike getting all sorts of trouble for calling a copper a pleb. That's pretty tame. Even years ago, that would've been pretty tame. He should be getting the flack for being an MP and all that goes with that. It shows a bit of the bias the everyday world skews things with too, doesn't it?

Little old lady meets jobsworth: Marge O'Nice, eighty-nine, was told today that she could not knit stuffed piglets for the school fête in case they offended the muslim pupils or parents. A spokesman for the education authority said...

Well, that's little old lady one, jobsworth nil.

Pregnant woman meets jobsworth: a hospital parking attendant who would not allow a pregnant woman with no change to park without a valid ticket despite the fact that she was experiencing contractions...

Easy, easy. That's the jobsworths two nil down.

(This one may even be true).

SEB COE: I'm here to collect my ticket.

LORDS STEWARD: I'll go and check (exit left, rummaging noises off). Nope. It must be at the other gate. Back out, left, around the ground and up to the north entrance.

SEB COE: My good man, the game's about to start. Do you know who I am?

LORDS STEWARD: Your Seb Coe, 'aint'cha?

SEB COE: That's right.

LORDS STEWARD: In that case, you'll have no trouble getting there in time. Run out of here, around the ground...

Suddenly, due to the smarmy, unlikeable nature of Seb Coe, the jobsworths have pulled one back.

One angry Tory chief whip on a bike and one jobsworth copper is all it takes. Suddenly it's two-all and the jobsworths have drawn level against all the odds.

Then there's John Terry. I'm no fan. But really. He said something to an opponent. Arsenal have had three (Aaron Ramsey, Eduardo, and Diaby) players kicked out of the game for years by opponents either sent out to damage them or at least with “get into them, they don't like it” teamtalks ringing in their ears. Then there's been all that “he's not that kind of player” bull trotted out, and zero action by the FA. All the time blokes are being suspended for game after game for something they said.

There's no excuse for racism and no way to condone it, and action has to be taken. But hanging someone out to dry over a few words while others end careers and get away with it? That stinks to high heaven of a body devised and run by the twisted and evil minds behind our legal system, which sees prison dished out for non-payment of a television licence while violent crimes go unpunished on technicalities. When a body is seen to deliver some sort of equitable and just rulings, then it can command some respect. The FA? A joke.