How mean spirited has the UK become?

Every so often I read something that sends me off-topic with annoyance and this is one such moment. The UK is supposed to be proud of it's justice system and being a fair-minded society. I think - increasingly - that sucks.

Take the case that's some up in court this week of the former policewoman who advertised herself on a website for escort girls. I'm quite sure that many people disapprove of prostitution and the veneer of the "escort" tag is not really going to convince anyone that she was doing anything other offering sex for sale at £100 an hour. I think people are a bit to quick to judge on such matters - especially when you see figures about how many men use prostitutes. Nevertheless, even I would concede that her part-time job potentially compromised her integrity and could have made it difficult for her to do her full-time job properly and for that error of judgement I could understand that she probably deserved to be sacked by the police force.
However, so far as I have read, nobody is suggesting that she blackmailed anyone into anything by telling them she was a police officer, or that she had actually treated a "client" differently when she came across them as a police officer, nor that she even told her clients that she worked for the police. There is no suggestion that her activities "out of hours" hurt anyone except perhaps herself, and now her family, given the way she has been named and exposed by the press and media.

So why do we need her to be charged with the offence of "Misconduct in a Public Office" (to which she has pleaded guilty)? The charge can lead to a possible sentence of Life Imprisonment! That she has now been remanded in custody while the case takes place against the other defendants involved means that the judge is clearly minded to impose a prison sentence for this "offence". I would have thought that there had to be more of a connection between the "misconduct" and the "public office" (like if she'd attempted to use her police position to obstruct the investigation) but the law doesn't seem to have such a requirement. It's not entirely clear what constitutes a public office but I guess all of us employed in the public sector will have to be careful.

I think she should be freed now and allowed to try to rebuild her life instead of being hounded like this.

It's official - spanking is good for you!

Finally scientists have confirmed what we all suspected...
Spanking is good in a relationship. I happen to hold the view that the couple in the picture have things the wrong way round. If she's shrieking like it appears when she's doling it out, I assume she's going to make quite a bit of noise just now when he turns the tables on her!

Judicial CP of females

There are many spanking sites that proclaim that they don't condone corporal punishment of minors, use of minors for sexual purposes and so on - I wholeheartedly agree with those statements. I have seen some that say they don't condone any non-consensual use of corporal punishment - where it's motivated by sexual stimulation I would agree again but would I oppose any use of corporal punishment in a non-consensual way -perhaps judicial caning for example?

I feel I have to address the issue as a couple of people have emailed me directly about some recent posts I made on here about the use of caning in Malaysia. One objected very strongly to me featuring real young women named - and in one case pictured - who may face a judicial caning for breaching religious based laws, and saying that it was wrong to put forward such cases when some people looking at the site would probably find the stories sexually arousing.

Okay, so here goes. Do I think it's okay for people to find the stories arousing? I can't say that I found them that way, or really thought about them that way. However, much of our play fantasy is based - however loosely - around real punishments, maybe in the past. I'm not sure if any adult spanking website would have the nerve to do a fantasy around a Muslim woman being caned under Sharia law - I suspect the outcry would be greater and potentially more endangering than the outcry we have seen in the past about Nazi style scenes. However, what people may choose to do in the private fantasy enactments could be quite different - many people quest for new ideas for scenarios for play. I wouldn't be averse to such a role play.

The second article makes it very clear that these are not meant to be barbaric or likely to seriously injure, unlike the other sorts of canings carried out in that part of the world. Hence I don't think publishing the articles and the photo of the one young lady already sentenced to be caned is showing anything that is especially violent or nasty - in fact the second article makes the point that such punishments are more to do with humiliating than harming.

Do I think consuming alcohol should warrant such a punishment? Well, if a country decided to make it illegal for everyone then I don't see that as being unreasonable. I don't like the idea that because someone has a particular religion they are treated differently to those of other religions in the same country - religion, to me, is about a choice you make rather than an accident of birth. If the young lady felt that she wanted to be of that faith and that she deserved some punishment for infringing the rules of that faith that would be one thing, but not as an automatic given just because of her parents backgrounds.

One thing this has done for me is to make me wonder what offences I would like to see this sort of "somewhat painful but more humiliating" judicial corporal punishment to be used for. The first one I've come up with is using a handheld mobile phone while driving. It makes the journey through commuter traffic to work that much more interesting to spot young ladies breaking the law that way and speculating that under my new law they could be caned for doing so. And wouldn't that make for an interesting safety advert campaign?

Essential hotel facility

I want one.

Guard dog

Interesting way to prevent someone taking you by surpise with a smack on the behind...

Canings in Malaysia

This is the follow on to a previous post of mine about the re-emergence of the quasi-judicial use of caning as a punishment for female offenders in Malaysia. I found this one interesting both because it suggests the other case is not just going to be a one-off incident, but also because there is some detail given about the modus operandi. It also has a quote from the girl who - it seems - is likely to be the next one to be on the receiving end of such a punishment and the tone is interesting. No pleading or begging for mercy or saying she disagrees with the process. In fact she seems remarkably accepting of her likely fate in perhaps the same way that traditionally schoolkids in the UK tended to be acquiescent when told to report to the headmaster for the cane.

Breaking free

It's fantastic to read on another blog of the author telling her close family about her enjoyment of being spanked - one day maybe we will all feel free to do the same.

Times are changing

..but sometimes in the opposite direction to what we expect, as evidenced by this story of a country where caning of female offenders is being reintroduced.

My mis-spent youth

I often think back to when I was at school. My fascination with corporal punishment was already well developed and I read everything I could find on the subject, but despite being at schools where it was used I didn't have the bottle to actually do anything to put my own posterior in danger. Except.... Except maybe once.

I guess I was about fourteen at the time. I had a legitimate reason to go into the school on a Saturday expecting to meet up with others, but when I arrived I found they were just going for the afternoon and I had thought it was meant to be all day. The school was deserted and unable to do what I'd gone for, I just wandered around to find something to occupy me. Which is how I came across the deputy headmaster's office with the door wide open and a sign attached asking the cleaners not to lock it. Now at that time, he was the only person in the school to give out official corporal punishment in the form of canings. I knew, from all my reading, that it was a legal requirement for schools to record corporal punishment in an official register, and the obvious place for our school to store the punishment book would be his office.

There were two issues - the school was so deathly quite that I should hear anyone approaching thanks to the wooden floors. On the other hand it was located in a bit of a dead end so it wouldn't be easy to get away without being heard. The possibility of seeing the punishment book and being able to read it was too great a temptation.

I just stood in there for a few moments - the first time I'd been in the room - and imagined the scene as errant pupils were caned just where I stood. The silence was reassuring and I began to search. No cupboards or drawers were locked so I ended up looking everywhere. I found the cane itself but never found the punishment book. If I had, I know I could not have been satisfied with just looking to see whose names were there, what they'd done and what they'd got. I would undoubtedly have stolen it. And what would the consequences have been then? I was tempted to steal the cane but just couldn't see how I was going to conceal it to take it anywhere.

What would you think...?

...if you were engaged in some light banter at work. An attractive female colleague in her early twenties was in front of you and made a slightly cheeky remark to you. You brandished the ruler you happened to have in your hand at the time in a mildly threatening manner (not that I'd dare do anything with it because I want to keep my job) and she said "Oooh - a spanking!"

Hmm - that's what I've been thinking as well.