British Transport Police miss the point

This BBC article is currently kicking around in the 'Most Read' section of the website. I, for one, fully support these little acts of resistance: they're witty, non-violent and hopefully make people think. All the things low-level subversion should be.

They are also marrying my two somewhat-contradictory thoughts on the Tube: Love public transport, can't stand TfL and how they manage the Tube. They're like any good parody: they mock their subject matter while making their affections for it clear.

Take the following examples:

 

"No eye contact. Penalty £200."
"We apologise for any incontinence caused during these engineering works."
"Peak hours may necessitate you let other people sit on your lap."

But, as always, the plod miss the point. And the fun:

BTP said graffiti was "unwanted vandalism that causes criminal damage" and "will not be tolerated".
"It is a blight on our society and becomes an eyesore for many residents who overlook the railway," a BTP spokesman added.

Wait, what? Putting stickers inside tube carriages and tube stations "becomes an eyesore for many residents who overlook the railway". It's almost like there is another kind of graffiti which basically everyone agrees should stop: spray paint on buildings by railways. If the police pretend all graffiti is the specific kind of graffiti it's easy to oppose then, why, they don't need to think about criminality with any kind of nuance or critical thinking at all.

Graffiti: bad. Always. Even if it's not an eyesore for anyone who overlooks a railway.

Animal Rights

It's a fraught issue, I think... To be honest, I only started giving the animal rights thing a lot of thought after my little sister came to visit. She's not a deer or anything, it's that she's just gone vegan and joined some animal rights group at her uni (I think it's the ALF [although, now I've finished this piece, I've found out that I'm actually wrong on that front: it's a small Kent-based group who're a bit less crazy-nuts bonkers]).

You see, as an argumentative and scientific-minded sort, I found something to disagree with on my sister's assertions that all creatures have a right to exist and [something something something...]. I stopped listening after a while. But my sister definitely got me thinking, so I suppose she succeeded in at least one sense. Since I'm basically a geek, my curiosity got the better of me, and lo and behold I found myself reading animal rights law at 2am on a work night. After a little research, here's what I found:

The Law as it Stands

The first thing to note is that the Animal Rights legislature in Britain is actually fairly up to date. The last major paper, the Animal Welfare Act, was introduced in 2006 (2008 in Scotland, with a few changes). Its remit is for the care of domesticated and farm animals, and is actually pretty strict. What it doesn't cover is laws on humane slaughter for meat, minimum space requirements for kept animals or using animals in scientific procedures or experiments.