Hanging on

It's a common enough sight, but always strikes me as submissive and particularly absurd in the sort of parky weather we've been having recently.

I'm talking about couples who walk along, the man with hands thrust deep inside pockets for warmth while the woman holds his arm, hand at the mercy of the weather.

It seems a strange way to go about. I 'get' hand-holding, which seems rather charming and equal, not least in the hand-exposure stakes.

 By contrast, the public woman-on-arm seems so passive : an indifferent male burrowing for warmth while the female hangs possessively on in the cold.

It's simple, stupid

Three jeers (again) for the Mail on Sunday (29/01/12), with another classic screaming front page: "Smacking ban led to riots". Not any old riots, mind you, but the ones that tore the centres of several cities apart last August, causing millions in damage.

How wonderfully simplistic, and what a perfect Mail-like riposte: Bring back a bit of corporal punishment and the country will be fine. Or perhaps I'm falling into the same reductio ad absurdum, in my criticism, as the Mail were in the first place.

It's the Labour rising star, David Lammy, whose comments were behind the headline. He subsequently said that the riots could not be blamed on smacking. But the headline remains, and probably caused more than a few heads  to nod in exasperated agreement.

I think the old adage applies: Beware simple answers to complex problems. Although doing that will never be popular on the Mail newsdesk. Or many other papers, for that matter.