Baroness Ashton Forced to Seek More Money
Baroness Ashton has been forced to seek additional funds for the EU diplomatic service after overspending in defiance of Europe-wide austerity cuts.
Lady Ashton, the best paid female politician in the Western world, angered national governments with a poor performance as Europe’s foreign minister.
Her demands for an extra £22 million in funding for this year fuels criticism as it breaches her promise to set up a “budget neutral” European diplomatic service.
In a new move that has infuriated Britain, which has made deep cuts to the foreign office, a report published yesterday, by Lady Ashton, has now completely ditched the pledge of funding her European External Action Service (EEAS) from existing EU budgets without making new spending demands.
“Insufficient provision has been made for the needs of the EEAS as an autonomous body in financial and administrative terms,” said the report. “This means that the service is struggling to meet even minimum standards in terms of activity based management and financial programming, personnel policy, security and IT. There is a structural deficit that will need to be addressed over time.”
Britain fought but lost a battle to stop a “ludicrous” 5.3 per cent increase in Lady Ashton’s £383 million EEAS budget for 2012…
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
End of Euro is ‘Fantasy’, Says Eurozone Policymaker Luc Coene
The idea that the troubled eurozone could collapse is “complete fantasy” according to a policymaker at the European Central Bank (ECB).
Luc Coene, a Governing Council member at the ECB, said that even if Greece was to leave the euro, Europe would unite to protect the system. “If the Greeks decide to leave, something that seems to me to be completely inconceivable … Europe will certainly stand shoulder to shoulder to protect the system,” he told the newspaper La Libre Belgique.
Mr Coene said that Europe was starting to take control of its budget deficits, but that it would take time to see how effective the austerity measures put in place would be. “I think that, for the moment, we are starting to have control over the situation,” he said. “Now we need a bit of time to see what is the degree of success that all of these plans will have.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Northampton Man Says He Was Racially Profiled at Mitt Romney Pasta Party in New Hampshire
TILTON, N.H. — A 30-year-old Northampton [Massachusetts] resident said he was “racially profiled” at a Mitt Romney campaign event here on Friday evening.
“The police officer stood beside me and said, ‘You have to come with me right now,’“ said Edan Dhanraj, a 30-year-old University of Massachusetts alumnus and United Auto Workers organizer.
Tilton Police Lt. Richard Paulhus said one person was taken outside during a spaghetti dinner at Tilton Schoolat the request of Romney’s security team, which thought the man might be suspicious. A spokesman for Romney could not be reached for comment.
Police found a bulge in the man’s pocket worrisome, said Paulhus, who denied racial profiling was involved.
Dhanraj said police told him they were concerned about his deep pockets.
“They said, ‘What’s in your pockets, something sharp?’ I go, ‘That’s my wallet,’“ Dhanraj said Friday night at Tilton School, a private college preparatory school north of Concord where Romney hosted Friday’s pasta event.
Tilton Police Lt. Ryan Martin said, “We checked one guy because he had something in his coat, which turned out to be a bulge from his mittens.”
Dhanraj, who described himself as of Indian and Puerto Rican heritage, said he was at the event to hear about Romney’s proposed tax policies. Dhanraj was allowed to return to the event.
Paulhus estimated 500 people were in attendance.
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
Updated! Why is the Governor Taking Ownership of the Virginia GOP Primary Mess?
Christian Adams comments today (PJ Media) on Perry, Gingrich, Huntsman, and Santorum pleadings filed yesterday — which declare “Adding Intervening Plaintiffs (and Governor Perry) will not create a ‘laundry list’ ballot. Instead, it will give Virginia voters a meaningful choice and the right to participate in the most fundamental of American constitutional processes.”
[see more, plus links at URL]
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Anti-Islamic Websites Come Under Greater Scrutiny in Germany
by David Crossland
BERLIN — German authorities have announced a plan to place anti-Islamic websites under surveillance because of growing concern that they are becoming more radical and fomenting right-wing violence.
The domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, said last week it had set up a working group to assess whether German-language sites such as Politically Incorrect and Nürnberg 2.0, whose stated aim is to oppose the “Islamisation of Europe” are in breach of the constitution.
The attack by Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian extremist who killed 77 people in July and posted a “manifesto” on the internet, threw a spotlight on the role played by websites as a forum for spreading hatred of Muslims in Europe.
Right-wing populists and websites condemned Mr Breivik as a crazed loner. But many of the arguments in his 1,500-page declaration matched their own rhetoric, sparking accusations that they have been breeding violence by railing against Muslims.
[..]
A member of parliament for the opposition Left Party, Ulla Jelpke, said closer supervision of such sites was long overdue. “Blogs and websites such as Politically Incorrect or Nürnberg 2.0 clearly promote a racism that extends deep into society,” said Ms Jelpke.
“They call into question the dignity and the rights of a whole group of people solely because of their origin or their faith. They thereby clearly run counter to core values of the constitution.”
She said it was “scandalous” that authorities had been ignoring such sites, and alleged that institutional racism may be to blame for the lack of determination to crack down on them. “Prejudice against Muslims isn’t a problem of the periphery but of the heart of society. That’s why it’s so dangerous.”
Separately, the state prosecutor’s office in Munich said last week it had launched an investigation into Michael Stürzenberger, a politician who has written blogs for Politically Incorrect, on suspicion of incitement to racial hatred.
Mr Stürzenberger, a former spokesman for the conservative Christian Social Union party, wrote on January 5: “The totalitarian claim to power inherent in Islam and its legitimisation of violence and killing cannot have a place in a democratic and free society.”
Politically Incorrect was founded in 2004 by Stefan Herre, 46, a physical education teacher based in Cologne who insists his site doesn’t breach the constitution. He has said it caters for peaceful people and is dedicated to publishing opinions and articles that other media do not want to cover…
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Stieg Larsson Was an Extremist, Not a Feminist
by Nick Cohen
Larsson wasn’t a feminist — or not a consistent one. He wrote with real anger about the oppression of women with white skins. When others tried to do the same about the oppression of women with brown skins, he denounced them as racists. My friend and colleague Johan Lundberg, the editor of the Swedish journal Axess, has done what I should have done and read Larsson’s obscure book on honour killings. He waited for the release of the film to give us his findings.
Larsson did indeed break off from writing the Millennium trilogy to intervene in the debate about the “honour killings” of two Kurdish women in Sweden. Far from worrying about the suffering of women, Larsson and his co-author said those who campaigned for the rights of women in immigrant communities wanted “to portray all male immigrants as representatives of a single homogeneous attitude towards women”. They had sexist as well as racist motives. They only talked about honour crime because they wanted to divert attention from how white men raised in the “patriarchal structures of Swedish society” abused and murdered women as a matter of course.
If all Larsson wanted to say was that the rights of women should be upheld, regardless of colour or creed, then no one could argue with him. He came close to asserting the opposite. Believe that western legal systems, for all their faults, were preferable to forced marriages, religious courts where the testimony of a woman is worth half that of a man and the stoning to death of adulterous women and you were a “rightwing extremist”, carrying on the fascist tradition. In a final descent into paranoid dementia, he accused those who disagreed with him of preparing to unleash “special operations forces, which are ready to begin the ethnic cleansing”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Children as Young as 11 Have Been Arrested for Possessing Drugs With Intent to Sell, Shocking Figures Revealed Yesterday.
The statistics show the extent to which drugs have penetrated the lives of schoolchildren.
Police have made more than 12,000 arrests of under-16s for possessing or supplying illegal substances over the past three years.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Kate and Wills Safety Fears Exposed as Council Gives Public Access to Security Plans for Kensington Palace
Despite the local authority being asked to keep the documents secret, anyone can request access to them.
[…]
The work includes fitting a dirty bomb proof air-lock double door to prevent intruders, rising bollards and a CCTV system.
[…]
Former Scotland Yard protection officer Dai Davies told the Evening Standard: ‘I’m speechless that lessons have still not been learned by those responsible for their security. It beggars belief at the level of incompetence by those who purport to be experts in security.
[…]
‘It is being done so residents and other interested parties can see the proposals and comment on them in the usual way for an application.’
[Note from Egghead: Evidently, the Keystone Cops are in charge of the Queen’s security force. Google Michael Fagan — the unemployed Irishman who broke into Buckingham Palace TWICE — the second time entering the Queen’s bedchamber and sitting on her BED talking to her for 10 minutes. It’s all becoming so much clearer now[…] You should send Tommy Robinson by the office to see the security plans — or a girl in a burqa — or ALL of you Brits should find your way to that office ONE BY ONE to take a peek — and ask about what you are are supposed to do in the case of a dirty bomb — and who exactly would be setting off a dirty bomb, anyway? Asians — or are they called ‘ethnic’ Brits now?]
| — Hat tip: Egghead | [Return to headlines] |
UK: NHS Hospital Where Half of Breast Implants Burst
Doctors at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust had to remove the implants from seven women out of 13 who had received them over the past few years — a failure rate of 54 per cent.
The figures are contained in a report prepared by NHS medical director Professor Sir Bruce Keogh which reveals several other private firms have suggested the implants could break far more frequently.
It raises further concern for the 40,000 women who have the implants, banned in the UK in 2010 after they were found to contain industrial-grade silicone intended for use in mattresses.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Sophie’s Gems From Despots: Countess Faces Questions After Accepting Lavish Jewellery Gifts From Bloody Bahrain
The jewels, revealed in a list of royal gifts obtained yesterday by the Daily Mail, provoked furious criticism.
Former Foreign Office minister Denis MacShane said: ‘Given the appalling suffering and repression of the Bahraini people, it would be a fitting gesture for the Countess of Wessex to auction these trinkets and distribute the proceeds to the victims of the regime.’
Bahrain’s rulers have been accused of using brute force and torture to crush last year’s pro-democracy protests which resulted in the death of more than 40 campaigners.
The gifts to Sophie, handed over during an official pre-Christmas visit she made to the Arab kingdom on behalf of the Queen, throws an uncomfortable spotlight on the Royal Family’s close links with many hard-line rulers in the Middle East.
[…]
It is not known how much the countess’s gems are worth but when the Duchess of Cornwall was given three suites — or parures — of jewellery by the Saudi royal family in 2007 they were estimated to be worth more than £2million.
[Note from Egghead: The Muslims will take back those jewels when they take over the ummah.]
| — Hat tip: Egghead | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Diaspora Send Record 5.5 Bilion USD
(ANSAmed) — BELGRADE, JANUSARY 3 — Serbs in diaspora sent almost USD 5.5 billion to Serbia in 2011, so despite the economic crisis, the country recorded a record influx of foreign currency in the past 10 years, Minister of Religious Affairs and Diaspora Srdjan Sreckovic has said. “According to estimates from the National Bank of Serbia and World Bank, the foreign exchange funds sent by diaspora in 2011 reached a record level, higher than the one in 2009 and came close to a total of USD 5.5 billion,” Sreckovic told Tanjug news agency. The money from diaspora helped a lot to improve the standard of living, he stated. Data indicate that diaspora was one of the chief factors of macroeconomic stability in 2011, he noted, adding that the money sent by diaspora reached 15 percent of the GDP. The funds sent by diaspora have had a 2.5 times bigger share of the GDP over the past 10 years than direct foreign investments, he pointed out. According to him, Serbia has received more than USD 40 billion from diaspora since 2000, which was an important financial injection that helped the o
ry go through transition easier.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Israel: ‘Third-Reich State’, Orthodox Jews on the Offensive
New attacks
(ANSAmed) — JERUSALEM — “We survived Hitler and we shall also survive his inheritors…”. These provocative words appeared yesterday on a poster hung across the walls of an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood of Jerusalem. A clash between two political cultures is reaching boiling point in Israel: between secular Zionists and ultra-Orthodox Hebrews, who display several anti-Zionist aspects.
The reference to a ‘new Adolf’ is aimed, this time round, at local police chief, Niso Shaham. His crime was to have used force in breaking up a recent protest demonstration by Zealots at Jerusalem Shaham, and he appears in a crude photo-montage wearing a Nazi uniform.
In a similar vein, a few days ago, Orthodox demonstrators did not hesitate to don the striped garb Jews were forced to wear in concentration camps. An Orthodox child wearing a yellow star with the word ‘Jude’ (Jew in German) stood with his arms raised in the air — the message is clear: the protest organisers wished to compare the Israeli state to the Third Reich.
And these episodes of ‘Holocaust abuse’ come on top of a month of growing tensions between the Orthodox population (estimated at between eight and ten percent of Israel’s total) and the country’s lay majority. There has been great media focus on the gender segregation practised in public transport linking the Orthodox areas, as on the humiliating practice of forcing women to sit on the back seats of buses. The general uproar in the national press has forced most of the Orthodox community onto the defensive. But a fringe among them (numbering no more than a few thousand across the whole of the country) has decided to go onto the offensive, unleashing its ultimate weapon — that of the Holocaust — with the certainty of hitting lay sensibilities where it hurts.
This latest tussle of controversy between the two sides is destined to die down, but it illuminates some central challenges in need of curing inside the state of Israel, given that in the none-too-distant future, in some of the country’s main cities, Orthodox residents will number half of the total population. The country’s leaders therefore need to increase their efforts to counter the nihilist thesis of the Zealots, but at the same time these citizens need to be absorbed and integrated into the productive part of the population. It is a battle that has already begun within the Rabbinic seminaries, where the Education Ministry is attempting to force teachers to dedicate more time to the essential subjects for the world of work, such as English, Mathematics, General History and Civic Education. It is on the desks of these schools that the future face of Israel is — to a large extent — now taking shape. Meanwhile, another attack by ultra-Orthodox Jews was carried out last night in East Jerusalem between the Arab quarter Beit Safafa and the nearby Jewish suburb Ghlio’. An Israeli police spokesman said that two cars had been set on fire and that in the vicinity “Vengeance” had been written in Hebrew. Local sources noted that the two vehicles had been abandoned for quite some time.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Uranium Enrichment Site Operational Soon: Official
(Reuters) — Iran’s underground uranium enrichment facility will start operations soon, a senior official was quoted by Iranian media on Sunday as saying, a move likely to increase tension between the Islamic state and the West over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
“The Fordow nuclear enrichment plant will be operational in the near future … 20 percent, 3.5 percent and four percent enriched uranium can be produced at this site,” said the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization Fereydoun Abbasi Davani, the Kayhan daily reported.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Qatar: World’s Leading CO2 Producer Cuts Emissions by 14%
Ahead of climate change summit in Doha
(ANSAmed) — DOHA, JANUARY 6 — Qatar, the country with the highest rate of CO2 emissions per capita in the world has cut emissions by 14% as it prepares to host the Doha Summit on climate change in the next few months. The country could also be the setting for the 18th United Nations convention conference on climate change, according to the Qatari newspaper The Peninsula.
Although the Emirate has increased gas and oil production, Qatar has managed to cut CO2 emissions, surpassing the world average of 9% in the process. “Qatar exports gas to countries that are traditionally dependent on coal and that have been able to cut emissions of CO2 by moving over from coal to gas. This is another reason for which Qatar has been able to reduce to the worldwide cut in emissions,” said the country’s Energy and Industry Minister, Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada. The initiative is part of the energy differentiation policy undertaken by Qatar, with which the country aims to reduce its dependency on gas. The Emirate is considering investing in nuclear energy to ensure the energy supply needed for the country’s desalination process, though many believe that the focus on nuclear energy has an anti-Iranian geopolitical function. In recent years, Qatar has also invested a great amount in renewable energy, and in particular solar energy. The latest investment of this kind was the Qatar National Convention Center, which was opened at the end of 2011. The 40,000 square metre building will host the country’s leading international events. The structure’s 3,500 square metres of solar panels guarantee 12.5% of the centre’s energy requirements.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey: Former Army Chief of Staff Arrested
Charged with creating terrorist organization
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 6 — Turkey’s former Chief of Staff, General Ilker Basbug, has been remanded in custody today, on suspicion of “leading a terrorist organization”. It is the first time that a former Chief of Staff has been arrested in the country, where the military is traditionally powerful. “The 26th Chief of Staff of the Turkish Republic is arrested on suspicion of creating and leading a terrorist organization,” Basbug himself told journalists as he left a court in Istanbul. The Anadolu agency added that the lawyer for the general who led Turkey’s armed forces between 2008 and August 20 2010 would appeal. It emerged yesterday during questioning of Basbug in court that the charge concerned the organization of anti-government propaganda on 42 websites as part of an attempted coup by the presumed hardline nationalist organisation Ergenekon, which is hostile to the moderate Islamist Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Reports of Basbug’s imminent arrest had begun to circulate in the media and led to rumours, which were later denied, that two armed forces commanders had threatened to stand down in protest, paving the way for a crisis similar to that of las summer, when military leaders were removed to make space for elements closer to Erdogan’s AKP party. Concern within military, the guardians of the constitutional secularity of a majority Muslim country, has been caused by the jailing of dozens of other generals as part of an investigation in to the 2003 attempted coup entitled “Balyoz” (hammer), which saw more than 200 members of the military sent to prison.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey to Negotiate With U.S. Bell to Buy Choppers
(ANSAmed) — ANKARA, JANUARY 5 — Turkey decided on Thursday to negotiate with a U.S. company to purchase light helicopters, as Anatolia news agency reported. Turkey’s Defense Industry Executive Committee held a meeting in Ankara under the chairmanship of Premier Recep Erdogan. Following the meeting, the committee said that it decided to launch negotiations with Bell Helicopter company to meet light helicopter need of the Directorate General of Security. The committee also authorized the Defense Industry Undersecretariat to order F-35A aircraft to meet new generation war jet need of the Turkish Armed Forces.
Moreover, the committee agreed to launch talks with TUSAS-Turkish Aviation and Aerospace Industry Corporation to sign a contract on the first consignment of serial mass manufacturing of 10 unmanned ariel vehicles of the Air Forces Command.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Croydon, Copenhagen — and Here, In a Rich Suburb of Lahore, Is Benefit Probe Father’s Third Home
It looks like the kind of home owned by a successful businessman or influential politician.
But this imposing five-bedroom house, in one of the most affluent districts of Lahore, Pakistan, is understood to be owned by a man being investigated for benefit fraud in Britain and Denmark.
The opulent two-storey home, worth up to £300,000 in the country’s second-biggest city, is the subject of an investigation by the Department for Work and Pensions and Danish authorities into Hassan Gilani.
Investigators want to know how the father of three, who has allegedly claimed nearly £292,000 of benefits in both Britain and Denmark during the past decade, could afford to keep such a property.
His Pakistani address was included in a file given to the DWP by the Danish authorities following a tip-off that he did not live in Denmark but had been receiving state support since 2002.
Mr Gilani has allegedly been paid huge sums after saying he was disabled and could barely walk, while claiming to live in both countries.
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Zimbabwe: Aussie Tourist’s Bungee Cord Snaps
A 22-year-old Australian tourist is lucky to be alive after her cord snapped during a bungee jump over the Zambesi River on the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia, sending her plunging into the rapids below. Erin Laung Worth was forced to swim through the rapids with her feet still tied together after she fell from the Victoria Falls bridge, 111-metres above the water, on New Year’s Eve.
“I landed with my legs tied and then had to swim to the Zimbabwe side [of the river] through the rapids,” Ms Worth told Nine News in an exclusive interview. “It was quite scary because a couple of times the rope actually got caught on some rocks or debris,” she said. “I actually had to swim down and yank the bungee cord out of whatever it was caught on to make it to the surface.”
Southern Province police commissioner Brenda Muntemba told the Post Zambia that Ms Worth was treated at Victoria Falls clinic in Zimbabwe before being evacuated to South Africa. The jump was organised by a company called Safari Par Excellency.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Ahmadinejad Arrives in Venezuela
Caracas, Venezuela (CNN) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Venezuela on Sunday, his first stop on a four-nation trip to Latin America meant to strengthen ties between Iran and the region.
He arrived about 6:30 p.m. ET, and was met at the airport by Venezuelan Vice President Elias Jaua.
Ahmadinejad walked off the plane and down a red carpet, flanked by officials in white uniforms, images on state television showed.
It’s no coincidence that Venezuela is Ahmadinejad’s first stop. Despite their cultural differences, Venezuela and Iran have found significant common ground: both are among the world’s top crude oil exporters, and their leaders have become strong allies united by a fierce opposition to what they view as U.S. imperialism.
The two nations have already signed more than 270 accords, including trade deals, construction projects, car and tractor factories, energy initiatives, and banking programs.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has also helped the Islamic republic forge relationships with other members of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas, an eight-nation regional bloc Chavez founded.
Still, not everyone in Venezuela was happy with Ahmadinejad’s visit. Even before he arrived, the president’s plans for a Latin America tour grabbed global attention as tensions grow between many Western powers and Iran over the nation’s nuclear program.
Diego Arria, an opposition politician who is a presidential pre-candidate, described the trip as a “provocation” to the United States, and an embarrassment for Venezuela.
“It comes at the worst moment — at a time when Ahmadinejad is being looked at by the international community with great fear. …. It’s bringing the threat to the United States closer to home,” he said.
The Iranian president is scheduled to visit Nicaragua, Ecuador and Cuba later this week.
| — Hat tip: AC | [Return to headlines] |
Iran’s Ahmadinejad to Seek Latin American Support
(Reuters) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will seek support from Latin America’s leftist leaders on a tour starting on Sunday after tough new Western sanctions targeted Iran’s oil industry.
With one eye on his standing at home ahead of March’s parliamentary election, Ahmadinejad will meet other anti-American presidents on a trip Washington said showed Iran was “desperate for friends.”
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
Suspended Mexican Soccer Goalie Detained in Kidnap
Suspended first-division soccer goalkeeper Omar “El Gato” Ortiz has been arrested for alleged participation in a kidnapping ring, Mexican police announced Saturday. Ortiz, whose nickname means “The Cat,” has been under a suspension after testing positive for steroids in April 2010, when he was playing with the Rayados of Monterrey.
Jorge Domene, the security spokesman for Nuevo Leon state, where Monterrey is located, said Ortiz worked with a gang responsible for at least 20 kidnappings. Domene said Ortiz’s job was to select wealthy victims because he moved in the same social circles.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Migrants Here for a Handout
MORE than 70 immigrants lodge new claims for dole handouts every day — just months after arriving in Britain claiming to be looking for work.
In the past five years 117,000 immigrant “workers” claimed out-of-work benefits within six months of entering the UK and getting a National Insurance number.
Last year 26,500 foreigners applied for benefits within a few weeks of arriving, the highest figure for six years, leaving taxpayers facing a bill of £1.7million a week.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Sex Toys for Sale at Boots, Prominently Displayed Close to Healthcare Products in Full View of Children
Boots has been criticised by parents for selling sex toys in its shops, within full view of children.
The chemists’ chain has prominently displayed a range of unpackaged sex aids close to healthcare products such as reading glasses, blood-pressure monitors and pregnancy testing kits.
Customers have to walk past the sex aids in order to shop for shampoo, deodorants, toothpaste and sandwiches.
The sale of sex toys — recently launched in 1,200 of the firm’s 2,500 UK stores — is a far cry from the herbal medicines made by Boots founder John Boot in Nottingham in 1849.
Boots insisted last night that customers had told the company they wanted to buy the range of sex toys — designed to improve ‘sexual wellbeing’. But the retail giant is facing a backlash.
Families said they were ‘shocked’ and ‘disgusted’ that the sex aids were on show, removed from packaging. By contrast, the Ann Summers sex-shop chain serves boxed sex aids only to those aged 18 or over in designated separate sections of its stores.
At Boots in Dartford, Kent, three types of sex aid were on display last week and placed on a shelf low enough for children to see.
Grandmother Julie Burgess, 43, a retail manager from Greenhithe, said: ‘I am appalled. It’s completely inappropriate. I’m shocked that a store like Boots is selling sex toys, let alone displaying them so openly.
‘My two children are grown up now, but I’ve got a little granddaughter and I certainly wouldn’t want to be walking her round Boots and having to explain what a sex toy is. If Boots really wants to sell them, they should be kept behind the counter with the medicines.’
And Scott Millins, 26, from Gravesend said: ‘It’s quite disgusting. I’ve got a nine-month-old baby boy and a three-year-old son and it wouldn’t be a problem now, but when my young boys are older, that’s definitely not the sort of thing I would want them to see. Children shouldn’t know about that sort of thing until they’re grown up and in a relationship with someone. It’s really not very good at all.’
The display was headed ‘Sexual Wellbeing’ in large lettering with the words ‘Help you and your partner have a more positive sexual relationship’. Beneath each of the sex toys on display was a card detailing the toys’ features. Children passing the display for the £34.99 Durex Play Dream were able to read intimate details of how the product could be used. The sex toy earns purchasers 136 Boots loyalty points.
The Durex Play Discover, which costs the same and earns the same points, says it is ‘designed to inspire you to play and sensually explore your partner’s body from tip to toe’.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
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