Playtime’s over, Hugh
Some mayay not like the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg or the way she questions Jeremy Corbyn. Some may get riled at her assessment of Tory fortunes. Some might detest her jackets or haircut. Whatever. No one gets to threaten a woman doing her job just because she gets on their wick. If she needs a bodyguard because of some sickos, the police should be coming down harder than a Bojo Brexit. Sad news for Gaelic rockers: Runrig are calling it a day. The band have been on the road for 45 long years. Well, that high road on the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond gets very congested. Still, the end of an era makes me recall being rescued from the crush of enthusiastic fans at a Runrig gig. Spent most of the concert in the first aid area. To be honest, est, they sounded better from in there.
Teenage sexting. To us high schoolol parents, it’s the terror which now tops our crowded list of fears. New figures show an explosion of phone and online sex crimes on girls under 16. Kids who are permanently attached to their phones find no escape from the kind of pressures us parents never experienced. It’s time a full, hard-hitting campaign of education and awareness was rolled out across the country. For parents and youngsters. So Hugh Hefner has gone to the great Playboy mansion in the sky.
He could be the only man ever to reach Heaven and find it’s not as good as life down here.
The 91-year-old lived exactly as he wished, spending his days in silk PJs, lounging in the lap of luxury while surrounded by young beauties to ogle.
The fact he found so many women willing to Breast specialist cancer an Whitford, Philippa spending part is SNP MP, in tary recess parliamen of the g services developin for Gaza. She’s compass ion True le, patients. Meanwhi for real need. say women in Cancer Support n Macmilla Scotland are in if waiting times So 10 years ago. worse than end for at a loose Philippa’s holiday… her next be his playthings says more about the allure of fame and wealth than Hef’s mythical abilities as a lover.
Maybe a more enlightened sort will buy the Playboy mansion and turn it into a retirement home for ex-Playmates who grew too big for their bunny tails.
It could be a place with only one new rule to replace Hef’s strict code of conduct: No mucky old men allowed.
Moving forward just far enough to avoid the kerb, backing up carefully only when the road is clear, screaming at the weans in the back to shut up and let you concentrate.
They may also experience the delights of reverse parking, perhaps between two of those prestige cars so popular in the Middle East, while their owners are sitting in their drivers’ seats giving you evils and making you sweat and cry at the same time.
While these may not be the def ining highlights of any woman’s existence, it’s almost impossible to imagine being banned from them, of being deliberately denied the right to even attempt a quick zip down the motorway to the nearest mall.
So isn’t it great that Saudi Arabia’s ruling monarchy have finally seen fit to overturn the world’s only ban on women drivers? Er, maybe we should pull into a layby before we get too excited.
It may be progress but there’s little chance of Saudi women enjoying the freedom of a solo road trip any time soon. It will be June next year before the lifting of the 60-year ban so the rest of the world will be 18 whole years into the 21st century before Saudi Arabia takes a baby step into the 20th.
And what the supporters of “benevolent” Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman aren’t broadcasting so loudly is that while a woman will be allowed to hold a driving licence, her husband or father or brother will likely retain the right to veto any attempt for her to use the car.
The kingdom has done nothing to lift the repressive male guardian laws that prevent women doing many everyday tasks without the approval or accompaniment of a man.
Now the young crown prince wants us to like him here in the UK, so it’s in his interests to be seen reforming the regime.
You know, that’s the one which throws critics and human rights activists in jail for years; tortures, flogs and stones prisoners; executes juveniles and homosexuals; and has conducted a brutal bombardment of Yemen that has pushed 17million people into a humanitarian crisis. All this as well as treating women as second- class citizens to be kept covered up and suppressed, locked up if troublesome, stoned if accused of adultery. And what do our Government do about it? Turn a blind eye. In April, Theresa May made Saudi one of her first ports of call after triggering Article 50, glad-handing with old King Salman in the hope of a “further intensif ication” in relations following Brexit. Yes, she’s that desperate.
Last month, her Government backed the world’s largest arms fair, the Defence and Security Equipment International Exhibition, in London and the specially invited guests included Saudi representatives, no doubt keen to replace the £ 3billion worth of UK arms they’ve used on Yemen.
Yet a few weeks before, a leading think tank produced a report saying Saudi Arabia was “undoubtedly at the top of the list” when it comes to funding Islamist extremism in Britain.
At least the Scottish Government have led calls for an immediate ban on arms sales to Saudi Arabia pending proper investigation into breaches of international law.
It’s crucial to criticise the behaviour regimes don’t want us to make a fuss about.
A small moment of progress, a surprise PR move, should never blind us to the big picture. And when our politicians do nothing to condemn, they make us complicit.
Forgive us if we’re not rejoicing that Saudi women have been handed the car keys. It probably means some man wants a lift.