Sugar leaves bad taste in the mouth

Guy Aitchison (London, OK): Could the election of Boris Johnson (a man most famous for appearing on HIGNFY) provide the cue for other TV personalities and celebs to enter into politics? The reason I ask is that I have just watched a ten minute interview with Alan Sugar on BBC News 24. It featured under the headline "Sir Alan's Broken Britain". There seemed very little point to the interview other than the fact Sugar - "off the telly" - has recently aired his views on the issues of violent crime and feral youth. So, what is the problem according to Sugar's analysis? "Human rights legislation", which comes from Europe and "places like that". And what is to be done? "Billions more" on the police, he said. Why these pronouncements were thought worthy of serious news coverage I do not know. It was perhaps too much to have expected the BBC interviewers to ask Sugar precisely which "European" human rights law he thinks explains recent stabbings and gun crime (they were happy enough doing the PR for BBC series "The Apprentice"). I remember feeling slightly smug when Arnold Schwarzenegger got elected Governor of California since I foolishly imagined the same thing could not happen here. Not any more.