Jail Sentence For Popular YouTube Pranksters (bbc.com) 231
Turns out crossing a line, even for a prank by a YouTube star, can go bonkers. An anonymous reader cites a BBC report: Four members of the controversial Trollstation YouTube channel have been jailed in connection with fake robberies and kidnappings. The group were involved in a fake robbery at London's National Portrait Gallery and a fake kidnapping at Tate Britain in July 2015. The channel, with 718,000 subscribers, has built a reputation for filming staged pranks around the city. A fifth member was imprisoned in March following a bomb hoax.The Crown Prosecution Service's Robert Short said: "The hoaxes may have seemed harmless to them, but they caused genuine distress to a number of members of the public, who should be able to go about their daily business without being put in fear in this way. We hope these convictions send a strong message that unlawful activities such as these will not be tolerated in London."
Arrested for Violating the Strange-Sketch-Act (Score:3, Funny)
Also the Getting-Out-of-Sketches-Without-Using-a-Proper-Punch-Line Act, viz:
“Simply ending every bleeding sketch by just having a policeman come in.”
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Semprini!
Famous last words... (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess I look at pranks on strangers as something that has to be limited enough that the person pranked will themselves laugh about it. It's one thing to prank your friends that you have an understanding with, but it's an entirely different matter to do something that affects otherwise-uninvolved third parties.
This is a case of, "play stupid games, win stupid prizes."
Re:Famous last words... (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess I look at pranks on strangers as something that has to be limited enough that the person pranked will themselves laugh about it.
Sure, like gluing a quarter to the ground or the ol' dollar bill on a fishing line trick; something that most people will instantly recognize as a silly, light-hearted prank and move on. One of my favorite memories was spending some time on a pier on Catalina island with a whoopie cushion, some friends, and some unsuspecting passers-by. However, many of these "pranks" I've seen recently involve some sort of direct interaction with the offender, and aren't easily escapable situations. If a prank starts making people feel uncomfortable, you've completely missed the mark. When a prank starts making people feel threatened, prepare to get your chops busted one way or another.
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How do you "prank" a theft from a portrait gallery? If they actually stole a portrait, then it's theft. It doesn't matter if they give it back and say "it's just a prank".
Actually, it does. From the Theft Act 1968:
"A person is guilty of theft, if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it"
Therefore, with no intention to permanently deprive someone of the object, no theft has taken place.
From TFA though:
"All four pleaded guilty to two counts of using threatening, abusive, or insulting words or behaviour with intent to cause fear of, or provoke unlawful violence for their involvement in the two hoaxes."
Re:Famous last words... (Score:5, Interesting)
If a prank starts making people feel uncomfortable, you've completely missed the mark.
This^^^
I remember the original Candid Camera. The best prank I every saw them pull was getting a large box delivered to an office and that box just fitting through the door. While the delivery people were distracted the camera crew added an insert to the door jam and said that the box was delivered to the wrong office. Now when the delivery guys tried to move the box the couldn't get it out of the office and couldn't understand why. Hilarious.
On the other hand I saw another show which had people sitting in an office. Someone would drop a dummy past the window and before the mark could respond and actor would replace the dummy on the ground. Cue a mark who was concerned/worried about seeing potential death/suicide. Even I felt uncomfortable watching it.
Re:Famous last words... (Score:5, Insightful)
"If a prank starts making people feel uncomfortable, you've completely missed the mark."
You've just banned ALL comedy, especially in the pathetic world we live in where someone is offended by/uncomfortable with everything...
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It is illegal to shout "fire" in a crowded theater.
That applies to a lot of related sorts of activities. In this case, that group did, in fact, build a prank bomb in addition to staging criminal activities.
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It is illegal to shout "fire" in a crowded theater.
No it isn't.
a) I can think of two ways in which it would be perfectly acceptable to do so;
b) No-one has ever been convicted of "shouting 'fire' in a crowded theater."
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Nor is it illegal to shout "fire" as part of a play. Otherwise, (among others) every firing squad scene would result in criminal prosecution.
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If it isn't on fire, you are inciting property damages.
Technically, the only restriction on free speech is that which "would be directed to and likely to incite imminent lawless action." [wikipedia.org]
Note that the link takes you to the Wikipedia page for "Shouting fire in a crowded theater." As explained in the article, the entire saying came into being because of supreme court case Schenck v. United States, which was related to free speech but had absolutely nothing to do with shouting fire in a crowded theater. During
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"If a prank starts making people feel uncomfortable, you've completely missed the mark."
You've just banned ALL comedy, especially in the pathetic world we live in where someone is offended by/uncomfortable with everything...
Pranks are comedy, but not all comedy is pranking. If someone is watching a TV show or live standup or whatnot, they know what they're in for; cringe away. If I'm walking down the street minding my own business and someone approaches me and begins acting in a way that sends up red flags, that's not comedy. I did not sign up for that. That is how misunderstandings occur, and people get hurt.
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"If a prank starts making people feel uncomfortable, you've completely missed the mark."
You've just banned ALL comedy, especially in the pathetic world we live in where someone is offended by/uncomfortable with everything...
If you do a prank in a closed setting with people you know it's fine. When you blindly involve the public while performing criminal acts it's not going to be funny anymore. Especially if those people feel threatened. You can choose to roll the dice.
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The parent just gave you an example of comedy that doesn't make people genuinely, deeply upset. You ignored that, and instead lept to a ridiculous extreme.
Look, people are not going to carefully define every word of their argument for you. If you deliberately assume the worst possible interpretation when an obvious and much more reasonable one is apparent you are either a perpetual victim or terrible are debating.
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This (Score:2)
I really have a hard time comprehending people openly attacking free speech, which this is. A prank flimed and uploaded to the Internet can not make everyone happy. It should not do so, that is quite contrary to any rational thought. If people being offended is a measure of legality, I want every member of Fox News, NBC News, ABC News, MSNBC News, and CNN jailed immediately. In addition, I want every politician arrested, and every comedian alive would have to be jailed too. I love me some Lewis Black,
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Just because you record something criminal you are doing does not make it legal, unless of course it is prostitution in which case apparently it does or getting paid a bribe, apparently if you accept the bribe by giving a public speech about it, then it is no longer a bribe. Never to forget that as money is considered speech, then paying someone to kill someone is speech, so they payer is freely entitled to pay and only the assassin should be prosecuted. Now add in bearing false witness, fraud, perjury or
WTF? (Score:2)
Re:Famous last words... (Score:4, Informative)
No, you confuse humor with prank.
A prank is a physical situation that you cannot immediately escape. It is about your immediate reaction, and typically involves violating boundaries. That is why it is something to be done with care.
A television sketch about a politician, on the other hand, may make that politician uncomfortable, but he is not immediately on the spot and has plenty of opportunity to react rationally. In fact, making him uncomfortable may be the only way to push him into re-thinking his ways. Or a satire about some organisation or public figure may exaggerate in order to make the point and create humor, again crossing the line into discomfort or even humiliation. But again it is targeted at the audience and the victim is not in the headlights with their immediate reaction being national news.
It's a big difference if you get put in a bad place, then calm down and later on are interviewed about it, compared to being put in a bad place and whatever your instinctive first reaction is will be archived for all eternity.
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You've just banned ALL comedy, especially in the pathetic world we live in where someone is offended by/uncomfortable with everything...
No just the kind of schadenfreude humor where you get your juvenile rocks off giving a complete stranger PTSD
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The suicide prank was on the edge, but still on the legal (and tasteful) side since it didn't cause anyone to reasonably believe their life was in danger. If you find yourself in the midst of a "robbery", it is not at all unreasonable to feel that you are in danger.
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The suicide prank was on the edge, but still on the legal (and tasteful) side since it didn't cause anyone to reasonably believe their life was in danger.
I agree that they never felt that their life was in danger, but the "payoff" for this particular prank was recording the reaction of someone who thought that someone elses life was genuinly in danger and/or dead/badly hurt. To me, that has crossed the line for a prank done in real life.
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I can see that viewpoint. It was on the edge so while it is legally in the clear, some may see it as over the line.
Of course, we have to consider it in the social context of it's time as well.
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Not sure why "life in danger" matters all that much.
Putting someone through watching a suicide is sure as hell not ethical in any sense and could very well cause serious harm.
Having quite a few friends who struggle with the aftermath of their own attempts at suicide or friend's successful suicides it is not something to take lightly.
I do not find it even remotely close to the 'tasteful side'.
The dummy dropped happened in high school (Score:4, Interesting)
We had a World History teacher in 11th grade who I think had psychological problems. I don't know what her problem is other than saying she was wound about 5 turns too tight and one of those people who pretty much has "victim" tattooed on their forehead -- even I saw it, and I was an obey-the-rules type.
Anyway, her personality basically invited the bad kids to torment her, and they did, mercilessly. The fucking assistant principal, who looked like Rosie Grier and was really intimidating, was in our classroom about twice a week, which sucked, because he was an asshole to everyone, including people like me who never got in trouble.
Finally somebody disobeyed her and she got mad and this kid walked out of the classroom. Put their shirt on a dummy and threw it out of the classroom window one floor up. Lots of yelling out the window and then the dummy thrown out the window.
Of course she and everyone in class saw it fall past the window. She looked out and then left the classroom. Permanently. The story was she had a nervous breakdown and got some kind of indefinite medical leave.
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The constant "Homg lern 2 deal nubs" crud thrown around about "all these weak people" with regard to mental health is so incredibly frustrating.
Fucking with someone's psyche should not be so easily dismissed. Destroying someone's life is no joke :(
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Don't get me wrong, I think the pranks pulled on her, especially the dummy one were pretty awful and I had nothing to do with them.
This teacher, though, shouldn't have been in a classroom. Like I said, there was something *wrong* with her from a mental health perspective from day 1. She was really uptight and her weird rigidity wasn't just targeted at the outright disruptive kids, everybody got a taste of it.
It should have been obvious to the principal who hired her. It's been 30 years, so I'm not sure i
Re:Famous last words... (Score:5, Insightful)
This. But, looking at their channel, they had an awful lot of much more dangerous 'pranks' (faking shots fired in a parking garage, faking a street shooting in public). These are going to get The Man involved, and The Man (quite rightfully) takes a dim view of incidents deliberately designed to panic people. They also had more than a couple where they deliberately placed people (complete strangers) in fear of their lives... for amusement. Yet another crossing of the line of reasonability.
Their channel name, Trollstation, gives the game away though... They weren't looking for laughs (a prank), they were (like all trolls) looking for attention. And they got the attention they deserved, the IRL equivalent of a banhammer.
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I used to have a "duster". A long leather coat that goes down below the knees.
So my brother and I were at the beach earlier that day and decided to go to Knotts Berry Farm. I got out of the car but the wind was a bit chilly so I put on my duster. I was still wearing shorts...
My brother and I are innocently walking along when I see a female (maybe 23 years old) walking with what I assume was her boyfriend... and she was staring strangely at me. I realized that with my duster closed, it looked like I might b
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It is a crime to deliberately put someone in reasonable fear for their life.
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High value robbery often endangers bystanders.They did their best to make people believe there was such a robbery in progress.
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*I* wouldn't shoot them unless they were directly threatening me but in a lot of places there are people who might not show that rest
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I haven't been able to sit through one without fast forwarding myself. But a number of their "funny" pranks convince people shots are being fired in public places.
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I'm really surprised that, "It's just a prank bro!" hasn't been documented on-video as famous last words.
I guess I look at pranks on strangers as something that has to be limited enough that the person pranked will themselves laugh about it. It's one thing to prank your friends that you have an understanding with, but it's an entirely different matter to do something that affects otherwise-uninvolved third parties.
This is a case of, "play stupid games, win stupid prizes."
Back in "The Day," there was a real-life prank TV show called Candid Camera [wikipedia.org] hosted by Allen Funt. It was lighthearted stuff, like putting a speaker in a mailbox and having an actor say "Hey buddy, got a quarter" to passers-by, but only when no one else was looking. Stuff you could walk away from and laugh about it.
I don't remember any pranks that were mean-spirited, and one of the show-runners said about Candid Camera: "We’ve always come at it from the idea that we believe people are wonderful and w
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I don't know. The bathroom switching prank, if repeated today, would probably have resulted in jail time for conspiracy to commit lewd and indecent acts.
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This.
If the person who is the victim of the prank can't laugh about it, then it's not a prank, it's just being an asshole at someone elses expense.
If you don't know that person, you need to be extra careful and the standard should be that pretty much anyone you can imagine would find it funny. Just4Laughs is a good example of a prank show where the people pranked are not humiliated and made to feel awful. A lot of the other prank shit on YouTube is just not funny if you're the slightest bit empathic.
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Re:Famous last words... (Score:4, Insightful)
No I haven't, because one of the biggest MTV prank shows is filmed in Texas. But oh yeah: everyone is afraid of your peashooter. I'm sure you will be protecting us all real soon now.
Dunno... if I were in one of those 'stand your ground' states and had a firearm and some fucker came up to me and slapped me while his pal filmed it, I'd feel pretty safe shooting them both in the guts.
"Officer, I honestly felt my life was in danger".
"Yep, nothin' to see here, move along."
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While I agree that being pissed off is not a reason the use a firearm, it still brings up a good point: If you stage a kidnapping next to me and I am armed, I will, if I have the guts, draw said firearm and try to stop you.
With these kinds of asshole pranks, one wonders how little these people think their actions through.
Or they trust in that everyone else will show the restraint they themselves lack. Problem with that is if enough people abuse my restraint? Yeah, at some point, that restraint will shatter.
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Re:Famous last words... (Score:4, Informative)
No I haven't, because one of the biggest MTV prank shows is filmed in Texas. But oh yeah: everyone is afraid of your peashooter. I'm sure you will be protecting us all real soon now.
People are every day. http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/12/... [cnn.com]
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I have seen them in Texas, including in the flesh. Worst was a friend that wanted to do the stare at police then run away prank. That is always a winner. He never expected the cop would body slam a bored affluent white kid. His parents had to pick him up at the station. Southern justice!
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Goodness (Score:5, Funny)
One would think that YouTube fame would protect one from the consequences of faking a realistic-looking burglary at a major museum.
:|
Idiots... (Score:5, Insightful)
Pranks cross the line when emergency services (police, EMS and fire primarily) need to get involved, even to disprove a situation as an actual event. Real lives and property may be at stake and if these services are distracted by bs like this there absolutely should be consequences.
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Fair enough. Was that the case here? But...
they caused genuine distress to a number of members of the public, who should be able to go about their daily business without being put in fear in this way
This may go too far in law, though I sympathize with the sentiment. You can't just invent law outside a legislature.
Re:Idiots... (Score:5, Insightful)
Who's inventing a law? It's clearly a breach of the peace and arguably wasting police time.
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I've run my radio controlled gator up besides the rangers boat.
He would have been embarrassed as hell if he had fallen for it. Especially if he had shot it. Imagine the paperwork.
Of course it's in a snow melt fed lake with clear water, so if you look once you see 90% of the gator is missing and the water is 30 degrees F too cold. Only a true moron would fall for it.
I should take it to 'clearlake'. That's so murky and warm and the people are so blazed, they will run for sure. If I knew where a lot of
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Not necessarily. Every year, it seems like somebody in the U.S. decides to do the old "Santa dangling precariously from the chimney" gag. To my knowledge, nobody has ever gone to jail for it, though in some cases, after about the twentieth 911 call, they've asked them to take it down. And in the U.K., there was this gag [bbc.com], where folks staged a fake murder for the Google Street View cameras. The police thought it was funny.
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My point is that people have actually mistaken the good pranks for real people and called 911.
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Pranks cross the line when emergency services (police, EMS and fire primarily) need to get involved, even to disprove a situation as an actual event.
I am frankly surprised that John Quinones hasn't been beaten to a pulp for some of the stunts he hosts on "What Would You Do?". Or the bad-guy actor, at least. One where some college students were trying to force one of their party to drink heavily despite her objections, and especially the one where one actor was playing the part of a battered woman and her alleged batterer was inflicting emotional abuse in public. Or any of the ones where they have people stealing bikes, or a drunk mother telling her chil
Was it made clear in advance that it was fiction? (Score:4, Interesting)
Because if so, how is it any different than actors playing a role of some criminals on a tv show? They don't go around arresting the bad guys of fictional dramas, why should they do so here?
If they did not make this clear, however, I can see it being a problem.
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Because in the fictional drama everyone else on the set (in the room) is a paid extra and knows what is going to happen. There are also lots of other people on hand off camera doing the tasks that need to be done so that anyone not associated with the shoot knows that a TV/movie production is being done. Additionally the owners and/or people leasing the location have probably been paid for the use and definitely had to have given permission to use the area so the know what is going on. A scene is normally
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That is kind of my point... if it was somehow made clear in advance that it was a dramatization and not a recording of an actual illegal event, then they wouldn't have gotten in any trouble... or else, as I said, the cops would go around arresting actors after they had portrayed a character doing something illegal.
Hell, all they would have had to put is a running subtitle text along the bottom, shown maybe once or twice during the first 15 to 30 seconds of the film "Dramatization only, not a recording of
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Well.... (Score:5, Insightful)
There are pranks and then there are *pranks*...and when the latter crosses the line into destruction of property or causing real fear among an unsuspecting group of people (Burger King employees, crowds, shoppers, whatever) then it's time to drop the ban hammer and prosecute them.
A fake robbery and a fake kidnapping? They're fucking lucky someone didn't step in and shoot them. Over here in the US that kind of shit is likely to get you shot dead by someone who's not in on the "joke".
If I saw someone that I thought was actually being kidnapped, you can damn sure bet I'd try and stop it.
Re:Well.... (Score:4, Insightful)
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But I get it... saving a life is "not my job" (tm)
Not a very good excuse when vigilantism goes wrong.
Re:Well.... (Score:5, Insightful)
I remember once when I was working with juvenile kids who lived in a group home. We were at a park and one of the kids tried to run away. My co-worker ran to the van while I ran after the kid. About two blocks away I tackled the kid, my co-worker pulled up and put him in the van.
To strangers what they saw was a teenager being run down by a much larger adult, tackled, and thrown into an unmarked van. The police were called, our license plate written down and it still took the police over an hour to find us.
Had that been a planned abduction, with a stolen car and a quick switch to another vehicle they never would have found us. The police can't always reasonably respond to situations quickly enough. It's not their fault but as JustAnotherOldGuy said: in the US, you very could get shot doing pranks like that.
At the same time, what if someone had intervened? What if I had been shot, shot at or another person tried to stop me "beating up the kid". What I did was completely legal, despite how bad the situation looked. The "good citizen" could have found themselves in a rough position to defend.
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... juvenile kids ... group home
The Juvenile Hall (aka juvy) is a place for people under the age of 18 that are under house arrest. It's pretty close to jail in that they cannot leave, but there is a lot of counseling in addition to some community service. Counselors are trying to reform rather than punish. The crimes that can get you juvy vary from low end theft and property damage up to manslaughter and molestation. When freed, the juvenile record is generally sealed.
Lately, there's been a big push in the US to punish even 14 year
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Yes, because it is so difficult to use the cell phone, make a few photos and call the police. Can't be so hard to let the pros do their job. Or can it?
The issue isn't difficulty, the issue is time.
Are you really telling me that I should just stand there and watch someone get kidnapped, and do nothing except take some pictures and call the cops? Seriously?
If it was your wife or daughter being kidnapped, would your answer be the same- just take some pics and call the cops? I doubt it.
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Apparently you are not familiar with the new professionalism [popehat.com] of our police.
Involving the cops as a witness is an invitation to be arrested.
It's OK, I have a Youtube channel! (Score:2)
Just release them next year and say "just kidding" (Score:5, Funny)
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My kingdom for a mod point.
if this was texas (Score:2)
When is it "genuine distress"? (Score:2)
It's obviously not genuine distress if you try to get someone fired and it's not genuine distress if you try to slander someone, so this curious mind here would like to know just when the distress caused by some troll is "genuine" enough to get some law enforcement agencies off their asses.
Don't mess with Texas (Score:2)
In the US, it's a crime (Score:2)
Threatening someone with the apparent intent to harm them is assault - and a felony in most states, I think - even if the assailant doesn't intend to cause harm. All that must be proven is that the victim believed harm was a potential outcome. Put the fuckers in jail, I don't have time for shit like this.
These are pranks? (Score:2)
Fake robberies? Fake kidnappings?
Are these people brain damaged?
They should be happy they're only going to jail, and weren't actually gunned down.
Bloody idiots.
Addressing the "Shouting fire in a theater" posts. (Score:2)
This is not "an exception to free speech", because it is not an expression of one's opinion. Shouting fire... is a call to action, much the same as negotiating services with a drug dealer or prostitute. This is exemplified in the difference between dressing up as a policeman or military service member (i.e. Halloween) and using that uniform to fraudulently force others to do something -- produc
Get out of the EU already (Score:2)
""The hoaxes may have seemed harmless to them, but they caused genuine distress to a number of members of the public, ..."
And I thought pranks were exactly supposed to do that, (cause mild distress) otherwise it would just have been a joke.
Good.. (Score:2)
This f-ing nonsense should stop.. The only reason they are doing it, is because of the income they get from the youtube channel..
This is not fun, and they should have thought about it, as people when they flee could have harmed objects in the museum, just to name one example.. Pranking on youtube should come to a halt, as it just isn't really funny (just think if it happens to you), also they sometimes prank the wrong person who actually kills them in 'defence' or out of pure blind revenge..
Re:Never moving to the UK (Score:5, Insightful)
Harassment and abuse are never ok (Score:3, Interesting)
Just like the people who created Borat should have been jailed.
Harassment and abuse are never ok.
There are a lot of other videos like these also. I saw one where a woman went in public deliberately with her ass showing, then filmed guys reacting to it and she confronted them to embarrass them and accuse them of being perverts.
There are a lot of sick creeps out there. I think the movie Borat unleashed a lot of this.
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Just like the people who created Borat should have been jailed.
Harassment and abuse are never ok.
There are a lot of other videos like these also. I saw one where a woman went in public deliberately with her ass showing, then filmed guys reacting to it and she confronted them to embarrass them and accuse them of being perverts.
There are a lot of sick creeps out there. I think the movie Borat unleashed a lot of this.
I don't understand how Borat is not hate speech.
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I don't understand how what you call "hate speech" can be a crime.
I don't think 'hate speech' should be a crime, its ridiculous. But if you are going to have 'hate speech' laws, let them be applied even handedly!
Re:Harassment and abuse are never ok (Score:5, Informative)
Ummmm... no.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re:Never moving to the UK (Score:5, Funny)
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Fun for who?
*Whom
Was that fun for you?
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Dude, read what these people actually did. This would be just as illegal in the USA and the supreme court confirmed as much more than a century ago. This is classic "shout fire in a crowded theaterhouse" stuff that has never been considered legitimate speech anywhere.
Your rights end where mine begins, and your right to free speech does not include inciting a panicked riot that could get my toddler trampled to death, nor has it ever included that and nor will or should it.
Re:At least the got a trial... (Score:5, Insightful)
You don't prank do you?
What you want is something that will only fool 1 in 100, who will see him/her self as a dummy when they finish panicking.
When 99 people are laughing, or at least smiling, and the 'victim' is just mildly embarrassed for having pissed herself, you have a good prank.
Good pranks: Radio controlled alligator head at snow melt fed lake (mine). Running out the door of a museum with a replica masterpiece.
Not good prank: Fake kidnapping.
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Re:Why do we always get this from the UK? (Score:5, Insightful)
So weird. Am I the only person here who thinks it's odd that people who staged crimes and uploaded the video evidence to YouTube wouldn't be prosecuted for something just because they said "Just a prank lol! Lighten up lol!"
Personally if somebody "pranked" me like that, I'd probably beat the shit out of them once I'd figured out I was in no real danger.
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When I watch "pranks" like this one [youtube.com], inevitably those videos are filmed in a place like Australia or the UK. If someone tried that in the US they would get shot within the first few takes, and the person with the gun would probably not get charged.
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When I watch "pranks" like this one [youtube.com], inevitably those videos are filmed in a place like Australia or the UK. If someone tried that in the US they would get shot within the first few takes, and the person with the gun would probably not get charged.
And as a bleeding-heart gun-grabbing liberal, I would sigh and weep... for all the innocents who suffered before the prankhole got what was coming to him.
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Yeah, how about it boys, let's see these young me get raped!
What kind of life experiences led you to cheer on rape?
Re:Good! (Score:4, Funny)
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The group is currently crowdfunding to go on tour.
Don't worry, they will be coming to your area soon. The only thing dumber than pissing off emergency services in your own city is to go do it in another country.
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If you have "popular YouTube prankster" at the top of your CV, the world is probably better off with you in jail.
Re:So when will the house of lords be arrested? (Score:5, Insightful)
Care to share some specifics? Which Lord / Lady would you like arrested, and for what crime?
If anything the House of Lords acts as a valuable 'brake' on some of the ludicrous legislation that comes out of the House of Commons. They come from a wide range of backgrounds, have a diversity of skills and education (unlike most career politicians, who invariably studied law at a prestigious university), and show, for the most part admirable restraint when it comes to knee-jerk media fed populist reactions.
To, tangentially, digress, I'd heartily recommend the book "Mind Change - How digital technologies are leaving their mark on our brains" by Baroness Susan Greenfield, just one member of that House which you apparently so despise. How do your contributions to society rate, in comparison?