Last year it became known that a number of UK shopping centres were banning hoodies. Someone joked that you could buy one but not walk out of the store wearing it. Then it became known that, after the first shopping centre announced their ban, visits rose by (if I remember correctly) 25%. Blair was quoted endorsing the shopping centres' ban.

A few weeks ago, an elderly woman was thrown out of a pub for wearing a hat "for security reasons" as "it interferes with the CCTV".

Good for the archbishop of York!

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman

I'm sure that he came up with that 99% figure using the prison population ratio in the UK (average 130 per 100,000), rounding it off at 1%, to get 99%.

For all we know 0% of hoodie wearers are criminals, or the opposite, 50% for all we know.

But I like this kind of diary, it's anecdotical and whacky, thanks for the info Little L!

You all know how I feel about hoodies.

Well, hoodies are pretty commonplace in America. Pretty much everyone has one.  But I suppose that's not surprising.  And I've seen a lot of Catholic priests wear them too.  I didn't realize they have such a criminal connotation!  Here they are just a way of advertising what team or town or neighborhood you like.  Still more are plain and just serve to provide some warmth on nippy evenings.

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -Voltaire

Since I always thought (and please correct me if I am wrong) that the Anglican Church is a little more conservative, I find this bit of news a little odd.

The anglican church is mainly quite conservative (With a small c) however, it's also quite a broad church, the religious wing of CND was mainly Anglican, When I was running a local anti poll tax group, we had Militant and Socialist worker, from the left turning up for support, and Black flag (The anarchist group, not the band)  turning up to provide support and give training. however, the most determined and organised protestors, were a group of Anglicans who turned up quite unexpectedly to support the pensioners. Many of the UK Ploughshares campaigners are Anglicans, and if you want to look on the world stage, much of the Anti Apardtheit support movement outside of Southern Africa was run by Anglican priests from the office of an Anglican Archbishop.

does it do the church any good? does it make it more accessible to young people? I don't think that's the point, it's not a PR exercise, they are attempting to live up to the ethics of their religion as they see it.

is it appropriate? certainly. How could it be appropriate for someone to act against the core ethics of their religion.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

I can see the original objection about "hiding from security cameras," but it's gone a bit far.

Is anyone mentioning Muslim "veils" or Sikh "headdresses"? (I don't recall the correct terms. Of course people wearing these are unlikely to either frequent pubs or be much of a threat.)
I'd be very amused to see New Labour twist itself into knots discussing that.

Maybe I should get my Stetson out of storage (468 or 440 look close). If Terry Pratchett can wear it so can I. A pity I never go to pubs or shopping centres.