Like Clockwork

Over in Canada's National Post, happy slapping is making waves (see Joseph Brean, "Happy slapping: new craze or just thuggery?", National Post, December 17, 2005). It's encouraging to see the journalist taking a balanced approach, even in relation to the horrendous murder of Soho barman David Morley. Perhaps this is a triumph for common sense, or maybe just the calming influence of the Atlantic Ocean. Away from the storm itself, 'random violence' in other countries can look like a storm in a tea-cup. The author even bases his Clockwork Orange analogy on the book not the film, as does fellow London correspondent Sandra Laville (see "A clockwork mobile: feral gang used phone to record death spree", Sydney Morning Herald, 16 December 2005). Laville tells us that 'Like the droogs in Anthony Burgess's novel A Clockwork Orange, they chose the South Bank in London as the hunting ground for their "ultra violence".' Unlike the tramp at the start of the movie, beaten senseless outside the Uxbridge campus of one of my former employers.
(Also, how nice to see the article reposted to the alt.spanking.reality.moderated newsgroup.)