British politician in band wagon jump shock

In light of recent and not so recent news stories in the UK, the leader of the opposition, David "Dave" Cameron, has decided to get tough on crime by ignoring all the difficult, long term, effective but publicly unobvious options and spewing forth the usual knee-jerk, headline grabbing bollocks about video games and movies.

David Cameron launches attack on violent gamesTim Ingham Today, 10:05am
UPDATE: Tory leader calls on publishers to embrace self-censorship
With a general election looming, David Cameron has found a new ‘enemy of society’ to rally against: violent video games.

The Tory leader has set out a new long-term plan to tackle anti-social behaviour – including potential curbs on interactive entertainment.

According to the Press Association, the strategy will form part of The Conservative Party’s new ‘mini-manifesto’ on law and order.

"We are never going to deal with crime unless we look at the broader context and say 'Yes, tough laws, strong action on the police, but also action to strengthen our society',” said Cameron.

"And that includes, I think, video games and things like that where we do need to think of the context in which people are growing up."

Also

David Cameron said today that companies which make music videos, films and computer games have a responsibility not to promote violence, as he unveiled a raft of measures to combat crime in Britain.

He said more, I heard it on the radio, but I can't find a full transcript ATM.

Yay for politicians!

Oh, great, this makes Labour looks slightly more favourable.

As long as I still got Doom and Wolf:ET, I'm fine. In fact, just Doom :)

"Games are bad, they make you mad!"

Yay for more Totalitarianism which the UK is rapidly devolving into....

Uh, the Tories aren't in power...

Maes said:

"Games are bad, they make you mad!"

You want to play capture the babe sometime?

TheDarkArchon said:

Uh, the Tories aren't in power...

And hopefully never will be again, heh. This sounds like another one of those desperate attempts to get attention becuase they don't have anything resembling real policies. To be fair, though, Labour aren't really that much better.

I disagree that violent games make you violent. On the other hand, 90% of games seem to be about violence of some sort. Sure, its fun every now and then, but gorging on it takes away the inherent charm and stress relief of it. Like too much of anything I guess.

I hope someday there is a resurgence of less violence-centric games. The two games I am most after right now are Ecco DC, and Myst online, both of which were made ages ago.

Back when I was all teen angsty I'd always play Doom to calm myself down. There have been statistics compiled that would support the fact that games actually make kids LESS violent.

Technician said:

You want to play capture the babe sometime?

Yeah, "I definitively need more of that".

I dunno about the article, but reading the thread title gave me a headache. How does that even make sense?

udderdude said:

I dunno about the article, but reading the thread title gave me a headache. How does that even make sense?

It's written in tabloid headline grammar. Aside from that, you've never heard of Jumping on the bandwagon?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandwagon_effect

The thread title was very nicely done, heh.

Games don't kill people. It's people who seem to believe that they think creating (or imitating) the games image in reality that gives games a bad name.

How cares what some whiny congressman say, let them whine if they want to. I can't see how it could hurt the gaming community as only sucker moms and poor congressman care. I don't think this has EVER bin a subject in my country, or at least no enough for anyone to really care. Manhunt was banned in the UK (well they don't allow anything anyway, there porn sucks to!) but in my country the only thing that happened was that a bigger sticker was put on the retail box!

Manhunt was not "banned", some shops simply stopped selling it for a while. I in fact bought it about a week after the "ban". And now you can get it anywhere again

hardcore_gamer said:

How cares what some whiny congressman say

It is possible that this whiny "congressman" could be the next Prime Minister of the UK. ie, If he wins the next election, he would be the leader of the country. :/

Isn't he also trying to bring back national service now? That's what I've been hearing. Only it's going to be voluntary and probably in no way a solution to tackling the problems our society faces today. :/ I've seen what military service does to chavs and it's fun to watch. :p

Well, if things go my way I won't be living in the UK when the next general election comes around anyway. Yay!!

Wait, voluntary national service? How is that going to change anything? It's basically like that now -- you volunteer to join the army.

He's just spewing out stuff that sounds good to people who will vote for "good old traditional British values". A common perception is that the youth is out of control so, everyone "knows", banning video games and bringing back national service will solve the problem. It doesn't have to make sense and it doesn't even have to be something he actually plans to implement. It's just something to grab the headlines and make him sound like he is trying to do something to the majority of people who aren't even semi-listening.

Voluntary national service is an interesting concept though. O_o

Without having seen any of the proposals, my guess is that it could be something like a shorter term contract with slightly different terms and conditions than would normally be associated with joining up. My guess is that something like that might appeal to a certain kind of person who wants a "gap year" sort of experience. However, such people are unlikely to be the problem he is trying to solve.

Ah well, it's all attention seeking bollocks anyway.

Enjay said:

Without having seen any of the proposals, my guess is that it could be something like a shorter term contract with slightly different terms and conditions than would normally be associated with joining up.

It is indeed a load of attention seeking bollocks. What's new about that? Voluntary national service jsut doesn't sound quite right anyway. I mean, it sounds like the time I helped my neighbour build the extension onto his house. But let me fill you in on what I know about this stuff he's got in mind, or at least what I remember.

Apparently the program would involve 6(?) weeks of doing various activities such as community service and other stuff that just isn't going to fix the problem. One of those weeks is spent in the army, or at least, on a military base of some sort or other. Unless they sign the military contract, there's not a lot that can be done to them. You only have to give the military a minimum of 4 weeks now anyway, so what's the point?

Anyway, chucking kids into so called "brat camps" is not going to solve society's problems. They can try and tackle all the various and complex problems but the government will fail time and time again unless they take the time to consider the actual underlying framework of society itself. Someone actually wrote a lot on the subject a while ago and it went into great detail too. I'm sure I have the book kicking around here somewhere.

Enjay said:

My guess is that something like that might appeal to a certain kind of person who wants a "gap year" sort of experience.

Attention seeking bollocks indeed. I can just imagine someone as corny-looking as Harry Potter turning round and going "HeY gUyS (with a really dorky smile) we got a year to do nothing! We could either go to a really nice paradise-esque resort somewhere along the equator, go freeze our asses of in somewhere equally extreme but in minus degrees, we could visit many countries, or we could go kill bad guys! Hmm... I've always wanted to play out Saving Private Ryan... let's go!!!"

It'd be good if they did bring back the 50's type national service, it worked on Bad Lads Army. But only as a punishment of course, making it "voluntary" in that you only go if you're a little shit who deserves it. Oh and it should be for 3-4 months at least

deathbringer said:
It'd be good if they did bring back the 50's type national service, it worked on Bad Lads Army.

Right... they could add some more recruits like in the Gay Army, as well, no?

TheDarkArchon said:

Uh, the Tories aren't in power...

Tories? Are they still around? I remember them from my grammer school early American history lessons, pre revolutionary war era. Like in King George ass kissing loyalists.

scene: taxes raised, tea party, war starts

tory: I say, you yanks are going to make a mess of our good life here in America.

Cornwallis surrenders

tory: eh wot? What are we to do now, sail for England?

2nd tory: or we could pack the wagon and make for Canada in the dead of night

1st tory: do Canadians serve tea and crumpets?

2nd tory: dont know but there are lots of frenchies up there we can ridicule

1st tory: jolly good show ole chap. its off to Canada then. Tally ho!

And now I see 230 years later they are still around in British politics. LOL

Right... they could add some more recruits like in the Gay Army, as well, no?

If they mug people, smash windows and go around spraying stupid "tags", YES.

The "Tory" party is only a nickname for what is officially called the Conservative Party.

The reason we have anti-social kids in Britain is not violent video games, it's a lack of discipline and good parenting.

I had both when I was growing up and I've played millions of hours of violent video games and wow I haven't killed anybody. Coincidence? No.

Sadly, Britain has been ruined by a generation, maybe two generations now, of wooly liberalism that has left society pretty near its knees and in some places completely disintegrated.

I wouldn't mind getting out of here myself, but it does have its plus points too.

pritch said:

The reason we have anti-social kids in Britain is not violent video games, it's a lack of discipline and good parenting.

Absolutely agree, 100%. and not just in Britain either

I had both when I was growing up and I've played millions of hours of violent video games and wow I haven't killed anybody. Coincidence? No.

me too. I actually find games like Doom to be a stress reducing mechanism after a hard day at work. 20 minutes of demon killing and I'm relaxed heh heh

[B]Sadly, Britain has been ruined by a generation, maybe two generations now, of wooly liberalism that has left society pretty near its knees and in some places completely disintegrated. ;/B]

America, as well. So ironic that at least 100 years of socialism/communism failures to learn from, yet people still cling to the notion of throw more money at the problem, omg the problem is bigger than we thought, raise taxes and expand government, why dont the politions save us? the huddled masses cry out <sarcasm>

I remember what life was like in the '50s and how it changed so radically for the worse in the '60s. it has only gotten worse since then.

To paraphrase a book that was written a few years ago, Where the hell has my country gone? or something to that effect. oh well, definitely off topic for this thread. sorry heh

Deertag said:

Tories? Are they still around? I remember them from my grammer school early American history lessons, pre revolutionary war era. Like in King George ass kissing loyalists.

The Tories renamed to the Conservatives in 1832, but the name remains as a slang term.