Interesting Facts

A nuisance call company, Keurboom Communications Ltd, has been fined a record £400,000 for making nuisance calls. (The company often masked who was making the calls, which ranged from road traffic accident claims and PPI compensation, with some people receiving repeat calls, sometimes on the same day and during unsociable hours. Nuisance calls have been a problem in the UK for years, and what usually happens is when they are caught the firm declares bankruptcy, and avoids paying any fine. In 2016 the ICO (Information Commissioner's Office) issued fines totalling £1.923 million for nuisance marketing, but according to the Telegraph, out of 20 firms penalised, 15 went bust or declared themselves insolvent. I wonder if the courts will see a penny of this fine?)

In the UK, in order to be legally permitted to sell certain age restricted products, you need a licence or registration.  (Licenses and/or registrations apply to the following products:- Alcohol Fireworks and explosives Firearms  Gambling Knives (non domestic) Pet animals Petroleum Tattooing and skin piercing Tobacco There is an age limit of 18 for using a sunbed, but no legal requirement to be licensed to operate one. There is no age limit for using or purchasing hair dye.)

Blackpool is banning the mankini to clamp down on stag and hen misbehaviour. (They have introduced Public Space Protection Orders (PSPO), which have the power to prohibit certain unwanted behaviour in specific areas, such as clothes like mankinis in family-friendly areas during the day. If you don't know what a mankini is, it was made famous by Borat, in the controversial film of the same name. I have no idea why any man would want to emulate the look, but there is a picture here (make sure you're not eating). http://metro.co.uk/2014/10/20/mankini-free-zone-blackpool-clamps-down-on-stag-and-hen-misbehaviour-4914040/)

Under new laws in the UK, internet trolls face up to two years in jail.  Credit: Vector.me (by laobc)  (This quadruples the current maximum six-month term and follows several high profile cases. Under the act, which does not apply to Scotland, it is an offence to send another person a letter or electronic communication that contains an indecent or grossly offensive message or threat.)

Wikimedia, has refused a photographer’s repeated requests to stop distributing his most famous shot for free – because the photograph of a monkey was a selfie - the monkey pressed the shutter button and therefore should own the copyright. ( Gloucestershire-based photographer David Slater was in Indonesia in 2011 attempting to get the perfect image of a crested black macaque when one of the animals came up to investigate his equipment, hijacked his camera and took hundreds of selfies. One of those selfies is now famous. Understandably Mr Slater is less than pleased. Probably because one of his best images, was taken by a monkey. Copyright law, which is a minefield in itself, says that the person who takes a photograph owns the copyright (regardless of who owns the camera it was taken on). Of course monkeys aren't people - yet, but it's an interesting grey area. BTW - if you can't take a better selfie than this one, please don't bother.)

A new law in Spain would require Spanish children under the age of 18 to be respectful to their parents and teachers, and have a positive attitude towards learning. (They will also be required to help out with housework, regardless of age and gender", the ABC newspaper says. The rules come under a section of the law called "the rights and duties of children". I guess that as most laws are written by men, they decided that if they have to do housework, everyone does (see previous fact). The new law doesn't say what the penalties would be for children who refuse to comply.)

Clare's Law is aimed at protecting women (and men) from violent abuse by their partners. (The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme means that police can disclose previous convictions for violence, even if a person has not requested it. It is called Clare's Law after Clare Wood, who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend.  It was revealed after his trial that he had a horrific history of violence against women. Miss Woods’ father Michael Brown campaigned for a change in the law.) !Note - According to The Wright Stuff, 400 people investigated a partner during the pilot scheme.

Today Clare's Law will start to be rolled out across the UK. (To find out more about what Clare's Law is, read the fact for today.)

According to a poll commissioned by UK law firm Slater & Gordon, 60% of women have had to ward off an unwanted advance from a colleague. (Almost a quarter of female workers have had a more senior member of staff make a pass at them, but only 27 per cent of victims have reported the matter to their boss. The most common places for harassment are at the desk when working a late shift, in a lift or staff corridor, and of course at the office party. In my case it was my boss, at the office party.  I won't tell you what I did, but he didn't do it again.  That said soon after I left the company.) 

According to a report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary 1.2 million stop and search incidents take place every year in the UK. (The problem is that more than a quarter of them are unlawful: Either the paperwork has been filled out improperly, or no clear reason given for the procedure. Stop and search, is the term used for when a police officer stops you and asks you what you’re doing and why you’re in an area and/or where you’re going. A police officer in the UK also has the power to stop and search you if they have ‘reasonable grounds’ to suspect you’re carrying: illegal drugs a weapon stolen property something which could be used to commit a crime, e.g. a crowbar The fact is, according to the same report, only 9% lead to an arrest, and that search-to-arrest ratio varies from 3% in Cumbria, to 7% the West Midlands, and 8% in Manchester and London, where most stop-and- searches take place. An even worse statistic is that black people are seven times more likely to be searched...

25% of all solved crimes in London escape punishment. (According to figures obtained through a freedom of information request by a Conservative London assembly member, Tony Arbour, they end up in the issue of a caution instead of a prosecution, and nearly 29,000 cautions were handed to criminals by the Metropolitan police in the year to March. Some of these were for minor offences, but not all: 5,843 were given out for violent attacks, 165 for sexual offences and five for rape, while 180 offenders were cautioned for grievous bodily harm or wounding, 131 for robbery and 318 for drug-trafficking.)

Facebook is being sued over the "Like" button. (The claim for unspecified royalties, has been issued in federal court in Virginia, saying that FB uses technology developed by Jos Van Der Meer over a decade ago. Mr Van Der Meer allegedly started something called Surfbook, described in the lawsuit as a "social diary", before his death in 2004. In 1998 he was granted two patents: one describing a way of logging content from third party websites in the diary, apparently similar to Facebook's Like button, and the other a more general description of the diary. I wonder if we will all have to pay for the number of times we have clicked that little thumbs up?)

In the UK it is a crime to insult someone through words or behaviour. (Section 5 of the 1986 Public Order Act currently means that "threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour" might be deemed a criminal offence. The law was used to arrest a student who asked a police officer whether his horse was gay. Probably as a result of ridiculous arrests like this, the law is to be amended, removing the word "insulting".  I wish I'd known it was a crime when I was at school. I could have had half my teachers arrested, they really knew how to insult your intelligence.)

More than 209,000 young people were detained by police in England and Wales in 2010. (2,117 of those arrested were under the age of 11.  T he police have even arrested some children for throwing sticks at a horse chestnut tree (we do that to get the conkers, and yes, I have done it - even as an adult), but b elieve it or not, t he number of children actually arrested has fallen in recent years .  I have the sneaking suspicion that children are easy targets, whilst hardened criminals may be dangerous. I know who I'd rather go after.)

In the UK,  when you get engaged, any engagement ring belongs to the person it was given to, even if the marriage doesn't take place. (Believe it or not, this is written in law - The Law Reform Act of 1970 says:- "The gift of an engagement ring shall be presumed to be an absolute gift, this presumption may be rebutted by proving that the ring was given on the condition that it should be returned if the marriage did not take place for any reason." But let's face it, who's going to put that in writing before proposing?)

According to research carried out by road safety charity Brake, 1 in 3 visually-impaired drivers make two journeys each week without their glasses or contact lenses. (The excuses given include:- 'I forgot to put glasses on/contacts in' 'I was only planning to drive a short distance' 'It was too sunny so I swapped my glasses for sunglasses' 'My eyes felt dry/tired so I took my lenses out' 'I have broken my glasses and can't afford to replace them' UK law states that, if you need to wear glasses or contact lenses to meet the ‘standards of vision for driving’ you must wear them every time you drive.)

According to a government report, Fair Access to Professional Careers, 41% of law undergraduates, 57% of medical students and 49% of journalism students in Britain come from the UK's 'highest socio-economic groups’. (The independent reviewer on social mobility (yes we really do have one), Alan Milburn pointed out that some middle-class graduates were also locked out of the job market and internships because their families did not have - the right connections. Birds of a feather stick together Mr Milburn.) Source

In the UK it is illegal for a dog to poo in your garden, but not a cat. (That said, public fouling is only an offence when it is not immediately cleaned up. UK dog owners who fail to scoop their dog's poop can be slapped with a £1,000 fine under the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005.  But cats can pretty much do what they want, when they want; hence their expression of superiority.)

You can be fined or jailed for buying fake goods in Europe. (In France, the maximum fine for buying fake goods is 300,000 euros, or three years in jail and during a crackdown in Italy in 2010, a tourist was fined 1,000 euros for buying a fake Louis Vuitton bag for seven euros.)

According to a nationwide survey by Halifax Home Insurance, around 6.5 million adults in the UK admit to buying goods from criminals. (Only 20 per cent of the people asked said that they would ask where the goods came from before buying them.     The British public are buying around £247 million worth of stolen goods from illegal street traders.)