Proportion, or lack of it

Today has been a funny news day - and a day when any sense of proportion was lost.

First of all, we heard yet more about the silliness perpetrated by Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross, when they called Andrew Sachs on Brand's BBC radio programme and left offensive messages on his answerphone. This was, clearly, an immensely childish thing to do, and deserves to be treated as such. I have no respect at all for Russell Brand, who is a talentless idiot with backcombed hair; and whilst I do sort of respect Jonathan Ross, they should both be relieved of their radio presenting responsibilities over this. They are paid out of our license fee to do these jobs, and I don't think arseing about making prank calls to upset people counts as doing their jobs.

However, the whole business has gained an unnecessary level of prominence - our Dear Leader (how I wish I could post without mentioning him) has condemned their behaviour; and yet, I feel that there are more important things our PM could be dealing with. Although, come to think of it, at least when he's talking about this he's not coming up with ways of spending more borrowed money.

On a more serious note, a senior civil servant has been fined £2,500 for leaving top secret documents on a train. Good. Hang on... This man, it is safe to say, was making a lot of money, certiainly in six figures per annum, when he made this extraordinary mistake. If you are willing to take on the responsibility of looking after really confidential documents (and apparently he took them home "by mistake" in the first place) you must be held properly responsible. The fine he was given is ludicrously small. It seems that he was "under extreme pressure" at the time. Oh dear. Remind me to care next time someone charged with top security work cocks up unforgiveably because of "extreme pressure". It seems he has since been demoted. So it is, by implication, only a bit naughty to leave top secret documents in public view.

If our civil service is to work at all, we need to maintain proper security. "Extreme pressure" doesn't come into it. Sort it out.