More unusual news from the USA. No not that President Obama was re-elected, but instead, a throwback to bygone times and maybe something that could catch on over here.

A woman driver in Cleveland was recently filmed driving her vehicle on a sidewalk (pavement) in order to get past a school bus that was offloading children. She was ordered by a judge to stand at a road junction wearing a sign stating “Only an idiot drives on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus”. Well, it’s difficult to argue with the sentiment and many would say that the punishment ( ritual humiliation in front of her local community) fits the crime.

Of course, it’s no more than a journey back in time to when petty criminals in Middle Ages England were put in stocks and had rotten fruit and vegetables (and worse!) hurled at them by their peers or, when women suspected of witchcraft were placed on ducking stools before being immersed in the stagnant waters of the village pond.

The European Court of Human Rights would have a thing or two to say about it now but wouldn’t it be great, for example, if local louts were made to stand in town centres with signs proclaiming “Only a cowardly thug would steal a handbag from an elderly lady” or “Only a drunken low-life would hurl abuse at innocent people trying to enjoy their Friday night out”.

Better still, erect some stocks outside the Houses of Parliament for errant MPs, a notice hanging from their necks stating “Only a grubby little parasite regarding himself as being above the law of the land would fraudulently claim thousands of pounds a year in expenses in the arrogant belief that his crimes would not be detected”.  It won’t happen, of course, though more’s the pity!