The vain search for common sense

I see that the children's charity, Kidscape, has warned that the government's ridiculous new proposals to outlaw incitement to "homophobic" hatred may lead to schoolchildren being arrested for using such innocuous phrases as "your trainers are gay". Kidscape's training manager, Claude Knights, added that if the proposed laws were introduced, then the police would need to use "common sense" in enforcing them.

Sadly, I think that this is something of a vain hope. Remember the case of George Rawlinson, the ten year-old threatened with arrest for using the word 'gay' in an e-mail? Or that of Sam Brown, the Oxford undergraduate taken to court for questioning the sexuality of a police horse? No, I'm afraid that the common sense train has long since left the station, and I don't think it's coming back.