If it looks like a duck...

They say you can't judge a book by its cover. No? Maybe not - some books do indeed have deceptively anonymous covers and it would clearly be unfair. But when they say that, they're not really talking about books, they're talking about people, aren't they? And then the whole thing breaks down because not only can you judge by appearance, you invariably do judge by appearance. And so you should; first impressions are powerful, long-lasting and mostly pretty accurate.

Have a look at these and see if you can work out which is the whiny slapper, which is the rascally druggy bloke and which one is the thieving, burgling, violent scumbag who tried to use the Human Rights Act to avoid jail but then blew it by re-offending within a month of playing his get-out-of-jail card.

Easy, wasn't it? Gollum-a-like Wayne Bishop is today commencing an eight month sentence, which should have been enforced a year ago.

But, hang on. He was originally given an eight month sentence for burglary. This was suspended on appeal because of his 'human right' not to be jailed because he didn't fancy it. But now he's been convicted of another offence (he's been in court seventeen times, by the way) and yet he's still only facing eight months inside. What is wrong with our criminal justice system?

Outside the court some vague relative made the usual nauseating statement about how it wasn't really his fault at all: 

"Perhaps if as children we'd have had the right upbringing and guidance instead of our father being in and out of jail all our childhood life, Wayne would have been able to think before his actions..." 

Bollocks. If his father had been prevented from breeding at the earliest possible opportunity we'd all have been spared the misery and time and trouble and cost of tolerating such worthless, idle, parasitic ingrates. So, forget three-strikes-and-you're-out, when I'm king we'll have a three-strikes-and-they're-off system. This way, feckless twats like Wayne would be bollock-free before they hit puberty and society would be saved forever the ad-nauseum pandering to the "it's my upbringing" brigade.

You know it makes sense.