I don't know much about Tony Blair other than what I saw in the Queen and a few NY Times articles, but he seems to be taking a reasonable approach to the Bully issue. Think about how many other politicians would have immediately sided with Vaz. He's only trying to be fair by saying that he will look into the issue. He can't just ignore the concerns of his people, however misguided they are, just because gamers disagree. I don't feel qualified to say if he's a good leader overall, but as someone who has never seen Bully, he responded fairly.

@Eric

Tony Blair a good leader? Allow me to follow that with continous laughter.

Blair’s response:

“First, let me praise my right honorable Friend for his work in raising awareness of the issue. I have not seen the game myself, but I know that both my honorable Friend the Minister responsible for creative industries (Shaun Woodward), and my honorable Friend who is responsible for the video industry, would be happy to meet my right honorable Friend (Vaz) to discuss the issue. It is obviously important, and I know that there is a lot of concern about it.”

If you haven't seen the game yourself, don't listen to someone who hasn't seen it either.

"“Last Thursday, the British Board of Film Classification gave a 15 certificate to a video game formerly called “Bully”. The game contains scenes of violence, including scenes of players terrorising teachers and students, teachers being head-butted and the aggressive use of baseball bats. Currys has banned it. Given the link between video games and a propensity to encourage violence that some research has demonstrated, will the Prime Minister convene a meeting of stakeholders—including representatives of the industry and parents’ groups—to discuss the issue? Does he accept that this is not about adult censorship, but about protecting our children?"

The game was given a 15 certificate. And i don't consider 15/16/17 year olds to be children as Keith Vaz tries to claim. A child to me would be something like 10 or 11 not 15 to 17.

If that isn't the politician equivalent of 'talk to the hand' I'll be very surprised.

No one over here takes Vaz seriously, corrupt as he has been shown to be.

Don't know much about Vaz other than the fact that his name's mud on GamePolitics, but his rhetoric sounds pretty similar to the tripe I read and hear Stateside. Sounds like Blair actually shunted his request off to the side, though. Seems to me that Blair likes to walk the fence on the video game issues; I can't get a bead on where he really stands. Maybe you UK'ers can help me out?

... WTF @ "Honorable friend"

@ Hank the Tank

I belive you have to call a fellow MP a "Honourable friend"

Hank the Tank Says:
October 19th, 2006 at 11:09 am

… WTF @ “Honorable friend”

It's called etiquette. There's quite strict rules in the House of Commons (not so sure about the House of Lords) about how you must address people, speaking in turn, and so forth.

Speeches are addressed to the presiding officer, using the words "Mr Speaker," "Madam Speaker," "Mr Deputy Speaker," or "Madam Deputy Speaker." Only the presiding officer may be directly addressed in debate; other Members must be referred to in the third person. Traditionally, Members do not refer to each other by name, but by constituency, using forms such as "the Honourable Member for [constituency]," or, in the case of Privy Counsellors, "the Right Honourable Member for [constituency]." The Speaker enforces the rules of the House, and may warn and punish Members who deviate from them. Disregarding the Speaker's instructions is considered a severe breach of the rules of the House, and may result in the suspension of the offender from the House. In the case of grave disorder, the Speaker may adjourn the House without taking a vote.
(from Wikipedia)

Well last time I check this is 'Merica! and that is a 'Merican game. So none of this crumpette munching politness. 'Merica is 300,000,000 strong, romping stomping bombs and destruction and I'll be damned if so British stuffed shirt is gonna.



Aw Hell, I can't be a redneck :( It's nice to see Blair shrug off this mincer, It's like the British Jack Thompson :P

Obviously we've not been watching the same sessions, Aniki O,o. Most of the times I've seen them in session on C-SPAN they lived up to Robin Williams' description: "Congress with a two drink minimum". Actually there are similar rules on time, form of adress (The gentleman from xxxx) and so on in all legislative bodies, including Congress. If you want to see a popular set of rules for parliamentary procedure I suggest you hit the library and check out a copy of "Robert's Rules of Order".

And hey, M, it's been -years- since one senator beat another into unconsciousness with a walking stick over a divisive political issue. ;)

Tony Blair: Honorably serving the Honorable Parliament of the Honorable Nation of Honorable England ever Honorably since I was Honorably elected to Honorable power in whatever Honorable year I was Honorably elected.

Chris S - Hello :)

Not annoy the Mail reader? You should know it doesnt matter what he does, he annoys Mail readers!

Well, to be honest, he's just sitting on the fence until he gets some idea about what way the wind is blowing, that's why he's the Prime-Minister, and Vaz is still only a whiny little MP who's trying to rebuild his reuputation after being caught in a scam ;)

At the rate things are going, whoever survives the battle when he leaves, to be honest.

Just like Louisiana, the UK has an initiative to try and attract more computer game industry to the country.

Unlike Louisiana, we are unlikely to make legislation which trips up our own legislation in the name of technophobia :)

Being uber-Politically correct has its advantages sometimes ;)

“Last Thursday, the British Board of Film Classification gave a 15 certificate to a video game formerly called “Bully”. The game contains scenes of violence, including scenes of players terrorising teachers and students, teachers being head-butted and the aggressive use of baseball bats.

Completely overlooking that you are fighting bullies and other people that are hurting or harming others.
---------------------------
Currys has banned it. Given the link between video games and a propensity to encourage violence that some research has demonstrated, will the Prime Minister convene a meeting of stakeholders—including representatives of the industry and parents’ groups—to discuss the issue? Does he accept that this is not about adult censorship, but about protecting our children?

This is of coarse BS once you ban a game what has reasonable amount of violance for TEENS not kids but TEENS you have to start banning more things to protect them then you have to start banning things from adults because they don't need thos thoughts anyway... the british rateing system much like the US one has seen the game and detremned it to be teen material if you feel the need to start censoring stuff for "our" protection...don't simply don't


“First, let me praise my right honorable Friend for his work in raising awareness of the issue.

If you cant say soemthign bad dont say it at all....
-----------------------
I have not seen the game myself, but I know that both my honorable Friend the Minister responsible for creative industries (Shaun Woodward), and my honorable Friend who is responsible for the video industry, would be happy to meet my right honorable Friend (Vaz) to discuss the issue. It is obviously important, and I know that there is a lot of concern about it.”

Nothing to bad here just normal spew to say I might be interested
---------------------------
“I think it can be said that the video games industry, or at least a substantial section of it, has made significant advances over the past few years, but as my right honorable Friend says, it is important for that progress to be maintained.”


Again nothing dim or bright
-----------------

Off-topic, but this bothered me a little.

Brer Says:
October 20th, 2006 at 2:50 am
@GoodRobotUs

“being uber-PC has its advantages”

I disagree vehemently, but in order to make the point I’d have to go -way- off-topic for this forum.

You dropped one important part of his statement. The original sentence GoodRobotUs posted was "Being uber-Politically correct has its advantages sometimes ;)" (emphasis mine). That one word changes the meaning of the statement substantially, and there's no doubt that being PC can be advantageous in certain situations.

That said, I do agree with your general sentiment that political correctness has been taken too far.

Parliament...

Some portions of this article sounds interesting. May be you have some links where I could read more about this topic?...