North Korea has Loudspeakers Too

An excellent piece in the Australian about Clover Moore's fun police.

A few weeks ago I noticed council workers putting up signs on telegraph poles, alerting residents to a phone number they could call if they were inconvenienced by excessive noise. No, this wasn't in the outer suburbs or in the leafy northern beaches, but on the main street of the Cross, where on the weekends up to 20,000 revellers arrive to drink, and dance and puke. I was tempted to call the number myself when, at 8am on a Sunday I was rudely awakened by the sound of AC/DC blaring through loudspeakers. Mind you, this wasn't the result of an all-night party thrown by some drugged-up neighbour but of the council's thoughtful decision to entertain joggers.

Since when is noise an issue in the Cross? Having lived near The Cross for years, I can only say that if you live there and complain about pubs and bars, you've about as much credibility as someone who moves to Lucas Heights and complains about the Nuclear Reactor. The problem is drunken violence. Booze isn't the problem either. It's the people consuming it, their background and their attitude to police and other people. Add to this grog and Red Bull (to keep them going until 3am as they only leave home at 10) and the result is predictable. The trainloads of pre-fuelled drunken bogans who converge on the Cross every Saturday night from two hours away, don't add a lot of colour (aside from what ends up in the gutter). Clover Moore says they should run trains all night. I say close them at 6pm. Problem solved. Update: Non-local attention seeker.