Drugs test policy from London Mayoral candidate

[Nearly Sane]

Lunacy

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/shaun-bailey-london-mayor-firm-drug-test-staff-a4531351.html

[ProfessorDavey]

Lunacy

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/shaun-bailey-london-mayor-firm-drug-test-staff-a4531351.html

He's got form - he wants tube stations to adopt the name of corporate sponsors - so Knightbridge becomes 'Harrods' etc.

Imagine the level of confusion (and cost) when sponsorship deals end - so when Unilever (ex Blackfriars) becomes St Ives Group! You'll no longer change at err Victoria tube station to get a train at err Victoria Station, but at Vivo Energy. Want to visit St Paul's cathedral - get off at Bank of America (or at least until it changes its name to Avesoro Resources)!

[Nearly Sane]

He's got form - he wants tube stations to adopt the name of corporate sponsors - so Knightbridge becomes 'Harrods' etc.

Imagine the level of confusion (and cost) when sponsorship deals end - so when Unilever (ex Blackfriars) becomes St Ives Group! You'll no longer change at err Victoria tube station to get a train at err Victoria Station, but at Vivo Energy. Want to visit St Paul's cathedral - get off at Bank of America (or at least until it changes its name to Avesoro Resources)!

Roaster

[jeremyp]

Lunacy

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/shaun-bailey-london-mayor-firm-drug-test-staff-a4531351.html

It's not a policy with which I agree, but why is it lunacy?

[Outrider]

It's not a policy with which I agree, but why is it lunacy?

These firms already pay taxes, why should they be funding checks for 'criminal' activity on their staff?  If it's not intended to get people fired then how is it going to be effective - what are the companies going to do with the information that will lead to any sort of decrease in the criminal activity?

The way to prevent organised crime profiting from the drugs trade is to decriminalise the drug trade.

O.

[Steve H]

I've read about this knob-head before. He obviously just wants to generate headlines (ideally, ones which call him a "mayoral candidate, unlike the ES).

[ProfessorDavey]

Roaster

I presume you mean 'Square Mile Coffee Roasters", the tube station formally known as Tottenham Hale

https://shop.squaremilecoffee.com

[jeremyp]

These firms already pay taxes, why should they be funding checks for 'criminal' activity on their staff?  If it's not intended to get people fired then how is it going to be effective - what are the companies going to do with the information that will lead to any sort of decrease in the criminal activity?

The way to prevent organised crime profiting from the drugs trade is to decriminalise the drug trade.

O.

That wasn't what I was asking. As I said, I don't agree with the idea, but I wondered why it was considered to be "lunacy" rather than simply a bad idea.

[Outrider]

That wasn't what I was asking. As I said, I don't agree with the idea, but I wondered why it was considered to be "lunacy" rather than simply a bad idea.

In part, I think, that's just journalistic hyperbole, but also because even if you're ideologically on the authoritarian end and inclined to impose laws and restrictions, it's a policy that makes no sense.

If the companies aren't supposed to be disciplining people for this ("it's not about getting people fired") then how is it going to be effective in any way?  It might, if the companies were to share the information, give the authorities better data on the extent of the problem, but that's not going to fix anything in and of itself.

O.

[jeremyp]

In part, I think, that's just journalistic hyperbole,

The word was Nearly Sane's. It doesn't appear in the article.

but also because even if you're ideologically on the authoritarian end and inclined to impose laws and restrictions, it's a policy that makes no sense.

If the companies aren't supposed to be disciplining people for this ("it's not about getting people fired") then how is it going to be effective in any way?  It might, if the companies were to share the information, give the authorities better data on the extent of the problem, but that's not going to fix anything in and of itself.

O.

As I said: bad idea, but "lunacy"?

[Outrider]

The word was Nearly Sane's. It doesn't appear in the article.

Still, perhaps, hyperbole.

As I said: bad idea, but "lunacy"?

A policy that has no feasible way of achieving its stated goal, implements a wedge between employers and employees, costs firm money and doesn't noticeably benefit the public in any way... it's at least stupidity...

O.

[Nearly Sane]

See definition 2.




lu·na·cy  (lo͞o′nə-sē)

n. pl. lu·na·cies

1.

a. Mental derangement; craziness: "The Indians thought his obsession with giant bones a sign of harmless lunacy" (David Rains Wallace).

b. Archaic Intermittent mental derangement attributed to the changing phases of the moon.

2.

a. Great or wild foolishness: a policy that proved to be a piece of economic lunacy.

b. A wildly foolish or irrational act.