I hear on the news today that the UK’s Assets Recovery Agency, a government organization to retrieve wealth from criminals, is going to be shut down because it has cost £65 million and recovered just £23 million. See the BBC story
Leaving aside the fact that there most be a joke along the lines of “how do you tell the difference between a political party and an organized crime gang” (suggestions welcome), what really caught my fancy was the fact that the ARA’s role is to be taken over by the Serious Organized Crime Agency.
I can only assume, that if there is a Serious Organized Crime Agency, there must also be a Frivolous Organized Crime Agency (otherwise why waste all that typograpy on the word ‘serious’?) – and if there is, I want to join.
Can you imagine? Rounding up gangs of clowns and mime artists as they roam the street, preying on innocent victims. Raiding stink bomb warehouses. Cracking down on backstreet labs where they make counterfeit Curly Wurlys. It’s time that frivolous organized crime was stamped out.
Not forgetting that “foca” is Portuguese for “seal” (animal)… Noting more frivolous then a circus foca balancing a ball on its nose!
A long time ago I read an article in Newsweek about the work of the Serious Fraud Office. It’s all terribly Pythonesque, wrote the (American) journalist. You can imagine that down the hall (the reporter continued) there’d be another door marked “Slightly Silly Fraud Office”.