Just went head to head with Andy Parkes, Newsquest's London group editor, on BBC Radio Scotland and, guess what, he does indeed want to see capital and corporal punishment reintroduced.
Though he previously explained away his rant as a "bit of fun" he made it clear that he was referring only to the bit about arming pensioners.
He sticks by the rest of his diatribe, believing that his call for a return of the death penalty and beatings for wrongdoers (see here for verbatim account) is a proportionate response to the bout of civil unrest.
I have to say I wasn't expecting that. I imagined he would excuse the editorial in its entirety as a bit of fun, as a misguided piece of satire in which I had failed to see the joke.
Not so. Therefore, I didn't get it out of proportion when I blogged on it this morning, as he suggested to Journalism.co.uk. I was reflecting the reality in my original posting: he was being serious.
If you wish to comment on this matter, please go to the original posting below.
