Keith Vaz Grinding his Anti-Games Axe Again

Keith Vaz is turning into our very own UK version of Jack Thompson. The Labour MP has spoken out in the Commons about the possible risks when Rockstar’s much publicised Bully game comes out next year. He spoke to Geoff Hoon, suggesting that any game (or as he said, ‘video’) which depicts schoolchildren “kicking and punching other schoolchildren” could be dangerous. Hoon, with surprising acuity, pointed out that the game had yet to be submitted for classification and as such no assumptions should be made about its content. Hoon is standing in for Tony Blair who is speaking today at Hampton Court Palace, just down the road from one of our tireless SPOnG news nodes. We can report that the traffic over the bridge has never moved so smoothly!

Keith Vaz also spoke out against videogame nasties when another Rockstar game, Manhunt, was linked to the murder of Leicester teenager Stefan Pakeerah. If you’re not from the UK, you might like to know that nobody really takes Mr Vaz seriously. The Leicester East MP was forced to resign from his post as Minister for Europe after becoming involved in a scandal over citizenship for two businessmen, the Hinduja brothers. He also neglected to declare how many properties he owned when asked (five when he said three) and there were allegations surrounding his constituency of vote rigging and dirty tricks campaigns. You can read more about Keith here. Ah, UK politicians, they’re a comical bunch.