Singapore's Leader Lashes Rude Britannia

Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew branded modern Britain "a pale shadow of its former self' this week, suggesting today's Brits are no longer cultivated, polite or well mannered.

"The texture of British society is rougher, courtesy is less evident," the 81 year old autocrat, who studied at Cambridge University in the 40s, said. "Their social and sexual mores are no longer prim and proper." (Daily Telegraph)

His comments are likely to cause concern to Brit expats-in-Singapore Andrew Veale, 40, and Nigel Bruce-Simmonds, 35, both of whom are currently facing up to ten years in jail for possessing tiny amounts of drugs. Mr Veale was arrested after testing positive for ecstasy several weeks ago, days before Mr Simmonds (the editor of lifestyle magazine Tatler Singapore) pleaded guilty to having 0.8grams of meth (speed).

"He clearly admitted to the charge . . . He is remorseful for what he has done," his lawyer Shashi Nathan told the court (The Age, Australia).

"He appreciates that he has to live by Singapore's rules," he added. "Whatever punishment, he will be able to take it."

Also in Singapore, health minister Balaji Sadasivan announced that they're considering introducing compulsory HIV screening "high-risk Singaporeans' who travel abroad in response to growing levels of HIV infection in the South East Asian island state (numbers rose from 64 to over 300 between 1993 and 2004). Mr Sadasivan singled out men who have sex with prostitutes as one target group and homosexual men.

"Of the two, the gays are the bigger concern," the Minister told an audience of local medics last week.

"This recent explosion of cases is due to the promiscuous and unsafe lifestyle advocated and practiced by some gays," he claimed (International Herald Tribune).
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