sound of the suburbs

Last Sunday I had a run in with French passport control police and British airways at Marseille airport. Let me try to explain, my eldest son who is 13 was due to depart for the UK and spend his Easter holiday's with my parents. When we presented ourselves at the check in desk we were asked for a document authorising him to leave the country, now this is not the first time that he was to travel on his own, but the said document that is delivered by your local town hall had not entered our thoughts and British Airways, deemed it not necessary to remind us when we booked, a change in their policy as on previous occasions it was them that drew our attention to this. To cut a long story short despite both his parents being present and having the same documents with us that we would need to provide at the town hall, our request was refused by an arsehole policeman, who hid behind rules are rules. While I can understand the reason behind this document, that is apparently unique to France, I can only state it's inadequate nature as it is only required if the minor is travelling on his identity card which is delivered free, a child that has his own passport that delivered for a rather heavy fee, is free to come and go as he pleases. As I said son was refused permission to leave the cuntry, and unsurprisingly was very disappointed, BA claim it is not their fault and are refusing to refund our ticket, hiding behind conditions of booking.......................There are presidential elections here in a few weeks, though nothing will change.
My immediate reaction was one 'Fuck The Police', which was originally by Cromptons bad boys NWA and a live cover version by Rage Against The Machine, both of these are dedicated to my son who likes rap and RATM. On reflection I would say it was more a case of 'I Fought The Law' and the law won, live by the Clash in Holland October 1981 or if you prefer live by Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros in LA November 1999. Which reminds me wasn't there talk of there being a live Strummer album in the pipeline around the time of his death, I guess it will be released one day and until then are plenty of bootlegs in circulation.