Consent and respect matter more than numbers

There has of late been a lot of talk about rising crime, particularly violent crime, with the predictable cries that it’s all due to insufficient police numbers. Now it may well be that the police force is under manned, or possibly that it’s got too many of the wrong people doing the wrong things. However it occurs to me that to a great extent the absolute numbers of police really doesn’t matter. By and large the number of people employed in the police force doesn’t have any direct impact on the amount of crime committed. Much like ticket inspectors don’t … Continue reading

Some simple thoughts on Brexit

The recent court ruling that Parliament must be consulted before article 50 is triggered has caused something of a kerfuffle, and many learned people have written many learned words on the matter. Some are claiming it a triumph of Parliamentary sovereignty and laughing that the Brexit campaign based on regaining Parliamentary sovereignty might object to it, and others consider it to be an un-elected judiciary thwarting the will of the people. If you want some learned an academic opinions on the matter here’s a couple of links I like: “A deeply troubling and wrong-headed decision When it comes to using … Continue reading

Cologne madness

Hopefully anyone reading this is aware of the incidents that happened in Cologne and other German cities at new year. Just in case you’re not it would seem that large crowds of me of “North African and Arab appearance” (as the BBC put it) gathered in Cologne’s main square and around the train station where they fired rockets at the crowd threw bottles and sexually assaulted (include at least 2 rapes) a large number of women. Now normally I wouldn’t write about this, there’d be no need I mean drunken men causing trouble and sexually assaulting women social media and … Continue reading