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

Insanity prevails

I will get round to muttering about more high-profile vents in due course (probably, unless I don’t) but mean time a slow burning bit of insanity that I’ve muttered about before continues. It seems that Leicestershire Police have become the 9th police force to decide that “subculture” is a definition for a hate crime category. The Sophie Lancaster charity think that “alternative subcultures” deserve treatment from the police. Now as one of those dodgy alternative types and someone who had the pleasure of joining Leicesters knife crime statistics you might think that I’d welcome this development, but as you might … Continue reading

The terrible tale of Tuam

Continuing my usual practice of being late to press has the advantage of letting more details of a story emerge, being very late means that other people still cover the fuller picture before I do but I can cope. A little while back a tale of terrible cruelty from Ireland’s past emerged involving as always the Catholic church and cruelty to children. Stories about bad things the Catholic church is alleged to have done in the past, much like accusations against aging celebrities, causes even usually calm heads to discard their usual rigor and leap upon the most sensationalist headlines … Continue reading