Large Bare Patches On The Curate's Lawn

It's at times of disruption that you can note changes in the national character. I remember the tube and rail strikes of a few years back, when the British tradition of the orderly queue broke down and there were fights at bus-stops, presumably between the young and fit. The old or frail wouldn't really have been equipped for this system of seat allocation. Do people still queue in London ?

Now that you have to put your mobile, laptop and Ipod in your suitcase at an airport ?

"Looting and theft from luggage has increased at airports in the chaos after the terrorist alert."


I see the current system by which prisoners are released after half their sentence is too punitive for our tough Home Secretary.

"The Home Office is drawing up plans to release thousands of prisoners early, to free up cells in overcrowded jails.

Inmates in England and Wales could be released 10 days early under the plans.

The prison system is nearly full and has room for only another 700 inmates - hence plans to extend what is called the "transitional home leave" scheme."

There are parallels here with our energy policy. It was obvious in 1997 that, as the oil and gas ran down, we'd need alternative sources of energy, or else to cut consumption dramatically (don't get me started on Prescott's traffic pledge). But tomorrow was a long way off - why not pander to backbench/activist/Guardian prejudice and close all the nuclear plants ?

Something will turn up.

It didn't.

Silmilarly anyone in the Home Office looking at the stats in 1997 could see the need for a prison building programme. But that would upset the back benches/activists/Guardian. Anyway, crime's caused by a lack of social justice, isn't it ? We're pledged to fix that, so fingers crossed we won't need them.


Tomorrow's here and the prisons are full.


Meanwhile, the collection of sociology grads called the Association of Chief Police Officers are considering calling for the police to be able to hand out punishment without a court conviction. You know, the way they do for parking fines, not filling in a Statutory Off Road Notification, etc.

It's Pelagian government in action.

"Pelagian governments believe in Man’s perfectibility and innate goodness. As this fails to produce the perfect society, so do initially liberal Pelagians tend to turn towards coercion, more laws and greater police powers. Remind you of anything ?"

The Children ! The Children !

The BBC are giving massive air to the 'story' that "'1m children' face home violence", according to a UNICEF report. It was all over the Today programme, second item on R4 news, and the Victoria Derbyshire phone-in on R5 is discussing it.

Two teensy pointettes.

The 1m headline figure turns out to be "between 240,000 and 963,000", 'violence' includes 'emotional violence', which, as we've seen before, includes 'not getting your fair share of the household money'.

And as a factor in poor outcomes for children, over two million live in one-parent families - not to mention the step-children. Many of these one-parent families are the outcome of cohabitation.

You're not likely to be told that by the BBC, though. And even less likely to be told that by Victoria Derbyshire.

"They should understand our problems, then we will understand their problems"

"they" being the British Government, who have a problem with people blowing up trains and aircraft.

"we" being the Union of Muslim Organisations of the UK and Ireland (UMO), who are asking for "Islamic laws to cover family affairs which would apply only to Muslims".

Ms Kelly had said she would "look sympathetically at all the suggestions" that had been made, Dr Syed Aziz Pasha, secretary general of the UMO said.

He added: "She agreed with my suggestion it should be a partnership approach."

Inayat Bunglawala, spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "It was a very positive meeting."

The wedge is in, the first little taps have been given. We can expect plenty of bluster about democracy before the accommodations begin. After all, there is a precedent - Northern Ireland.

Mr Reid - interviewed yesterday on BBC News 24 - said it was "not the British way" to change policy under threat ...

"No government worth its salt would stay in power in my view and no government worth its salt would be supported by the British people if our foreign policy, or any other aspect of policy, was being dictated by terrorists.

"That's not the British way; it's antithetical to our very central values.

"We make decisions in this country by democracy not under the threat of terrorism."

Not the British way, eh, John ? Antithetical to our very central values, is it ? I thought our central values were tolerance and inclusion.

As Jennie Bristow says, "Britain's core national values consist of the unwillingness to promote core national values".

As an old Marxist, Dr Reid should - must - remember all that stuff about the cadre - the disproportionate impact of a small number of highly motivated and organised activists. They love death - we love life.

I see no reason why the slow surrender shouldn't go on indefinitely, accelerating as increasing numbers of natives decide that getting, f***ing and spending isn't all of life, and convert to an austere, demanding religious discipline - as organised Christianity once was. Nature abhors a spiritual vacuum.

See No Evil Part 719

Compare and contrast.

The BBC.

Three builders who conned pensioners out of their life savings are beginning jail sentences totalling 12 years.

Alexander Allan, William McPhee and Andrew Cummings took nearly £70,000 from seven victims by pretending they needed roofing work carried out.

They inflated the cost of jobs and claimed more work was needed. They were convicted after a three-week trial.

The victims were aged between 75 and 84 and targeted in Ayrshire and Lanarkshire in 2003 and 2004.

Jane McCreath, 76, from Ayr, South Ayrshire, was told that she would be made homeless if she failed to pay.

Margaret Tennant, 84, from Troon, South Ayrshire, handed over £14,350.

But the work carried out by McPhee, 40, from Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, and Cummings, 25, from Ayr, was worth £1,500.

Ruth Johnstone, 84, from Ayr, who is registered blind and deaf was conned into signing a cheque for £600.

The gang altered the amount to steal £6,000 from her account.

They also called at 77-year-old Catherine Cooper's house in Dunure, South Ayrshire, and said her roof was leaking before taking £3,200 from her for work worth only £300.

I see. Three builders - from Coatbridge, Motherwell and Ayr - in a joint operation. Strange, really. Those three locations aren't terribly close. And there is one group of people who have a bit of previous when it comes to ripping off pensioners for building work. Anything else we need to know ?

The Scotsman.

A fourth man, Alexander Townsley, 45, of South Bridgend, Crieff, Perthshire, gave evidence for the Crown against his former co-accused after having charges against him withdrawn during the trial.

He told of being duped into paying cheques into his bank account after being hired for two days' work by the gang, whom he described as travellers who could not read or write.

Townsley is now in hiding at an undisclosed location under the witness protection scheme.

The court was cleared of the public and press and extra police were drafted in after a security alert following the guilty verdicts, which took three days for the jury to return.

Thank you, Scotsman.

The BBC - all the news we think you need to know.

Antonia Bunce

via Labour Watch.

"Antonia Bance, the Labour councillor for Rose Hill & Iffley, was invited by the Department for Communities and Local Government on a three-day, all expenses-paid conference in Budapest on the finer points of blogging - the keeping of Internet diaries. She received a £500 bursary to go on the trip, which was attended by "several hundred" other bloggers and representatives from central and local government."

Why couldn't they have sent Bob Piper ? And held it in Ulan Bator ? Over an eighteen-year period ?

Only joking, Bob. There's still the odd bit of industry left to get rid of in the Black Country ...

Profiling

Lord Stevens speaks. Tim Ireland disagrees ("shouty-crackers" - talk about pots and kettles). So does the Yogurty One ("crackerjack profiling plan"). Davide Simonetti talks from the Nether Regions ("unintelligent and racist").

Chick Yog turned his Bloggerheads comment into a post. Good idea. I posted on CY as follows :

“here’s where Steven’s crackerjack profiling plan falls on it’s abject arse. At least one of the men arrested last week was a white convert.”

So approximately 5% of those arrested last week were white. And 5% Afro-Caribbean. Both converts.

Are you lot really suggesting that security people should spend as much time checking the bags of an elderly English lady, or a Scots couple with three kids, as on the bearded Asian guy ? Given that security resources are not infinite, something that Andrew Bartlett (in the CY comments - LT) seems to take no account of ?

I believe during the ‘troubles’ that a lot more Irish than English people were checked at Stranraer. Doesn’t seem too bad an idea to me.

Wow. A white convert might get through. How true. But we’re talking averages and probabilities here. As your defeatist forebears (they were arguing against spending cash on air defences) said in the early 30s ‘The bomber will always get through’ - and it’s true. All we can do is try to minimise the numbers.

I would expect that white and black converts are probably being noted down somewhere anyway - I certainly hope so. You know what they say about the zeal of the convert - they’re certainly over-represented in the exploding ranks.

Now you COULD argue that profiling will maximise the numbers, on the ground that it will so alienate the sons of the prophet that we’ll end up with more bombers. I look forward to someone explicitly arguing this :

“these guys are no more likely to be terrorists than anyone else. And if you say they ARE more likely, a small minority of them, supported by a much larger minority, may decide to blow you up, so don’t say it”.




NOTE - on one of the threads, some idiot aired the original thought of genius, never heard before, "did we suspect all Catholics during the IRA terror years (1969-200?)". This post to him !

Another Triumph For The Probation 'Service'

He held teenagers captive and drugged them before forcing them to work in his brothel.

He was convicted on 15 charges including indecent assault, abduction, false imprisonment, supplying drugs and procuring.

15 years.

I appeal !

OK, 12 years. Released after eight.

He was released early from his 12-year sentence a month ago, but disappeared six days ago from the address where he was required to live.

South Wales Police say Musleh as "dangerous" and are warning the public he should not be approached.

Huzzah for British justice !

And huzzah for the BBCs reporting !

Farhan Musleh is described as of dark European origin, 5ft 9in (1.7m) tall, of medium build, with brown eyes and black receding hair. He has several gold crowns on his teeth.

Gold crowns ? Not stereotyping, are you ?

The sex offender is originally from the Gabalfa area of Cardiff.

Must be some new definition of the word 'original'.




Over at the weblog of the National Association of Probation Officers, they're concentrating on more important things, like the Middle East crisis.

I Was Going ...

To post about the latest outbreak of BBC stupidity, but Tim Worstall has done the biz.

Miss Fitzpatrick told The Observer that the BBC's team of foreign correspondents should come from the same ethnic background as the country they were reporting from.

This is entirely nonsensical. So we’re reporting from India: the reporter should be of which caste? (Yes, they are very different ethnic backgrounds). A Sikh? Moslem? Hindu? Reporting from Sri Lanka, Sinhalese or Tamil? Nigeria: Yoruba, Hausa or Ibo?

As the UK is majority a vague pinkish colour is she going to fire all reporters currently employed in the UK who are not vaguely pinkish ?

Presumably Ms Fitzpatrick also thinks that the London correspondents of foreign media organisations should be British.

I wonder if she realises that this would mean in practice the disappearance of the specialist foreign correspondent from the BBC. No more Misha Glennies in Eastern Europe, no Michael Buerk reports from Ethiopia, no Kate Adies everywhere. Instead we'd have all reports from foreign parts coming with a native's view, not an outsider's. A native view can be very valuable. But exclusively native views ?

Still, at least Frank "I'm A Muslim" Gardner would be in one piece.

Pointless Gesture Politics

No 1 : the 100 Labour MPs (and a few idiot Tories) who have asked for Parliament to be recalled to discuss Lebanon.

Why ?

"Labour MP Paddy Tipping, Mr Straw's parliamentary private secretary, said there was a strong case for a recall so ministers could hear people's views."

What exactly is the point ? We have no power to avert the conflict or impose a solution. The map ain't pink no more. Our armed forces are just getting ancient kit upgraded - after all, we need the money for those vital outreach workers.

They just want to emote in public.




No 2: John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, is to sleep on the floor of his cathedral for a week, in what the BBC 'Sunday' programme described as a 'rough shelter', in solidarity with those in the Middle East who are "sleeping in churches, bunkers, underground car parks and shelters in an attempt to escape from the bombs and rockets that are falling on both sides of the border".

Explaining the nature of his action, the Archbishop said: "Many thousands of people have been denied access to food and water as a result of the fighting. Why not join me in a spirit of fasting during the week by being prepared to forego a meal and donate the money to charities, like Save the Children fund, who are working in the conflict zone. At a future date we must all give generously to the reconstruction of Northern Israel, Lebanon and Palestine."

The Save The Children Fund is an unfortunate choice. As Stephen Pollard has pointed out, as you can see from their press adverts and their 'donate' page, 'Save the Children is responding throughout the region to assess and protect the needs of children caught up in the recent escalation of violence in the occupied Palestinian territories and Lebanon.'

You can read that two ways. Are SCF saying that there has been no escalation of violence in Israel ? Maybe those rockets don't exist. Or don't Jewish kids count ? Either way it stinks.

Jinnah On Multiculturalism

"The Hindus and the Muslims belong to two different religions, philosophies, social customs and literature . . . To yoke together two such nations under a single state, one as a numerical minority and the other as a majority, must lead to growing discontent and final destruction of any fabric that may be so built up for the government of such a state."

Mohammed Ali Jinnah, first post-Independence leader of Pakistan, in a speech to the All-India Muslim League in 1940.

No Law, No Justice

Crime writer Lillian Pizzichini on the Toni-Ann Byfield murder.

"There are seven other murders unaccounted for in this borough. One of these was the murder of Junior Ogie, 20 years old. He was shot dead in broad daylight in front of at least 12 people on the South Kilburn estate on 15th July 2005. The identity of the gunman is common knowledge amongst the community and even the police know who he is. But he has fled to the Caribbean and detectives are unable to extradite him without a signed witness statement. The six other murder investigations - all involving young, black men - are similarly stymied."

First they came for the fox-hunters. Then they came for the homophobes ...

BBC news.

"A councillor who allegedly said that "all gays are paedophiles" has denied committing a public order offence.

Peter Willows, 75, a Tory councillor on Brighton and Hove City Council, was allegedly heard to make the remark at a mayoral reception on 18 May.

He was subsequently charged with using disorderly behaviour, or threatening, abusive or insulting words, likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress."

Mr Willows statement may be factually incorrect, as is its converse, although I believe about a third of those convicted in English courts of child sex offences are homosexual, a proportion far higher than the proportion of homosexuals in the general population.

But saying incorrect things shouldn't be a criminal offence.

On the Today programme yesterday morning I heard Mohammed Naseem, the chairman of the city’s central mosque (yes, that mosque), say that there was no proof that the July 7 bombers were British Muslims. (He also thinks that denial is a river in Egypt).

I'm alarmed and distressed by what Mohammed Naseem said. But I don't think he'll have his collar felt any time soon.

Johnny, Remember Me

From the BBC.

Some teenagers are failing to use condoms properly, risking unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, a snapshot study suggests.

What could they mean ?

Your Friendly Prison Imam

"... for many years I served part-time as Imam at Woodhill High Security Prison in Milton Keynes ..."

Sahim Mustaqim Bleher is an ethnic German and convert to Islam who has moved from far-left student protest in those heady days of yore, to ... well, to this :



He's lived in England for 25 years, and views it as a place of dreary weather and mediocre lifestyle, which the natives flee on cheap flights to escape "the backwardness of England, which started to become a haven for migrants from Eastern Europe".

England is, of course, controlled by the Zionists.

He thinks that the Labour Party's "domestic and foreign policies are now no longer distinguishable from that of BNP leader Nick Griffins".

Just the chap to introduce the blessings of Islam to disturbed young criminals in chokey, wouldn't you say ?

Project Bojinka ?

Hijack a load of airliners and drop them in the sea ? In 1995 ? Never heard of it.

Hey, Guardianistas all - I'm confused

Are this morning's events

a) the inevitable consequence of Blair'n'Bush's Global War For Oil / Jewish Neocon Conspiracy /whatever, which has rightly enraged the worldwide ummah ?

b) a non-existent threat created by Blair'n'Bush to distract attention from the Global War For Oil / Jewish Neocon Conspiracy ?

Essex Police

The Policeman posted on Saturday about Roger Baker, the new Chief Constable of Essex, who started in the job by saying :

"if people wanted to commit crime in Essex then they really ought to bring their toothbrush because they wouldn’t be going home. He even managed to persuade his own officers that he was on their side and that they would at last be going after real criminals.

It didn’t stop there. People were writing to The Sun saying, “His tough-talking, no-nonsense and old-fashioned approach to tackling crime has proved to be real winner.” And “With more like him in charge of our police forces around Britain, the criminals would have nowhere to run.”

Alas it appeared that the policy amounted in practice to 'arrests at all costs'. The front line aren't happy, and the thread saying so is now 30 pages long (it was 15 on Saturday). Chief Constable Baker has banned officers from using the internet.

What was it Peter Hitchens said ? The criminal justice system now enforces 'the letter of a bureaucratic law rather then the spirit of an agreed and respected moral code'. You can certainly see Essex Police being frighteningly neutral between the villain and the law-abiding here.

Page 1

Yes, Rog, arrest rates are up, detection rates are up, but the quality of them reeks. Take for example the old boy of 78 who got lifted for cuffing a lad who gave him some abuse round the ear(No injuries even). Poor old fella (No previous)was kept in the bin for 12 hours and cautioned. Still Rog, another arrest and blinding detection eh ? That regrettably is a typical arrest under Rog. And pitifully there are crims out there who we know are burgling, and have not got the poers to deal because all the troops are number crunching instead of doing real police work.

I was ordered to arrest a deaf and dumb man at 11pm for a minor assault (he obviously stayed in all night as we needed a signer for interview etc), and on the way back to the nick i had to arrest a 65 year old lady for a neighbour dispute (harassment). She refused to get dressed so she came in her slippers and dressing gown. I finished my shift feeling great, like i'd really made a difference!!

Page 2 : "A funeral cortege en route to the Crem, 25 vehicles, first 17 get through lights on green, last eight get FPN (fixed penalty notices) for jumping a red light. All other traffic did stop to allow cortege through."

Page 5

In the meantime, we have got victims of crime, genuine victims of crime who are not being seen by Police for ages, just like the burglary victim who had to wait 36 hours, and the man whose window was shot in by a firearm who waited...wait for it 3 days.

Page 8

Rog must remember that not all good police work is measurable. Looking after family members after their young son has died meant no ticks in the box for me that day . Breaking into the old ladies house who had fallen , walking round sniffing for the corpse and finding her seriously unwell , carrying out first aid awaiting paramedics....none of this measurable but all very important to her. Demand for arrests last week meant that most of the response teams were split into arrest teams leaving no cover for emergency calls. Consequently when the daytime burglar was disturbed twice in ten minutes in adjoining roads there was nobody avaliable to look for him and he got away. The only saving grace was that someone was arrested nearby on a warrant for NPF in relation to non payment of TV Licence. Still a tick in the box though.

Page 11

We arrest the ‘easy’ targets. The kids who have a fight at school in the playground, get arrested for common assault, interviewed and reprimanded. Still it’s another detection. Never mind that we are alienating the public.
What about the elderly lady that was arrested for common assault at 0430. (It was reported in the press.) She was 79 years of age. The schoolboy arrested at 0630 on the day he was doing his GCSE’s for a relatively minor offence. What are we doing? Who are we trying to kid that we are detecting crime? We are detecting crap. We are wasting time dealing with so much petty stuff (taking statements for every crime) that we don’t have the time to deal with the bigger fish.

Page 12

... massaging the figures to fit the bill at the end of the year. Officers ringing the public who reported threats to kill, asking them if they really feared for their safety and reclassifying the offence. Making off without paying, motorcyclist in Thurrock in a balaclava fills up bike, drops hose and rides off at speed, explanation well it was a cold night and he forgot to pay, reclassify.

Page 14

... we all want to get out and catch the true criminals and play hard ball confident in the knowledge that our own CC is supporting our actions to the hilt. What we dont want to be doing is making up arrest targets with kids fighting in playgrounds and single mums not paying their Tv licence.

Page 23

As for the massaging of crime figures, thats a very big topic. A brief explanation is as follows: Rog wants recorded crime to fall. He also wants detection to rise. So recently when operations were run to police town centres, officers were instructed to not to arrest people for Section 5 public order (swearing in public and the like), which is a recordable crime, but instead to arrest for drunk and disorderly. D&D is according to national crime recording standards, a NON-recordable crime....get the idea, your arrests are going up, but crime technically isnt....cause you dont have to record it. The situation gets somewhat worse though...I personally know of situations where a recorded crime (common assault) was re-crimed as assault ABH. This was done under the ACTION scheme and was pre the new Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 and the change in arrest powers. The suspect was then arrested even though the offence of ABH never existed. Me thinks that might be just a little illegal !!!!! Hmmmmmm. Also once in custody suspects are asked if they want to disclose any other offences they may have been party to. These can then be taken into consideration when he goes to court, rather than being re-arrested again. Called TIC's. However under the new "management" and figure massaging, only TIC's which are already crimed would even be listened to. Heres what I mean. If the suspect made an admission to burgling Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Smith (but only Mrs. Jones burglary had been crimed, then lets forget about the admission to Mrs. Smiths crime cause it aint been recorded yet. Therefore you are detecting old crimes, but you dont want to increase the amount of recorded crimes.


I want to live in a safe community - I don't want criminals roaming free - I want the same as every other decent person. But having knowledge of the internal workings and politics of the force at this time, I'm disgusted. Nearly every day I think to myself, "If only the public knew about this?"

Page 24


Just when we thought it could get no worse, I discovered today, of a senior citizen who reported someone attempting to break into her house by trying to force a window at just gone midnight recently. The victim called police immediately and banged on her window which made the perpetrator flee. Police had NOT ATTENDED the area for a few hours, so she went to bed. Someone on her behalf called the following day and were told, wait for it.....This incident has been recorded as a suspicious person (Hence no crime), thus keeping the reported crime figures down. This one incident epitomises not only the pitiful service we are giving, but additionally the massaging of the figures. That is clearly an attempted burglary and should be recorded and investigated as such. But, of course in doing that we would have created another crime. How on earth no one attended, at least a car and dog unit I will never know. So, all you members of the press out there, this is what we mean...this incident is not a rumour I have heard on the grapevine, I have been personally told of it by somebody in the know - and have seen documentation to support it. I am more ashamed and embarrassed than ever.

I was contacted recently about an elderly lady, sadly suffering the onset of dementia, who had been burgled in January. She had contacted Police about the man who had gone to her home and asked if he could park his car at the rear, and was told it was not a Police matter. Twice! Is this because attendence at such an incident would not assist in hitting any targets? What ever happened to the defination of a constable - protection of life and property - the lady was frightened to say the least.

Page 27

I am a resident of Essex. I pay my council tax. Recently I am thinking why in Gods name am I paying for a service which I see that blatently is not being provided to the public. A service which is putting both the public and the officers that serve them in harms way. How many members of the public out there reading this are aware that if you live in some rural areas, you may have only 2 pc's covering a massive area. What happens if you woke up one night and heard someone trying to break in, rang 999 only to be told that there are no officers available as they are all committed with other incidents. Read back in this forum.....this has already happened.

Page 28

Bad as it sounds, its actually comforting to know that there are many other officers who are as demoralised as my husband at the state of Essex Police.

Whew. I'll leave with this thought from page 31.

This is not like most jobs - how many of you risk your lives at fights, stand the risk of being seriously wounded, take abuse day in - day out, attend car accidents where families have died tragically- how many of you have had to tell families that somebody has died???

It's not glam - we didn't expect that - we want to do a good job - not play stats games.

More Creative Snapshots From Lebanon

The New York Times photo-essay on the destruction in Tyre features a 'dead body' who was very much alive a couple of frames before. (via DSD)

Gobsmacked

By the Tommy Sheridan verdict. Shuggy examines the entrails.

UPDATE - and Martin Kelly has some pertinent observations.

Back ...

To see that DFH, with occasional input from sharp-eyed David at Cabarfeidh, has deservedly hit the blogging big-time.

Everyone on the right of blogdom, and the honest souls on the left, assumed that Hezbollah and their allies were managing the news out of Southern Lebanon, and particularly the deaths at Qana, for maximum political effect. DFH and a number of other blogs have documented several instances of faked or posed photos, including the unluckiest multiple property owner in Beirut, the cameraman who added extra smoke to a picture for full devastation impact (and changed the flare from an Israeli jet to a shower of missiles), the mysterious 'white tee shirt' and 'green helmet man' who seemed to be in every Qana photo. If you want to see where the Independent gets its front page images from, look here.

EU Referendum has been doing sterling work. What worries him is that people like Shane Richmond of the Daily Telegraph aren't worried by this manipulation.

"…is the child dead? was the child killed by Israeli bombs? If so, the picture illustrates the story"

For Richard North "... the root is that death – or pictures of death - have become a commodity. For Hezbolla, they can be traded for political leverage, for the photo-journalists – those who are not working for Hezbolla – a good "snap" of a dead baby brings the prospect of financial reward, fame and even awards. And, at the top of the heap are the editors and the likes of Shane Richmond, in their air-conditioned offices, thousands of miles away from the action, who see the "pics" merely as illustrations for their productions."

UPDATE - Liberal Larry attacks the "Digital Brownshirts" who "used the debatable authenticity of the photos to cast doubt upon their accuracy."