Comments on: What does this mean?

By: David Gillies

David Gillies — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 07:17:14 +0000

No matter what the numbers are, there is a whole lot of question begging going on. Namely, that the job of government and judiciary, instead of doing its duty and coming down like the Hammer of Thor on genuine evildoers, must instead expend its energies on waltzing around the true malefactors in society in favour of implementing a blizzard of pettifogging regulations to govern those who, under any reasonable set of statutes would be held entirely blameless.

I want someone who burgles my house to do ten years. I want someone who kills his wife to hang. I want the bands of gypsies who rob stately houses to die in prison.

I want the Chief Constables of every constabulary in England to be fired, and possibly jailed, for exceeding their authority. I want every PCSO in the land to be sacked. I want a modicum of Common Sense to be re-instilled in the police, or for them all, individually, to have their backs broken on its wheel.

By: Kit

Kit — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 18:29:34 +0000

@Kay Tie

The Children and Young Persons Act 1933. Obviously this excluded Gripe Water and all manner of other alcoholic cures in those days.

By: Kay Tie

Kay Tie — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 17:34:56 +0000

“Somalia is a broken society; Britain is not, and to say it is is absurd.”

Similar things might have been said in 476 when Odoacer made Romulus Augustulus abdicate.

By: Cabalamat

Cabalamat — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 17:05:24 +0000

Somalia is a broken society; Britain is not, and to say it is is absurd.

Mark: More relevantly, why did she choose 1995 and not 1997 as a comparative?

Because 1995 was the year when the BCS showed the peak number of crimes.

By: john b

john b — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 11:45:07 +0000

@4 it’s not surveyed on the BCS, so not for the purposes of these stats.

By: Kay Tie

Kay Tie — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 11:41:19 +0000

I’ve been a victim of crime twice in the last year. Both times perpetrated by the police (a civil action got compensation in the first case, I haven’t the energy to pursue the bastards for the second one).

From my perspective the police are worse than useless: they are an active menace to the public.

By: Kay Tie

Kay Tie — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 11:34:08 +0000

Is letting your 4 year old sip wine an offence?

By: john b

john b — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 09:40:50 +0000

Yes, that’s what the stat means – 23% of BCS respondents say that they were the victim of a crime this year. Which sounds ballpark-right, given that most crimes are closer to credit card cloning, wallet-nicking and car-radio-thieving than GBH or murder…

By: Kit

Kit — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 09:40:46 +0000

I’m more concerned with the proliferation of petty laws which has made us all criminals. Last weekend I sat down with some friends and we tried to work out how many laws we had broken in the last 24 hours. I had broken seven! Two which I didn’t know even know were against the law. Who knew that letting your four year old take a sip from a glass of wine was a criminal offence?!

By: Mark Wadsworth

Mark Wadsworth — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 09:14:43 +0000

I dunno either. More relevantly, why did she choose 1995 and not 1997 as a comparative?

Was 1995 perhaps before Michael Howard’s reforms kicked in and just as we were starting to come out of recession?