Once again the Government goes after the motorist. From Monday 2 April anyone who is fined in court will have to pay a £15 surcharge on top of their fine to help victims of domestic violence.
Home Office Minister Baroness Scotland said: "We are hitting criminals in the pocket to make sure that crime doesn't pay."
Fine you think until you learn that real criminals - rapists, murderers and the like - won't have to pay and that money collected won't actually go the victims of domestic violence. Oh no, it will go towards expanding the number of independent domestic violence advisers on the public payroll.
So that's good - yet more people dependent on the state for a living.
Vote Labour.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Put Plod on the pavement
The Sunday Telegraph reports that three out of four people do not know a single policeman in their neighbourhood.
This is despite the fact that there are more employed police now than ever before.
There are now also more specialist directives in the police, many concerned with "diversity" and "the community".
There are a few simple measures to get the public back on side of the police.
Get police back on the beat. Let the public see them. Get out of the panda cars and use their legs. I would be interested to see how many rapes, robberies and other serious crimes were committed on the day after the Tube bombings when the streets were flooded with police.
Stop dressing police as some kind of paramilitary force - get back to the old-fashioned uniform. Is it really necessary for the police to wear fluorescent jackets or have "Metropolitan Police" (or whatever) embroidered on their sweaters. What else could they be?
Stop persecuting motorists. Despite buffoons like Richard Brunstrom, the "car-driving community" is not a force for evil.
Stop banging on about diversity and "serving the community". It really does not impress anyone.
It's not rocket science...
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Medics on the march
Today in London hundreds of medical staff are protesting about the way in which junior doctors are hired.
I have seen footage from the march on two television channels and the people who are marching are predominantly white. On the rare occasions I have been to a hospital (to visit the sick) or go to a GP (although at the moment I don't have one), the vast majority of doctors are coloured.
So what happens to all the white ones? Do they all end up in private practice?
I have seen footage from the march on two television channels and the people who are marching are predominantly white. On the rare occasions I have been to a hospital (to visit the sick) or go to a GP (although at the moment I don't have one), the vast majority of doctors are coloured.
So what happens to all the white ones? Do they all end up in private practice?
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Bring back the poll tax
Following the abolition of the rates, we had the community charge or poll tax. That helped to bring down Margaret Thatcher. In 1991 John Major introduced the council tax and the bills have been rising steadily and sometimes not so steadily each year.
In London my bill contains precepts for the local council, the police and the London Assembly. As I have pointed out before the London Assembly was sold as costing the average Band D payer about 3p a week or £1.50 a year. It currently costs me more than £300 a year for what I believe is an unnecessary layer of government.
The poll tax was described as unfair because the duke in his castle pays the same as the widow in her hovel.
At first glance this may indeed seem unfair. But the council tax pays for the local council and the services it provides. If the duke pays double what the widow pays, does that mean that his bins are emptied twice as often? If he is burgled, do the police double their efforts to catch the criminals? If his castle catches fire, does the fire brigade turn up twice as quickly? If his children go to a local school (unlikely I know) do they get a better education? If he is ill, does the doctor come out or does he get seen in half the time at the local hospital? (Again, unlikely I know because he would have private education for his children and private health care for his family.) What do you think?
It could even be argued that those who have private health care or send their children to private schools should receive a reduction in their council tax because they are not "using" all the services.
The reason council tax bills are so high is because they have to pay for all the unnecessary staff hired by councils.
If local councils spent their, sorry our, money on schools, hospitals, the police, and keeping the streets clean, bins emptied and paid councillors an allowance (as they used to), council tax bills could be slashed.
In London my bill contains precepts for the local council, the police and the London Assembly. As I have pointed out before the London Assembly was sold as costing the average Band D payer about 3p a week or £1.50 a year. It currently costs me more than £300 a year for what I believe is an unnecessary layer of government.
The poll tax was described as unfair because the duke in his castle pays the same as the widow in her hovel.
At first glance this may indeed seem unfair. But the council tax pays for the local council and the services it provides. If the duke pays double what the widow pays, does that mean that his bins are emptied twice as often? If he is burgled, do the police double their efforts to catch the criminals? If his castle catches fire, does the fire brigade turn up twice as quickly? If his children go to a local school (unlikely I know) do they get a better education? If he is ill, does the doctor come out or does he get seen in half the time at the local hospital? (Again, unlikely I know because he would have private education for his children and private health care for his family.) What do you think?
It could even be argued that those who have private health care or send their children to private schools should receive a reduction in their council tax because they are not "using" all the services.
The reason council tax bills are so high is because they have to pay for all the unnecessary staff hired by councils.
If local councils spent their, sorry our, money on schools, hospitals, the police, and keeping the streets clean, bins emptied and paid councillors an allowance (as they used to), council tax bills could be slashed.
Lied to from the start
The Sun today runs an interesting piece by Ruth Lea, the director Global Vision, on the EU. She says that her organisation polled people on their views on the EU: should we leave, stay in a looser economic market or stay in and obey the rules.
Unsurprisingly, a quarter wanted to leave, a quarter to stay and the other 50 per cent wanted to stay in a free trade union but opt out of political and economic union.
On the same page, The Sun's leader column says: "Our political leaders must listen to the new organisation Global Vision.
"They must say NO to any attempt to raise from the dead the idea of a new European Constitution. They must REJECT any extra interference. They must LISTEN to the British people by taking back powers from the Eurocrats.
"And they must DEMAND that the EU goes back to being the Common Market that was envisaged at its birth half a century ago."
The Sun is wrong. The original purpose of the EU's founders was always an economic and political union - it was never intended just to be a "common market".
The whole story is told in detail in my colleague Christopher Booker's excellent book The Great Deception.
Unsurprisingly, a quarter wanted to leave, a quarter to stay and the other 50 per cent wanted to stay in a free trade union but opt out of political and economic union.
On the same page, The Sun's leader column says: "Our political leaders must listen to the new organisation Global Vision.
"They must say NO to any attempt to raise from the dead the idea of a new European Constitution. They must REJECT any extra interference. They must LISTEN to the British people by taking back powers from the Eurocrats.
"And they must DEMAND that the EU goes back to being the Common Market that was envisaged at its birth half a century ago."
The Sun is wrong. The original purpose of the EU's founders was always an economic and political union - it was never intended just to be a "common market".
The whole story is told in detail in my colleague Christopher Booker's excellent book The Great Deception.
Friday, March 09, 2007
Is Ian Blair fit for purpose?
One some times has to wonder about the fitness of Sir Ian Blair to be commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Force.
On the Jean Charles de Menezes tragedy, he stated that he was unaware that an innocent man had been murdered until the next day. Why? With ultimate responsibility for the force, he should have known.
Blair either did know in which case he is a liar, or he really didn't know and he is incompetent.
Now we learn that he attended a dinner at which a fellow guest was Lord Levy, currently under investigation in the cash for honours row by the Metropolitan Police Force. Blair knew that Michael Levy was going to be present (he asked not to be seated near the peer or his wife), so what on earth prompted him to attend?
On the Jean Charles de Menezes tragedy, he stated that he was unaware that an innocent man had been murdered until the next day. Why? With ultimate responsibility for the force, he should have known.
Blair either did know in which case he is a liar, or he really didn't know and he is incompetent.
Now we learn that he attended a dinner at which a fellow guest was Lord Levy, currently under investigation in the cash for honours row by the Metropolitan Police Force. Blair knew that Michael Levy was going to be present (he asked not to be seated near the peer or his wife), so what on earth prompted him to attend?
Stop the witch hunts
This really has gone too far. Racism has become the new witchcraft. You don't actually have to be a paid-up member of the BNP or National Front to be smeared with the tag "Racist!" There is also no real defence - how does one prove that one is not something?
Patrick Mercer, by all accounts a supporter of black soldiers, has been sacked by David Cameron for alleged racist remarks he made about ethnic troops. The fact that what he said may have been true is deemed to be irrelevant.
Hertfordshire police spent time and money investigating racism on a television show. Three stupid girls were alleged to have bullied another woman. One of the so-called aggressors has been left suicidal by the accusations. The "victim" herself claimed that she did not think she was racially bullied.
Now the Crown Prosecution Service has decided that what occurred was "clearly offensive" but "not criminal".
I do not live in Hertfordshire but if I did I would want to know how much money was wasted on this stupid "investigation". Irrespective of my colour, I would want to know how many burglaries went uninvestigated? How many mugging victims were offered "counselling" rather than the police spending time tracking down the perpetrators? How many cars were stolen or broken into?
The police must stop taking part in the government's plan for social engineering and get back to doing what they are paid for: stopping crime, and investigating and apprehending criminals.
Dislike of someone different from you (however irrational) is NOT a crime. It is an OPINION.
Patrick Mercer, by all accounts a supporter of black soldiers, has been sacked by David Cameron for alleged racist remarks he made about ethnic troops. The fact that what he said may have been true is deemed to be irrelevant.
Hertfordshire police spent time and money investigating racism on a television show. Three stupid girls were alleged to have bullied another woman. One of the so-called aggressors has been left suicidal by the accusations. The "victim" herself claimed that she did not think she was racially bullied.
Now the Crown Prosecution Service has decided that what occurred was "clearly offensive" but "not criminal".
I do not live in Hertfordshire but if I did I would want to know how much money was wasted on this stupid "investigation". Irrespective of my colour, I would want to know how many burglaries went uninvestigated? How many mugging victims were offered "counselling" rather than the police spending time tracking down the perpetrators? How many cars were stolen or broken into?
The police must stop taking part in the government's plan for social engineering and get back to doing what they are paid for: stopping crime, and investigating and apprehending criminals.
Dislike of someone different from you (however irrational) is NOT a crime. It is an OPINION.
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