MELANIE Philips lays into Patricia Hewitt and NHS cutbacks in this fiery piece.
15 January 2007
Britain's Longest-Serving Constable Criticises Modern Policing
MICK Mountain, 60, who in April will be Britain's longest-serving officer, makes some interesting observations concerning modern policing:
'There are many more laws dealing with diversity and equality, which have been triggered by the compensation culture. When it gets to the point where councils cannot even put up Christmas trees, it seems ridiculous. I do not believe we are going in the right direction. It means we do not have enough police on the streets where we need them. Community support officers are no replacement - they are not proper police officers and do not have the same powers of arrest.
'Criminals are more likely to attack officers these days because they do not have the fear of being punished. They are also more likely to turn violent during less serious crimes such as burglaries. I have been left with a bloody nose and punched in the face. You get less respect wearing the uniform whereas in the old days, it was a deterrent. Now criminals simply laugh because they know nothing will happen to them. With not enough room in prison they know they are going to get away with a fine or community service rather than being sent to jail. It is all wrong. Society is not getting the policing it deserves.'
MI5 were Oblivious to Imminent 7/7 Massacre
THIS does not exactly inspire confidence. Readers of Melanie Phillips' Londonistan will know the indifference with which the British security service viewed Islamism as a terrorist threat, even after the helpful jolt provided by 9/11. The waking-up process obviously accelerated after the London atrocities and it is of course a credit to MI5 that they were able to halt the execution of the transatlantic aircraft plot of August 2006. Still, uncomfortable questions regarding the abject failure of our intelligence agencies to detect the 7/7 attack remain and with this admission it seems an independent inquiry into their utter ignorance to this looming threat would be timely.
Too little, too Late
AS ethnic Britons become increasingly disillusioned with the multicultural experiment, this kind of noisy declaration from the CRE, although accurate, seems little more than a hollow gesture of conciliation after the damage has already been done. It is as if the hand that moments ago was helping to hamstring you is now genially patting your shoulder, its owner empathising with your predicament. For decades British culture and values have been consistently trivialised and disparaged by subversive groups such as the CRE; fatally weakened to the point that they are now in clear danger of being deposed entirely by a stronger and more vigorous contender (three guesses). There can be no restitution, except by bloody struggle, after such a wholesale deracination.
Army Muslim Recruitment Drive Mysteriously Fails
NOBODY could have been particularly surprised to read the following statement (from The Daily Telegraph):
'The Army is facing fresh claims of a recruitment crisis after the failure of a high-profile campaign to get Muslims to join up. Only a handful of the 200,000-strong Islamic community in the Midlands have joined the Army since the first recruitment drive aimed specifically at Muslims last year, it emerged... It is thought that many did not want to join up because theyIt will be recalled that in July 2006 Lance Corporal Jabron Hashmi of the Royal Signals, a Briton of Pakistani ethnicity, was killed fighting Islamists in Afghanistan. Within hours of the news reaching the UK a website run by those pleasant chaps in Al Ghurabaa' had, in a distasteful stab at irony, denounced brave L/Cpl Hashmi as a 'home-grown terrorist'. Muslims in his hometown of Bordesley Green, Birmingham, also expressed their displeasure at L/Cpl Hashmi's career choice:
opposed the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. There are just 330 Muslims in the entire Armed Forces.'
'I don't see how any Muslim can be in the British army, not with all the shit that's happening in Muslim countries. It doesn't make sense. It's not right. There's no space for Muslims in the army.'This intolerance is not just reserved for those who dare to enlist in our Armed Forces either. In December last year a Muslim community worker in Waltham Forest, North-East London, spoke of his attempts to persuade his coreligionists to liaise with the local constabulary in the fight against Islamist violence. He was consequently branded an 'enemy' by his fellows for his efforts. The unnamed man complained: 'I am, at times, seen as the enemy and have to defend myself against criticism when I talk about both loyalty within our community and the loyalty we should show to the wider state' (full story). With the threat of social ostracism from their community, and even of wider familial liability, were they to join up, is it any wonder so few Muslims do? To be simultaneously patriotic and Muslim is, it would seem, an impossibility. Unless your patriotism is to the ummah, that is.
The Undoubted Benefits of Multiculturalism
THIS sad story would seem to support the belief that, encouraged by unforgivable government cowardice, arranged/forced marriages and the physical abuse of women that is often associated with them are now as British as fish and chips. This is exactly the sort of uncivilised and misogynistic custom that we must not allow to take root in Britain, let alone ever be enshrined in law. An unsettling report on the prevalence and controversy of forced marriages across Europe can be read here.
8 January 2007
The Cost of Unemployment
STORIES about the dismal state of our under-funded Armed Forces (here and here) contrasted sharply with revelations that a staggering £61 billion a year is spent on the nations' 5.2 million unemployed. If it is a choice between keeping our idlers in smack and cider or maintaining a respected and confident military force in the face of an unprecedented threat to our liberty and security, which would you choose? Okay, this may be a crass over-generalisation of the requirements of our unemployed, many of whom are obviously legitimate claimants, but this inequality perfectly encapsulates the warped priorities of New Labour.
Apparently some 2.7 million of the above receive incapacity benefits, and, whilst many of these cases are genuine, the government estimates that around one million of recipients are actually capable of working. These malingerers are costing the taxpayer in excess of £11 billion a year. The defence budget is to be slashed by some £250 million this year (although forking out over £200 million in management consultancy fees from the national defence budget every year doesn't help). The disparity does not need to be highlighted.
The author personally knows a handful of freeloaders who fraudulently claim incapacity benefits; one in particular has been doing so for over five years. The defining and unifying feature of these layabouts is that they are habitual drug abusers (although not necessarily addicts), in most instances cynically feigning depression and chronic migraines to continue funding their never-ending party at the taxpayers' expense. The amount of authentic medical problems they will doubtlessly incur as a result of their government-funded hedonism is unknown, but the notion serves as a delicious slice of irony as well as a savage commentary on the utter absurdity of the situation. As it is the welfare state is, in the long-term, unsustainable, but, with the persistence of flagrant and costly abuses like this, its demise might come sooner than expected.
Apparently some 2.7 million of the above receive incapacity benefits, and, whilst many of these cases are genuine, the government estimates that around one million of recipients are actually capable of working. These malingerers are costing the taxpayer in excess of £11 billion a year. The defence budget is to be slashed by some £250 million this year (although forking out over £200 million in management consultancy fees from the national defence budget every year doesn't help). The disparity does not need to be highlighted.
The author personally knows a handful of freeloaders who fraudulently claim incapacity benefits; one in particular has been doing so for over five years. The defining and unifying feature of these layabouts is that they are habitual drug abusers (although not necessarily addicts), in most instances cynically feigning depression and chronic migraines to continue funding their never-ending party at the taxpayers' expense. The amount of authentic medical problems they will doubtlessly incur as a result of their government-funded hedonism is unknown, but the notion serves as a delicious slice of irony as well as a savage commentary on the utter absurdity of the situation. As it is the welfare state is, in the long-term, unsustainable, but, with the persistence of flagrant and costly abuses like this, its demise might come sooner than expected.
The Untouchables
HOME Office figures have shown that only one crime in 100 results in the perpetrator being caught and sentenced. This startling figure is thought to be due to 'the dramatic rise in the use of "summary justice" - instant fines or cautions and warnings handed out by the police…' Indeed, other findings published last week revealed that Penalty Notices for Disorder (PNDs - fines of £50 or £80 issued on-the-spot and payable within 21 days) are now being issued for one crime in nine (it is postulated some 167,000 have been issued in 2006, compared to 137,333 in 2005). An interesting commentary on the evolution of this 'pay-as-you-go hooliganism' can be read here.
The widespread and growing use of ASBOs, ABCs and PNDs as a quick and easy means to tackle the proliferating scourge of 'minor' criminality is being met with contempt by many of those recipients who, with their criminal credentials bolstered by their order or notice, continue to offend until they at last commit an offence of suitable severity that our judiciary is reluctantly compelled to incarcerate them for some paltry period in one of our revolving-door prisons. Upon their release the whole charade continues afresh. One of the principal and most damaging consequence of this unwillingness to properly punish our criminals is the message it transmits to other potential wrongdoers: it is a green light to go forth and be anti-social. This is not some baseless supposition from a detached commentator, but one based on personal observation.
Our adolescents are particularly vulnerable to this provocation (for that is what it is), primarily because of their amorality, but also because of their indoctrination by those sections of our frivolous and degrading popular 'culture' which present criminality, drug-abuse and sexual permissiveness as being desirable traits. This vulgar anti-culture, which on the one hand encourages absurdity and moral laxity (see Big brother, I'm a Celebrity…, countless soap operas, the debauchery of pop musicians et cetera) and on the other glorifies criminality (see countless gangster films – from Lock, Stock… to Boyz in the Hood – games like the Grand Theft Auto series and some Hip Hop) is having a deeply detrimental effect on the attitudes of the nations' youth. It may not be going too far to suggest that as much as punitive sentencing and prisons will indubitably make crime a less appealing prospect to our more timid potential wrongdoers, real headway will not be made until the poisonous immorality and idiotic triviality that characterise this 'culture' is addressed.
The question of why the government has come to rely on such weak and ineffective measures is complex, but may be briefly pared down to two dominant factors: firstly, with increasing anti-social behaviour on our streets and a chronic lack of prison spaces the government has been forced to bring in legislation which allows for the speedy processing of minor offenders whilst keeping them clear of prison: secondly, the government's attitude towards crime is based on the fallacious belief that criminals are themselves largely the 'victims' of poverty. But in this poverty=criminality equation, believed and promulgated by the majority of liberal leftists, wrongdoers have been handed the perfect ready-formed excuse for their unpleasant deeds, happily disavowing personal responsibility for their behaviour and placing blame instead upon their lowly socio-economic status, which they loudly proclaim they cannot alter (should have paid more attention at school, eh?). 'I wanna piece of the cake,' whined a spliff-smoking black gang-banger from London, interviewed for the Ross Kemp on Gangs series, when asked why locals displayed an alarming propensity for gunning each other down in the street. What nobody had the courage to tell the indignant young man and his cronies was that, of course, everybody wants a piece of the cake, but that you generally have to invest sincere effort to gain it; sitting indolently in your government-sponsored crack den waiting for a slice to come knocking will get you nowhere. Besides, recent research is pointing to the uncomfortable reality – uncomfortable for leftist liberals, at any rate – that many wrongdoers indulge in criminal activity, particularly street crime, because they take pleasure in it and because it earns them credibility in the much sought approbation of their thuggish peers and the fear, or 'respect', of their rivals.
Many will also agree that it is preposterous to suggest that anybody is genuinely poor in post-modern Britain (except, of course, spiritually), particularly when one considers the state of grinding poverty that exists throughout the third world. The surly denizens of our grimy sink estates are kitted-out with the latest in mobile phone technology and sports apparel. Habitations in these areas, those not burnt-out or boarded-up that is, are invariably festooned with a Sky satellite dish. None of these things speak of poverty and the fact that, despite the ownership of these non-essential luxury items, many of the hard-faced people who inhabit these areas still exhibit a propensity towards criminality is more suggestive of the narcissism and amorality that characterises their worldview and the brutal culture they have fashioned for themselves than material poverty.
Our adolescents are particularly vulnerable to this provocation (for that is what it is), primarily because of their amorality, but also because of their indoctrination by those sections of our frivolous and degrading popular 'culture' which present criminality, drug-abuse and sexual permissiveness as being desirable traits. This vulgar anti-culture, which on the one hand encourages absurdity and moral laxity (see Big brother, I'm a Celebrity…, countless soap operas, the debauchery of pop musicians et cetera) and on the other glorifies criminality (see countless gangster films – from Lock, Stock… to Boyz in the Hood – games like the Grand Theft Auto series and some Hip Hop) is having a deeply detrimental effect on the attitudes of the nations' youth. It may not be going too far to suggest that as much as punitive sentencing and prisons will indubitably make crime a less appealing prospect to our more timid potential wrongdoers, real headway will not be made until the poisonous immorality and idiotic triviality that characterise this 'culture' is addressed.
The question of why the government has come to rely on such weak and ineffective measures is complex, but may be briefly pared down to two dominant factors: firstly, with increasing anti-social behaviour on our streets and a chronic lack of prison spaces the government has been forced to bring in legislation which allows for the speedy processing of minor offenders whilst keeping them clear of prison: secondly, the government's attitude towards crime is based on the fallacious belief that criminals are themselves largely the 'victims' of poverty. But in this poverty=criminality equation, believed and promulgated by the majority of liberal leftists, wrongdoers have been handed the perfect ready-formed excuse for their unpleasant deeds, happily disavowing personal responsibility for their behaviour and placing blame instead upon their lowly socio-economic status, which they loudly proclaim they cannot alter (should have paid more attention at school, eh?). 'I wanna piece of the cake,' whined a spliff-smoking black gang-banger from London, interviewed for the Ross Kemp on Gangs series, when asked why locals displayed an alarming propensity for gunning each other down in the street. What nobody had the courage to tell the indignant young man and his cronies was that, of course, everybody wants a piece of the cake, but that you generally have to invest sincere effort to gain it; sitting indolently in your government-sponsored crack den waiting for a slice to come knocking will get you nowhere. Besides, recent research is pointing to the uncomfortable reality – uncomfortable for leftist liberals, at any rate – that many wrongdoers indulge in criminal activity, particularly street crime, because they take pleasure in it and because it earns them credibility in the much sought approbation of their thuggish peers and the fear, or 'respect', of their rivals.
Many will also agree that it is preposterous to suggest that anybody is genuinely poor in post-modern Britain (except, of course, spiritually), particularly when one considers the state of grinding poverty that exists throughout the third world. The surly denizens of our grimy sink estates are kitted-out with the latest in mobile phone technology and sports apparel. Habitations in these areas, those not burnt-out or boarded-up that is, are invariably festooned with a Sky satellite dish. None of these things speak of poverty and the fact that, despite the ownership of these non-essential luxury items, many of the hard-faced people who inhabit these areas still exhibit a propensity towards criminality is more suggestive of the narcissism and amorality that characterises their worldview and the brutal culture they have fashioned for themselves than material poverty.
The Jihad Rumbles On
OUR Muslim friends are still busily propagating the 'inclusive' and 'progressive' message that Anthony Blair assures us can be found in the Koran, so much so that our government has decided to take these measures. Oh yes, and we just cannot wait for the return of these heroic fellows either.
Radical Islam on Campus
ADRIAN Morgan of Family Security Matters has posted an interesting two-part article entitled Radical Islam and British Universities, a piece which should be read by every British patriot. Part one may be accessed here and part two here. It makes for extremely alarming reading and also causes one to reflect on, in the face of such an insidious threat, just how out-of-touch and trivial the NUS' irrational persecution of the Christian Union is. Many people in Britain really do seem to have serious difficulties when it comes to prioritising what is really important.
The Lord Chancellor Strikes Again
BARON Falconer of Thoroton seemed to be on a mission to outdo himself in making contradictory pronouncements last week. On the distinct possibility of Scottish independence:'I completely reject the argument that devolution has caused the current position.'
Isn't that rather like saying 'my contraction of HIV has nothing to do with the subsequent depletion of my white blood cells'?
Working Class 'Culture'
MARK Collins, a senior dog control officer in Wandsworth South-West London, tells of an enthralling pastime indulged in by locals:
'It happens in the lifts where they put two dogs in at the top floor, press the ground floor button, and leave the animals to fight it out. When the lift opens at the bottom, they see which has won.'
Ah, but you've got to love those cheeky tracksuit-clad chappies and their rougish ways. Not quite as senseless as the fabled slab attacks, but, still, pretty close.
No Wonder the NHS is in the Red
Link. THE disturbing thing is that this sort of preposterous disbursement doesn't even possess the power to shock any more; certainly it still stimulates tremendous anger and utter exasperation, but we're gradually becoming inured to the inept bureaucracy and gratuitous wastefulness that seemingly forms an integral part of this government's policy. In connection with this story a timely new series looking at ways to improve the management of the NHS and entitled Can Gerry Robinson Fix the NHS? begins this evening on BBC2 and may prove interesting viewing.
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