The Story of George
In the 1960s, I use to serve behind the bar in a pub called The Merryhills in Oakwood. It was one of the vacation jobs I did to fund my way through University.
Although it was a leafy suburb and still is, the pub was only half-genteel. The Saloon Bar was comfortable and had a nice class of client. But the Public Bar was a different story and there was sometimes an edginess. I remember one night, sorting out a fight, by breaking a bottle of Guinness on the bar and jumping over the counter. They didn’t want to take me on, but then we all knew that Mick the large Irish barman was coming round by the easy route with the landlord’s Alsatian.
But it is the story of George I remember.
On a quiet Monday, I found myself talking for most of the evening to a guy called George, who had been in my year at primary school. I said to him, that at school, I thought he might have been a bit rough and that now he seemed to have calmed down. He said that he had. But it hadn’t always been so and a couple of years before he’d been up in court on a charge of vandalism. The magistrate had said that he deserved Borstall, but also said that he had a mate who owned a demolition firm, who was in need of men, who liked to smash things up. If he’d take the job, the magistrate said he’d forget the Borstal.
George had worked in demolition for some months and hadn’t been in trouble since.
Perhaps there is a moral here, in that we’ve now made employment so safe, it just doesn’t appeal to a certain class of youth!
I suspect too, that magistrates can’t recruit workers for their friends!
The Aftermath At Tottenham Hale
I took these pictures at Tottenham Hale today.
The interesting thing was that the fast food outlets were left undamaged. So perhaps they weren’t such mindless morons after all? You have to eat don’t you!
I actually went to the area to go to Maplins. It was open and fully-functioning and I was able to buy what I wanted.
You Wouldn’t Want To Mess With Mary
I was alerted to this blog post by The Times this morning.
It’s all sensible advice and we need more Marys to come forward to give the crooks a good kicking.
What Do Saudi Arabia, Russia and the Vatican City Have In Common?
According to tonight’s Evening Standard, they’ve all had diplomats arrested for drink driving in the last three years in London by the Met. Saudi Arabia had four, so I suppose it’s now alright for expats to drink in that country! In that time, 59 diplomats or their family members were alleged to have committed various offences, including fraud, robbery, rape and other sexual offences. One from Oman, even made a bomb threat.
But of course none were punished, as they all claimed diplomatic immunity.
Isn’t it about time, this arcane law was scrapped.
A Cable Thief Finally Wins a Darwin Award
After several attempts recently, like this one and these on the Central line in London, someone has finally won a Darwin Award in Leeds.
I know it’s sad when someone dies, but it does appear that in this case the electricity company involved has done a lot to make the site safe.
Does This Notice Really Stop Theft?
Look at this picture, taken on a footbridge over the Royal Victoria Dock.
Sign on a Footbridge in Docklands
Does such a simple notice stop people nicking the wire for scrap?
It does of course assume that all thieves can read! Surely many take up a life of crime because they don’t have the education to do anything else!
I would also question the use of nil rather than no!
Clarke Loses to the Vengeance Tendency
Sadly, it looks like the progressive sentencing policy of Kenneth Clarke will be dropped according to reports this morning. The Mail and Sun are triumphant.
So what are the government to do now to cut the prison population? Regrettably, I don’t think they’ll be able to do it, so are we to see more prisons being built. I hope not! As the current crime academies, with little or no rehabilitation and education, do not too much to stop offenders going back to a life of crime.
But there is hope from the United States. There crime is dropping and no-one seems to know why. Read this article on the BBC web site, which offers a range of reasons, like Obama being elected President, computer games distracting possible criminals, the deterrent effect of camera-phones and abortion meaning that less prospective recruits are being born.
Many of the factors postulated by American researchers would apply in most places in Europe.
Is This Really Signal Failure?
Trains through Watford Junction are not running this morning, supposedly because of a signal failure, according to this report. Here’s a snippet.
A spokesman for Network Rail said they were trying to identify the reason for the failure but ruled out cable theft.
But are Network Rail just being politically correct. When I was in York last Saturday, the taxi drivers had it that all of the cable theft was down to a particular group of people.
There is certainly a lot of failures and theft going on. And it’s not just on the railways, as this report from Selby shows.
The other thing that was interesting from the Watford Junction failure report in the Manchester Evening News, was the headline.
Commuter misery as signalling fault causes cancellation of Manchester to London trains
Surely they weren’t refering to those that commute from Manchester to London. It’s an awful long way.
Strauss-Kahn is a Disgrace
The Times today carries an article under the title of Love bomb that failed to go off, which describes in detail how he pursued a French reporter working in London. I’m not quoting from the article, as it is copyright and although it is in a respectable newspaper, it might not be 100% true. I’m no lawyer, but I would feel that Strauss Kahn did enough to fall foul of The Harassment Act.
If I or any other person, behaved like the article alleges, I would certainly have had the police at my door.
If he is that desperate for women, then he can always phone up and get one delivered on a plate wrapped to whatever taste he prefers.
Type “Strauss Kahn escort” into Google and you find this.
On a positive side perhaps Strauss Kahn and Fred Goodwin should form themselves a bank called the Wunch Bank. They deserve each other.
Strauss-Kahn Reporting in the United States and France
I have read this enlightening report on Bloomberg about the difference of the reporting of Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s arrest in New York, in the United States and France.
Here’s a typical couple of paragraphs.
For the U.S., the public’s right to know about an arrest is paramount, while in France the privacy — even of a criminal suspect — takes precedence.
“For the moment, the French media has been very restrained” in avoiding saying or writing anything to imply guilt, said Dominique de Leusse de Syon, a member of Strauss- Kahn’s legal team. “The problem is the images, whether they convey Mr. Strauss-Kahn as guilty.”
In other words anything goes in France, if you are French.
After all, the French published any old tosh they could find about Princess Diana, when at the time several high-profile French politicians were as crooked as a hurling stick.
Strauss-Kahn may indeed be innocent, but then seeing the allegations that have appeared in respected newspapers, he doesn’t appear to hsve been a saint in matters sexual.
The Anonymous Widower 