Crying Foul on Police Cuts
It was inevitable that the Police would say that budget cuts would mean less Police on the Beat.
I can’t see how they can actually achieve that round here, as you never see a policeman. And when you report something, like I did when an idiot nearly caused a serious accident, they refuse to turn up.
I remember when C was a governor of a University, a high profile policeman was also one. He turned up at dinners and meetings with his driver. He was one of the few who could drink. Who paid for that driver?
\And then take Police IT systems. Most are over-budget, every one is different, so they can’t talk to each other. We’ve seen the consequences of that!
Just imagine if say M&S used different methods in different towns and cities.
Before they cut visible policing, the police must get their systems into the twenty-first century.
They should also stop the scandal of early retirement on pensions way in excess of any, that most people will ever see.
And as we’re all in this together, shouldn’t all of their vehicles and equipment be British-made where possible?
A Coloured Police Horse
I was walking around the City of London last week and saw a coloured police horse. Coloured in the UK and Ireland includes both piebalds and skewbalds.
A Coloured Police Horse
It’s funny, but years ago you never saw big coloured horses, except for those with perhaps a lot of Shire in them. Now there are quite a few and I suppose it wasn’t surprising that one would be used by the Police. This report in Horse and Hound says that the City of London Police horse is called Ken and is a skewbald Irish Draught.
There is a link here to another horse in the Merseyside Police. Their horse came from Ireland and is actually tri-coloured. I’ve owned a tri-coloured English Setter, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tri-coloured horse.
Cloud Cuckoo Politics
I listened to Chris Giles of the Financial Times last night on BBC Radio5’s Drive programme. He said that the various parties promises on the deficit don’t add up. They have promised saving in the order of ten billion or so, when documents from the Treasury show that we need to save around three times that much.
I’ve been in Newcastle over the weekend as you have seen and up there, they are worried about losing jobs when the new government cuts and cuts hard. After all large numbers of jobs in the North East are either directly with the government or strongly supported. Many too, are in-line for savage cuts because of new technology.
So would NuLabor tell the truth in the North East? No! But the Tories and the Lib Dems have nothing to lose there, so they would at least do the dirty deed after the election.
So what can be cut, what can be improved and how can we raise more revenue?
There are government programmes that can go like Trident, ID Cards, the two aircraft carriers, the Joint Strike Fighter and some other defence projects. Most though will not show up until about 2017.
I have one bitch on what can be improved in the NHS. Every time I go between my GP and Addenbrooke’s I have to tell the other doctor what the previous one, as the two doctors do not have access to the same database. How much does that cost the NHS? And how many other systems show a total lack of joined up thinking?
When we talk about efficiency savings, that is what we’re talking about and it will cost jobs in the NHS and agencies like the Police. But these will mainly be in back-office clerical areas. Well! They should be, but will government really bite the bullet.
Most taxes don’t raise more than about five billion.
So if you want to raise large amounts of taxes, then you increase the big ones like Income Tax, National Insurance, VAT, Corporation Tax and energy taxes.
Income Tax needs to be restructured with perhaps a 50% top rate and very much higher thresholds at the bottom. But I would allow tax relief on any salary you pay to others. So if you employed a nanny or a gardener, then this would be allowed. This may seem something for the well off, but it would also enable anybody to investigate ideas without having to go to the expense of setting up companies and finding loopholes in the tax system.
In other words you restructure Income Tax so that it is basically tax neutral for individuals but creates more jobs, which therefor will increase the tax take and also decrease the benefit take.
I’d also abolish National Insurance and combine it with Income Tax, as that is what it is, a secondary Income Tax.
At the same time, I’d also abolish Inheritance Tax and put three pence on the top rates of Income Tax. This would mean that a lot of rich people would move here and they would create employment. It would also have other employment benefits as people would do what was best at the time, rather than spend fortune avoiding Inheritance Tax.
I’m afraid VAT will probably have to go up. There is no other way to raise significant revenue. As VAT is generally only paid by consumers, as companies offset it, I would prefer that the tax rises were here, than before people got their money.
Corporation Tax is already high compared to other countries in Europe. If it is raised we are in danger of losing companies abroad. So raising it is a no-no, but lowering it may well raise more revenue as other companies would move here.
Now we come to energy taxes. They should be raised substantially. If coupled with increases in Income Tax thresholds they would publish the profligate. I would abolish Vehicle Excise Duty and just have a Vehicle Registration Fee for every time a vehicle changes hands.
Now, I am a control engineer by training and a lot of this is standard control theory, where you do something and you get lots of secondary effects. You just have to make sure that the secondary effects create jobs and thus raise Income Tax take and reduce benefits.
NuLabor has dug us into a big hole. We will only get out by being radical. Correct that; very radical.
Policing at QPR
As I walked away from Loftus Road last Tuesday, I was surprised at how many police were on duty.
Obviously, it was because there was a large and angry crowd with a history of violence between the two teams, it was necessary to have this sort of presence of the boys in blue.
But the crowd was 10,000 or so, the Ipswich supporters were their usual well-behaved bunch, everybody seemed to be talking to each other as they walked towards the Tube, I didn’t see anybody who was the least bit drunk and it was all rather cold. Would you really want aggro on a very cold day? Possibly, it would be a way of warming up.
So do the Met just treat all matches the same and send it everything including the kitchen sink and the cavalry, when quite frankly they should be used for something more important than a peaceful football match. Should I for instance report the police to the RSPCA for getting the horses out unnecessarily on a cold night?
The was one unsavoury incident though. The QPR supporters did slag off their club’s owner.
Does Ali Dizaei Wear a Wig?
Surely not! But just look at the pictures of him on the Internet and in today’s Times.
Just search “Ali Dizaei” in Google Images.
In some he has virtually no hair and in others he has lots! You will also notice that the pictures taken before the latest court appearance show him with a large amount.
Commander Ali Dizaei
This case does not show the Police in a good light.
Dizaei has been found guilty of misconduct in public office and perverting the course of justice and will spend some time in jail. It blew out of a row over a web site outside a London restaurant. I’ve tried the web site today and it is no longer there!
I’ve never met Dizaei, but he has been in the media in various negative stories over the last few years.
At the time, I gave Dizaei the benefit of the doubt and put it all down to things like racism and jealousy. Was I wrong? Read the stories and judge.
It illustrates though that if you are high-profile member of a minority, women, Asian, black, Jewish or whatever, you probably have to behave as impeccably as the cleanest of the majority. But then so does everybody else.
Dizaei did not and he paid the ultimate price.
In one quick stroke though Dizaei has hurt all those good officers from minorities, who by hard work have managed to climb up the rather slippery and difficult ladder of promotion.
I hope we have heard the last of Dizaei. But I fear not, as he will probably use all methods to clear his name.
Fined for Blowing his Nose
Michael Mancini has just been fined £60 and given penalty points on his licence for blowing his nose whilst driving. He was actually stationary at the time with the handbrake on and the car in neutral. Here’s what The Times says about it.
You can understand why the police are getting a bad name.
But it does seem according to The Times, that the policeman involved has form.
PC Gray earned notoriety for doling out a £50 fine to Stewart Smith, another Ayr man, who dropped a £10 note from his back pocket. Mr Smith was charged with littering.
I would suggest that PC Gray needs to be put on latrine duty or whatever the police equivalent of that is. The officer is a laughing stock.
Rolling Roadblock Practice
I have been unable to find any reference to it, but whilst driving down from Scotland at the weekend, I was listening to the traffic reports on BBC Radio 5. These are very reliable although sometimes they miss something.
But on Monday, they announced that in the middle of the evening rush hour, the Police on the M62 were practicing setting up rolling roadblocks.
How irresponsible!
And I wonder how many caught up in this pointless exercise will help the Police in future, when they really need help?
Rural Crime in Suffolk Still Falling
This was the headline in Saturday’s East Anglian Daily Times. The article doesn’t seem to have been posted.
I’ve only had a couple of incidents in the last twenty years and these involved people nicking stuff from outbuildings where I lived.
The figure shows that in the whole of Suffolk, just 68.8 crimes were reported per 1,000 of the population, making it one of the lowest levels in the country.
The Police put it down to the work of Safer Neighbourhood Teams, but I actually wonder if the low levels of crime are for deeper reasons.
Suffolk is a pretty prosperous county and it has fairly low unemployment, so there are probably a lot fewer people who need to turn to crime. It also hasn’t until recently had a large student population and according to various writers, a lot of crime is around students, who are not as careful with their accommodation and possessions than most of us.
I travel to London a lot and you notice a very different attitude on the part of the Police you meet on the street between the Met and the Suffolk Constabulary. The former tends to be remote and aggressive, whilst my local force tries to act as part of the community and be reasonably pleasant. So is it just that in Suffolk, we give the Police the information they need. Ipswich certainly did that with the murders of several women a couple of years ago.
So there might be a lesson here.
Keep the Police forces small and local. Co-operate on a higher level by all means and use compatible systems, but do people prefer to deal with an officer, who is not just a policeman, but part of the community as well?
I think they do!
The Anonymous Widower 