Nite Owl has drawn to my attention to the fact that the Tory candidate for the post of Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner has a rather unfortunate name:
N.B. Gruts does not endorse the politicisation of the police.
Not quite as unfortunate a name as an acquaintance two-times-removed of Jen‘s: a certain Robin Bastard.
I would have thought commissioning crime was illegal.
So, the Tory Chief Whip, Andrew Mitchell, referred to police officers who were trying to do their jobs as ‘fucking plebs’, telling them it was ‘best you learn your fucking place’.
The angry tirade was sparked when the officers, following official parliamentary security procedures, refused to open the main gate for Mr Mitchell, and, instead, required him to push his bicycle through a side gate.
I have to say, Mitchell’s expletive-filled over-reaction to this minor inconvenience demonstrates the misplaced air of superiority felt, and the utter contempt in which we ordinary people seem to be held, by the majority of urban cyclists Tory MPs.
I receive email:
Richard
I am the police motorcyclist you snapped in Halifax.
Is there any chance I could have a copy of the photo?
Regards
Chris
Chris.
Snapped, indeed!
Ah-ha! This might explain the legendary long-arm of the law!
Observer: Put young children on DNA list, urge police
Primary school children should be eligible for the DNA database if they exhibit behaviour indicating they may become criminals in later life, according to Britain’s most senior police forensics expert.
Gary Pugh, director of forensic sciences at Scotland Yard and the new DNA spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said a debate was needed on how far Britain should go in identifying potential offenders, given that some experts believe it is possible to identify future offending traits in children as young as five.
‘If we have a primary means of identifying people before they offend, then in the long-term the benefits of targeting younger people are extremely large,’ said Pugh. ‘You could argue the younger the better. Criminologists say some people will grow out of crime; others won’t. We have to find who are possibly going to be the biggest threat to society.’
(My emphasis added.)
That is one hell of an if, if I may say so, Gary. But I suspect you already know that. Exactly what percentage of experts is ‘some experts’? How do you define an expert? When you say these experts ‘believe’, do you mean they have actual scientific proof, or do you mean that they believe in the same way that some people believe in Father Christmas, that there is a god, or that there are fairies at the bottom of their garden?
Why are you spouting this dangerous nonsense, Gary? Haven’t you read The Mismeasure of Man?
What’s your real agenda, Gary?
(Is this the sort of debate you had in mind?)
Masterchef (BBC2): Sarah’s police training means she’s focused and immediately takes to the kitchen environment.
Glad to see our boys and girls in blue are getting the training they need.
I take it the kitchen uses copper pans.
I wonder if they take truncheon vouchers.
(Lap ‘em up chaps, these are the jokes.)