Sir Ian Blair
Yesterday, flicking through the Evening Standard while attempting to fight off the worst ravages of indigestion brought on by lunchtime’s sambo from ‘Ponce a Mange’, I see that the Metropolitan Police have appointed a new Commissioner – one Sir Ian Blair. Nothing too remarkable about that until, scanning down the page, one widely reported comment screamed out at me. According to Sir Ian,
“The Met has been through a period of substantial change & it is an absolute privilege to be entrusted with leading, shaping & modernising the service in the years ahead.”
Please forgive your humble correspondent’s deep & enduring cynicism, but it wasn’t that long ago the someone else called ‘Blair’ turned up, promising to ‘modernise’ everything, shortly before this dear old country started to finally sink into the mire of change for changes sake. Reading a little more on Sir Ian, apparently he is described as Britain’s most ‘politically correct’ officer (oh no) & “Labours favourite cop” (hardly a stunning accolade) which is just what we need.
Set this against the backdrop of the latest figures for the proportion of crimes solved by police in England & Wales; which according to the Home Office have fallen again. The overall detection rate dropped 0.3% to 18.8%, with the Metropolitan Police showing the lowest rate. Now I am no criminologist but it is my humble assertion that maybe the Met might just find their time slightly better employed if the forgot all of this community nonsense & went back to what they are actually paid to do which is arresting criminals. A lot less outreach programmes & more long arm of the law.
As a self confessed hanger & flogger my single malt fuelled logic tells me that the police don’t need some namby pamby muesli munching advocate of minority involvement & the issues that racial diversity brings: what London requires is an old fashioned hard nosed thief taker – drinking cold tea from a Styrofoam cup & referring to bad people as ‘villains’.
If the Sweeny Todd are ever going to get a grip on crime in our capital they need to spend less time & money on Community Support Officers (aka plastic policemen) & a lot more time effort & money on haranguing the criminal community. As usual however, NuLabour have appointed one of their own who will launch hundreds of so-called initiatives that have precisely zero effect in stemming the tide of criminality that is engulfing dear old Blighty.