What amazes me is when a house alarm goes off and you phone 999 sayingthat your neighbour is away and their alarm is going off at 2 in the morning.
Their reply frequently is " have you seen anyone at the house? " Err like I'm going to go and look to see if a crazed freekin druggy with a knife is there??

"Oh well we don't respond to false alarms" How do you know it's a false alarm if you don't get off your fat arse and send someone to attend, after all the coppers are trained in beating shit out of scroats and I'm not....if I did I'd get a sentence...

and you wonder why police clear up rate in hartlepool is in very low 20's %

the same coppers who made it THEIR business to hoy that lad out of Pools last week for taking his shirt off celebrating a goal? Eeh, I never thought plod would do things like that, but at the same time not respond to a break-in where someone might actually get hurt, or even killed. I absolutely detest the ROLE they play in today's society. They are persecuting the people who can afford to pay fines - the police are used as just another means of stealth tax on everyday folks.

Kerlannngggggg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sound of massive penny falling from very great height. They reduced the Police budgets but let them keep a slice of the speeding fines, ostensibly to fund more speeding cameras. But you can't have them every forty foot, although they would like to so where does the extra income go?? They charge football clubs for policing, although most don't want it but they'd stop the games if they didn't send three coppers per hundred fans, all on overtime. And how do the clubs pay for it?? Raise the admission charge!! It's a major cost

Remember Wigans argument last season??

Sort of had this argument before but thought I should add my two-penneth.
Heroin works for a lot of people. Its a pain killer.
Others drift onto it
I've wondered about legalising it but that would keep those that make it (such as those in Afghanistan) in business - and that cant be good.
Plus you can survive on Methadone or Subutex instead and get it reduced on a programme.
40 years to life for all big time dealers or runners
And what is the problem in bombing the poppy fields in Afghanistan?
Can someome please tell me?
85 percent of our heroin comes from there.
Give them a warning (like a day) so all the workers who work there so they dont starve can get out in time
Then bomb the fuck out the fields
Wait til they grow them again
Them bomb the fuck out of them again.
Its those bastards who are killing people and making all this crime.

You don't have to bomb them, a once only overflight with weed killer spray will do it for a fraction of the cost. You don't even need to get the workers out,all that'll happen is they get wet and smell a bit better. You don't even have to go back and do it again.

But no heroin problem means that a lot of very highly paid civil servants lose their cinecure jobs, like no war means that the defence industry goes into decline. Too much money will be lost and so they perpetuate it.

45 billion we've spent in Iraq and they did fuck all to us!! Well to anybody except their own for that matter.

hate is a very strong emotion to describe how you feel ....have u thought of counselling...like what this lady uses?



it may help you know?

Well if you mean they aren't allowed to beat confessions out of people, all well and good. Guildford four?? Birmingham six?? There's ten innocent people who did donkeys years inside and ten criminals who went free laughing all the way to the bomb factory.

It's hardly tough, standing behind a tree every day holding a speed gun is it?? Or wandering around ticketing litter louts. Or checking tax discs??

Parmo called it right, they're another New Labour money maker funding a needless war. How many hospitals does 45 billion build?? About 90 is my guess. What did we get?? A thousand dead soldiers.

Anyway, good morning everybody. How are we all today??

Given the fact she was born in 1981 and I imagine she didnt go to sixth form, the Labour Parties educational policies can hardly be to blame, can they now??

Nope it was to do with crippling taxation, erosion of privacy and burgeoning ambition.

And of course Dibble.

i understand that this woman who was supposed to be in India visiting the slums
has just left the Priory as she cannot control her anger
i have never seen so many crocadile tears from the three muckyteers who were involved in this school girl bully gang

it has come to something when Brits emigrate to China of all places, to escape intrusions into our everyday freedoms!!!!
He is correct though, that's the saddest part about it!!!

I don't think bombing or spraying foreign poppy or cocoa fields is morally justifiable. we can't interfere on such a destuctive level in countries where these things aren't illegal. Just cos we disagree with it and can't control our own borders doesn't mean we have a right to destroy people's livelyhoods - people who are doing something that's been done for hundreds of years and which isn't considered unethical. It's the equivalent of the Arabs flying over here and bombing a casino or something, it's not right.

But there's only one use for the opium crop and the profits directly fund the warlords. No opium, no trouble, either end of the spectrum. I'm with you on the cocoa like, I quite like a cup now and then. Swiss Miss is my favourite. Creamy.

The Taliban had them growing food crops for the populace and their livelihood wasn't affected. Along comes Bush and his 'war on terror' with Tony trotting like a faithful, lying, corrupt, oily slug at his heels and the smack problem re-appears worldwide. Re-sult boys!!

There's no other use for the coca bush crop either and the American DEA spray the fuck out of that!! It's just that most of it is unreachable. You simply can't miss a field full of poppies.

I'll tell you a story about my travels to Columbia one day.

It's not just SB who went to Bogata. There was a spate of it in the 80's and 90's of all sorts of British military working under the auspices of the US DEA.

you could buy some plastic barge boards :sweet:

Said states, if they condone production, are in breach of international law. Said breach gives a legal right (I'm not mentioning moral rights) to intervene.

The evidence suggests otherwise.

I personally know people who have done prison sentences for their dealers in order to pay off their drug debts. Drugs get found, dealer says not mine, patsy says, mine, porridge duly eaten, dealer never flickers.

Now if the dealer had no dealer.......

What, all of them, from different countries around the world? What about experience - in case you haven't noticed, we now have the highest prison population per capita in Western Europe and the prison population has doubled in less than 15 years. Yet it's still not enough? Prepared to pay more taxes Dibbs to lock more up?

Emigration to somewhere with low taxation and a cheaper cost of living seems to be a good option for me in future years - as soon as I can get my hands on my big fat company pension I'll be off!! No hesitation!! Our lass is like-minded. Iraq may have settled down by then
I wonder if they'll still pay a grand a day tax-free??

How about policy based on what works rather than what feels good (for you)?

The point is, there is no quick fix, no slogan or instant solution. That's the problem, short term thinking based on the most recent issue and popular opinion. I wouldn't dare ask you to tell me how to complete .. (pick a complicated engineering problem of your choice) in a short paragraph. Why should you demand the same for an equally complex problem?

You may as well listen to George Galloway.

Indeed
However, the sentiment was there from Peter, lets face facts, who the feck allowed these turds to sing along in a rap song?

In addition I would, and I never thought I would see the day, trust Peter Hitchens then Galloway, who is as much a socialist as Mrs T

I'll be a property magnate by then!! Give us a bell, mate. I might have bought a pub as well...... The Woodclutters!! I dunno if the do Parmo's but you could always start the fashion!!

Come on Cat, given my so called "PC" record, could I support someone who targets a black jewish woman?

Could you find a black jewish woman??

Mind I went on a two day do to the waterfalls witha chinese jew.

He did look peculiar......

Er, no, I just suggested that it wasn't based on sound evidence



Nice! I think you'll find that I just won't given you a sound bite answer - it doesn't mean I don't have opinions, I'm just not spouting them willy nilly without thinking.



Er, no. That's the Blair way: do you agree with him on this?

You actually make decisions in a considered manner, and not by jumping on the latest crisis or fad. You don't decide how to build a bridge the minute you see the need for one; you ask important questions such as will this idea work, how will we implement it, will it be cost effective? If you don't do these things you make massive mistakes. See the current criminal justice process for evidence of short term thinking and the problems it causes.



I've been doing this all along. Just because you don't like my answers, it doesn't mean that they're not valid!



I'll indulge you on this one. The long answer first - it depends on your sentencing aims. For instance, are you interested in denunciation, rehabilitation, incapacitation, deterrence or reparation? And are you aware of the pitfalls of each aim? Is each aim justified or even achievable? i.e., you need to think about what you're doing.

The answer you desire - I'd want a restorative process whereby victim (and supporters) and offender come face to face and attempt to agree on a solution (and that can include custody). The evidence suggests that, if properly implemented, it has more chance of benefiting EVERYONE in the process.

Now comes the liberal accusations and the like I guess. Bring 'em on... (but give me the evidence that suggests your approach would be better given that I've given an opinion.

Well with the kid who sprayed her name on my wall, I'd prefer incapacitation.

So can I break the little bastards back??

We do lock up far too many people and for the wrong things. Lets take the extremes: paedophilia. Most reasonable people would agree that there is a mental problem inherent in people who commit this, possibly the most abhorrent of crimes. So bang 'em up then? Of course they need taking out of society but one day in the future they will be released. To release them without treatment is akin to aiding and abetting their future reoffending. If someone has mental issues then locking them in a room alone for 23 hours a day is not an effective cure. Sure there should be long sentences for paedophiles but assuming everyone wants them cease their behavior then the core problem has to be addressed.

One off murderers; Crimes of passions, murders committed when people just snap and someone ends up dead. This rule of an automatic life sentence is crazy. Should a woman who kills her husband after years of abuse get life? Should someone who gets into a fight and his opponent fatally bangs his head get life. In a lot of cases murderers are the safest options for early release.

Burglars and petty thieves: again a lot of the time its about a secondary problem, in this case the majority a drugs related. We need to stop the neccesity for junkies to steal and if that includes drug clinics giving out free crack and heroin then so be it.

Then we have those who are simply 'bad 'uns'' they will carry on committing crimes whatever you do. The only answer is to periodically take them off the streets and bang them up.

You can't make a utopia but you can get a hell of a lot closer to it.

Was he Hairy ?

is this a political thread or a highly political hijack

Just the disjointed theorising of a group armchair political pundits unconnected in the practical sense from the repercussions of their reactionary attitudes or naive understanding of the criminal classes mind and subculture they inhabit. Their ideals will never be achieved as they seek to subcnciously recreate a 1950's idyll but cling stubbornly to their post 60's rights, the two aren't compatible unfortunately and the element that is missing is personal control/discipline ... without it, the rest is futile and those up and coming societies who have it will brush us aside..... 'Talk quietly and carry a big stick' was the saying...now it's just 'talk quietly and try to empathise'.

Just out of interest Mr Bastad, I've got a hypothetical question for you.

What if one of your lads commits a crime, say assault or theft before his 16th birthday?

Say he finds the lad who he thinks nicked his phone at Pools, and gives him a good shoeing and takes the lad's mobile off him. But it turns out the knacked lad is innocent, and the phone wasn't young Bastad's at all.

What do you think would be a fitting punishment for young Bastad?

a season ticket for darlo!!

'Young Bastad'!!!!

You see?? The Justice system doesn't always throw good money after bad!!

'Right we need 12 blokes for a jury!!'

Court clerk: 'I've got the very man...........'

Er, Mr B, I suggest deleting this post - it's contempt of court to discuss the inner workings of the jury room!

So if you were 21 and it was 20 years ago..........

You've been lying about your age!!

Unless you were actually the kid in the make-up?? :sweet:

...but if you robbed a bank 20 years ago......

One of my old mates mothers was on the jury for that as well, wonder if she was the one stopping you going on the piss?

PC was on Jury Service over 20 years ago, and I still don't know anything about any off the cases she was on. But it might just be a case of they were all to boring to be worth giving me any lurid details.

Nah she is about sixty odd now I think so cant of been her

I HAVE LOOKED THIS WAY FOR THE LAST TEN YEARS

EVER SINCE I REACHED THIRTY

IIsn’t punk listen to by the rebellious types back in the 70's who then turned out to be the exact thing they were rebelling against, i.e. the system, police, bank managers, surveyors etc etc