Dealing With The Underclass

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Last week the country and national press were so excited by the coming of the Olympic Games that Friday’s passing of a life sentence, by Manchester Crown Court,  on the murderer of Indian student, Anuj Bidve, slipped virtually unnoticed underneath the radar.

On Boxing Day last year a young Salford criminal, Kiaran Stapleton aged 21, approached his innocent 23 year old victim on the street and after asking him the time shot him in the head seemingly just for the fun of it. No motive was established and no remorse was shown by Stapleton either before, during or after the trial. On the contrary, he seemed to relish his new found notoriety and spent the whole trial laughing and smirking.
Of course, it’s very easy to become emotional following the commission of such a despicable crime and the taking of an innocent life so full of promise by a killer from the complete opposite end of the social scale. There will be further calls for capital punishment and whilst I, as a lawyer, would find it hard to vote in favour of the death sentence I have to admit that it would be difficult to find a better advertisement for it than Stapleton.
We have a serious problem in this country with a large criminal underclass who live on State handouts and generally behave in such a manner that any decent citizen would find repugnant. Successive governments have huffed and puffed and talked about making our streets safe but the sad fact is that these crimes continue to mount as the police are withdrawn from the streets and their numbers diminished in the midst of wholesale Government spending cuts.
It’s no use the Prime Minister talking about his “Big Society” and despairing at the breakdown of the family unit and the consistent failings of State education. Something has to be done and done quickly. We don’t need yet another public enquiry or an investigation by select committee but a clear recognition of the problem. Significant parts of our country, particularly the inner cities, are virtually lawless and unless more police are put on the beat and unless our courts deal firmly with convicted criminals our problems will worsen and events like that on Boxing Day 2011 will sadly become commonplace.

Olympics and Stuff

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The Olympics are now well and truly with us and, in spite of all the fears and reservations of many, I think it is going pretty well so far, subject to Team GB notching up a few gold medals, of course.

I thought that the much anticipated opening ceremony was a great success and showed a lot of imagination and flair by the director, Danny Boyle, and the thousands of mainly amateur participants who worked tirelessly all night to make it work as spectacularly as it did. It showed a lot of what this country was and is about and the criticisms that it was too leftie or politically correct are unfair.

Of course, much more could have been made of our Imperial past but it probably would have been a little distasteful bearing in mind that at one time or another we were at war with most of the countries taking part! Yes, we could have had a scene involving the archers of Agincourt, the sailors of Trafalgar or even a re-enactment of Rorke’s Drift but I don’t think it would have gone down very well!

The whole spectacle was a credit to all involved and, like many others I’m sure, it certainly made me feel proud to be British.

Finally, I  wonder why the British team is called Team GB and not Team UK.  Great Britain is the name of the larger of the British Isles and by implication a reference to Great Britain alone misses out Northern Ireland which is located on a different island. The correct title of our country, as a whole, is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and, since team GB contains some Northern Irish athletes, it should naturally be called Team UK. I hope the Northern Irish aren’t too miffed by this!

Fly The Flag

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I don’t suppose the mix up over the North and South Korea flags on Wednesday evening  was the kind of start to the Games the Olympic organisers were looking for.  To place an image of the wrong country’s flag next to a sportsman’s image is embarrassing at best but to place an image of the flag of that sportsman’s country’s bitter enemy next to his or her face is unforgiveable. To put it in a context closer to home can you imagine the outrage that would emanate from the placing of the Union flag next to the image of a sportsman from the Irish Republic?

Still, we shouldn’t be surprised because, according to the results of a survey commissioned by the Panasonic corporation released last week, the Japanese flag is more recognizable to most British people than their own flag (that’s astounding if it’s true). In addition the survey of 2,000 adults (adults mind you, not infants!) discovered the following gems –

– 1 in 12 thought the Union flag (Union Jack) was the flag of England.
– 1 in 10 thought the St George’s flag was the flag of Wales.
– 1 in 3 thought the Australian flag was the flag of the USA.

Lord help us; to think we once had an empire! Can we really be that stupid? (I ask this rhetorically!)

A spokesman for Panasonic  said –  “With the influx of flags set to come into the UK for the Olympic Games I’m sure fans will enjoy the opportunity to learn them all”.  Presumably he was also referring to the Olympic organisers! The only saving grace was that the Korean cock-up happened before an Olympic football match in Edinburgh and not London. Perhaps it was an attempt by jealous Scottish Nationalists to sabotage the Games!

On a serious note, the Olympic Games officially open tonight and, as with the recent Jubilee celebrations, I’m sure we can all, bar the usual whingeing curmudgeons of course, take great pride in another marvellous showcase for our country. Thousands of people, most of them volunteers, have devoted huge swathes of their time and effort into creating these Games and they deserve our profound gratitude. I don’t doubt that the Games will be a great success and a further source of pride for the whole of our country.

An Historic Achievement

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So many horrible things happen in our world today but, as England awoke this bright Monday morning to sunshine and clear blue skies, our national newspaper headlines trumpeted some astounding sporting success. Bradley Wiggins, the 32 year old holder of three Olympic cycling gold medals, became the first ever Englishman to win the Tour de France, arguably the most gruelling endurance test in any sport.

One has come to expect  hyperbole verging on hysteria in the tabloids whenever someone from these shores achieves even a modicum of sporting success but when our more responsible press are referring to “an historic achievement” and asking “Is Wiggins the greatest ever?” winner of the Tour (yesterday’s Sunday Times) you have to sit up and take notice. We’re not supposed to be good at long distance mountainous cycle races, lacking as we do the vast mountain ranges of Europe and beyond, and any cycling successes achieved in the past tend to have been in time trials and sprints. Wiggins’ victory has quite simply transcended anything achieved by an Englishman before in cycling and as the first English winner in 99 years of the Tour de France he deserves all the plaudits and adulation which come his way.

The Tour is however a team event and his colleagues, Mark Cavendish (who won on the Champs-Elysees stage for a record 4th time) and Chris Froomes (who finished second overall and, in another year, could well have won it himself)plus the rest of Team Sky deserve the highest possible praise. They have all done us proud and further pride may well follow in the forthcoming Olympic Games.

Let’s hope that these sporting heroes provide the inspiration for thousands of youngsters to take up the sport (in fact any sport) and shame our Government into ending the continued sale of sports fields across the land and into elevating competitive sport in schools to the highest possible level.

Security Bungle

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The furore surrounding the G4S security company’s London Olympics debacle shows no sign of abating. The fact that G4S screwed up spectacularly in providing less than a third of the 10,000 plus security guards, for which it was contracted, is bad enough but to then learn that the hapless yet grasping Chief Executive, Nick Buckles, still intends to collect the company’s £57 million management fee leaves one almost lost for words. Surely to claim a management fee you have to have managed something and preferably in a positive sense rather than a negative, as in managed to make a complete cock-up of the security arrangements for the biggest sporting event on the planet for which, incidentally, you had 2 years to prepare.

If this story has shown us one thing it is that there is no government or public sector monopoly on incompetence. In the past we have been told, sometimes with justification, that the private sector (favoured by the Conservatives and New Labour) with its healthy culture of free market competition  will always serve the country best. In contrast the public sector (favoured by socialist Labour) is perceived, again sometimes with justification, to be slow, pedantic and overly bureaucratic.

The ineptitude of G4S should make us reconsider these perceptions, because this isn’t the first time that the company, either in its present carnation or its previous persona of Group 4, has made headlines for its bungling. The company also looks after security at HM Prisons and the transportation of  prisoners to and from court and has hardly covered itself in glory in the performance of either of those tasks either. Surprisingly, or so you would think, the company still gets work from the Government and receives millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money for its “services”. The question needs to be asked who keeps giving G4S all this business and why? The person or persons responsible should be made to explain themselves.

When the dust has settled on this sorry affair the whole question of public v private needs to be carefully considered and acted upon. It seems to me that some things are just too important and sensitive to be farmed out to the private sector and areas such as security, transport, the NHS and education should remain the sole responsibility of the Government, accountable as it is to the electorate.

The G4S case is a perfect illustration of this point. Our armed forces and Police are largely well trained and good at the jobs they do, both are experts in armed security and they are being laid off by the thousand. The Government needs security for the Olympic Games and instead of saving money (and jobs) by relying upon the readymade expertise at its fingertips it calls in, at great expense to the public purse, a private company many of whose employees are not even British. Lord help us!

Preservation

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Few would disagree that the world’s human population is spiralling out of control leading not only to irreversible damage to the planet but to the deaths of thousands of people every day through starvation and disease. Many leading scientists and environmentalists are warning governments that they need to act now before it is too late.

Last week one of the world’s most respected naturalists, Sir David Attenborough, when discussing the problems facing the planet and in particular the population explosion, said “People have pushed aside the question of population and sustainability and not considered it  because it is too awkward, embarrassing and difficult”.  When Attenborough’s career began in 1950 the world population was 2.5 billion and, sixty years on, it is now 7 billion. That increase has placed an incredible burden on the planet’s natural resources and, as Attenborough said,  “The fact is, if we don’t do something nature will. Quite simply, we will run out of food”. He emphasised that birth control is vital to not only help save the world but to prevent the horrific infant mortality rates in the third world.

It was therefore encouraging when it was announced last week that Melinda Gates, the billionaire philanthropist and wife of Bill Gates the Microsoft tycoon, would give £375 million to a campaign to provide contraception to women in the developing world. No doubt this will be unpopular with certain religious and liberal organisations but can religious or liberal beliefs ever be placed above the saving of human life?

It is estimated that 9,000 mothers and children die each day in the third world as a result of unwanted pregnancies and that reason alone has to justify the provision of contraception. Further, if contraception can lead to a reduction of the world’s population and the preservation of the planet then the argument is unassailable.

Froth and Dregs

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Newspaper revelations of the banking scandal have clearly opened a can of worms (an apposite analogy if ever there was one) exposing the murky world of high finance for all to see. For many years successive governments  have ignored the fact that many of our top (as in earnings – nothing else) bankers, financiers and other assorted rapacious capitalists were abusing the system to feather their nests. Of course, many of these parasites ostentatiously made financial donations to our major political parties and, mindful of the doctrine “never bite the hand that feeds”, our democratically elected rulers turned a blind eye to their misdemeanours.

In times of recession however the spotlight tends to shine a little brighter and the light reveals all sorts of grubby little creatures lurking in hitherto unseen crevices. This is what is happening now and the sense of outrage felt by the vast majority of decent British people is palpable. There must be no hiding place for the guilty and it is surely only a matter of time before prison sentences are handed out as frequently as bankers’ bonuses.

At the other end of the spectrum the Government is, at long last, addressing the rampant abuses of our welfare system and measures are being put in place to end many of them. For many people in this country the State has become a limitless source of cash to fund lifestyles based purely on handouts. In some families there has been no history of employment for several generations yet they demand as of right things that most of us strive hard to acquire through honest hard work. For the workers in society there is no such thing as a free lunch but unfortunately they are the ones picking up the tab for those dining for free.

As a nation we are haemorrhaging money at both ends and the decent, hardworking, taxpaying majority in the middle of our society are the ones  keeping us going, preventing the country (for the time being) from going under. Their reward, as announced earlier this week, is to face further means testing in later life when they require care home treatment. What a reward for their honesty, frugality and responsibility.

It brought to mind the quotation of the 18th century French philosopher Voltaire about the British  – “They are like their own beer, froth at the top, dregs at the bottom, the middle excellent”. Three centuries on it seems his assessment is as accurate as ever.

Destruction of the Oceans

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On May 21st I posted a blog about the wanton destruction of our planet and, of course, anybody with even the slightest interest in ecology is fully aware of what we are doing to the world around us. Barely a day goes by without some reference in the national press to the melting of polar icecaps, the devastation of rain forests or the wiping out of yet another wildlife species. Surely our politicians must also be aware of all of this and surely the Government must be trying to do something about it? I wonder though; is world conservation an important enough vote winner and do we, as a nation, care enough to do something about it? The answers, very sadly, are probably not.

Two recent news stories concerning the protection of the seas serve to emphasize once more that urgent action is vital if we are to prevent further destruction. The first story, published in yesterday’s Sunday Times, concerns the near annihilation of the North Pacific Right Whale whose numbers have dropped from approximately 50,000 before industrialised hunting began to somewhere in the region of 400 worldwide. The story follows the decision of South Korea, announced last week, to embark on a “scientific” whaling programme in the Pacific meaning, quite simply, the killing of whales for commercial gain. Will any of the so-called civilised nations (us, the rest of Europe and the USA for example) do anything about it? What do you think?

The second story, is somewhat closer to home and this, published in the Greenpeace Summer 2012 pamphlet, reveals the full extent of the denuding of fishing stocks in UK waters. It highlights the continued failures of the EU Common Fisheries Policy and specifically the scandalous quota system which has simultaneously brought several fish species to the brink of extinction and caused financial ruin to many of the UK’s fishermen, particularly those involved in “small-scale” fishing. Small-scale fishing boats, incidentally, are those of 10 metres or less in length.

Evidently, small-scale fishing boats comprise 77% of the UK’s fishing fleet yet they are only allowed to catch 4% of the UK’s fishing quota so it isn’t too difficult to see why so many British fishing communities are struggling to survive. The Common Fisheries Policy is due for reform this year and that is why Greenpeace are highlighting the plight of our seas and the fishermen who try to make a living from them. They are urging supporters to join their campaign, “Be a Fisherman’s Friend”, to try to protect the future of both the sea and the fishing industry.

The Government seem to be doing nothing so shouldn’t we show our support by joining the Greenpeace campaign (www.greenpeace.org.uk/faircatch) and also by lobbying our MPs, our MEPs and the UK fisheries minister (Richard Benyon) so that they are left in doubt that we do, actually, care greatly about what is happening to our seas.

Police Cuts

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If you were asked whether or not you were happy with the service provided by our national police force and whether or not you felt there were enough policemen on the beat the chances are that you would answer both questions in the negative. We know how difficult it is to obtain a quick and effective  response  when we report a crime and, as far as policemen on the beat are concerned, when did you last see a bobby walking down your local high street? And I mean a proper one, not one of those lightly-trained-with-limited-powers-and-usually-slightly-overweight police community support officers.

So I imagine you were somewhat surprised and disappointed this week to read of plans to get rid of 6,000 front line police officers and close down hundreds of police stations over the next three years.  On top of this a further 25,000 or so non-front line officers and civilian support staff will also be axed in an effort to save £2.4 billion on the police budget by 2015. When asked to explain these cuts a Government spokesmen sought to reassure us that the overall quality of policing would remain and we would be as safe as we ever were. Putting aside the question as to whether or not you felt safe in the first place it’s tempting to ask why all those policemen and support staff are currently in employment if their loss will make no overall difference to the quality of policing.

The answer is that there are too many bureaucrats in the Police (as there are in the NHS, Education, Defence and virtually any other Government ministry and department you may wish to name) and anything that leads to less bureaucracy and form filling has to be a good thing. However, in a country where crime is still on the increase and where we remain at risk from the threat of worldwide terrorism, shouldn’t we actually be increasing the number of police on the front line?

The Unacceptable Face of Capitalism

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I’m sure that most of us watching the continuing cycle of banking scandals do so with a combined sense of bemusement and disgust. The collapse of The Northern Rock Bank during the sub-prime lending crisis of 2007, heralded the start of that cycle and, with it, the beginning of the worst recession in living memory.

It is a recession caused by the greed of financial institutions eager to make fortunes by lending money and  granting mortgages, usually at exorbitant rates, to people totally ill-equipped to repay them. The results of their greed were that borrowers, unable to repay their loans, had their homes repossessed and the ultimate lenders were left out of pocket, causing a spiral of debt.

When the continuing crisis caused the collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland the bank was rescued and bailed out by Government (and therefore taxpayers’) money. In spite of this, leading City bankers have continued to award themselves huge personal bonuses when, all around them, people and businesses not so fortunate, and not so immoral, have gone to the wall. Now we learn that Barclays and other banks have defrauded us further by manipulating and fixing the inter-bank interest rate (the Libor rate) for their own benefit.

To refer to their actions as immoral is actually euphemistic. The correct word is criminal and if the behaviour of bankers, traders and other “masters of the universe” as they arrogantly refer to themselves is shown to fall foul of the law (and the fact that the FBI are investigating Barclays traders in the USA seems to indicate that this is indeed the case) those responsible should be investigated and prosecuted without delay. It is our money that has been misappropriated and, like common thieves, the perpetrators should be held to account by the courts.