Dog Day Afternoon

Ashford, Middlesex had its own armed bank robbery Monday afternoon. The siege lasted barely a quarter as long as events in the film Dog Day Afternoon, though it was almost as hot.
The police did not acquit themselves well, cordoning off the entire area without explanation. I had to waste my time rescuing a teenage overseas visitor left stranded at the railway station.

Instead of sending people to traffic school for minor motoring infringements police officers should attend charm school themselves, and they might get the cooperation from the public they say they crave. Instead, most crimes go unreported, and our elders live as prisoners in their own homes.
With the Ashford bank robber caught red-handed surely he can go straight to prison, with no reason ever to release him. He made his choice.

Stolen Bicycles

Sympathies to Labour’s parliamentary candidate in Spelthorne.
He commutes from central London each day by train, with a folding bicycle so he can then get around. Unfortunately it keeps on getting stolen. Four times now he has bought a brand new one.
My advice, after I had my bike stolen, is to get a cheap second hand one!
Truly an indictment of thirteen years of soaring crime under Labour.

Delivering to Flats

People are always telling me about flats [US: apartments] where they can’t deliver election leaflets.
Yes, more and more people are living in seclusion, and things are set to get worse under a Liberal Democrat administration, when only the most serious criminals will go to prison, because they will abolish sentences of less than six months.
However I have yet to find a building with more than five flats that I couldn’t get into, though admittedly there are hazards.
I have sheltered accommodation on my patch where the warden was always very defensive. After she faced a tirade of abuse from a senior Liberal Democrat local councillor 18 months ago she is even more protective. I have contacts who let me in, and I then have to whiz round the building undetected. Today I exited under her nose, as she sat at her desk.

Today’s LibDem lie: As Member of the European Parliament Nick Clegg used to fly to Brussels in economy class, but always claimed expenses for first class travel and pocketed the difference.

Real Life Crime

I don’t normally watch TV soaps because they're so contrived and unreal.
But last night’s Eastenders was real because it was broadcast live, just like all television used to be fifty years ago.
You could tell everyone was on edge -- not just because of the plotlines. Then I flipped over to BBC3 and the actor who’d just jumped to his death got up and told us how he felt -- great!
That got me thinking: how much easier it would be for our over-stretched police force if everyone admitted their crime at the end, like Stacy Slater did.
However I was amused this week when PC plod arrested a veteran TV broadcaster in a dawn raid at his old people’s home, after admitting on TV that he killed his lover ages ago. After 30 hours in detention they had to let him go because he refused to say who the victim was, or when and where the crime took place.
Suicide is wrong, whether assisted or not.

Soft on Criminals, Tough on Victims

In a final betrayal of New Labour’s original 1997 pledges it is clear that Britain is now soft on criminals and tough only on their victims.
In America you knock on a stranger’s door to ask for help at your peril, as you are liable to be shot dead, no questions asked.
This week Myleene Klass was reprimanded by police for “illegally” brandishing a knife inside her own kitchen at youths taunting her from out in the garden. She was scared to death.
Personally I don’t have a problem. As long as I know where I am and where the exits are, I’ll roam the toughest housing estates, even after dark. All I fear is the embarrassment of being dowsed by a flagon of water in the summer, or feral youths firing snowballs at me in the winter. I’m fit enough to run away.
However far too many of our elders are imprisoned in their own homes after dark for fear of being attacked. This is not the kind of society I aspire to.

Stanwell Club House Wrecked

Without being complacent, Spelthorne doesn’t suffer too badly from the upsurge in crime under this Labour Government.
All the more shocking therefore was the attack on the Long Lane Recreation Ground club house in Stanwell over the weekend.
The place was completely wrecked, with an estimated £40,000 worth of damage. Every internal fixture was ripped apart, the ceilings pulled down and the whole place deliberately flooded.
Usually vandals from outside the area are responsible, but of course it’s local youths who will suffer, losing their changing rooms over the winter.