Latest Moan From You and Me 2024

Being of rather senior years I tend to find most things seem overpriced. I used to laugh at my father when he used to quite often say "How much??? "

We shall be going to the RHS flower show at Hyde Hall on Saturday but only because it's a free visit as gardening clubs get one free group visit a year - but with limited numbers. Surprisingly, the uptake of the free visit is poorly attended.

A visit to our garden at Shineyland is always free to GC members but we used to charge visitors the massive entry fee of £1 on open days (we doubled that in 2018 ) and entertainment was free.

 

It seems abundantly clear to me that the police have lost the streets - both in terms of crime prevention but also losing a significant amount of the general public's support. The first shout that will come up is 'underfunding' as it always does, and to be fair I think they are underfunded to a fairly large degree, however funding is just one component.

Many experienced officers have left the force either by retirement, by redundancy thanks to Mrs May or because they have reached the point where they've simply had enough. The remaining officers are not as experienced which has in turn led to over-promotion, so we now have high ranking officers who really should not be where they are. In desperation, they relaxed standards for recruitment and have ended up taking on people who simply are not fit to be in the force, as evidenced by the number of them that have been sacked or even jailed now that public scrutiny has ramped up.

Add to that the pure and simple fact that often, they are trying to do the job with their hands being held behind their back. Stop and search is the most stand out example of that - it was halted, certainly here in the capital, because it was upsetting people and there were accusations of racism. I recall on the run up to it being halted that there was an article on BBC London where they were in Streatham speaking with someone from the community who was complaining that the majority of people stopped in Streatham were black. I've driven buses in Streatham and can tell you for sure that the majority of people in Streatham are black - it is just a simple fact about the make up of the local community, just as Hounslow and Southhall are majority Indian/Pakistani. Are there racist officers? Absolutely there is - but deal with those individuals on a case-by-case basis... don't just stop doing one of the main things that helps keep crime down! Personally, I don't care what a person's skin colour is that gets caught with a knife - everyone's blood is red when they are stabbed.

Police also stopped dealing with lower level crimes such as shoplifting, car theft, burglary and even turning a blind eye to these e-scooters and e-bikes flying about the place (I'd ban them, pure and simple) and as many folks anticipated, that led to other crime rising, either through criminals feeling emboldened to do so, or indeed funding further worse activity.

Meanwhile, there has been so many lies and so much corruption on behalf of politicians/government either by directly lying to us or by holding things back from us - the distrust that exists in governments, councils and even public bodies like the NHS and police is a thing I never thought I'd see in my lifestyle. Put the cherry of two-tier policing (and now two-tier housing!) into the frame, and people are angry... very angry. We are a matter of weeks after a general election, yet how many people are currently feeling that they are listened to? How many people feel that they are a valued part of society?

 

There is some karma in all of this though -

 

That is the bit that we've lost more than anything.

Think about it - when we were kids and misbehaved, Mr Jones from down the street would give us a bawling out or even a clip round the ear and stopped us doing whatever it was we were doing. We'd wouldn't go complaining about it because we knew if our parents got wind of it, our backsides would be red. Now, people daren't as much as speak to someone else's kids for fear of backlash.

Look at Manchester Airport too - as soon as that incident happened, the focus was 100% on the police officer and that tiny wee clip where he gives the guy a boot to the head... all the politicians and heads of state were out wringing their hands about that tiny wee component, yet completely ignoring the fact that there was a police officer with a broken nose and two other that had been assaulted; completely ignoring what had happened before, essentially portraying the criminals as the victims and basically virtue signalling. When the later video came out - all of those same people went very, very quiet. They threw those officers under the bus, screamed racism and police brutality and when the truth came out, there was no apology.. nothing. That sort of behaviour, right there, is indicative of why people are pissed off and why our police are demoralised at best.

 

Stop and search was a highly effective tool for police, particularly in London - yet Sadiq Khan ran on a manifesto (his first) of stopping it. He is the man most responsible for the rise in violent crime in London as far as I am concerned.

Politicians have put far too much effort into controlling what law abiding citizens are doing with easy money makers like ULEZ/CAZ etc whilst almost completely ignoring actual crime taking place.

 

Sums things up quite well. Quite telling when you consider that James Melville (actor) was until relatively recently a staunchly centre-left, Labour supporter:

 

On a lighter note, I see that our illustrious King has found a way to alleviate the national debt, go and eat abroad at foreigner's expense:

Emmanuel Macron's lobster banquet for King Charles III cost French presidency €450,000