Or We Could Stop Employing Obvious Wrong 'Uns To Work In Them

For seven years, my youngest constituents were abused at Bright Horizons nursery in West Hampstead, London. Earlier this year, Vincent Chan was jailed for 18 years for his horrific crimes. It is every parent’s worst nightmare to discover that their child has been subject to abuse. For this to have happened in a nursery, where parents trusted their children would be safe, is truly abhorrent.

A group of 200 locally affected parents have come together to call for mandatory CCTV in nurseries, as well as requiring Ofsted to review such footage in all inspections.

*sigh* 

I can see why they would think that, but it's a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Better hiring practices unaffected by identity politics and the need to tick boxes to ensure 'representation'  and greater staff-to- child ratio would be  better options, except of course the latter would impact the profits for nursery owners. 

Together we have met the previous education secretary and the previous early years minister, and gave evidence to an expert panel to assess the feasibility of mandatory CCTV in nurseries. With none of these ministers still in post, we must not lose momentum.

Of course, if those ministers had been effective in their job. they might still be doing it. 

With 20,000 reports of serious childcare incidents in English nurseries in the past five years, we need mandatory CCTV to tackle this.

Babies and toddlers are the most vulnerable people in our society, and we must do all we can to protect them from harm.

Who is leading this charge? Why, none other than:  

Tulip Siddiq MP Labour, Hampstead and Highgate

A convicted criminal who should be extradited to Pakistan to serve her sentence. Bit cheeky of her to call attention to other MPs no longer in post. Parents, if you want CCTV in nurseries, choose a better champions, eh? 

 

'Penal Populism' Is A Hit With The Voters, Polly

An astounding change is happening to life in England and Wales that most people don’t know about, and when they are told they don’t believe it. Most crime, including violence, has fallen by a remarkable 90% over the past 30 years. But only 6% of people believe it, while 61% think crime is going up.

Dear old Polly, always reliably wrong. Here she presents facts on crime, assuming that because the numbers are lower than people imagine, we will all say, 'Ok, OK, that's all right then'... 

This great denial is the background cause of the prison overflow crisis, as politicians (of all parties) stir up voters to demand ever higher sentences as the imaginary cure to their imaginary soaring crime.

No one in politics needs to 'stir up voters'. quite the opposite, they are letting criminals go free in clear defiance of the electorate's wishes, and they'll pay a high prices for it at the ballot box.

All western European countries enjoy this same remarkable social improvement, with research over decades offering myriad reasons why: populations spending longer in education, CCTV, better security for cars and homes, and young people staying at home to play video games of fantasy crime instead of entertaining themselves with the real thing. Removing brain-harming lead from petrol and abortion of unwanted foetuses at risk of future child neglect are other possible explanations.

The Left's anwer to so mamy social issues seems to be to kill peiople, doesn'y it? 

This generation inhabits a far less violent society, with many fewer homicides, thefts, burglaries and serious violent crimes, but also far less casual social violence in brawls and punch-ups. Older folk nostalgic for an orderly golden age when no one bothered locking their front door usually situate it just beyond their own memories, in their grandparents’ halcyon days. But radical social change leads to less acceptance of any violence. Online fraud and cybercrime are the ones that are steeply rising, though they are committed by quite different criminals.

We rather doubt this, if the statistics are saying this, we wonder how they are being manipulated to give the 'right' answer.

Single landmark horror cases – from the Moors murderers to Fred West and Axel Rudakubana – are seared for ever into the nation’s collective nightmares. Too often these freak incidents drive our sentencing policy.

As they should do. 

It’s happening again in the case of two of those responsible for the heartrending death of PC Andrew Harper. Harper’s family, and every chief constable in England and Wales, protested vigorously that they were due to be released under new rules after serving only half of their 13-year manslaughter sentences.

But anything singling out these men will be challenged in court. Blocking early release for all those imprisoned for manslaughter would fill too many cells: besides, that’s rough justice when some have sentences of one year, others for 24 years or life.

The true rough justice is that these murderers are breathing at all; they deserved the death penalty. 

The law is set by parliament for independent courts to apply, regardless of politics: look at Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump or Viktor Orbán for examples of those who break that democratic principle. We should be uneasy at our government declaring publicly that it is chasing after a way to bend laws to lock up two particular offenders.

But we aren't. We are happy that for once they are listening to the electorate.

People In Glass Houses, Lammy…

The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, on Saturday spoke by phone with the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, a fact released by the Saudi side. Details of the call, and whether Doush’s trial was raised, were not revealed.

I wonder if Prince Faisal raised the subject of Julian Foulkes, and if he did, what this bumbling idiot would have had to say... 

The case again raises wider issues about Saudi censorship of social media and its use of anti-terrorism laws to suppress free speech. Doush has been represented by the civil rights group Reprieve. In a response to a letter from Reprieve to Lammy concerning the case, a Foreign Office official wrote that “the UK government cannot interfere in another country’s legal processes and must respect their systems, nor can we get British nationals out of jail”.

Hope Lammy paid attention to that. It could turn out to be personally relevant.

We Do, Simon, We Do....

...and look at the result! When David Lammy opens his mouth, his brain falls out and lies quivering on the desk. And yet he's now Foreign Secretary!  

And as for Diane Abbott, if she has one brain cell, it's very lonely. 

The Commons is reluctant to reform itself, but it badly needs it. Now we supposedly know who the next government will be, voters, at least in marginal seats, should select their MPs as individuals, not loyal party members. They should judge them for intelligence, radicalism and independence – qualities likely to be in very short supply.

Indeed so. So perhaps if people no longer vote tribally, and actually read up on the candidates in front of them, we'll see an improvement in quality? 

It's a nice thought.  

Yes, In The Basement, Behind A Door With A Sign Saying 'Beware Of The Leopard'...

Cllr Nigel Ayre, leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition group on the council which was in power when the bollards were installed, insisted the work was in line with a map that had been available at a public drop-in session in January.

Residents wanted 'independent shops, but also seating and greenery'. But that wasn't what they got, was it?

Vikki Hill of the 'What a load of bollards' campaign said the group's aims were simple. "This is about one thing, and one thing only - getting rid of the bollards!" she said.

Get rid of the useless bollards in the council planning department first... 

She Forgot To Add 'Unless You Come In On A Dinghy'...

Coffey, secretary of state for environment food and rural affairs since Rishi Sunak took office in September said: “It is not the role of government to provide free food.”

Well, that should stop the flow of illegal immigration! Suella can put her feet up and have a mince pie... 

In her first grilling by MPs on the environment, food and rural affairs committee since taking up the post, she also said she was “very disappointed by the water companies” and acknowledged concern over sewage flows into waterways. She said water company bosses were being summoned to account for their actions next week, and that they would be subject to more monitoring and would have to submit “real-time data”. She stopped short of promising to crack down on sewage flows into rivers and beaches.

Well, of course! I mean, we wouldn't want to upset people who aren't doing their job, would we? It might make the Cabinet nervous... 

Coffey did, however, give comfort to those hoping for an expansion of renewable energy across the UK countryside. She moved away from the position adopted by Sunak in his leadership campaign, when he rejected solar farms on UK agricultural land, and said a government review of land use to be published in the first half of next year would take a “balanced” view.

She told the committee that land graded 3b for agricultural use – judged to be moderate quality, capable of producing cereals and grass – could be used for solar farms.

We need more food production, not less. Why do these 'conservatives' think there's votes in humouring the eco-loons?

Remember, 'They Work For You'...

...while the police, who won't bother to turn up for your burglary unless the criminals are injured in the course of the crime, well, they work for them, clearly:

Retired teacher Fran Swan and yoga instructor Beverley Glock both tried to register for a meeting in a nearby village, hosted by West Dorset MP Chris Loder. But after they submitted questions about sewage in the online registration form, Mr Loder wrote to say the meeting was specifically for villagers in Chideok - but said he would 'see what he could do'.

And what could he do to ensure democracy was upheld? Well...

And at 7.30pm last Thursday, the night before the meeting was due to take place, a police officer arrived at Ms Swan's home to ask the 70-year-old about her intentions.

What a snivelling little weasel of a man. And what a misstep by the police. 

And it gets worse: 

Mr Loder told the Mail it was necessary for him to inform the police about 'anything out of the ordinary' as he and his family have received threats in the past.

The Tory MP added that it was 'unusual to receive the interest of two people who were not invited to attend a localised surgery', and cited the murder of Sir David Amess who was stabbed to death at a constituency surgery in 2021.

But not by a retired yoga instructor and teacher from a nearby village, Chris, so even the bumpkin farce down there in Dorset should have performed a better risk assessment.

A Dorset Police spokesman said officers from its neighbourhood policing team 'wished to understand the intentions' of the women 'to ensure that public safety was preserved and any lawful protest could be facilitated'.

He added: 'Dorset Police would like to apologise if the attendance of a police officer to the home address of individuals going to the meeting caused alarm.'

I suspect that was exactly what they wanted to cause.