Off The Edge of The World?

As with most things 'American' this parable of the modern world (Americanised Western style) is not entirely accurate, nor very subtle, but several essential truths inform it, as well as a few essential misapprehensions. Watch it and decide for yourselves what is true and what not, and then decide whether or not we are sailing on a ship of fools. Gruff thinks that we are but that we needn't necessarily throw all of the crew to the sharks: babies and bathwater come to mind.

Gruff thanks to Cotlake (no identifiable link), who submitted this comment on this post at Police Inspector Blog.

The Law Is An Ass ii (LBD vii, ToC xv)

As a bear of very little brain, Gruff is wary of lecturing his betters but it seems not wholly inappropriate to observe that, apropos of number crunching, it is wholly self-defeating to initiate 'initiatives' that nullify other efforts in the same field. Inspector Gadget's report, at the excellent Police Inspector Blog, on the frustrations occasioned by government 'initiatives' to reduce domestic violence may induce apoplexy, hysteria or simply numb incomprehension in those awaiting the 'joined up government' we were promised so long ago.

Serves Her Right! (ToC xiv)

It's reassuring to know that the authorities are resolute in their determination to see that no one can flout 'our country's' really quite liberal parking laws with impunity. Neil Herron has posted a link to this story of a ninety one year old disabled woman fined for displaying her disabled driver's parking permit upside down.

Off Road Or Simply Off The Wall? (LBD vi, ToC xiii)

Inspector Gadget has posted this account of worse than whacky management lunacy at Police Inspector Blog. Except to observe that the laughter he describes can only have been of the 'had I not laughed I would have cried' type, Gruff can think of nothing to type that is fit to print.

As Others See Us

An undoubted benefit of the World Wide Web is the ability to read articles that not so long ago would have been recycled as chip wrappers or lavatory paper for the budgie. Gruff has just come across this depressingly accurate summary of the current state of the 'U'K, It's an excellent piece and the only real criticism is that the title should have read: 'Why Br*tain is Rotting'.

Br*tish faults are too often laid at England's door and it is important that the confusion in foreign minds between England and Br*tain is resolved. The current mess is due in no small part to the incompetence of those self-serving Scotch and Welsh politicians who have dominated Br*tish politics (and thus English affairs) for the past ten years, and we cannot sit by while they encourage the world and his wife to think otherwise.

How Much Lower ...

... will we allow the morally bankrupt Br*tish government to drag our once proud and respected country before we decide that governance is too important to be left in the hands of the sewer rats feeding at Westminster? Read this, at Rogue Gunner, and then contrast the shoddy treatment of wounded servicemen with the consideration shown towards serving female Moslems as reported in this post at the same blog.

The prison officers are unhappy, the police are unhappy and the armed forces are unhappy. When a society's 'NCOs' say 'enough is enough', that society is in danger of collapse. That day cannot be far off.

Catch Them While They're Young (LBD v, ToC xii)

Yesterday's issue of the Daily Telegraph contained this barely credible report of destructively counter-productive and unbelievably crass policing. Gruff remembers the days when individual police officers were not just allowed to use their discretion but required to do so, by the demands of the job as much as their superiors. The knowledge that they could and would was essential to the contract between the police and society that underpinned law and order and the arrival of a police officer reassured all but those breaking the law. It seems that those days are rapidly fading into the past.

Reports such as that above are becoming so commonplace that it is now difficult not to question the calibre of some of those who are being recruited into (what we must not forget are) our police forces, and it is not unreasonable to do so. Nor, given that politically correct lightweights like Richard Brunstrom and Sir Ian Blair, amongst others, hold the most senior appointments in their respective forces, is it surprising: a police force run by sycophantic careerists for the benefit of their masters has no use for those who can think for themselves. Unquestioning and uncomplaining box tickers and target chasers, thirsting for an exciting opportunity to meet the challenge of policing in a vibrant and ever changing multicultural Br*tain of the nations and regions, will satisfy the lamentably debased role outlined in the 'job description'. Ministerial briefings will be considerably easier, and the honours much more certain, but the bond between society and those of its members who are trusted to police it intelligently, and generally wish to do so, will be strained just a little further.

One need only look at videos of foreign police officers in action to be reminded that, like our armed forces, our police forces are still world class but, increasingly, the unwonted interference of incompetent bureaucrats and morally and ideologically corrupt politicians leaves them looking foolish. The police are paid to do as they are told and can do little about that but they deserve better, and so do we. It is up to us to stop the madness.

Tough on Crime (xi)

Many will remember the old line 'if you want to know the time, ask a policeman'. In McReich's Führer Braun's nasty, intolerant (and imploding) little banana republic you might find yourself under arrest for doing so. The Devil's Kitchen has posted this item about two disabled men who were arrested for looking (yes that's right, looking) at a police officer. When one must go about with eyes downcast for fear of officers of the law, one is living in a police state.

What next, Gruff wonders.

Bright Sunlit Uplands? (LBD iv, ToC x)

McReich's Führer Braun's nasty, intolerant (and imploding) little banana republic cannot be what Churchill had in mind when he led the largest empire the world has ever known as it stood, almost alone, against what was then the most powerful military machine the world had ever seen in defence of freedom. Those who still remember that struggle must wonder, on the day that doctors and local council workers are given legal access to one's phone records and bank details - all in the cause of TWAT, of course (and European unity) - why they bothered. In two years' time personal e-mail and internet browsing records will be available to them, as well.

As of today it is also an offence to buy cigarettes under the age of eighteen years and to incite religious hatred. No one with even half a brain can seriously expect that sixteen and seventeen year olds will now be compelled to give up smoking or that those who call for the murder of cartoonists will be brought to justice. These laws merely satisfy the lust of the craven bullies we have elected to govern us for bludgeoning the law abiding majority while not offending even the least vocal of minorities and lobbyists, of whom they live in terror.

Wake up citizen!