The Camel's Nose

What JohnJo said. All that I ask of supporters of this witchhunt is that they explain why, if they have no issus with the procedure used to obtain this conviction, they don't want to see it used in Britain. Think of the money saved, let alone any wider issues. But no - as ever the target was one of those bad people, just like truckers, gun owners, farmers, cyberfreaks.... all at one time or another (along with many other groups) cast as hobgoblins ready to eat babies should Parliament fail to tear up another tranche of traditional British rights. Which brings me onto the latest events.

Few people deserve sympathy less than senior Police Officers - even ones who haven't presided over complete trainwrecks. These people have been willing henchmen of Nu Lab and coconspirators in turning the Police into the armed wing of the Guardian-BBC Axis of Moonbat. Nevertheless, there is a serious point here: local control of the Police is a central part of British policing. There are arguments for a National Police Service, but Blunkett isn't making them. He wants power without responsibility, the ability to remove uncooperative Chiefs, with the ineviatble chilling effect that would create as a corollary, without taking the rap for problems - even where in many cases it is central government which has caused, or at at least contributed to, the self-same problems.

Look at the Soham situation. One of the main problems was the effect of the Data Protection Regulations - in large part brought in by this government. Never mind exactly what the letter of the law was - it was ineviatble that this legislation would have a chilling effect on record keeping, and Blunkett did nothing to forstall that. Ditto the lax treatment of allegations of underage sex. Government policy has done all but encourage such things - for Blunkett to act outraged that Police and Social Workers failed to react to news that Huntley was banging a fifteen year old suggests either a complete failure to understand his own Department's policy or outright humbuggery of a truly Blairian nature. Similar comments could be made about other sections of the report. If the system in Humberside was dysfunctional then it was no more so than anywhere else in Britain. If failures in one section justify sacking it's chief, who should go for the more general failures ? Perhaps Blunkett could suggest someone ?