Commemorating 2012!

To commemorate the release of the topless photos of Kate Middleton,

Royal Doulton will be releasing a Collector's Edition of two small jugs

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7 wheelchair athletes have been banned from the Paralympics after they tested positive for WD40

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A mummy covered in chocolate and nuts has been discovered in Egypt
Archaeologists believe it may be Pharaoh Roche...
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Just A Reminder to those who stole Electrical Goods in Last Years Riots....
Your One Year Manufacturers Warranty Runs Out Soon

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"ITS A BOY" I shouted "A BOY, I DON'T BELIEVE IT, ITS A BOY" and with tears streaming down my face

I swore I'd never visit another Thai brothel!!!

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2 Indian junkies accidental snorted curry powder instead of cocaine. They’re both in hospital... one's in a korma…

The other's got a dodgy tikka!

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Author Unknown, but thanks 

London Metropolitan Police - Baton Rounds

Image: Wikipedia

There is a debate going on now since it has been discovered, under a freedom of information act request, that prior to the 2011 riots in London and other cities that the Met Police had 700 Baton Rounds in stock at the time of the riots but that they now have over 10,000 in stock ready for deployment.

Just watching the news a variety of people have been paraded stating that this is a horrendous piece of news and that the rounds should never be deployed on the streets of Britain.  One of the cases cited was the death of an 12 year old  in Northern Ireland who died a few days after been hit by a round during the 'troubles'.

But interestingly if you look at the quote from Wikipedia below, you will see that over 8 years 42,000 rounds were used and fourteen deaths were reported.  I am not going to enter into the rights and wrongs of the use or misuse during that period but 14 out of 42000 is not a 'high' percentage, a fatality rate of 0.03%.  Again, any death is tragic, but if you are putting lives at risk by throwing petrol bombs, why should you not run the risk of death too?

The British Government pioneered the use of plastic bullets. Used extensively in Northern Ireland, it was discovered they were lethal at certain ranges.^[11]

From 1973 to 1981, over 42,000 plastic bullets were fired in Northern Ireland. Fourteen people were killed by plastic bullet impacts, including nine children. Most of the deaths were allegedly^[12][13][14] caused by the British security services misusing the weapon, firing at close range and at chest or head level rather than targeting below the waist.

One of the victims, 12-year-old Carol Ann Kelly from Twinbrook in west Belfast died on 22 May, having been struck by a plastic bullet fired by a member of the Royal Fusiliers on 19 May 1981.^[15][16] These concerns led to campaigners such as Emma Groves founding the United Campaign Against Plastic Bullets, to call for tighter immediate controls on their use, more accountability after such shootings and even a total ban on their use in Northern Ireland.

The latest variant of the L5 PBR—the L5A7—was introduced in 1994 along with a new more accurate launcher, the HK L104 riot gun. The L5 was followed by the L21A1 in 2001. The L21 PBR is fired from a rifled weapon which gives greater accuracy when used with an optical sight.^[7] The L21 was replaced by the Attenuated Energy Projectile in June 2005.^[17]

The full article from Wikipedia is here 

And while the death of a 12 year old is a tragic outcome, it would be more even handed if they also told us how many rounds had been fired during that incident and how many people had been hit by the rounds?  It is also true as well that since the deployment of the rounds in Ireland, that the launcher has been improved for better accuracy, and better training is given to officers in their use; and lets not forget it is highly unlikely that any Police Officer armed with a weapon firing live ammunition or Baton Rounds, goes out wishing to be the one who has to actually pull the trigger and be the cause or be responsible for the death of anyone.


Are the people who are opposed to the deployment of these rounds, serious in their belief that people rioting on our streets, as they were last year, burning down shops, factories and homes and throwing petrol bombs at the police should be allowed to do so without a robust response in dealing with it and using any and all legitimate means to bring the disorder under control?

I have said it time after time in various posts, I AM NOT OPPOSED TO LEGITIMATE AND PEACEFUL PROTEST. But what I am opposed to are peaceful protests that turn into a riotous out of control mob, lobbing bricks and petrol bombs at police officers and property.  I don't care what their gripe is with the authorities you do not organise a protest or a rally and then let it turn into a mob.  And if it does and you then become, inadvertently, part of that mob, because it has been hijacked by a minority, then it is your civil duty to, a) remove yourself by the quickest means from the mob, and b) report anyone you know who became part of the mob and incited and inflamed the protest / rally into becoming the mob.

By removing yourself from the mob this will then leave the police to deal with them, and you will be safe!

The Police, as far as I am concerned are quite entitled to protect themselves and property by then taking appropriate measures. If those measures include the deployment of Baton Rounds then so be it.  If during the course of the then 'riot' someone is hit by a Baton Round and that prevents them from causing further harm to officers or innocent members of the public and prevents another building, business or home being burnt to the ground, then I have no problem with that.  Yes, it will and would be unfortunate if anyone taking part subsequently dies as a result of being hit by one of these rounds, but by throwing missiles and petrol bombs you reap what you sow!

  Riot images courtesy here 
  News articles on the story - The Guardian 
                                          - The BBC

Jody McIntyre - Police Brutality

The news has been full recently concerning the Independent Police Complaints Commissions ruling  concerning the 'assualt' on one Mr Jody McIntyre 

The IPC release states, "The IPCC has partially upheld an appeal from Mr Jody McIntyre in relation to a complaint he made to the Metropolitan Police Service about the treatment that he had received from their officers in Parliament Square during the student protests of 9 December 2010."


To be honest I only vaguely recalled this and I knew little of Mr McIntyre other than what I had seen on the TV at the time and I have to confess at the time my immediate reaction was, "well there you go a disabled person who wants to be treated the same as an able bodied person, and he is getting his wish".  By that I meant and mean that he chose to attend the student protests and when they denigrated to the level of thugs, as students protesting usually does, he was treated the same as any other protester on the street, so what is he whingeing about.  That was my thought then.


What are my thoughts now some months on.  Well I'll tell you.

What the hell are the Independent Police Complaints Commissions doing coming out with load of bollocks that they have done yesterday.

Look, we criticise the Police for being heavy handed (well I don't as a rule) and then we criticise them when they are standing back and letting thugs whether student or otherwise tear down and destroy buildings, destroy peoples livelihoods, throw fire extinguishers of tall buildings at police officers and other protesters seven floors below them and when they, the Police, are caught up with rioting thuggish behaviour we expect them, every single one of them, to be able to step back and look at every single person and consider his or her human rights before taking any action, really, lets get real over this, please.

Let me just say here that I have been known to be quite vigorous in my condemnation of the Police on many occasions, in fact here in the UK many Police forces have taken to social media and Twitter and so have individual officers tweeting about crime or events in the local area.  I follow the local Inspector, he follows my wife but for some strange reason he doesn't follow me! Well it's not really that strange when I think about it as he recently tweeted asking for comments about something asking if it was a good idea for the local Police to adopt something that was happening elsewhere.  I responded that it was always a good idea to implement or try new initiatives as anything that will help the public to help the Police to catch criminals had to be good in the long run and even if it didn't work, at least it was tried. However my response was twofold.  The second part of my response was along the lines of, "and anything that is done to show that the Police actually did turn up to a crime had to be good as normally when one is reported it was odds on that they a) don't turn up at all,or, b) turn up weeks later when it is to late to do anything about it!  so I suppose it is no surprise then that he isn't following me, and I really don't mind, really.

In my job I get quite a lot of visits from Police officers looking for CCTV or this and that and when they do visit they normally have put up with a diatribe from me on the lack of Police on the streets, cuts, laziness of investigations, the (current) idiot in charge, why I think PCSO's are a waste of space, not as people but as a quasi non authoritative and expensive 'cop out' by the government..... I could go on and on, but it always comes back to one thing, I wouldn't want to be a Police officer in today's modern society and just like our Servicemen and Women I have great admiration for them doing a lousy job in the face of even more hostile and vicious condemnation of them than I ever aim at them.

But back to Police Brutality and Mr Mcintryre....

I  believe that it is acceptable to organise and hold a protest over anything that you want to protest about but I do not believe and never will support any group of 'protestors' who in the course of their organised rally then turn it into a violent rampage through our streets, attacking property and businesses.  I really do not care what their grievance, is there is no excuse for this reversion to tribalism and viciousness.  Now one could argue in this instance that Mr McIntyre was exercising his right to attend a lawful and peaceful protest march that then went awry due to a minority who also attended with the intent of causing the trouble and one could argue that he or those who did attend who were not intent in causing trouble, could not foresee that trouble would break out, or could they.

Well of course they could because that's what happens nine of of ten times when these apparently educated buffoons take the the street.  I am not talking about the mindless, uneducated, oppressed and downtrodden from the [in McIntyre's words] "under privileged"  classes, who I do agree have got a right to feel irked at their lot through the inequality of a system that is stacked against them and maybe changes will be made to the system as a result.  But I still can not condone the riotous looting that took place.  Unlike McIntyre who seems to revel in it and even encourages it in his posts.

Don't get me wrong here I am not from a privileged background.  I fight every month to survive and I have written elsewhere in these blogs about the inequality of the systems. I did not agree with the invasion of Iraq and I think the Tony Blair lied to Parliament and us over it.  I do not believe that we should be in Afghanistan to the extent that we are and I have severe concerns about Libya.  I think the recent announcement that the USA and now I believe us through our government have decided to increase the sanctions on Syria by not taking their crude oil smacks of coincidence as Gaddafi is ousted from power and the likelihood of Libyan   oil coming back on stream is more than a coincidence and it stinks to high heaven.  The events on the West Bank and Gaza offend any right thinking person, BUT

This does not give you Mr McIntyre or your cronies the right to riot on our streets or to incite it.  As a disabled person who wants to attend these  gathering and not let your disability impair that right you then need to take the consequences that results from either your actions or your presence. If you go out on a protest that becomes a riot then get out as fast as your wheels will propel you, or take the consequences.  If the consequence of remaining there is that you are dragged out of your wheelchair and along the street, tough. I am not going to condemn a Police officer to over reacting in a riot situation, who is probably thinking at that moment that he or she chose a different vocation on that particular day.

Police officers, are being pelted with bricks and bottles and fire bombs, they are probably excited and afraid in equal measure, and no doubt there is a sense of confusion in amongst that as well both for themselves and their colleagues and friends also caught up in this mindless thuggery where you chose to remain.

If the Police are killing, carrying out illegal stop and search, or generally operating outside the law as you promote, then sooner or later those within the Police doing it will be brought to book.  You may call me naive and ill informed in this and I probably am.   BUT, this still does not give you and others the right on my behalf to make the rest of the populations lives miserable.  You do not have the right in my name to attack and burn property and businesses and take away the livelihoods of people who are content living in the status quo and who believe that sooner or later the system will change for the better.

So I say to you get of your high horse and get a bigger soap box, write your articles and promote change.  Encourage other like minded people to form a political party and stand in local and national elections, or, is it that you would rather see our towns and cities burning?  You said in one interview that the reason you were there in December 2010 was the same reason that other people were there, " because I was protesting that education should be free".  I agree but I fail to see how attacking businesses and Police officers can in any way be linked to that aim?

You say,  "the Police incite violence", I say, "you and the protesters incite violence"

You say, "The real issue is the cuts that the government are making in education" I say "what a bunch of prats" People are starving all over the world, the 'under privileged' as you call them of this country are oppressed and ill educated IN EVEN A BASIC EDUCATION and have nothing AND YOU ARE PROTESTING AND RIOTING IN THE STREETS BECAUSE FEES ARE BEING INTRODUCED FOR FURTHER EDUCATION. Now if you were rioting because the basic education of the masses in this country was suffering and that millions of our children are being condemned to a life of ignorance, I might just have had some sympathy for you and these 'educated morons' but you didn't, so I don't.

So while you promote anarchy then I promote giving the Police bigger and thicker batons, giving them more guns, allow then to kettle you as you join the rampaging mob and I will continue to not have a problem when the Police drag you and your likes off our streets.      

  The following links are to various stories and videos surrounding Mr McIntyres 'incident'



The Guardian     You Tube  McIntyre Interview   The Guardian 2

These Green and Pleasant Lands

Well it has been a week since the London riots started that then spread to other cities and towns within these 'Green and Pleasant Lands' and what have we got out of it?

Well for me on a personal basis, anger, fear and a little bit of pride were at the top of the list.

Anger because certain sections of society have slipped so far into their own forms of anger and despair, shouting that society has abandoned them, and that they feel that the only way they can react is to revert to the rule of the mob as they move through our cities and towns with bricks and bottles in their hands pillaging and destroying  like a horde of Vikings of old.  But, was it the state apparatus who they say has abandoned them that they looted and destroyed, No, it was people like themselves who suffered, but, with one small and significant difference between them.

The people who they attacked were the indigenous small business owner, people like them who came from poor backgrounds and even some with as poor an education as they, who were the main targets of these imbeciles.  Immigrants, who came to this country with nothing and who also did not want to claim benefits from the state that took them in. Both groups tied together with the desire to make good for themselves and succeed in life.  People who grew up whether in this country or from somewhere else in the world but have chosen to make, 'These Green and Pleasant Land's' be just that, somewhere where they can work hard and reap the rewards for their efforts and ingenuity of managing to get out of the poverty trap that the rioters say that they are trapped in.  They, unlike the rioters decided to not let society tell them they can't be achievers because they came from a socially deprived neighbourhood or country and that it is their lot in life to suffer.

Fear as we received news from our son on Monday night that the pub he runs successfully in the East End of London had just had bricks thrown through his main bar window.  Anger, with a hint of Pride, but mostly anger that he remained in the bar to defend what he has worked so hard to build up for himself from around a £20,000 a year turnover to around a £500,000.00 turnover in the space of 4 years.

But what else have we learned from the last week, well, that has been what every commentator on the tv has been asking of everyone they have been interviewing, with the additional question, what caused it?  I think these questions are going to be getting asked for a long time to come and while I have no answers to those questions I do have thoughts about them. My thoughts and suppositions may not be based on quantifiable or even anecdotal evidence and they may not even be presented as eloquently as some have presented theirs, but then I am only a poorly educated granddad who meanders through this life and 'These green and Pleasant Lands' in many ways, just like the rioters, in that I am trying to survive.

I was not gifted into this world from well to do parents living in financial security or comfort.  I did not attend a private school where the ratio of teachers to pupils allows the teachers to spend time with each pupil encouraging and cajoling them to do better, to work harder and to learn the basics in grammar, spelling and numeracy.  I was not in a single parent family, although my father was pretty much an alcoholic and was either away from home 'working' or he was just gone, more often than not.

I did not have iPods, or iPhones, or game boys, or x-boxes, or fancy trainers and yes these things did not exist when I was a kid, but there was other things that we were just as envious of back then and we were envious when we saw other kids going off on holiday, or had the newest range of clothing, or who could afford to go out for meals and day trips or whose parents had a car, or a colour tv, god yes we were envious but we didn't go on a rampage to destroy our local shops and attempt to murder people who were sitting in their homes above those shops oblivious to the danger they were being put in by these mindless lunatics.

My point is, and this is one of the saddest and dispiriting facts about this whole situation in that not much has changed from when I was a kid in the 60's and nearly 50 years on! So with that fact in mind I suppose one of the above questions can then be simply answered. What caused it? Social injustice and the inability of politicians to recognise that sections of society do feel that they belong to an underclass with no voice, and from the politicians point of view whether it was back in the 60's, 70's, 80's 90's or the  noughties as they have been termed,  those (me) people don't matter because in the main they don't vote and so we just need to ignore them and they will continue to take the shit heaped upon them!

Told you this wasn't going to be very eloquent.  But all of that does not excuse or justify those who did what they did last week. Allegedly it all started over the shooting of Mark Duggan  in Tottenham on the previous Thursday. I don't believe that.  Sure, I believe that the Police must be subject to the most rigorous of investigations any time they shoot someone and a large number of people believe that when these investigations take place that they are nothing more than a continued cover up as no police officers have every been charged after shooting anyone and according to the stringent voices out there, that can only mean one thing, that the police have got away with it again. (see) shot dead by police-30, officers convicted-0

I wrote a blog earlier this month and before the riots took place where I asked,  Parenting in a modern society, has society lost its way?  Now in that blog I wrote:

Let's face it, and no one seems able or prepared to say it outright, because of the absolute stink it will cause, but if we were to look at the problems in almost any  society today and I do mean any society not just 'democratic'  or westernised societies, who are the biggest burden on the states and who causes the most problem for the states and the middle classes:  Bingo, well done if you answered, "it is clearly the NO INCOME or LOW INCOME families the have nots if you will,  and their poorly educated children that are bringing every country in the world to its economic knees!"

Why is that (?), well it's simple really, take a look around you, that's if you are not substantially well of that is, and what do you see?  You probably see hundreds of people every single day of your lives who are good for nothing layabouts, who live of state benefits, and I accept that there are people who do but who do not want to, but a large proportion of them are feckless b*****ds who will not go out and find a job and they spend their days drinking booze, taking drugs, smoking fags, driving cars and going at it like the proverbial bunny rabbit and who are breeding out of control.
And who is paying for this? You and I, the people who do go out to work and pay our taxes so that these people can continue to live of the fat of the land that we through hard work are trying to build on to sustain us in our old age, but we can't and wont get any sustenance from the state because it has already been given to these people. And the cycle is self repetitive as their broods of children are brought up in these houses, I will not call them homes, because a home to me is where a family lives, loves, cries and grows together and sometimes they fight, but that is in the the nature of humans, so it should be embraced as part of the whole.
So instead of looking at Lower Income families and getting them to attend Parenting Classes, here is an idea, that I am sure will be truly obnoxious to some, but I think has merit, why don't we go down the road of mass sterilisation, we could introduce it like fluoride, into the water system and every one would be made sterile, one step further than the Chinese with their law of 1 child per family!

Now I really don't know if that is the answer to all our woes but what I do know is that even if the brightest brains on the planet were to look at the problems of society and say, 'yes we have created an underclass and we need to do something about it  and one of the ways to give us time to do this is to ensure that we do stop mass procreation' no one will ever be brave enough to implement it.  We have, as I believe, created generation after generation of underclass peoples who are born into families who do not have the will or the where with all to even believe that they can ever be anything but worthless objects in a modern society.  But there is nothing modern about it.  One definition of 'Modern' is " somebody living in the present period, especially somebody whose tastes and attitudes are regarded as nontraditional or strikingly new"  These attitudes are not strikingly new they are strikingly old, they are in the past they belong in the past but the dinosaurs old and young, generation after generation who pervade politics of all 'Modern' nations have singularly failed to address these old problems that then become cyclical and 'new'.  Why is that?

In another Blog An Open response to... I say:

From the very first day of the welfare state we have been heading towards these days of social unrest.
We have for the last 40 years been telling a section of society that you do not need to take care of yourself, you do not need a job, you do not need to pay rent.  We, the state will do it for you and it will be funded by people in work!
It is a great concept, the welfare state, and there will always be people who do need assistance through life, but what we did, was make it the norm where we have got to the point where lazy feckless gits, like those who are rioting have got to the point where they truly and actually believe that every single thing in life should be given to them for free, and maybe it will one day, whether or not they are actually capable of finding a job and getting paid for it and to be able to go and purchase everything like the rest of us
We have generations of families who have seen their parents and grandparents, sitting at home because they have rolled out one excuse after another as to why they should not work and we have given them handouts to enable them to buy their drugs and their booze and run their cars!  This is borne out by the fact that while the papers may keep referring to 'youths' the rest of us are watching the images and seeing that it is not wholly this section of the populace who are out there.  I nearly said section of the community, but they are as far removed from being a part of a community as ET.  But we do know, fact, that a large number of youths are out there because there feckless parents don't give a shit about them and they were born probably and only as a means to get an additional cash bonus through the child benefit system and the parents, do not give one toss where they are or what they are doing at any time of the day or night!
And in that condition they have learned that they have no need to respect the state or their neighbours.  And so when the payouts are reduced, or cut, what do they resort to, mindless thuggery.  It is not aimed at authority or the state persay, how many town halls were attacked, how many police stations were attacked.  I can't see any reports saying any were.*  No it was shops and mostly little shops, one man and one woman enterprises that suffer at the hands of these thugs  Including my own son who had bricks thrown through his bar windows last night.

*Although one, subsequently was, but that was an aberration within an aberration I fear.


Another thing that is making me angry is the news yesterday that Prime Minister Cameron is calling for those involved in the riots to be punished and punished severely and one of the ways to do this is to throw whole families out onto the street, if one of them was found and caught and charged and convicted of taking part in the riots.  Wandsworth Council has already latched on to this and issued proceedings against  a mother and her children (and I do not know their circumstances and whether they fall into my feckless category or not) but even if they do is this the right road to go down.  first_rioter_given_eviction_notice 

Are we suddenly going to have Wandsworth Common and other large open spaces filling up with tents and caravans as we have whole swathes of the 'underclass' populace thrown out of their homes.  One might argue, well what are you bitching about you have already called them feckless good for nothings, yes and they are, but is it really serving a purpose to further disenfranchise the whole family for the actions of the one, it doesn't make sense!


We have parents queuing up today who tell us they are afraid of their children because they do not respect them and one of the reasons for this is the possibility that the 'bleeding heart brigade' took away the rights of the parent, the teacher and the local bobby to chastise children.  We told children at every opportunity that they have rights, and they do, like the rest of us, but in taking away the ability of a parent to give their child a hard smack on the bottom for disobeying them, or by grounding them, for fear that the child would report them to the local authority with the full weight of the law being brought to bear on them has surely contributed to the lack of respect shown to parents, the neighbourhood, the country and authority in general!


We know from the images and reports also that it was not just the children of 'worthless stay at home' families that were involved in the rioting and looting.  No, it was the School teaching assistant, the social worker and the architect and I have no idea what that says about society, but if I were I judge every single one of them would go to prison and Kenneth Clarke and the rest of them can go to hell over that one, and these people who are convicted and are in jobs, should suffer more ate hands of justice, than the 'feckless' ones, but it probably wont happen.


I was sitting on a train shortly after Clarke announced his ridiculous, now curtailed, plans to reduce the numbers in prison and to reduce the numbers being sent to prison. There was a couple of teenagers on the train sitting opposite me and they were brazenly discussing their plans for the day which included being on the train without a ticket, heading off to Southend and "gonna do a bit of robbin and smashin".  They all laughed at this and one actually mentioned Clarke's speech from the previous evening commenting, "and it'll be be O.K. cos the Tories wont send us to jail".  This is the message we have been sending to these people for years.  That it is O.K. to exclude yourself from society, because no matter what you do, the outcome, no matter how bad you have made other people's lives, you will get a short holiday and be let out for good behaviour no matter how 'naughty' you have been.  


It is an old cliché, but it is true, politicians do not understand the real world.  Whether it is our own or in other countries they have no idea.  They all have their fingers in the pie, but that's O.K. Because they are politicians.  I think I am correct in stating that if an MP is convicted of a crime, he cannot then sit in Parliament.  But that is not the same for a favourite of a Prime Minister or a favourite of a friend of a friend of a Prime Minister or one who has contributed heavily to party funds and is elevated by a Prime Minster to the House of Lords.  They can commit a crime and go straight back, after serving their very lenient sentence, into the House and reclaim their attendance allowance and multitude of benefits, what kind of message is in there for the ordinary and downtrodden people who choose, wrongly, to then go on a riot?


Bankers and Politicians, who should have been looking after our interests, plunge us into economic melt down with their underhanded and in some instances, criminal practices, and we are told we must bail them out of this position.  We must put up the money, that we haven't got, we must pay higher taxes, that we cannot afford.  And it goes on and on day in day out and all of this is played out on 42" TV screens, nicked or otherwise for all to see.


So why is it a surprise when the pressure cooker lid blows off.  The pressure has been building for over 40 years and maybe we will not be able to put it back on.  And it is just not here.  I understand that the city of Philadelphia last night imposed a curfew for everyone under the age of 18 from 9 PM Friday night until Saturday Morning and the same thing will be imposed on Saturday, this because youths REGULARLY initiate Flash Mobs via their smart phones see, Curfew 



Well, those are just some of my thoughts, but what do you think?  I could go on and on on this subject, but much like a politician, I am getting bored with it and just wish it would all go away, but it won't I fear it will only get worse and of course just to instil even less confidence in us we are now seeing the open hostility between those who govern us and those who mange our police forces as the war of words of who did what, when and why.  But of course all of that then pushes the problems above on to the back burners, because the political in fighting is much more 
important than the rioting and its causes and solutions............... or so it seems.
       

Best Wishes and please stay safe 

An open response to a Callum Jones blog on the London Riots

Callum,

It is unfortunate that you got challenged in the shop this morning, get over it.  I believe that that there is more to all this than just mindless thuggery, but at the end of the day it is mindless thuggery and it is a type of thuggery that society has brought upon itself and it started the day that the welfare state was introduced.  From the very first day of the welfare state we have been heading towards these days of social unrest.

We have for the last 40 years been telling a section of society that you do not need to take care of your self, you do not need a job, you do not need to pay rent.  We, the state will do it for you and it will be funded by people in work!

It is a great concept, the welfare state, and there will always be people who do need assistance through life, but what we did, was make it the norm where we have got to the point where lazy feckless gits, like those who are rioting have got to the point where they truly and actually believe that every single thing in life should be given to them for free, and maybe it will one day, whether they are actually capable of finding a job and getting paid for it to be able to go and purchase everything like the rest of us

We have generations of families who have seen their parents and grandparents, sitting at home because they have rolled out one excuse after another as to why they should not work and we have given them handouts to enable them to buy their drugs and their booze and run their cars!  This is borne out by the fact that while the papers may keep referring to 'youths' the rest of us are watching the images and seeing that it is not wholly this section of the populace who are out there.  I nearly said section of the community, but they are as far removed from being a part of a community as ET.  But we do know, fact, that a large number of youths are out there because there feckless parents don't give a shit about them and they were born probably and only as a means to get an additional cash bonus through the child benefit system and the parents, do not give one toss where they are or what they are doing at any time of the day or night!

And in that condition they have learned that they have no need to respect the state or their neighbours.  And so when the payouts are reduced, or cut, what do they resort to, mindless thuggery.  It is not aimed at authority or the state persay, how many town halls were attacked, how many police stations were attacked.  I can't see any reports saying any were.  No it was shops and mostly little shops, one man and one woman enterprises that suffer at the hands of these thugs  Including my own son who had bricks thrown through his bar windows last night.

As to you comments, " Some smart arses are claiming that police need to be more forceful, using water cannons and rubber bullets.  Let me take you back to the G20 protests in 2009, and the Demolition Student Fees protests last year, when the same idiots were accusing the police of being too heavy handed.  If Tom Goodwin or David Cameron honestly believed that the police on the ground needed more resources, they would give it to them."

I was one of those smart asses, but not in accusing them of being too heavy handed, and I am calling for them to do it again, Now, Tonight and any time mindless thugs, whether they are the riff raff who will not work or the riff raff who 'protest' under the guise of being angry students.

There is no excuse for what happened this week,  just as there was no excuse in 2009 or by students 'protesting' about Student Fees.  I said then and say it to you again that they should have used rubber bullets and water cannon then as they should be now.  Kettling, I am fine with that.  I have no problem with people marching down the street in a peaceful manner protesting about this or that, but when it turns into wanton thuggery, like throwing a fire extinguisher off a roof into a crowd below, or trying to burn down a shop  they should be treated with appropriate force and if that means you hit them with rubber bullets or water cannon to prevent them from burning down a shop, many with flats with people in them above, then I say get on with it, pull the trigger, don't hesitate Or do you say let the people burn?

As for your clearly sycophantic comments in regard to Goodwin and Cameron, it is clear that you intend to go into politics maybe, instead of journalism, and are feathering your bed, go for it, but what I saw this morning in the brief statement by Cameron, was a man caught in the headlamps, who did not know WTF was going on or what to do about it and made a cowardly retreat after his pathetic statement, back through the safest doors in the land into No 1O, while the country is going down in flames.

PS.  Callum's piece can be found here