No More Freedom

I was sitting watching the news on BBC 1 last night (Friday 19th October) and there was an article on the SNP  and of course Independence and Scotland's continued affiliation to NATO, should they indeed win their 'freedom' from the remainder of the the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland?

The SNP are a few years older than NATO, the former born in 1934, the latter born out of the ashes of WWII in 1949 and I think I am correct in thinking that the SNP have been totally opposed to them since their inception.  The only reason I mention that little fact is that now with the referendum set to go ahead in a couple of years,  yesterday, the SNP conference voted to elect to remain a member of that august body, but hopefully (for them - me I'm indifferent to the whole question) without allowing the nuclear deterrent to also remain within Scottish borders!  I just mention it to highlight the fact that once again another political party has without one iota of embarrassment discarded one of the main planks of its policy with no shame and as they have never been able to get a majority in the opinion polls over 39% (I think it was sitting at that at the beginning of this year, but it's now down around 30% at the moment) they are also informing Scottish voters that every single one of them will get a £500 cash payment for voting yes to FREEDOM from the ENGLISH, WELSH and NORTHERN IRISH! Incidentally, apparently there is also a poll out at the moment which says that £500 is precisely the amount it would take for Scottish individuals to be given, and accept, as the Judas Silver, to break up the Union!

So, anyway as I watched and listened to the article they started to do a segment of snap interviews after the vote was taken and agreed and a really old chap attending the conference was asked his opinion.

I have no idea what his response was as I suddenly started thinking about an other article I had read on line from The Telegraph  about a debate on the freedom of speech, you can read the whole article here  , but here are a couple of snippets;

The Blackadder and Mr Bean star attacked the "creeping culture of censoriousness" which has resulted in the arrest of a Christian preacher, a critic of Scientology and even a student making a joke, it was reported.

 a 16-year-old boy being held for peacefully holding a placard reading "Scientology is a dangerous cult", and gay rights campaigners from the group Outrage! detained when they protested against Islamic fundamentalist group Hizb ut-Tahrir over its stance on gays, Jews and women.

We are told that Section 5, of the Public Order Act, which outlaws threatening, abusive and insulting words or behaviour is having a "chilling effect on free expression and free protest". And, clearly from these instances above, so it seems.  Every day we hear stories of people being arrested, charged, fined and imprisoned for saying things that someone sitting in an office or indeed someone sitting anywhere can hear someone say something first or second hand, phone their local police office, complain and sooner than you can say or think 'all politicians are tossers', you'll have a copper on you door.

Andrew Mitchell MP, of Plebgate fame who has just resigned, why? Because he allegedly called a cop on a gate a pleb! For Christ's sake, he probably is.  It's a word for the love of God, other deity's are available.....

In the words of Mr Atkinson: "The clear problem of the outlawing of insult is that too many things can be interpreted as such. Criticism, ridicule, sarcasm, merely stating an alternative point of view to the orthodoxy, can be interpreted as insult."

and all of the above because as I was sitting watching the report and seeing the aforementioned really, really old chap I was thinking, "What the hell is he doing in the SNP looking for independence, for gods sake,surely he won't be around long enough to see it" , as you do, but, then I thought can I actually put that out there on the Twitter-verse or will the police turn up on my doorstep to charge me for causing offence to all elderly gentleman in Scotland and in the SNP?

So, you have been warned, choose your words carefully out there.

The Real Cost of out of Control Capitalism!

A couple of stories, just a couple but there are many more out there just as bad, that caught my eye.

From the UK, this one seems to suggest that the stringent budget cuts across the board is resulting in, "public spending cuts causing more road deaths?"  and of course it is also reported this week that Local Authorities, "will have 'no money' for main services by 2020"

And the third story to catch my eye is that Stockton in the USA, with a population of 300,000 is to be declared bankrupt, but to me that is not the story here, as it just surprises me that not more cities and towns are going bankrupt, and I'll explain that in a moment.  No the story is that since they laid off 20% of their Police Force, the crime rate has soared and continues to do so with gang members baiting the remaining officers with taunts asking how long before they lose their jobs!

A couple of weeks ago I commented on 'unemployment' again, and a good Twitter Friend, Ian Beckett who just happens to be a Local Labour Councillor in Harlow Essex, but please don't hold that against him, he is a nice guy; commented that as long as the local community pulled together and created local jobs, all would be well!  Bless him, nice, lovely guy but I'm sure he wears rose tinted spectacles.

It's a lovely thought mind you, if local communities could create enough jobs to put everyone into a placement where they could go out and earn a decent living, enough to be able to live and to pay for rent, mortgage, and living, without relying on state benefit's, but they can't, and they can't for a number of reasons. Not least by the fact that we have created generations of the same families who have never worked and don't want to work.

In fact I was having another conversation with an electrician in my office last week and the thought struck me as we chatted that there will always be a need, no matter how technologically advance we become, for certain skill sets such as:

Electricians and Plumbers, but do you know what I was hard pressed to think of any other jobs that could in fact be jobs for life! Carpenters, Brickies, Manufacturers, i.e. people who make and build stuff.  You'd think they would all be in demand, I think their time is running out too.

And this caught my attention earlier in the week as well, it was a photo of the old Bryant and May factory in London and the tag line was:

"The Bryant & May Match Factory, Bow, London. January 1920. Redeveloped into residential accommodation in the 1980’s the Bryant & May Match Factory was the site of the Match Girls Strike in 1888 that culminated in the establishment of the first British trade union for women. At its peak it’s said there were more than 3000 women and girls working at this site."

(More images of Britain from above, can be found here)

Of course during the 20's and including WWII factories like this one covered not only our country but most of the Western World and like the one above.  Whether they were making matches or cars and trucks, bricks for building or any number of thousands of people were employed on shifts work, twenty four hours a day, 365 days a year, but even with these behemoths with their armies of workers spewing out their goods, there was never a time of 'Full Employment'.

Take a look these:

Dodge Assembly Line 1950's

Modern Assembly line

Now if we couldn't give, and guarantee full employment, when factories around the world were employing thousands of people around the clock with no robotics and mechanisation with computers running everything, what makes governments and for that matter local politicians believe that they can do so now.

And, it can only get worse.  I did suggest that possible electricians and the like will always find employment, but even that is not the case, if we go back to Stockton, near the city dump where a mini  Skid Row has sprung up with tents and cardboard shelters. More than 400 people, a third of them children, sleep at the nearby Shelter for the Homeless.  Shelter Director John Reynolds said,

"I'm seeing people that shouldn't be here, people that had good jobs like electricians, nurses, retail managers, people with businesses, people who were living in four or five bedroom homes."

So all these people in Stockton and elsewhere in the US are living in Skid Row and having to go to 'Food Banks' something we thought we would never see in the UK, think again, apparently,

• 13 million people live below the poverty line in the UK. Our foodbank provides a minimum of 3 days emergency food and support to local people in crisis

 And it can only get worse!

Over 2 million people are unemployed in the UK today and while there has been a marginal decrease in the figures reported in June 2012 the long term prospects can only get worse.  See Unemployment tracker

1 in 4 of school leavers aged 16 and the same  for 21 year old graduates will probably never get a job
.
Technology is racing ahead, and why shouldn't it but the cost of technology advancement is jobs.  It is estimated that within the next fifteen years that the new 'print' technology will be able to manufacture whole buildings, so much for the building trade and the tens of thousands that it employs then; 

within a decade or two, it is likely many homes will have one of these printers in their home, downloading and printing off whatever is needed.
For instance, if you lose the battery cover for your phone, chances are someone else has done the same - and will have built you a plan.
Indeed, your mobile maker may well release these plans for their customers.
Or you may use a printer for cutlery, for toys, or simply anything that you need in your home which isn't electrical or perishable.
It may be a big change, but don't fear it, for as Yoda, might tell us: 'Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2160974/Clever-3D-printing-Yoda-helps-explain-latest-technology-innovation.html#ixzz1zEFu2qne

So, for those who have a home and a job, they'll have printer in it, but they wont need to go to the mall to buy anything, all they need to do is print it out.

And what of the have nots, the further generations, added to those previous generations that don't have a job and will never have one?  Will governments be raising enough in taxation to feed them at food banks or will me see more and more riots on our streets.  And of course if law enforcement and military are being laid off because governments and councils can't afford them, do we revert to creating cities and ghettoes  like that seen in 'futuristic movies, where the peasants and the feckless are walled in with gunships keeping them penned up and away from the 'chosen ones' who had money!

 It just seems to me that no government has any answers to these issues and whether or not they are actually thinking about them is debatable, but one thing is certain, it can only get worse!

If the unemployed figures keep rising then there is less revenue in taxes.  If taxes aren't being raised how can governments, councils and cities pay for the services they need, we are on a slope and someone somewhere keeps pouring oil onto it making it more slippery, year by year and yet not one politician from any political hue seems to be talking about it. It's as if their is a collective sense of 'omerta' in that if we don't talk about it in a serious fashion (if at all), it will go away. It wont and rebellion and riots are the likely outcome.

What do you think?

Private Policing in the UK, is it New?

I saw a re-tweet this morning from a twitter friend @EmmaGeraln pointing me in the direction of an article in the (on-line) The Telegraph Newspaper, with the headline:-

Security guards to form 'private police force' in city centre

You can read the full article here, the article goes on to report that,

Up to 100 officers could be employed by Securitas to patrol the streets of Manchester in a pioneering deal with local businesses. 

They will wear stab-proof vests, cameras to gather evidence and have radios on their utility belts, just like constables. 

The security guards will visit shops up to eight times a day and respond within 90 seconds if staff sound a panic alarm.

It is hoped that one team will patrol shopping areas during the daytime while another will keep an eye on bars and restaurants at night.

And although those in the “retail support unit” will not have the power of arrest, eventually they could be allowed to give out on-the-stop fines for offences such as littering.

A member of the Police Federation is quoted as saying,

Ian Hanson, chairman of the Greater Manchester branch of the Police Federation, said of the new security patrol scheme: “This is the sort of function that teams of police officers have performed for years until the cutbacks. 

“This is creeping privatisation and the public need to wake up to it before it's too late. Police officers need to be out there detaining people rather than withdrawing from the front line because of government cuts. 

"We have been warning for some time that policing is being sold off to the highest bidder. The public and the retailers are being forced into this because GMP quite simply hasn't got the resources to do what we used to do routinely.”

Well, I have news for Emma and Ian Hanson, this has been going on for years and not just as a result of the swingeing cuts currently being imposed on Police bodies up and down the country by our esteemed and current government.

Prior to my current position I was the Contracted Security and Safety Manager in London Docklands, from Shadwell to Gallions Reach (North Woolwich) on the North of the river Thames and Rotherhithe on the Southbank of the river.

We employed, directly around 200 security officers.  These were broken down to, Isle of Dogs and Shadwell, Rotherhithe and Royal Docks.  Each area had about 50 uniformed officers employed on static sites, dedicated patrol vehicles and foot patrol officers with the vehicle patrol officers and the foot patrol officers patrolling the streets in London Docklands 24 hours a day 365 days a year and in direct radio contact back to dedicated control rooms.  We also employed a 30 strong dedicated road safety unit, responding to any incidents on roads within these areas, again 24/7 and because we had the river and of course various docks within the area we had a marine safety unit too.

The Metropolitan Police obviously had stations in these areas, Limehouse, Isle of Dogs, Shadwell, (Leman Street) and North Woolwich, but we were the dedicated patrolling service from the late 80's to when I took over management of it in the early 90's and it was still there when I left in 98!

Police services in the UK have suffered through mismanagement, by their own Chief Constables and by Government for years, it has been a job for life for most, but policing has changed over the years, but the culture of policing has never been quick, if at all able, to keep up with these changes....

An example of this was in another recent post be me where I wrote,

instead of looking at more practical ways to make savings, Essex Police along with a bunch of other forces are spending around £32 million quid on a computer system that, as far as I can tell isn't self propelled, doesn't have a built in arsenal to injure, maim or kill the lawbreakers on our streets, and unlike the 'real' Robocop, probably has no sense of humour either!

Apparently, according to Essex Chief Constable, Jim Barker-McCardle, ".....this will significantly improve the lives of people in the communities we serve." We will be better able to investigate crime , support victims and reduce threat and harm to vulnerable people."

(that post can be read here)

So, there we have a bunch of Police authorities around the country spending all that money to replace bobbies with a computer because it will,

be better able to investigate crime , support victims and reduce threat and harm to vulnerable people.

And is it any wonder that there are not enough Police Men and Women on our streets getting to know the scroats and criminals on their patch, and then we wonder why we have  pot factories springing up and burglaries taking place, with seeming impunity.... not really hard to see then why private security companies are getting in on the act, is it.

I am with you though Emma, I don't want to see Private Companies taking over the policing of our towns and cities, but if successive governments and Chief Constables are incapable of managing this much needed public service, what choice do we have?  Maybe, the government, with the introduction of American style Police Commissioners ( I'm sorry but I keep thinking Commissioner Gordon from Batman and we all know what a bit of tit he is /was - when I here that phrase) that they also want to see the proliferation of Private Policing Security firms that they have in America too, and by that being introduced, they can then cut back even more, on proper and effective 'real' police forces!

One can only hope that checks on staff are stringent, but from what little I know of the SIA, who 'police' that I do not have a lot of confidence in them either as it is primarily ' a revenue raising service' on charges levied against 'security' companies.....