The return of the horse and carriage.....

You love to drive your car, it’s a brilliant car, it does 0-60mph in 7.5 seconds and it hits a documented top speed of around 150mph, you will state here that you have a clean driving licence and have never had a road traffic collision in the time you have been driving, over three years. You have also attended fatal RTCs, and visited the victims of these collisions in hospital.

You were watching a program earlier on ITV1 about whether or not the limit should be lowered on rural roads to 50mph, in a blanket fashion. A road that you know of quite well is the A617 from Newark to Mansfield, you don’t drive on this road a lot, but you know it has recently also been reduced from 60mph to 50mph. Recently you were driving along that road, travelling at around 50mph and a woman in a Vauxhall Corsa VXR overtook you, you thought she must have been doing around 70mph maybe more, in order to overtake you, she contravened solid white lines and just missed oncoming traffic by a matter of centimetres.

Obviously the local council had taken the advice of the extremely beautiful, but perhaps naïve Miss Katie Shephard, and reduced the speed limit. But had that had any effect on this driver? No. She broke the speed limit, contravened solid white lines and almost caused a head on collision.

Lowering speed limits will have absolutely no effect on drivers who are willing to drive over the speed limit. If a person is willing to drive at 100mph on a 60mph limited road, then will lowering it to 50mph make them slow down? No, of course it won’t, it will just make those drivers who want to drive at 60mph (lawfully), slow down, and make their journey more mundane and less of an experience.

Last but not least, one thing you can’t stand is drivers who toddle through a NSL road at 45mph and then continue through 30mph limits at that speed, be damned the children who get in their way. Will the proposals that Miss Shephard supports stop these drivers from killing children? No, of course they won’t, it's obvious.

Next thing, people will be crowing like cockerels, you can hear them now:

‘Lower the speed limit to 10mph on all roads, let’s reduce traffic collisions, let’s save lives.’

You can't understand their naivety, it is quite disturbing.

When the curtain falls......

You get up, rub your eyes, look over at the other half of the bed, she's still fast asleep, of course she is it's half past five in the morning. It's pitch dark outside, only the street lights are providing illumination in the gloom of a foggy morning. You have a quick shower, a shave, get changed into your uniform, go over your boots with a brush polish, kiss her good bye (she's awake by now, not through choice) and head off to work. It's a quick drive in, especially at that time in a morning, no one is around, except for the milkman.

You arrive in work and the first thing Alan asks you is: 'Late night was it?' He jabs you in the ribs gently, and then produces a wide grin, expecting some sort of retort, one that you usually give, you are happy to provide one: 'Yes, your sister can really party when she gets going.' he laughs, hits you again, he gets your sense of humor, not that many people do. About an hour later you're watching a re run of Jeremy Kyle, while doing paperwork, sorting out a case file for Criminal Damage, it's not that interesting, but they damaged some expensive equipment, they need to be arrested and processed, shouldn't be a problem for you.

Before you can even start the process however, a call comes in, incident in progress. The caller states that a vehicle has just turned over on its side in the middle of the road, someone is crawling out of the window. You put your baton and cuffs on, grab your high vis jacket and a set of vehicle keys, and then Alan, and make your way there. The scene is not what you expect, a small car is parked on the grass verge, a woman is sat on a bench at the side of the road, crying loudly, her husband is leaning against a near by wall, he isn't saying a word. You talk to the woman who made the call, she tells you that she saw the vehicle swerve in the middle of the road, tyre squealing, then it landed on the grass verge, the woman got out, and was followed by the man, an argument ensued and she started crying. So no 180 degree flip? Thought not.

You talk to the woman, she cries a lot, takes hold of your hand, she doesn't want to tell you what happened, how it happened, why it happened, who did what to whom, all she wants is her husband out of the way for the night. You talk with Alan, he tells you exactly the same story, but from the husband, it seems you've hit a wall of silence. Alan is a good lad, harmless and lets his heart rule his head, so you both decide what to do, and four hours later, it's all rapped up, ready for the shift to end.

You are just about to go home, when your Boss beckons you:

'McClaine, have you got anything planned for tomorrow night?'
'Yes, I have actually, I'm taking her to the theatre, should be a good night.'
'I was hoping you would say no, I need you on nights tommorow.'
'I've got plans.'
'I'm not asking though, just being polite about it, as we all know you like.'
'Well I need you to order me.'
'Then consider it an order.'
'No worries boss, shouldn't be a problem then, i'll be in at 8.'
'Thanks Joe.'

You arrive home, open the door, she's watching TV, it appears that some one just fell into a lake, she finds in funny, you love it when she laughs, her smile is beautiful. You know that in a few minutes, that smile won't be there anymore, you decide to tell her later, let her smile for a little longer.......

'You know, sometimes, it just gets really hard to smile through it when they ask you to bend down and grab your ankles. You know?'

Fox Mulder, The X Files.

Mixed messages......

You urge people to look at the above photo, and watch this video, and then read these quotes:

'I didn’t realise he was talking to me – it came as a complete shock because we were there as a group. Obviously I was flattered. But all the girls are gorgeous so I was really taken aback.'

Charlotte McCormack (Wales Online)

'Most girls would probably like Simon saying they were beautiful, but I hated it. I felt sick later. I wanted to get off the stage as quickly as possible.'

Charlotte McCormack (The Daily Mirror)

Did Charlotte McCormack blush with pleasure, lap up the compliment, and then realise what people might think and back track?

A young woman is in a night club, in a City centre, she is tipsy, she is having a great time. A man takes a shine to her, they flirt with each other, dancing, she rubs her body up against his, they embrace, their lips together. She leads him away, out of the club, in a taxi back to his flat, they have sex, and fall asleep.

She wakes up the next morning, confused, she doesn't want her boyfriend to find out, she can't bare to think what he would do. She leaves the flat, walks back to her house, crying on the way, she lets herself in and tells her boyfriend that a man has raped her.......

'Truth will ever be unpalatable to those who are determined not to relinquish error.'

E. W. Montagu

A society of victims?

As you read the front page, you see that another has fallen, the epidemic of knife crime is out of control. Young John was 16, he was stabbed to death, his mother is on the front page, tears, heart ache, despair. They speak of Young John, he was a good boy, raised in poverty, on a council estate, he had his whole life ahead of him, he never did anyone harm, he never deserved this.

But maybe Young John wasn't so innocent, maybe he bullied someone, maybe he victimised polite Jimmy, to the point that polite Jimmy broke. Polite Jimmy, raised in comfort, never anything but friendly, he couldn't take one more beatings, he couldn't hide the bruises any more. One day when he got out of bed, he saw a knife in his dad's kitchen draw, he thought it was his only hope, his only way to escape Little John.

As polite Jimmy walked home, young John found him, he hit him, he spat on him, polite Jimmy couldn't take it, so he took the option and stabbed young John as hard as he could, only once.

John died on the pavement, Jimmy died as he ran from the scene.

Who was the real Victim?

Who decides?

'Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way round, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise.' Adolf Hitler

Two sides of a coin.......

One wears a dirty uniform, the other a clean suit.
One works in unbearable heat, the other an air conditioned office.
One is thousands of miles from home, the other on her doorstep.
One is on low pay, the other is on a high wage.
One dodges deadly bullets, the other dodges phone calls.

You watched Shami Chakrabarti's emotional plea on Question Time this Thursday, and to tell the truth you were embarrassed for her. In your opinion she attempted to win the audience over using inflexions, emotions and raised voices.

Why did the the audience agree with her, were they not watching the News on the 7th of July 2005? You've never been a fan of Geoff Hoon, but he offered a voice of reason, calm, cool, collected, in response to what may have been an attempt to create mass hysteria.

Chakrabati would most likely be singing a different tune if the sound of dyeing children were within her earshot, then it may hit home that terrorists are not people, they are parasites. While she sits in her safe, expensive, air conditioned office, she should think about British Troops, in 40 degree heat, trying to survive.

Living in a broken home......

The night is cold, the ground is laden with snow, and as you rush to the scene of the domestic, you find yourself wishing you had actually gone to the cinema and not into work. The Christmas lights look rather stupid, the house is littered with them, maybe the electricity bill caused the argument, it's sometimes as simple as that. Knock, knock, knock, the door opens, a middle aged man, he's very calm, alarm bells start ringing in your head, and not the festive kind.

As you walk in, you notice two young children sat on the bottom step of the stairs, the boy is crying, the girl is looking after him, she has her arm around him, good girl. The man says to you:

'Come in, this way.'

He leads you into the kitchen, a woman is sitting in a chair, dinner is on the table, four place mats, four plates, you notice two empty bottles of wine, the man does not smell of liquor. Your female colleague takes point:

'Are you all right luv, what's the matter?'

Two minutes later you arrested the middle aged man for assaulting his wife, he is taken to the custody suite, where he is interviewed. In the interview he breaks down in tears, he tells you that he can't take it any more, he cooked a lovely meal, for his wife and children, they all sat down to eat it, twenty minutes later, after his wife had drank almost two bottles of wine, she lectured him, she shouted at him, she pushed him right to the edge, so he hit her, once, only once.

You couldn't get a statement from his wife, she was catatonic by the time you went back, passed out on the sofa, the children spent the night with their grandparents. You have been told, time and again, it is not your job to believe or to take sides, the Police gather the evidence, and present it. But that time, you believed the husband, you knew he was telling the truth, you just knew.

You went home at 00:15, driving slowly as the roads were still laden with snow, you weren't thinking about what to get your girlfriend for Christmas, or what to do on New Year's eve, because all you could think about was those two young children, living in a broken home.

'A child sees everything, looks straight at it, examines it, without any preconceived idea.'

Olive Schreiner

Guilty in the press court....

'RTC boss, she says she's crashed her car into a lamp post on the Low road, she wants Police to help her.'
'Typical, she's a woman.'
'No boss, she didn't say she had reversed it in to a lampost, it was a frontal collision.'

At this point your boss burst out laughing, your boss is a female.

It was three years ago, before he went to Afghanistan, in three years a person can change, a person's values and beliefs can be completely reversed, he's been to a war, he has most likely killed people, directly or indirectly.

Yes that doesn't excuse what Price Harry said, saying the word 'paki', it doesn't make it right, in fact it is most likely wrong, but people hang him all the same, declare him guilty, without any consideration of the circumstances.

'He is then shown making a mock mobile call to the Queen, the Commander in Chief of the British Army, in front of other cadets.'

You find that quite funny, most of your colleagues don't care about the Queen, do they do their job for her, no, they all do it for different reasons, but you have never heard the Queen being one of those reasons.

Banter in the military is part of what makes the job great, the day the Politically Correct squad on their high horses take it out, the job won't be half as enjoyable.

'Political correctness is just tyranny with manners.'

Charlton Heston.