An outline to tackle crime

Today I delivered a speech at the annual conference of the Association of Chief Police Officers in Manchester. I think it went well, and was tickled pink to hear that David Davis was crying on Iain Dale's shoulders that he had been upstaged and outwitted. Where they get the idea from that I should keep them informed of my movements is anybody's guess.

The speech was wide-ranging and focused on crime. I promised a radical review of the government's anti-drug strategy. Research has identified 30,000 families who are more likely to get involved in crime, therefore it is intended to extend the family intervention project to target the parents and their children to prevent them getting caught up in gang culture and falling into a life of crime.

I fully support neighbourhood policing, and community support officers, and police forces around the country will be allowed more flexibility in dealing with issues particular to their areas.

There will be more funding to provide for more prison places.

The government is to examine the possibility of making serious crimes committed on public transport a aggravating factor at sentencing.

The government intends a review of fixed penalties to ensure that they are not being used simply to meet targets or generate revenue.

What's in a title?

What's in a title? Well, take this one for example: "Salman Rushdie Does Not Deserve a Knighthood But He Must Keep It". It says it all really. And yet, the author of the post, Tory TV presenter Iain Dale, felt he needed to clarify things by stating: "Let me be clear". It precedes a personal statement: "I cannot stand Salman Rushdie". Too much information. It appears that Iain Dale has taken a disliking to Salman Rushdie because he is a successful author, and because Iain Dale was unable to grasp what Salman Rushdie was writing about. He failed to get much past the first chapter. For a one time book publisher himself, it doesn't say very much for Iain Dale does it? He cannot even give Salman Rushdie the credit for being a best selling author, merely stating that he has sold thousands of copies which is correct in one sense. Only, it would be more accurate if he had said hundreds of thousands. That Salman Rushdie has been given a Knighthood for his services to literature has upset Iain Dale. Perhaps, he feels that his minor contribution is deserving of a honour? He does say that he believes that there are more deserving causes. Sob, sob. Still, he resigns himself to the fact that he is powerless to change what The Queen has ruled shall be the case.

Perhaps, Iain Dale's back legs are going a bit now that he is getting older? Because he says again that he cannot stand. Only this time it: "is people saying that this is a "provocative act" and Britain should apologise for it". Then he launches an attack upon the: "Pakistani religious affairs minister". This will go down well with the progressive David Cameron, I don't think! In any event, whilst this might not be the best way forward in diplomatic relations for the PRAM in that he : "has gone so far as to say it warrants a suicide bombing unless Britain apologises". Iain Dale shows himself not to be a diplomat with this proposed sanction: "Perhaps our response should be to cut off all our millions of pounds of aid to Pakistan until this minister is sacked from the Pakistani government". It is of course a question and required a question mark and was not meant as a closing statement.

Iain Dale is a failed politician. Those that can do, those that can't criticise.