Vox Polis

Grant Shapps, Conservative MP, has released research revealing that 5 out of 6 police officers have been assaulted in the past 5 years. He was on Today this morning claiming that this meant that society was crumbling and that we should all take a long hard look at ourselves:

“It is only by rebuilding a sense of social responsibility that we can hope to tackle this truly deep-rooted problem. Preventing our officers from being assaulted requires a change in attitude towards our police.”

It’s certainly not good that a lot of police officers have been assaulted but, frankly, this discovery is equivalent to the shocking news that most soldiers have been shot at. The police spend their time arresting (mostly) guilty people; criminals, shockingly, don’t like being arrested and tend to fight back. Would Mr Shapps be happy if we had only gentleman criminals who, when caught, exclaimed “Bother! Well it’s a fair cop guv’” and handcuffed themselves? If you’re going to bemoan the collapse of society at have some relevant data before you do it.

It takes real effort for a government to be “not fit for purpose”. It’s not just the big headline grabbing stuff like losing criminals and filling prisons to bursting point the small things count as well. Rubber stamps for instance:

When a government department can’t even rubber stamp stuff you know there’s trouble. At the time of posting it’s unclear if this stamp shortage applies only to stamps for the mystical “Untied Kingdom” or to our own country as well. Whether the big split will make a jot of difference remains to be seen.

The week’s Gordon Brown news from The Man Who Would Be King.

• Hanging out with celebrities
  According to this morning’s Metro, Brown’s been dining with celebrities such as Kylie Minogue in order to transform his “dour” public image.
• Husting alone
  Although it seems certain that someone will get the 44 signatures needed to stand against Brown for the leadership contest (even if it’s to make Brown’s coronation appear democratic) it’s interesting to find that Brown would have to campaign even if he was the only candidate.
• Student load deja vu
  The FT is speculating that Gordon will privatise the student loan system in his budget next week.
• Would you work for Gordon
  Do you like to be at your desk at 7am?
• Kinnock: from unelectable to unelected
  It looks as if Neil Kinnock will continue his political career as an unelected drain servant of the British people by becoming Leader of the House of Lords under a Brown Government.
• Gordon Brown’s politics for beginners
  For those who want to understand Brown in 3 minutes.
• Taxing times for airlines
  This morning on GMTV Gordon attacked the Tories airline tax plans.
• Ten years to remember
  Gordon Brown is to face his biggest challenge yet.
• A green role reversal
  Liberal society is good at informing and educating people about the environment, but it struggles to create environmental consciousness.

If there’s one thing the current administration like it’s targets. So it’s not surprising to hear of a proposal today to set binding targets for (issue of the week) carbon emissions. The draft Climate Change Bill calls for an independent panel (though with final approval still lying with ministers) to be set up which will set 5-yearly “carbon budgets”. The final aim is to cut carbon emissions by 60% by 2050.

It’s all very ambitious and forward thinking but what it’s not, and what there’s a lack of in general amongst all the green posturing, is actual action. The only actual action we’ve seen in the past week has come from the EU in the form of a ban on inefficient lightbulbs. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for accountability and at some point it will be important that we can hold the government to task but right now someone has to actually break from the pack and do something concrete.

Not only do we need to see some action, it’s also time for an end to the myth that none of this is going to hurt. The government line tonight seems to be that they can achieve their targets solely by extending the emissions trading scheme (err…presumably in a form that works) to cover more companies and by soft measures (loft insulation grants etc.) for the rest of us. I don’t personally believe that this is the most effective way of going about things. The vast majority of us piss away energy in a vast number of pointless ways every day (the school run, lights left on…). No one can claim to be uninformed about the causes or potential dangers of climate change but the amount that most people have shifted their way, in spite of what we know, is tiny. It’s time, in my opinion, for punitive measures to break us out of our bad habits. By changing the ways of the people there would hopefully be a significantly reduced need for undesirable options such as nuclear power and potentially competitiveness damaging (or plain ineffective) schemes for industry.

The week’s Gordon Brown news from The Man Who Would Be King.

• No Super Thursday for us
  The Sunday People’s on a roll.
• “Fully elected House of Lords” are the headlines, but will Gordon shelve the plan?
  Was tonight a great night for democracy?
• Chancellor Straw?
  According to the Telegraph, Jack Straw is to become Gordon’s first Chancellor, with Reid staying at the Home Office.
• Buying office in Euros
  The BBC have been running an excellent documentary on 10 years of Blair called Tony Blair: The Inside Story.
• Mafia Boss Brown
  Tonight Channel 4 finally began showing the latest series of the Sopranos.
• Brown’s first policy pledge
  If the rumours are to be believed, one of Brown’s first decisions as PM will be to get rid of the DTI, and give the Treasury monopolistic powers responsibility for business.
• No snap election under Brown, Blair says
  In another meandering wide-ranging interview, this time with the Observer, Blair informs us that Brown will not hold a snap election.
• Ming Deal or No Deal?
  Ming’s speech to the Lib Dem Spring Party Conference is being spun as a shopping list for a lib-lab deal if, as frequently predicted, we are faced with a hung parliament at the next election.

The week’s Gordon Brown news from The Man Who Would Be King.

• Another Blair Prediction
  The ever accurate Sunday People predicts that Blair will quit at 6pm on 24th July.
• What ever happened to…
  Matthew Parris today looks at some of Gordon’s mythical initiatives.
• Is it Mili-Me that has 2020 Vision
  Writing in the FT, James Blitz argues that the 2020 vision website launch yesterday was “a last prod to see if Mr Miliband would stand”.
• Brown spends more on websites
  Was spending £75,000 on a website to initiate a debate on the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review, good value for money?
• Forced voluntary service under Brown
  So Brown wants all immigrants seeking British citizenship to conduct voluntary service.
• Looks like there could be more…
  We get to see what Alan Milburn and Charles Clarke are up to tomorrow after their “we’re worried about the Labour party under Brown” email.
• Backseat driving
  I always thought that when he became leader, Brown would send Blair abroad to avoid the problems Major faced from old Maggie, who haunted him from the Lords.

Pint glasses will never be the same again.  According to this Parliamentary Question, the current pint glasses will become collectors items in October.  From then on they will have to dispaly the CE mark instead of the current Crown mark.

Blair really is doing badly. His approval rating is actually lower than George Bush’s (28% compared to 39% for Bush).

Well I’m sure the troop withdrawal announcement yesterday will change all that.

There’s an interesting new blog all about Gordon Brown over at wouldbeking.co.uk. It aims to find out all about the man who almost certainly will be the next Prime Minister in 6 months time. Hopefully, it’ll reveal some interesting facts.

Great moment on today’s Marr show. In Andrew Marr’s interview of Tony Blair he gave him a hard time over Iraq, which clearly left Blair rattled.

The other interesting thing was the look on Tony’s face when Marr said Cameron reminded him of Blair in the 1990s, when Blair was shadow Home Secretary. (A point taken from his colleague Nick Robinson) Blair’s reaction was priceless. It looked like he blushed and smiled. He really is proud of the Cameron he helped to create.