Run That By Me Again - Are You For Or Against?

The PM is back on form. Renewed and invigorated after his break, he is on top of his game.

A person blows 270 people out of the sky - a mass murderer in anyone's understanding of the term. There are few more dreadful crimes a person can commit. Yet the PM did not have an opinion on whether the man should have been released or not - for compassionate or any other reason. The one thing he was relieved about was that someone else - namely the Scottish Justice Minister - could be blamed and so the PM was at pains to identify him and the 'fart in the space suit'. The man no one wants around them.

You see, he was keen to congratulate Andrew Strauss and the England boys for regaining the Ashes. Proud moment - positive press - good association - people will remember it was on his watch whereas Blair claimed the glory last time - MBEs or something all round for the lads - popular move for a hip PM. But when it comes to commenting on the release of the Lockerbie bomber he hangs back despite the country he was born and bred in actually had their flags waved outside the plane that delivered a mass murderer home. According to the TV last night and expert opinion, the Lockerbie Bomber did not even fall within the guidelines for compassionate release as his 'terminalness' was not within a 3 month window.

Whatever - the man did not deserve to be released. Not one of his victims was treated with a singe jot of compassion when he made sure his suitcase full of explosives was put on board. What makes his life worth anything more than a single one of theirs?

The standard excuse is that we are a compassionate society and have a similar judicial system. I'm sorry but that's rubbish. More and more crimes will be punished in the eyes of the Police with fines in the future without the judicial system being involved, denying the right to habeas corpus for a range of offences right up the harming other people or stealing. There is no compassion there - wallop, guilty, serve your sentence, pay your fine. At one end of the spectrum we are actually being harder on minor offences giving no right of compassion but are being compassionate to the worst offenders.

Where is the sense in any of that?

You commit crime - you are punished. It seems the more severe crime you commit, proportionally the less of the sentence you will serve. It's a stupid, stupid position to adopt and shows how twisted our whole justice system is. You are disproportionately hit harder, without recourse to proper law for the least harmful of crimes like parking, speeding or smoking dope.

But, hey. At least we won the Ashes and it was on Gordon's watch. Eat dirt, Cameron.

Good Use of Resources

As I surveyed a car with a smashed in window in a car park in King's Langley yesterday, I was heartened to see the Police once again focusing their resources on the real perpetrators of crime.

Sadly, for the owner of the car in King's Langley, the Police did not want to know. Meanwhile, the two day trial of Chris Tarrant's former wife, Ingrid has seen her brought to justice. Forget the rape and killings on the streets (we are led to believe killings are at their lowest for a while but it doesn't feel like it), forget knife and gun crime, forget terrorists and peers who kill in the fast lane of motorways while texting, yesterday a real criminal was brought to book in the grim streets of Cobham in Surrey.

Cobham, Britain's Worst Crime Hot Spot

Cobham is surely one of the country's worst no-go areas where crime is so rampant that even the criminals go round in pairs, while Chelsea footballers preen themselves on their local training ground. Life is tough in Cobham and it's why the streets are now full of tough, well-trained policemen who wear the type of body armour that a Marine in Afghanistan would literally die for. Last Christmas, the police moved in on one of Surrey's most hardened criminals - Ingrid Tarrant.

Reign of Terror

After a blatant spree of shopping, Tarrant, returned to her vehicle which was illegally parked at a bus stop. She ignored the battle-hardened police PC who attempted to apprehend her for causing an unnecessary obstruction. She drove off and was chased by two further officers while the Surrey Police helicopter could not get there in time as the officers flying it were buzzing local houses looking for people putting the wrong things in bins. The officers managed to catch up with Tarrant and tackled the dangerous criminal, managing to over power her and pin her to the ground before handcuffing her.

Armed and Dangerous

She was taken to a nearby police station for rigorous questioning but did not break under pressure and reveal the source of her fuel or what was in her shopping bags. Perhaps we will never know. She was found to be armed with a loaded wallet which had clearly been recently fired.

She was yesterday finally brought to book and charged £1,200 after defiantly pleading not guilty. The total operation was funded by extra parking tickets and speeding fines for the street-hardened criminals of Cobham. The town folk will sleep a little easier now another criminal is dealt a vicious blow in the name of Justice.

Surrey Police - we salute you.