I was tempted, albeit only for the fraction of a nanosecond, to write about Chris Huhne. Even the thought of having to write about this retard was just too much to bear. In any case, I'd already provisionally marked up this story (see above) for my overnight piece – yet another example of the incompetence and lack of proportion of modern-day officialdom.

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Tell your co-writer of course it used to be different.

Look at it like this, you tick a few juveniles off, give the odd motorist a ticket and so on you have incidents on your work sheet, you are busy working and they are mostly nice people you are dealing with and not a lot of hassle.

On the other hand if you lock a burglar, thief or real criminal up, they answer you back, swear and threaten you, have solicitors, interviews, court appearances, get accused of all sorts of malpractice and lying when you are only doing your job and protecting the public from villiany. It's a lot of work for one job on the work sheet.

No wonder three of them dash to deal with children playing in the street!

I'm reading Clive Ponting's 1940: Myth and Reality at the moment. Some flaws but very thought provoking stuff.

Guess the fuzz now get a financial bonus, a gold star or something for being torn away from his paperwork to turn up at a "crime scene"? Can't think of any other reason why they'd want to leave the station. Other than that the modern copper lacks the bottle to tell a couple of kids to stop playing football, unless he has his mates with him to hold his hand. That's plausible too.

Yes, I keep bumping into it ... I should get it!

Chris Huhne's CV is here - http://notasheepmaybeagoat.blogspot.com ... ation.html

Typical old bill. If you have your car vandalised outside your house, they couldn't give you the time of day but Kinds playing footie in a cul-de-sac and they empty the police station to deal with it. When the cuts come, no one's gonna really notice.

Unless you are old bill and you are facing an overtime cut.

Actually, that reminds me of a story I was told by a former member of the Thames river police. He reckoned when they were looking for a body in the water at night they would often find the body but then tie it to the roots of a tree by the riverbank. Then they would drive up and down the river for a few more hours to squeeze as much overtime out as possible. Then they would 'discover' the body later when they got tired and wanted to go home to bed.

Perhaps overtime cuts would in some cases would produce more efficient policing ?

Alright perhaps the kids were annoying the neighbours, but for heavens sake why 'phone the police over a game of footie, it doesn't say they were being cheeky or causing any damage. If seeing the kids enjoying themselves so aggravates the curtain twitchers & professional moaners why not just complain to the council.

Most kids, if you speak to them nicely, not just telling them to eff off, will usually take notice. Personally I'd prefer to see kids playing football than being in gangs. They can't win nowadays & the majority are decent, I feel quite sorry for them.

The police will turn up for something like this yet when people are being tormented, harassed & subjected to violence they are nowhere to be seen, let alone mob handed.

Slightly OT, but is Glenn Reynolds starting to sound like our own Richard North?: http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/106625/

"Maybe I should suggest that all overweening statists be hanged from lampposts, instead, just to see what follows. . . ."

"Maybe I should suggest that all overweening statists be hanged from lampposts ..."

You could be right ... lampposts is something of a North trademark.

They stole it here first, one might say.

I'd regard more as a seed sown, rather than a valuable stolen.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery if you like.