David Cameron has experience of anti-social behaviour. It might be remembered that when he was a student at Oxford University he trashed a restaurant and student rooms at the University, for kicks, as a member of the infamous Bullingdon Gang. So, with his recent speech, he knows what he is talking about when he says "that violence grows in the fertile soil of anti-social behaviour". Watch out! "And here we have a real and growing problem throughout society". Yes, they could turn out to become future leaders of the Tory Party. "The chief constable of Cheshire said earlier this week that anti-social behaviour in Britain is 'out of control'". This is evidenced by the 12 year old boy who ended up being prosecuted for assault for throwing a cocktail sausage. "A recent poll showed that half of British people feel more frightened on the streets than they did a decade ago". As the latest population figures are 60,776,238, so that's 30,000,000. Perhaps, he meant half of those interviewed for the poll? And, how many was that Dave? Whatever, I bet it wasn't half the population. "Vomit and broken glass in the town centres, graffiti and litter and urine in the stairways of blocks of flats, fly-tipping in country lanes, aggression and foul language on the train and the bus ... general disrespect... all the little acts of aggression and ugliness that people have to put up with in the course of a day". And, that's just from the Bullingdon Gang... It's good to see that David Cameron injected humour into a boring speech with this joke: "My party is currently reviewing sentencing policy and our prison and probation system". No doubt led by that clown David Davis. Brilliant punchline, Dave. So, what's your solution then Dave? "To replace disorder and fear on our streets with hope and respect". Wow, I can really see that working. So, we keep hoping its going to get better around the corner. It reminds me of the wording above the gates of Dartmoor Prison "Abandon all hope ye who enter here". You're hopeless Dave. Respect a fucking cokehead? You've got to be joking!
Does Dave(2) really look like someone with the common Touch? At least Boris(8) doesn't pretend to.
ReplyDeleteNot sure what the thrust of this post is John?
ReplyDeleteIf it's 'society isn't broken at all' then you're not just taking issue with the Conservative leader but with all major political parties and most commentators and sociologists - if that's the case you'll need to be a bit more persuasive than this.
If it's that 'because of his background he isn't fit to address these issues' I'd have though you of all people understand the process of rehabilitation and the folly of linking youthful acts to the grown man.
You can't rubbish a poll because they didn't interview the whole population of Britain, or even half the population. (You can rubbish it if it didn't have a big enough sample or proper methodology.)
ReplyDeleteMore to the point, what are the public's feelings based on? Is it personal experience (violence against themselves, family and friends) or the huge media coverage of a few high-profile cases?
I don't really care who does it, but personally I'd quite like to see a review of sentencing policy which allows scumbags like this and this walk free from court.
ReplyDeleteThere's clearly something fundamentally wrong with the system as it stands now.
cassilis: Sure, society has its problems. I don't see David Cameron as the cure, but part of the problem. It's precisely because of his past behaviour that I believe he should not be saying "Don't do as I do, do as I say".
ReplyDeletetode: I am not rubbishing the poll, only his language in trying to claim the problem is bigger than it actually is, and that it started under Labour, and can only be fixed by the Tory Party. I recall we had problems when they were in power.
mousie: I don't think it has anything to do with sentencing policy, rather, the individual magistrates who have decided that these upstanding pillars of the community are not really criminals but good guys who have just had a lapse in there otherwise good characters. I would have thrown the book at them...
Hilarious that you should attack a message based on who is delivering it. I thought you would be painfully aware of having your argument attacked by way of an ad hominem argument.
ReplyDeletePrague Tory: I was going to fisk it but I got bored by how many times he used the phrase "common sense", and decided to rubbish him instead...His comment on the Lawrence case was pathetic and his solution even more so. Get used to being in Opposition because it's going to be along time with Dave at the helm...
ReplyDeleteHave to say John. Good Answers.
ReplyDeleteBut where the Fcuk did it all go so wrong fo Cameron? He could have walked a general election a few months back.
anonymous: I suspect he was flattened by the Great Clunking Fist, then the Brown bounce, being in Rwanda when the floods were at home and in his constituency, being wrong footed by Brown as it wasn't Rwanda but Darfur on the political agenda, grammar schools fiasco, and now another balls up on the NHS. It appears each time he opens his mouth he puts his foot in it. Brown pinches any good idea he comes up with and he is left with nothing...
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ReplyDeleteDon't forget Dave-id has taken a big bung from the arms dealer but former soft soap seller that was the lead buyer of Heckler & Koch. Just after they were comprehensively rubbished by the Mark Thomas Project that is. Naturally Heckler and Koch had been part of the extended Tory family before this sale as part of the British Aerospace landscape.
ReplyDeleteConsidering Dave-id's appeal to da yoof he will be most gratified to know that the firm's major product - the newish (2005) "Exterminate" XM8 assault rifle - comes in a variety of rugged colour ways like some iPod or mobile phone. And it's lightweight like a modern digital camera so that one can just shoot and go. Marvellous!
But money is money is money, yeah?
NB It was the individual rather than the gun makers that donated the dosh. As well as the XM8 they make most of the chunky sub machine guns waved by police on the home front as part of TWAT.
Stories over at mine.
Sorry. Clarification. The bung was like NOW. The soft soap seller bought the company just after Mark Thomas gave it a good old dusting down.
ReplyDeleteSelling arms to anyone. Sticking 15 or more factories around the world to get round embargoes and service the best regional wars. Selling arms to anyone. You know the kind of thing.