IN
THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY.
Is this all there is?
You can buy a hunting knife on the net. You don't need a licence. You can carry an entire set of kitchen knives and, if questioned by the police, say you are a chef. There has been a steady increase in knife crime since 2014. Fatal stabbings take place almost daily. It's as though we are steadily marching back to medieval times.
What the hell has gone wrong?
That's it for another month.
You can buy a hunting knife on the net. You don't need a licence. You can carry an entire set of kitchen knives and, if questioned by the police, say you are a chef. There has been a steady increase in knife crime since 2014. Fatal stabbings take place almost daily. It's as though we are steadily marching back to medieval times.
What the hell has gone wrong?
Well,
for a start, successive governments have depleted the entire public
service system.
We have long had too few police officers (certainly too few walking the beat) and, of those currently serving, many at the top were enlisted from outside the force and have never so much as given evidence in court, let alone stood toe to toe with a wrong 'un.
Over the last forty years there has been one reduction (impertinently described as reorganisation) after another in every public service: customs and excise, education, local government, the fire service, the N.H.S. You name it...
No doubt some smart-arse government adviser has been promoted each time on the strength of it, but it has clearly been done to cut costs rather than to benefit the population it is supposed to serve. That population has risen by around eleven million since 1980 and there has been no let up in the government's turn-of-the-century austerity programme.
Don't be bullshitted by politicians. Since 2010 there has been a reduction of over £30 billion in public spending. This in a country that, determined it can manage its own affairs, is going back to the polls on December 12 after three years of shilly-shallying over Brexit. Is this all there is then?
It's hard to be optimistic.
We have long had too few police officers (certainly too few walking the beat) and, of those currently serving, many at the top were enlisted from outside the force and have never so much as given evidence in court, let alone stood toe to toe with a wrong 'un.
Over the last forty years there has been one reduction (impertinently described as reorganisation) after another in every public service: customs and excise, education, local government, the fire service, the N.H.S. You name it...
No doubt some smart-arse government adviser has been promoted each time on the strength of it, but it has clearly been done to cut costs rather than to benefit the population it is supposed to serve. That population has risen by around eleven million since 1980 and there has been no let up in the government's turn-of-the-century austerity programme.
Don't be bullshitted by politicians. Since 2010 there has been a reduction of over £30 billion in public spending. This in a country that, determined it can manage its own affairs, is going back to the polls on December 12 after three years of shilly-shallying over Brexit. Is this all there is then?
It's hard to be optimistic.
TELEVISION.
One
can appreciate the madness of The Walking Dead (FOX). It is based on
a comic book so it has to be barmy.
Whether
the same can be said for the exuberant supporters who flock to The
Talking Dead is open to question, but I see actors as the royalty of
America, with their fans as voluntary courtiers, so I allow for
madness in them. I still watch both programmes, tongue in cheek.
Well, they're better than antiques, or cooking, or reality rubbish,
or quizzes, or people looking at houses they do not intend to buy.
The
Dublin Murders (BBC One) is a modern psychological thriller
containing characters who are neither entirely sane nor particularly
likeable. It dodges to and fro between then and now (the current
trend) and at eight episodes is at least two episodes too long.
Finally: how many more examples of the headcase hero with whom to bore us can there possibly be?
Ah
well. It's better than antiques, or cooking, or reality... 
