egafd.com

Great employment tribunal story this morning-


There is a delicious irony in the Police having to defend themselves for sacking a believer in psychic phenomena.

Long ago, before political correctness and the discovery of "institutional racism", before performance targets and support workers, before slogans appeared on police cars, and when DNA databases were the stuff of science fiction, almost the only thing that could be reliably said of any great detective was that he trusted his own hunches.

The hunch has no place in the modern "service" (or "force" as we oldsters still call it). Policing is a thoroughly scientific profession. The hunch smacks of a vestigial belief in psychic phenomena and the unexplained.

Apparently, in the Greater Manchester Police it is OK to belong to a Masonic Lodge, but not to a Spiritualist Church.

Are you suggesting we are safer nowadays if we fall into the hands of the police?

What kind of crime would make a detective use violence to obtain a confession? I doubt they bothered with strong-arm stuff except when faced with suspected armed robbers or sex offenders - probably a rare event in any copper's career, both then and now.

They worry me more now - because for one thing there's been an exponential growth in the sheer number of things that are apparently illegal. I'm not sure I wouldn't be pretty sarcastic if arrested for some kind of "wheelie bin crime" or politically incorrect comment. So I judge that while I am as law-abiding as the next man, we are both more likely to come into contact with the police than we were thirty years ago.

In fact I think I read something recently about the number of people aged 40+ getting a criminal record for the first time. That, IMHO, will be down to the petty zealousness of the kids they put in uniform these days, and the steady pressure to criminalise aspects of normal behaviour.

Dont forget, in Britian today, under Labour-you can be arrested for having ginger hair and bad breath, and if they strip search you, and find skid marks, your'e going down.

We soooo need a change of Government, I'm sick of having Mandelson as PM.

Muffinman wrote:


>
> In fact I think I read something recently about the number of
> people aged 40+ getting a criminal record for the first time.
> That, IMHO, will be down to the petty zealousness of the kids
> they put in uniform these days, and the steady pressure to
> criminalise aspects of normal behaviour.

Like feeding the ducks.

Excellent story. My local park is exactly like this one - overrun by Canada geese and pigeons. Goose-poo makes an otherwise well-kept park look like shit.

So I agree that indiscriminate public feeding builds the population of these vermin - but totally oppose giving jobsworths the right to chance their arm with a handheld computer. Look what happened when they let the police loose on speeding - it's become their biggest earner.

Shoot them - the geese and pigeons, not the police - obviously. Then the young heron might get a look in, and attract a mate. Beautiful plumage!