Police farce: Indy letter

Dear Editor

Here we go again.

Barry Coppinger Police PCC of Cleveland writes in today’s Independent that police budgets should not be cut. Because he’s spoken to senior police officers.

Well I never. Xmas and turkeys are nearer than I thought.

Rather than ratchet the fear and paranoia levels up a few notches, why not cut police budgets? At the very least they didn’t prevent terror attacks so to paraphrase Dave Brown’s thoroughly unpleasant scaremongering cartoon heads must roll.

And the Paris attacks weren’t deterred by Frances’s nukes or aircraft carriers or even 20,000 UK Cold War troops still sat nearby in Germany watching their tanks rust. Or even with GCHQ already monitoring every phone and internet call.

Surely we should consider the effectiveness of a mish-mash of 43 police forces (larger than the Royal Navy) tripping over each other. Or the ludicrous procurement waste of different police boots costing from £25 to £125. Or the Police Scotland £737k copper. Or even the viability of the excess of guns and ammunition and firearms training with only 6 shots fired in anger each year.

Costs that perhaps pale into insignificance after the Chilcot and Hillsboro and Deepcut and Bloody Sunday inquiries.

In Kent we’ve been especially badly-served by the silly Ann Barnes PCC regime of £100k clerks acting as flabby cheerleaders for the police rather than effectively holding the police to account.

For example, Kent Police are simply too scared to investigate the rampant KCC Toxic Three council corruption around BVI Pleasurama or Manston and Ostend airports gunrunning or GlickGate High Court fraud.

Again, hardly reassuring in facing a real terror attack rather than blowing up unattended Xmas presents, issuing warnings on buying fertiliser, asking schools to spy on kids and their parents, not issuing parking tickets, or not arresting the real Most Wanted of rapists, drugs dealers and burglars.

And Mr Coppinger places too much faith in an extra 1,900 MI5 clerks no doubt following his Facebook feed and providing reasons to increase their salaries and pensions. A random 2%GDP defence target is a good start. No doubt the good folk of Cleveland have more to fear from excess police costs and actions especially as after the closure of SSI Steelworks there must be little left to steal or destroy.

And of course with most terror attacks now suicide bombers, there’s even less need for detective work in future…

Yours faithfully

Tim Garbutt, Ramsgate
www.votegarbutt.co.uk
@timg33


Tim's Titbits:

1. Silence on 100 Se Rd gardengrabbing...
2. KORA and 2LB nearly ready
3. Ed Targett excellent article on tax havens eg Pleasurama corruption
4. Port, Wetherspoons and Slipways all quiet
5. Bizarre UK purchase of 20 F35 jets and then another 130: the most expensive and useless kit possible in the age of drones and massive peace outside of the Middle East and Sahel. And wasn't the Eurofightr supposed to be the UK/NATO plane? And horrifyingly MOD clerks to be halved...to 40k - already one clerk per soldier!
6. Good that Jo Gideon of Manston Airport Committee has been rejected as Kent PCC candidate by the Tories - now as irrelevant as the scoundrel Latchford