‘The first duty of the government is to keep citizens safe and the country secure.’
These are not my words, they are taken directly from the government website, so, in light of the recent shambolic and mistaken release of prisoners onto our streets, more awful crimes committed in a suburban neighbourhood, on a train, and elsewhere, I thought it was time to take a look at how this Labour Government is doing on that pledge, after sixteen months at the helm.
Of course, if you were to ask Starmer and co to mark their own homework, they would tell you what a challenge they had faced, and that, ‘after 14 years of Tory rule, blah, blah, blah…’ That line is now becoming so tired and hollow as to be meaningless.
If you have the right talent, drive, and ambition, quick turnarounds can be achieved. In a single year, 2024, Rolls-Royce achieved a remarkable transformation of its fortunes by strategically and rapidly restructuring its finances, cutting costs, and focusing on what it did best. Rolls-Royce turnover is around £18billion per year.
If this socialist, shambles of a government had possessed brains capable enough to go into their departments, grip them and steer them in the right direction, then there wouldn’t be the need for them to keep trawling their favourite excuse, day after day.
Releasing criminals by mistake is nothing compared to what's coming. Upgrade your alarm - Peter Bleksley
|PA
I hope you can find it in your souls to forgive me for mentioning the name Tony Blair, but I believe that a large part of his electoral popularity was because he had the likes of Robin Cook, Jack Straw, Gordon Brown and Margaret Beckett in his cabinet, clearly very capable people. Starmer has David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Ed Miliband and Jonathan Reynolds.
I rest my case, Your Honour.
Anyway, I digress. Judging by recent conversations that I’ve had with victims of crime, and the views of many other people that I am fortunate enough to come into contact with, the verdict on how safe this government is keeping us would have to be, not very.
And there is plenty of evidence to support this view. With ‘Get out of jail free’ cards being handed out to offenders who should actually be behind bars, and horrific crimes featuring in our papers on an almost daily basis, it is little wonder that so many Britons feel increasingly unsafe.
Brace yourselves, some people who are properly in the know think that things are only going to get worse. Gavin Stephens, who is a former Chief Constable and is now the head of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, has warned that the early release of thousands of prisoners under the government’s upcoming scheme will, guess what?
You’ve got it – lead to a six per cent rise in crime. How reassuring. Who’d have thought that letting loads of convicted crooks loose on the streets would cause a crime wave?
Please get that burglar alarm installed if you don’t already have one. Make sure they put in a CCTV system at the same time. Have an immobiliser fitted to your car and buy yourself a steering lock. If your budget will stretch to it, install front and rear-facing dashcams. I could go on.
Rather surprisingly, Shabana Mahmood’s Home Office approached me a couple of weeks ago. They are launching a campaign aimed at increasing the public’s confidence in the police. They thought I could be a useful contributor to some videos they were producing, and I was happy to help.
That was until I raised the subject of how much they were offering for this work. Not a penny was the reply, so at that point I drew the meeting to a rapid close. The Home Secretary earns in excess of £160,000. The Home Office budget is around £20billion.
We deserve better. Better policing, prisons that work, and safer streets. It grieves me that I see no sign of that coming over the horizon.