I heard yet another whining Policewoman on the radio today saying that the Old Bill were not able to contact victims of sexual assaults for several days, in some cases, because they were overstretched. Whatever. The Boys in blue have time to paint their nails blue in protest against slavery, to arrest someone for tweeting a picture of a burning poppy, to investigate Katie Hopkins for hate crimes every time she opens her mouth. I am sure we could all add in numerous other examples of things the Old Blue do have plenty of time for.
I put it to you that the problem is not that the Police are overstretched but that they fail to prioritize what really matters because the senior management of the Force is not dominated by a cadre of very stupid people who think their remit is to to assist in social change rather than ensuring the safety of the general public.
And this week saw that Police stupidity on display again with the story of the dog and the Nazi salute. This tale actually begins in 1941. A Finnish dog which gave Nazi salutes so annoyed Germany's World War II government that it launched a campaign against its owner, Tor Borg.
His wife had given the dog (Jackie) the nickname Hitler saying that the dog's strange way of raising its paw and barking reminded her of the Fuhrer. The Germans interrogate Tor Borg and its Foreign Office spent three months investigating ways of bringing Mr Borg to trial for insulting Hitler, but no witnesses would come forward, the newspaper reports. And so in the end the Chancellory stated "considering that the circumstances could not be solved completely, it is not necessary to press charges."
Lucky old Ta Borg for only having to deal with Nazi Germany. Pussies. If he had had to deal with the Law in 2018 Scotland he'd have been in real trouble.
If we wind forward to 2018 and we discover how Scot Mark Meechan taught his girlfriend's dog to do a Nazi salute, filmed it and it went viral on youtube. The prompt for the salutes were phrases including Sieg Heil and "gas the Jews" but it is the salute itself on the video which caused such offence that the Old Bill had to kick his door down at 5 AM as it once again prioritized serious crime as opposed to matters such as sexual assaults or dealing with scandals like Telford.
Despite support from folks like Jewish comedian David Baddiel, Meechan, who is apparently also a comedian though it strikes me as not a very funny or tasteful one, has been tried and convicted of a hate crime and could now go to jail. Jeepers, if only the Nazis had enshrined British laws designed to restrict free speech into German law and had had the Scottish Police at their disposal think how they too could have clamped down on Nazi saluting dogs.
Meechan sounds like a total creep to me and his jokes are not funny and are utterly tasteless. He sounds a lot like Russell Brand and Jeremy Hardy just Scottish and right wing. But if you believe in free speech you have to overlook such matters and support the rights of even those you despise to speak out. Yes, even Jeremy Hardy should be allowed to spew out a stream of offensive and libellous comments about conservatives and capitalists across the globe.
Sadly in 2018 Britain there are too many in the Police and Judicial World who seem to regard the works of Orwell not as a warning but as a blueprint for a very selective tyranny.