Who'd Go In To The Police?

BBC News: The Crown Prosecution Service says there is sufficient evidence to charge a police officer with the assault of a protester during London's G20 protests.

Sorry for repeating myself, but this is appalling. Why would anyone want to be a bobby now?

Said this about the copper getting abuse for pushing Ian Tomlinson, but it still applies:

The standard that the media seem to be expecting from under pressure officers is incredible. It's easy for people to sit at home and watch it on the news or read it in the papers or what ever. But officers like this one have to make a decision in five seconds, or three seconds, or one second or what ever it is, in the heat of the moment, and in this instance with Lord knows how many protestors bellowing and often lashing out at him.

This hasn't been stressed enough, if at all. If this officer loses his job or goes to prison for this, then everyone in the media who in their blood lust have exagerrated this incident beyond belief, and all those G20 protestors who went out of their way to wind up those policemen, are to blame. And shame on Boris Johnson, too, and all those in the upper echelons in the Met, for jumping on the bandwagon and failing to defend him.

For mercy's sake, get off his back.

Ambitious

Times Online: Nick Clegg will say today he wants to be Prime Minister ...

I think Liberal Democrats should be pretty worried if their leader didn't want to be Prime Minister, to be honest.

Apologies ... yet again

Sorry - if there are any regular stoppers-by left - for not posting nearly as much as I should be. Been back to college this week, and not only is it tedious and tiring, but after working all summer, it doesn't feel natural to be sat in a classroom anymore. Plus, I'm regretting my subject choices, made nearly a year and a half ago now by a far more naieve young boy.

So, exhausted by the rugby tonight, I instead leave you with this from the great Fabio Capello. It's how I'm starting to feel about college:

"I can't stand the crap that gets talked by everyone: players, fans, the media, club officials. Why should I waste my time listening to people who are clearly less intelligent than me?"

Vested Interest

More nonsense about education ...

Extra university places should be funded as a way out of recession and unemployment, says the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Is that what they say? From what I can tell, they say ...

"For a young person today, the best way of investing their money remains in education," said Mr Schleicher.

There is a difference there. But that's irrelevant. The real issue is a complete misunderstanding of reality. There is a "mismatch" between supply and demand for university places. Is that solely because there isn't enough supply to meet demand? Probably not. Perhaps some of those universities twigged that some of the interviewees maybe - just, maybe - weren't suited to university.

If we're talking basic economics (supply and demand) then we should also remember that when you produce more of something, it (usually) looses value. What's more revealing is the comment from a group that represents "new universities":

"Million+ has consistently been calling for the government to deal with the mismatch between supply and demand for university places."

That's the voice of a member of a large group of people who now have a vested interest in the pouring of money into universities in order to fund bogus courses. It's a voice we have grown used to, for it also continues to advocate the provision of courses like media studies at GCSE, psychology and the like at A-Level. It's a voice successive governments have not disagreed with because it would rather we wasted our time in a classroom and stayed off the unemployment statistics.

So keep that money away from people like this, and put it where it counts, investing in the engineers, chemists, and metallurgists of the future. Simples.

Farewell Dunney

Inspiration. City legend.