Stoopid is as stoopid does!

Forrest Gump's mama was right. Not that life is like a box of chocolates, though it might be, but that stoopid really is as stoopid does!

I saw a former colleague operating a speed control from his Police motorcycle this week. I was walking past so I stopped and we started having a conversation. Having formerly been on the National Road Safety Advisory panel, I was genuinely interested to know how successful his time had been. "I've had two in an hour" he said, "but the crazy thing is they were both going away from me. They have seen me wearing all this reflective Police clothing, driven past me and accelerated whilst still in view to a speed way in excess of the 30mph."

Now I'm not sure if it's crass stupidity or sheer arrogance on their behalf, but I have no sympathy with either driver when they receive their notifications in the post.


nick

AVOW AGM

AVOW held their AGM this morning in the Memorial Hall in Wrexham. First Minister Rhodri Morgan was our guest speaker before we got down to the business part of the day. I am delighted to have been re-elected to serve another term as a Trustee.


nick

Is the Post Office a victim of the changing face of retail?

Currently one in five rural Post Offices have fewer than 70 customers a week, meaning that 90% of the rural network operates at a loss to Post Office Ltd. As the first announcements of Post Office closures are made, I can’t help but think we’re staring missed opportunity right in the face. For instance, when the National Lottery was first set up in 1995, with hindsight the perfect outlet for rural ticket sales was the local Post Office. Lottery sales totalled £5.1 billion in the first 13 months of operation, representing about 3 per cent of retail spending according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. National Lottery ticket sales for the year to 31 March 2007 were £4,911.4 million. Whether such a move would have saved rural PO’s is debatable, but lottery sales to appear to be fairly steady. However, 13 years after the Lottery start up the face of urban retailing is changing rapidly and today I like thousands of others, buy my lottery tickets on-line and I simply await the email to tell me of exactly how many millions we’ve won.

I can remember our first trip to New York in the mid ‘80s. I was like a kid in a sweet shop. Record stores abounded and I’d spend hours flicking through sleeves finding previously unheard of titles. Last month in Los Angeles I found one DVD/CD store in Hollywood! The fact is I can do my browsing from the comfort of my own home and buy cheaper from someone whose overheads are just warehouse costs and staff. Prohibitive rents and commercial rates stifle any budding entrepreneur from establishing a traditional alternative and that’s without the giant supermarket chains squeezing the life out of every High Street in the land by offering to sell everything from groceries to computers, clothes, furniture and televisions.

I became acutely aware of that even more so this morning. I happened to drop off our daughter’s car for an MOT and walking a few yards towards home awaiting Julie picking me up, I couldn’t help but nose at the recycling boxes awaiting emptying. Each and every one had numerous wine and beer empties. When the supermarkets sell a fairly decent bottle of wine for £5-6, is it any wonder pubs in the UK have been closing at a rate of 27 a week over the past year with 1,409 pubs closing during 2007? The closure rate in 2007 was seven times faster than 2006 and 14 times faster than in 2006. Folks simply refuse to pay the £3-5 for a 175ml glass of wine which absorbs all the overheads a public house experiences.

Of course many will rightly argue that rhe rural Post Office fulfils a need way beyond that of selling stamps. It was a social occasion for my Taid to collect his pension from the PO in Llanerchymedd, catching up on the ‘hanes’ since the week previous. I’d agree and I know that the social aspect is important for many especially the elderly. Sadly I suspect the Post Office like many others, is simply a victim of the changing face of retail and only those that are community-run with a viable business plan will stand any chance of a long-term future.


nick

Let's hound the drugs cheats out of ALL sports!

Just when cycling as a sport was getting its act together and repairing some of the damage that’s dragged it down for far too long, some halfwits believe they can buck the tests and continue to cheat. Thankfully they ARE in the minority and their ranks are steadily reducing. Clean, honest riders such as Robert Hunter of South Africa do the sport nothing but credit by putting their heads above the parapet and decrying the cheats. I was so impressed by his stance against those who really are beneath being called his ‘peers’.

I strongly suspect many other sports are nowhere near as clean as cycling is today despite the ongoing trouble in the Tour and cycling’s problems are the tip of an iceberg. Sadly the upcoming Olympics will be tarnished with positive drugs tests across many disciplines. Thankfully justice has prevailed in the UK and a certain sprinter's legal efforts have got him nowhere except huge legal fees. I'd rather watch a clean and honest British athlete come last, than a known drugs cheat come first!



nick

Happy 100 Feyenoord

Another birthday today, only this one is a spectacular 100th!

The football club Wilhelmina was founded in the De Vereeniging bar on 19th July 1908. They played in blue sleeved red shirts and white shorts. Between 1908 and 1912 the club underwent a series of changes of name and team colours, becoming Hillesluise Football Club in 1909 and then RVV Celeritas. Upon earning promotion to the National football association in 1912, the club renamed to become SC Feijenoord after the city district in which the team was founded and again changed uniform, adopting the red and white shirts, black shorts and black socks they still wear today. In 1973, the club decided to change their name to Feyenoord, as people from outside the Netherlands found it difficult to pronounce the "ij" in Feijenoord.



We experienced the sensational atmosphere inside the De Kuip last December for the 6-0 drubbing of Heracles. Result ignored though, Feyenoord instantly became my favourite foreign side following a warm welcome from both supporters and club officials and I'm planning to return this coming season for another taste of Rotterdam's finest!


nick

Happy 1st Birthday to Crossroads North Wales

It was a Happy 1st Birthday to Crossroads North Wales at our Trustees meeting in Rhyl this afternoon.

It's been an eventful first year for the new scheme. Formed through the amalgamation of the 7 schemes that served the counties of North Wales, we've faced numerous challenges to ensure the quality of service delivered to our clients has remained second to none. Our first year as Crossroads North Wales has seen us deliver 44,998 care hours to 617 carers and their families.

I'm delighted to also serve as the Chair of our Strategic Service Development sub-committee and I'd like to put on record my thanks to all our staff who have worked so hard to bring us to this point in just 12 months.


nick

Zero tolerance for just a few?

Following yesterday’s post there’s more daftness 'here' and this one’s a real pearl. The proposal to take a zero alcohol approach to drivers only applying to young people between the ages of 17 and 20 simply beggars belief. In effect that would be saying “well today is your 21st, so it’s now ok to have a drink and drive afterwards”. Drivers under the influence of alcohol are a menace to us all irrespective of their age.

I don’t hold any sympathy for Drink/Drivers. As someone who has performed the station procedure on many occasions, I can say that I found them to be a strange breed. A high proportion were totally obnoxious, spewing vitriolic comments alleging blame at everyone except themselves to compensate for their own crass behaviour. Very few in my experience were under 21, but their age is irrelevant anyway.

If we are to consider a zero alcohol limit such as that in Estonia, Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary then debate it properly as a road safety measure for everyone!

nick

Shock Tactics? No, just the wrong tactics!

Oh dear, please let this story be wrong.

Shock tactics! Taking knife carriers to hospitals and prisons! So just let me work this one out in my head. We’re going to take knife-wielding offenders who are prepared to plunge them into another human beings body and we’re hoping to shock them by showing what some other thug has already managed to do. Worse still, we're going to try and shock them with a glimpse of how tough life is in today's prison system. If I was a recuperating victim who’d already had the misfortune of being ‘sliced’ by some of these cowards, the very last thing I'd want to see is another offender while I'm pondering my lifelong scarring or if I'll ever have the courage to venture outside my door again!

Is there no depth of crass stupidity the dinosaurs at the Home Office aren’t prepared to stoop to before they start to actually address the problem properly? The scourge of gangs, knives and knife culture will not be altered one jot by this half-hearted, half-baked idea.


nick

Welcome to hard times!

I’ll hazard a guess that before we get ‘official’ confirmation, we’re already in a recession. Indeed we’re in one with plenty of company.

Last month we travelled around 2,500 miles across the south western United States. We bought a lot of gas. We paid between $4.07 and $4.75 per gallon depending on State taxes, Californians paying way more than their neighbours. Although that’s roughly half of what we pay, it’s still seeing a rise in price of around 40% for those who’ve always taken the price of gas as a given, cheap!

This price hike has quickly changed American marketing strategy when it comes to car sales. I’d never before seen the emphasis placed firmly on fuel consumption. Dealers now offer 1 year’s ‘free gas’ with certain models and the daily soaring cost was a regular conversation starter with complete strangers genuinely interested to learn what the price is in Europe. Jobs are quickly suffering too. Last month classic RV manufacturer Winnebago announced a net income down by a massive 73% resulting in factory closures. We listened to a radio station phone in which a caller stated it now costs him $500 to fill his up and he had listed it for sale, but who was going to buy such a guzzling dinosaur?

Cars, SUVs and pick-ups are struggling to maintain sales too. A Californian pal emailed me this week and said that Chrysler issued a denial that they’re about to file for bankruptcy, but they’ve had to close a factory with the loss of 2,400 jobs.

It’s not rocket science and one doesn’t have to be Warren Buffet to predict that if the American automobile industry is in trouble, plenty of others worldwide had better batten down the hatches. Yesterday I went into town for lunch. 3 empty shops in Central Arcade, 4 more in Henblas Street alone and we’re seeing a new development in Eagles Meadow. Scary stuff indeed and unfortunate timing to say the least.


nick

Not just another knife crime!

The brutal and savage murder of two French citizens in New Cross, South East London sends a shiver down my spine. Beyond the savagery of the level of violence used, I always feel that crimes against foreign nationals add an extra degree of embarrassment for our country and how its image overseas is once again dragged into the gutter.

Of course there are always criminals in every country who prey on the vulnerable, tourists included. But the fact that these two young men with such bright futures chose to come here to study and have ended their lives in such an appalling way is incredibly sad. Now it also emerges that another teenager was stabbed to death in nearby Thornton Heath yesterday. That's the 18th teenager murdered in London this year. It's simply not good enough for the Home Office to say how difficult it is to crack down on knife crime. We need to very quickly get to grips with this epidemic of knife culture. That means extensive new powers for the Police to search for them and we need some extremely stiff penalties for offenders who resort to carrying and using such weapons.

In the meantime, let’s all hope arrests are imminent in both cases.


nick

Domestic Violence in all its ugly guises

Image courtesy of Islington Council

The report that three of our female AMs have responded to a survey and admitted they have been raped is shocking to say the least. Even more scary is the fact that when asked to respond on such a serious topic, only 8 out of our 60 AMs bothered to sit down and complete the questionnaire.
As a human being, I have total abhorrence for both sexual abuse and domestic violence. As a police officer, I’ve seen it in the flesh, literally! I’d therefore echo Cathy Owens, Amnesty International's programme director in Wales when she says, “If we are going to break the cycle of violence that sees a third of all women in Wales suffering from some sort of violence, then we need to start by challenging attitudes towards violence against women amongst students and the population at large.
The Welsh Assembly Government should consider a comprehensive campaign aimed at preventing violence - making it far less acceptable on our campuses and in our communities.”
However I’d like to see an addition to that campaign. I’ve also witnessed domestic abuse where a male partner has been the victim of an aggressive female. Victims of such violence find it tremendously difficult to come forward simply because of a misguided historical stereotype, but they certainly do exist.


nick