THE LAST DITCH
Police criticised for 93-page cycle guide – Telegraph.
I am sure this criticism is misplaced. Judging by the excerpts quoted in the linked article it must, surely, be a masterful satire? Admittedly, at 93 pages, it's a pretty sustained joke. But perhaps that sustained joke is itself a satirical metaphor?
I can’t see the funny side of this. At.All.
What skills are expected of police officers before they join up?
Who would have thought that riding a bike would not be one of the skills that can be assumed to have been acquired?
And what sort of well-meaning police officers are submitting this to the ACPO,(itself an organisation of dubious merit)?
Are they worthless suck-ups?
Nearly everybody likes a joke, and I offer my congratulations to anyone who is ready to take the mickey out of silly rules and regulations. But 93 pages is way beyond the point a mickey-taker would have said,’Enough, time for a drink.’
I’m now going to see if Inspector Gadget has anything to say about this.
P.S. and O/T,
Tom,Have you seen the story about the ex-soldier handing in a shotgun and getting a conviction for possession of a firearm?
Dreadful,and frightening.
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I did see the story and commented on Old Holborn's blog about it. Pretty appalling.
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I suspect the reason for the length is economics, nobody pays for a good pamphlet these days. The rule with rule books is the bigger the better, if you are the kind of person who ventures into a bookstore looking for authoritarian guidance, ‘use your common sense’ is the last thing you want to see and a 93 page rule book has to be better than a 20 page one.
The need to write rules is a powerful urge, I see it in my young daughter, she presented me with a beautifully written set of my own rules as she saw them. It was depressing, I had evidentally succumbed to the urge myself, I wonder if the Libertarian Party would approve of ‘eat your dinner’ as the prime directive.
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I was going to write a 93 page guide called ‘Having a Shit’ and send it to the Police. Do you think it would be appreciated ?
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Tom is a retired international lawyer. He was a partner in a City of London law firm and spent almost twenty years abroad serving clients from all over the world.
Returning to London on retirement in 2011, he was dismayed to discover how much liberty had been lost in the UK while he was away.
He’s a classical liberal (libertarian, if you must) who, like his illustrious namesake, considers that
“…government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.”
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The Last Ditch by Tom Paine 
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