Crime
If a policeman stops you, accuse him of raping you and force him to arrest himself.
Now that virtually any well-known male entertainer of a certain age is arrested for alleged sexual offences, it is becoming clear that this is more a culture war than a… Continue reading
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Schroder – one man’s journey into night
Erik Schroder is an East German who last saw his mother when he was five years old. In 1975 only his unspeaking father crossed the Wall with him into West… Continue reading
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Stolen books returned to Lambeth Palace. You read it first in the Spectator
Congratulations to the Guardian for being one fortnight behind the news. The paper’s website reports that a deceased thief returned 1,400 stolen books to Lambeth Palace’s library. The citizens of King’s… Continue reading
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Cricket is more than a game
Does this advert ring a bell? It showed a handsome young man hitting a cricket ball far into the distance. It appeared on the Tube last spring. The tagline read:… Continue reading
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The Philpott case is horrific; so is the attempt to hijack it for any political purpose
The sorry truth of the Philpott case is that almost nothing can be learnt from it. Everything would be so much simpler if there were clear public policy conclusions that… Continue reading
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The Philpotts – what happened to Labour’s view that we should be tough on the causes of crime?
Several Labour MPs have expressed their disapproval of George Osborne’s comments about the taxpayer funding Mick Philpott’s lifestyle. For example, Andy McDonald, MP for Middlesbrough, said that welfare is a ‘completely… Continue reading
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Scotland’s War on Clothes: Be Careful What You Wear
Welcome to Scotland, a land where freedoms of expression and other liberties are treated so seriously that the police and prosecuting authorities would never dream of monitoring and judging the… Continue reading
79 Comments
David Cameron’s immigration speech fails to capture the imagination
This morning’s papers have followed the lead of yesterday’s TV news bulletins: the prime minister’s immigration speech was not the success it might have been. The Times is lukewarm (£).… Continue reading
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The Myth of the Immigrant Benefit-Scrounger
The Sunday Express is at it again. It is outraged that Britain’s prisons contain some inmates who were not born in this country. Of course, everyone is hopping aboard the… Continue reading
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What shall we do with the racist lap-top?
Important work from Latanya Sweeney of Harvard University into the inherent racism of internet search engines. She carried out a study which demonstrated a clear difference between the sort of… Continue reading
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See no crime, hear no crime and speak no crime
In the current issue of The Spectator, we put on the cover four words that sum up the coalition government’s approach to crime: pretend not to notice. Today’s Birmingham Mail… Continue reading
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Crime and Guilt, by Ferdinand Von Schirach
Tis the season for shopping mall scuffles. A man with a red face prized the last Magimix (steel, 600 rotations per minute) from my hands yesterday, citing ‘the stress of… Continue reading
1 Comment In praise of the bloody-minded Paul Chambers
What freedoms we have in Britain have not come as a rule from revolutions and thunderous declarations of the rights of man. More often than not, our liberties have come… Continue reading
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Cabinet row over imprisoned SAS soldier
A lunchtime spat has broken out over Sergeant Danny Nightingale, the SAS serviceman who was sentenced to 18 months in prison by a court martial after pleading guilty to possession… Continue reading
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Who are the BBC to question the legitimacy of Police & Crime Commissioners?
What’s the test of success of the Police & Crime Commissioners policy? It is, surely, whether the 41 individuals who will be elected tomorrow succeed in cutting crime and antisocial… Continue reading
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David Cameron tries to drum up interest in the Police and Crime Commissioner elections
David Cameron spent yesterday campaigning for Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner candidates in Bedfordshire and Leicestershire. The visits, though, received scant national attention: the only coverage I’ve spotted so far… Continue reading
23 Comments
Review: The Collini Case, by Ferdinand von Schirach
During the Second World War both Germans and Allies routinely shot civilians in reprisal for attacks on their armed forces. One shudders to think that a ratio could even be… Continue reading
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Review – Hawthorn and Child, by Keith Ridgeway
‘The body is a multitude of ways of coming apart’ writes Keith Ridgeway in his most recent novel Hawthorn & Child. He describes these ways. It can be beaten, broken… Continue reading
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Cameron tries to show he’s still got it with tough crime announcement
It’s clear the government has had a bad week when the Prime Minister pops up on a Monday with a crowd-pleasing policy announcement. Recent re-launches have been shared by senior… Continue reading
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Killing as entertainment
‘The history of our love affair with violence’ is how Michael Newton describes his new book, Age of Assassins. In fact, its scope is much narrower: assassination in Europe and… Continue reading
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