Number 93

Catharsis

If I'd been sensible enough I would have stood as the pantomime police commish for Northamptonshire. I mean, I don't know what the guy who got elected did in his previous life (apart from be a stand in/body double for the aliens in alien invader films), but he's ruffled more feathers than a chicken plucker and it appears that we have to trust him rather than him asking us to trust him and his radical ideas, which, to be unusually frank for me, are a bit PR based rather than common sense. I mean, he may well have done what I'm about to suggest in his first few days ion the big swivel chair, but I would have gone out of my way to be talking about it rather than inventing 17 new paid posts while the force is being cut back and the streets of many of the estates are awash with sex, drugs and violence (which I'm sure was the title of a Jane's Addiction song).

You know, new in a job, even if he knows what the Bill do inside out, the first thing you do is get to know your admin staff; then the other auxiliary staff; make them feel, justifiably so, as important as the coppers. Then I'd contact all the area chiefs and tell them we're having a meeting, asap, and tell them to bring their list of the 3 areas they feel need improvements in or help with in their part of the county. Then I'd sit down with the heads of the Probation Service, YOT and local Prison Service and ask their permission to talk to their staff and explain to them what I hope to do in terms of addressing the areas of exceptional need and find out what measures they can put into place to encourage offenders over the next few years to move away from crime, etc. I'd then talk to the people who actually do the policing - the bobbies on the beat, the YOT and probation workers, the PCSOs (or Plastic Policemen as they are affectionately known) and whatever areas I feel could offer programs or help with the delivery of a more community based holistic approach of deterrents and strategies rather than attempting to solve crimes, which very few policemen appear to be that good at, despite the proliferation of crime dramas (but perhaps we invent great detectives to counter balance the ineptitude of the police - and boy if I decide to go for this job this blog will try to come back and haunt me, but I shall laugh in its face and say, "if you don't like it how it is you can f

I can't quite understand how capping benefits (which, in reality, only really screws the 94% of people on benefits who aren't fiddling them some way) is going to cut the massive deficit this country has, while allowing massive corporations fucking ridiculous tax breaks that mean that they only pay half of the total estimated savings. There's this amusing photo of Dave Cameron and a message next to him suggesting that they're making such a mess of it to ensure that it's so broken it isn't worth trying to fix it because they thrive off of other people's misery. I can't help but think it's been a long time coming - this message - and that I think subconsciously I've known it forever.

I have had a Frank Zappa and the Mothers kind of week (I am listening to Deep Purple at the moment, so musos among you will understand the reference) and it ended with me being sort of bollocked for doing a good job... Yeah, if there's something to fuck you up even more than just getting a bollocking, it's getting one for doing too much. It seems that my instincts are not adjusting to the ludicrous bureaucracy of schools and I have to remember that even if I can help someone it isn't my job so don't.

I was going to start this blog off with that last bit and conclude that I need a new job. The thing is I don't really need a new job, I need to understand and accept that this isn't a simple thing; if a kid wants to talk to me I have to tell him or her to go and talk to someone else, even if they don't want to talk to anyone else... I suppose that really means I should at least make a real concerted effort see what's available come the New Year.

I've shed about 20 discs from my CD collection so far and I'm still just on D. I have been sensible and transferred a lot of stuff over to MP3 format and saved them all on one disc, somewhere else entirely, but I expect to see as many as 200+ CDs dumped in the coming months. I'm giving the first lot to my mate Colin; he'll either find something he likes... or not. While I'm still listening to Levitation in the car, the office has been filled with the mellifluous tones of Deep Purple, Delays, David & David, Dukes of Stratosphere, Dandy Warhols and Ian Dury for the last week.

It's going to snow next week. Somewhere.