Theodore Dalrymple tells it the way it is

By and large, if you are of a tender, delicate disposition, I would advise against reading Theodore Dalrymple.  Shades are lifted to let in the light, blinkers are removed and in a perfectly polite but relentless way he calls a spade a bloody shovel!  The main target of his brutal honesty recently was some twerp called China Miéville, a 'novelist' - and, no, I haven't read him either, nor indeed have I ever heard of him.  Apparently he is leading light amongst Left-wing, er, 'intellectual' circles.  He is quoted by Dalrymple on the City-Journal site as saying:

“Oh, London, You Drama Queen,” novelist China Miéville writes: “The aftermath [of the recent riots] was one of panicked reaction. Courts became runnels for judicial cruelty, dispensing sentences vastly more severe than anything usual for similar crimes.”

In one brief salvo, Dalrymple sinks him:

This is the statement of a typical intellectual whose indifference to the actual lives of the urban poor masquerades as compassion for them. Miéville fails to mention that most of the sentences handed down were for people with criminal records, no doubt in many cases long ones. The real judicial cruelty—not to the criminals but to their victims—was the leniency before the riots that gave the rioters a hitherto justified sense of impunity.

Aided and abetted by our benign and utterly useless Minister for non-Justice, Ken Clarke, who will do almost anything to avoid actually jailing anyone for anything.  Dalrymple offers some facts and figures which seem hardly to have impinged on Clarke, probably because the chances of him ever being knifed or burgled are vanishingly tiny, not least because of his constant police protection:

Some figures: in 2011, there were 12,699 knife attacks in London known to the police (up 13.6 percent from the previous year); 58,160 burglaries (up 8.8 percent); and 68,754 street robberies (up 13 percent). The average national detection rate for burglaries is about one in 12, though even this is an overstatement, due to police manipulation of the figures. Approximately 800,000 domestic burglaries took place in Great Britain in 2009; this means that some 67,000 were detected by the police. In that same year, 6,136 people went to prison in Great Britain for burglary (for an average of 17 months each). Considering the 800,000 burglaries annually, a domestic burglary attracts on average four days’ imprisonment: hardly indicative of judicial ferocity, and not much of a deterrent to burglary.

This very morning my breakfast was ruined by the sight of the plump, smug features of Ken Clarke on my TV telling us all what a wonderful world it will be when the very latest technology in satellite-monitored bracelets will mean that criminals on so-called Community Service Orders can be closely controlled.  I give the 'latest technology' about three months before the scallywags have found a way round it.

 

 

Comments

[Able]

If this is indicative of his writing then I for one shall be including Mr. Theodore Dalrymples opinions in my regular reading list!

This interweb thingy is a boon in so many ways not least in that I now no longer feel an oddity in my exasperation at life in Britain today (and to be brutally honest, total and utter disgust in those in power). I wonder at times why it is that, with so many people showing evidence of intelligence, understanding and integrity, we never see even one in the corridors of power.

Whilst that old saw 'Power corrupts' may be true, I believe the other, that 'Power attracts the corruptible' is truer still.

[David Duff]

'Power attracts the corruptible'

Yes, I like that one, Able. Still, look at the post above for some Good News and cheer yourself up!

[Xopher]

"the sight of the plump, smug features of Ken Clarke"
Far too 'respectful! His pals in Government when describing common people describe that build as fat, obese or even morbidly obese.
At least go some of the way and rephrase it as 'fat arrogant'.

[Whyaxye]

Dalrymple is unfailingly brilliant.

Worth looking at in this context is a new book by Jonathan Haidt in which he analyses some of the problems with contemporary liberalism. The following quote is from "Prospect" magazine's review:

"Like Steven Pinker, Haidt is a liberal who wants his political tribe to understand humans better. His main insight is simple but powerful: liberals understand only two main moral dimensions, whereas conservatives understand all five. (Over the course of the book he decides to add a sixth, liberty/oppression, but for simplicity’s sake I am sticking to his original five.)

Liberals care about harm and suffering (appealing to our capacities for sympathy and nurturing) and fairness and injustice. All human cultures care about these two things but they also care about three other things: loyalty to the in-group, authority and the sacred."

Dalrymple cares, it seems, for all five. Sometimes we need to be tough and decisive in order to show respect and concern.

[dearieme]

If you like "power corrupts" the laddie you want to read is Lord Acton.