Well, I feel slightly guilty about tossing his Sky TV package out even though he sent me a satellite dish and a do-flicker-recording-thingie 'free of charge'. However, his monthly charges went up, up and away and the content was, by and large, dismal so he had to go, I'm afraid. Also, I took umbrage when he hid The Times behind a pay-wall and I refused to pay for it. But, dammit, it's New Year and the time for resolutions. As always, I have around 978 New Year resolutions. I list that many because then I don't feel so bad about failing to complete any of them - well, if you have just one there's no escaping the guilt, is there? So one of my resolutions this year was to be nice to my ex-best friend, Rupe, because he now has, not one, not two, but three ex-wives to support. So, in a spirit of Christian charity, yesterday I bought a copy of The Times from my newsagent. I know, I know, I'm all heart, really.
Anyway, I was glad that I did so because there were two good articles in it - which was two more than I usually find in the Memsahib's Daily Mail! I will deal with one of them now, the other later on. It was written by Ross Clark who pointed out the rather startling fact that the murder rate in Britain is going down not up!
Nationally, the number of murders fell from more than 800 a year at the turn of the century to 537 in the year to last march.
I treat all crime 'statistics' from whatever source with a great deal of suspicion so I am not sure exactly which figures Mr. Clark is using. With all the different classifications of what I would call 'murder' but the 'Cocklecarrots' call 2nd degree, manslaughter and the like, it is necessary to be careful. Even so, according to Mr. Clark, this drop in the murder rate is proving an embarrassment to sundry left-wing bien pensants who had forecast with confidence that as western societies cast off their 'brotherhood of man' socialist principles and fell for the gross iniquities of capitalism red in tooth and claw the murder rate would shoot up.
But embarrassment over hopelessly incorrect forecasts never bothers the Left. As Mr. Clark points out:
New Scientist last year carried a story claiming that climate change will lead to 22,000 extra murders this century, the reasoning [?!] being that crime rates seem to rise during warm weather.
To which, given the nature of their Summers, one can only wonder that there are any Australians left alive to murder each other!
I will deal with my ex-mate Rupe's other interesting article later on. In the meantime, go buy a copy of The Times, he needs the money!
Australians left to murder each other? Not while the beacon of pleasure that is Perth is still open for business. According to the Left, if they don't get their way on most any subject, mass murder and increased death will result. Never mind that the last century has been proof of just the opposite.
Posted by: Whitewall | Sunday, 04 January 2015 at 15:06
I remember reading somewhere ( memory reducing in inverse proportion to age), that as an island we have had astonishingly low murder rates since the late 1600's, compared to other countries. The conclusion being that we just don't like killing each other. In comparison, some other study (that memory thing again), looked at why we made such good soldiers. The conclusion being that we just liked fighting others.
Posted by: GD | Sunday, 04 January 2015 at 17:16
Thanks, GD, and welcome to D&N. The problem is that of all the hooky stats produced by 'those above us', crime stats are the hookiest so God knows what they were like back in Cromwell's day!
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 04 January 2015 at 17:34
The Anglo Saxon was born to fight. He can also fight and think at the same time.
Posted by: Whitewall | Sunday, 04 January 2015 at 17:37
'morning Andra [ladies first], Duffers, Whitewall et al.
Murder is so uncouth. It can completely ruin a good B-B-Q so socially it is frowned upon down here.
Anyway in between fighting bush fires, floods, etc [which can sometimes occur simultaneously here] there is not much time left for the average Aussie to indulge in murder.
Posted by: AussieD | Sunday, 04 January 2015 at 22:29