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by Paul Scully | Sep 14, 2007 | News |
Sam Mc Alister was distracted whilst getting a coffee in Starbucks. She then discovered that her bag had been taken off the back of her pushchair. The 34 year old ran out of the cafe and challenged the woman that had accompanied the man who had pushed in front of her, thus taking her attention away from her bag. After a struggle, she managed to recover her bag which contained her purse, house keys and other essentials.
Ms McAlister went with a PCSO to the police station to report the crime. The shock that she already felt was multiplied when the desk officer told her that no crime had been committed since she got the bag back!
Fortunately Ms McAlister is a former criminal barrister and explained the law, which doesn’t actually require several years at University and being called to the Bar to appreciate, i.e. if someone deliberately takes your bag away from you in a cafe, Starbucks or not, a crime has quite definitely been committed. An hour later, the officer made the concession that it was attempted theft.
I can only imagine that the ever-increasing bureaucracy that the police face, drove the officer to make this clearly erroneous decision. Either that or she is a close relative of Jacqui Smith, the new Home Secretary.
by Paul Scully | Sep 14, 2007 | News |
Interesting statistic in Private Eye this week. The government are proposing that all migrant workers should be able to speak English to a standard of GCSE grade C or above. They estimate that 36.8% of immigrants would fail this.
Compare this to the 47.8% of students in the UK who did not pass GCSE English at grade C or above.
Maybe we need a little less headline-grabbing and a little more joined up thinking when tackling both immigration and education?
![How to Reduce Crime Figures in Hammersmith]()
by Paul Scully | Sep 12, 2007 | News |
I was somewhat concerned when I arrived for work at the Houses of Parliament this morning when I walked passed a police van with a sign saying “Explosive Search Dogs.”
Makes you wonder what they’re feeding them.
by Paul Scully | Sep 11, 2007 | News |
What did Eric and I do over the weekend? Soak an ex-LibDem councillor and discover that we won’t be expecting a 10 from Bruno Tonioli and the other judges. Still it was great fun and it was rewarding to meet a good few residents that spent a Saturday morning supporting a local initiative to benefit Carshalton.
by Paul Scully | Sep 6, 2007 | News |
Last night saw the first of the new Local Committees, which are set to be the main conduit for dialogue between residents, councillors and officers dealing with issues in specific neighbourhoods. I sit on the Carshalton and Clockhouse committee which covers two wards stretching from the Poets Estate and Carshalton Village through Beeches to Clockhouse which adjoins Coulsdon.
The success of these committees will be driven by the Chairman and Lead Council Officer who need to make sure that residents are aware of matters arising, that they have an opportunity to be involved in discussions and that action is taken. Cllr John Kennedy and Isabel New started really well. We got through a long agenda in an introductory meeting finishing on the dot of 10.45pm. A roving mike allowed far more people to participate than before.
This was the last Local Committee that we will have in Sutton as we move between venues in Beeches and Carshalton enabling more people to come along. Now we need to introduce real communication in between meetings rather than a small entry on an obscure website or a tiny corner of the Guardian and help this grow. The new structure comes with a £200,000 budget for us to spend on capital projects in Carshalton so it is crucial that residents feel able to contact us with their concerns rather than being presented with a shopping list.
by Paul Scully | Sep 5, 2007 | News |
The Tube strike has inconvenienced thousands of people, cost an estimated £50m per day and for what? After the collapse of Metronet, London Underground assured ex-employees that their jobs and pensions would be secure…so Bob Crow, General Secretary of the RMT takes them out on strike in order to get assurances that their salaries and pensions would be secure. This strike has been called off without gaining any extra concessions. The RMT are yet to decide whether to go ahead with another strike starting on Monday.
LBC presenter, James O’Brien has used the power of the new media to get his own back for the hassle. He has set up a group on Facebook called “Boycott Bob Crow” where 236 people have pledged not to serve Bob Crow in response to his refusal to serve them after they have paid their fare. Woe betide Bob if he wants a curry in Southall or a haircut in Tooting.
Well, small acorns and all. Two local businesses deserve mention; Clive from Aldridge Printing in Sutton refuses to do Bob’s printing and Gus from Labels Direct in Carshalton will simply not supply labels or till rolls. No, I don’t know how Bob is going to survive either. Maybe if Mayor Livingstone hadn’t offered Crow some legitimacy in the past by making him a Board Member of TfL, he wouldn’t be such a thorn in the side of ordinary Londoners now.
Sam Mc Alister was distracted whilst getting a coffee in Starbucks. She then discovered that her bag had been taken off the back of her pushchair. The 34 year old ran out of the cafe and challenged the woman that had accompanied the man who had pushed in front of her, thus taking her attention away from her bag. After a struggle, she managed to recover her bag which contained her purse, house keys and other essentials.
