Friday, May 30, 2008

The ludicrous benchmark philosophy

Arresting or fining someone for a trifling offence - such as a child stealing a Mars bar - is a good way of hitting the target and pleasing the Home Office.

Amazingly, the chocolate theft ranks as highly as catching a killer.

Miss Sergeant says performance-related bonuses of between £10,000 and £15,000 a year for police commanders depend partly on reaching such targets.

This leads them to put pressure on frontline officers to make arrests for the most minor misdemeanours.

Officers said at the end of a month, when there was pressure to hit the target for that period, they would pursue young men as the most likely 'offenders'.


See here

My favorite "One officer told how he was pressed to charge children playing with a tree with 'harassment'."

...

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Another month, another drop

House prices fall at fastest rate for 17 years
The slump in Britain's house prices accelerated in May to the fastest level since the Nationwide began records 17 years ago.

The price of an average house fell 2.5 per cent in the month, making the seventh consecutive monthly fall in prices, the longest downward slope since the housing recession of 1992.

In the year, 4.4 per cent has been wiped off the value of homes, the biggest annual fall since December 1992 when the price fall reached 6.3 per cent.


Really sharp drop that surprised even the big bear.

We are now 6.9% lower from the top in October.
See the press release.


--- Update 5th June 2008

Halifax confirm the drop.

House prices: Market sliding faster than in the 1990s recession.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Boris plans to 'Oysterise' overground rail services by next May

Transport for London chiefs have told the new Mayor that his less confrontational approach is already paying dividends with train firms and will as a result rapidly speed up the spread of the system.

Mr Johnson said: "This is excellent news for thousands of First Great Western passengers and takes us a step closer to making Oyster the only ticket you'll need to travel in London.

"Transport for London is investing £40 million in new Oyster equipment and I now urge the remaining train operating companies to get on board, agree their deals and open up Oyster for all Londoners."


What! Boris can do thing better that Ken! Sure we are not gonna say thanks to the "Don't blame me, I didn't vote Boris" people.

Thursday, May 8, 2008