Clowns

David Cameron:
"And to the lawless minority, the criminals who have taken what they can get, I say this: We will track you down, we will find you, we will charge you, we will punish you. You will pay for what you have done."

Q: How much will you pay exactly?
A: 60 quid.
And a district judge's comment:
"He [Tim Devas, district judge at Nottingham Magistrates Court] went on to address the court in general, saying: "If there are any criticisms of sentences handed down by the courts, if you want anyone to blame, then go and speak to the government.

"Do not blame the judges or the magistrates who do their jobs professionally and abide by the guidelines set down."

At the same time, Justice Secretary Ken Clarke has warned against a push for new sentencing powers in the wake of the riots. He told BBC Radio 4 the existing system was working and cautioned against knee-jerk reactions to shocking events.
Not that anything Clarke says should be taken seriously after this.

And then:
"Met Acting Commissioner Tim Godwin paid tribute to his "brave" officers after the meeting, saying they had "faced unprecedented violence and damage and criminality and looting" and that "any suggestion the officers stood back is wrong"."

From Cameron's Commons statement, linked above:
"Police chiefs have been frank with me about why this happened.
Initially the police treated the situation too much as a public order issue - rather than essentially one of crime."

Public order issue, standard response = stand back.
Which could have just been understandable for the first few hours on Saturday night, but for the next 2 days???

Anyway, Tobias Ellwood (MP for Bournemouth East) had a great suggestion to deal with that particular problem in the future: the Police should be able to close down phone masts if mobs are using social networks to co-ordinate trouble. Brilliant, so when you're being attacked you can't even call them to come to help. If they're not there they can't be accused of having done bugger all.

Meanwhile, Inspector Bob Cantrell (GMP) has also revealed the equipment used to deal with rioters and vandals on Tuesday night was 17-year-old and not fit for purpose.
However, on some other planet (the House of Commons):
"Mr Cameron insisted the cuts were "totally achievable" without any reduction in the visible policing presence on the streets."

He forgot to say that's because there's fuck all visible Police to start with. You can't notice reductions in what's not there to start with, or am I missing something?

In other news, the House of Commons is practically empty right now, during the main debate on public order.

But not to worry, Britain is leading the way out of this crisis!

While on the subject of clowns, here's Bozo.