Monday 23 February 2009

A violent society

Politicians, police and the mass media want us all to be terrified of KNIFE CRIME and TERRORISM. Me, I am far more nervous of DRIVERS. You probably didn’t notice that Valentine’s Day and the day after involved a weekend of carnage on the roads which claimed at least 17 lives.

If hoody-wearing teens had stabbed 17 people to death, or if some fundamentalists with home-made rucksack bombs had blown up 17 people that weekend, it would probably have been dubbed the Valentine Weekend Massacre. Instead not a squeak from any politician or senior police officer. The ongoing massacre on Britain's roads is just one of those things. It has nothing to do with cars designed to break the speed limit twice over or the massive reduction in traffic policing or a judicial culture which allows convicted killers to stroll out of court and continue using their four-wheeled weapon.