Stealing and Killing are Bad, People

I was initially amused by the updating of the age-old tradition of scrumping in the West Country.

No land-owner should be too upset about the loss of some low-hanging fruit, eh ? So why should the insurers of the MSC Napoli mind the loss of the odd slightly-salty motorbike ?

Actually No. Take stuff that doesn't belong to you and you're stealing. In fact, since a disaster is involved here, these guys are looting. I'm sure the letters page of "The Telegraph" is going to contain heart-felt letters from retired Majors urging a shoot-to-kill policy.

Ooo - slightly strained segue into the recent goings-on in Northern Ireland.

You say "scrumping", I say "stealing".

I say "serial killing", you say "salaried pest-control".

It seems Special Branch has, in our name, been running their own little Protestant Tonton Macoutes. So long as the slightly suspect so-called intelligence flowed, the Billy Boys could break all manner of laws and all of the seven deadly sins before breakfast each day. It was only IRA and IRA-sympathising scum that were affected, eh ?

Where to start ....

OK, here's the charge sheet :

Armed robbery;
Assault and Grievous Bodily Harm;
Punishment shootings and attacks;
Possession of munitions;
Criminal Damage;
Drug dealing;
Extortion;
Hijacking;
Intimidation;
Conspiracy to murder;
Threats to kill.

And that's just one of the guys involved, "Informant 1"

Also when a number of serving and retired officers were asked about the matter :-

(some) ..."gave evasive, contradictory, and on occasion farcical answers to questions. On occasion those answers indicated either a significant failure to understand the law, or contempt for the law. On other occasions the investigation demonstrated conclusively that what an officer had told the Police Ombudsmans investigators was completely untrue."

I'm guessing it was one or more of these who destroyed all evidence so that now there is no way to bring the bad guys to justice.

You'd imagine such things in the Iraqi police force, not in the UK.

Do yourself a favour and read the full report. It deserves to be better reported than Jade up-herself Goody and Rick Stein's effing still-dead dog.

It would please me if some of those responsible for the Northern Ireland mess are finally brought to some kind of justice.

I also whistle a happy tune as I imagine a looter trapped under their loot as the oily tide rises around them.