By Andrew Allison, Chief Executive

If you are in the unfortunate position of having to call the police because your house has been burgled, the most likely outcome is that the criminals will not be apprehended. Only 6% of burglaries a year are solved by police across England and Wales - a pathetically low detection rate which almost gives carte blanche to criminals to keep calm and carry on.

In the opening credits of the comedy series Porridge, Norman Stanley Fletcher was described “as an habitual criminal, who accepts arrest as an occupational hazard, and presumably accepts imprisonment in the same casual manner.” Today, ‘Fletch’ would never have been caught and would never have been sentenced to five years in Slade Prison. Although I have thankfully never been the victim of a burglary, to describe it as a “victimless crime” is insulting to those who may never feel safe in their homes again. 

The list goes on and on. If your car is stolen, don’t expect to get it back - at least not in one piece. If someone steals your mobile phone, the crime will never be investigated.

But even when criminals are apprehended and are taken to court, the punishment invariably doesn't fit the crime. This is from the Lady Margaret local policing team in Ealing. 

A suspended sentence for such a horrific crime is hardly going to deter others from doing something similar. And these were police officers who were assaulted. 

During a meeting I had over a decade ago with Tim Hollis, the then Chief Constable of Humberside Police, I remember him telling me that he liked nicking villains. He was an old-fashioned police officer who was determined to make all of us law-abiding people feel safer. That was his job, and it is the job of every police officer in the country. 

If the Conservative Party has any claim of being the 'law and order' party (which I no longer think that it has), Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman will have to make sure that the police focus on investigating crime and keeping our streets as safe as they possibly can be. 

But if sentencing remains as pathetically weak as it was in the case above, Britain will remain lawless. 

Photo Credit: Paul Harrop 

I woke up this morning to the news that Sir Winston Churchill’s statue in Parliament Square had been boarded up overnight. I also saw an image of the Cenotaph partially covered. 

Churchill had racist views. But so did the vast majority of people at that time. We have moved on. We rightly don’t think like that anymore. Churchill is not commemorated because of those views. He is commemorated because he led this country to victory in its greatest hour of need. He is regarded as the greatest Briton, and rightly so. 

Andrew Allison, Head of Campaigns

The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis has horrified the world. Derek Chauvin, the police officer who pinned him down with his knee on his neck, despite Floyd clearly telling him that he could not breathe, cannot be justified, and it is correct that Chauvin and his three former colleagues are prosecuted. But that did not justify the scenes we witnessed in central London yesterday. 

I was genuinely shocked when I saw a picture of the protest in Hyde Park yesterday afternoon. We still have a right to protest; of course we do, but during the current restrictions we have to protest in a way that does not spread COVID-19. This begs the question: why were so many people allowed to congregate breaking social distancing guidelines? 

The following article by Andrew Allison, Head of Campaigns, was published on Brexit-Watch.org's website yesterday. 

Click HERE to read more

The following is a guest post by the Rev Dr Peter Mullen, Hon. Chaplain of The Freedom Association. 

This morning’s newspapers report a worrying increase in crimes of all sorts: burglaries are up 20% on last year; muggings up by 10%; and there were more under-25s stabbed to death in London last year than ever in the history of recorded crime. This depressing trend is replicated throughout the country.

Shocked, I was determined to get to the truth behind these disturbing statistics. Luckily, I knew where to go and whom to ask: to the Erewhon Police Division to meet again my old associate Commander Aslan Cardboard-Cutout. They’re not too fussed about security clearance at Erewhon and so it only took me an hour and forty-seven minutes to sign in. Aslan went across to the drinks cabinet and returned with two stiff (fizzy) mineral waters,

An Edinburgh University law student who posted a comment poking fun at ISIS, the terrorist group that wants to destroy the western world, is under investigation for an alleged 'hate crime' at Edinburgh University. 

No, this is not satire. It does though mark a new low in the ongoing battle for free speech at universities in the UK, writes Rory Broomfield.