Feb 6, 2025 01:40 AM
(This post was last modified: Feb 6, 2025 07:32 PM by C C.)
Britain’s police need a MAGA revolution
https://unherd.com/2025/02/britains-poli...evolution/
EXCERPT: . . . Talk to officers, and there really is an “end of days” feeling at stations up and down the land. If, to put it bluntly, we failed the victims at Rotherham and Telford and a hundred other places so catastrophically, how can we ever recover, either professionally or in our relationship with the public? The answer must begin with reform. No — not another report, but genuine change, a red-tape-cutting Trumpian revolution everywhere from the law to leadership, which together can expunge 30 years of failure, and finally build a service fit for the 21st century.
The last few decades have been torrid for British policing. Austerity led to plummeting officer numbers, and a recruitment and retention crisis. The service’s obsession with DEI impressed activists, but led to no discernible improvements to performance. Then came Covid, casting the police as government stooges. All the while, the public became tired of authoritarian busy-bodying around Non-Crime Hate incidents, especially with the virtual decriminalisation of theft, and after Sarah Everard was murdered by a serving officer.
Amid all this rot, it’s surely worth asking: what, in this day and age, is policing actually for? It’s a question that seems to baffle the Home Office, College of Policing, Police and Crime Commissioners and the National Police Chief’s Council. Conquest’s Third Law of Politics springs to mind here: the simplest way to explain the behaviour of any bureaucratic organisation is to assume it’s controlled by its enemies. It’s an overused term, but it’s impossible to avoid “Blob” here too. Spend long in British policing and you’ll see what I mean: the self-interestedness, the sluggishness, the groupthink, even as trust collapses and crime soars.
Once you grasp that basic fact, it’s easier to conceive of a solution: a Musk-like insurgency, with a Milei-like chainsaw, against complacent bosses. In practical terms, I’d start with a wide-ranging Royal Commission on policing. That’s surely needed, and not just because the last one was in 1960. Turbo-charged public inquiries, Royal Commissions are independent and uncomfortable to the powers-that-be... (MORE - missing details)
McDonald’s thwarts council efforts to stop new branches by claiming it promotes ‘healthier lifestyles’
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1072450
INTRO: McDonald's is overturning council attempts to prevent new fast food outlets by claiming they will encourage healthier lifestyles, reveals an investigation published by The BMJ today.
Based on Freedom of Information requests, it shows that the firm has won planning appeals against local authorities in some of the most deprived areas of England, where around 1 in 4 children are obese by the time they leave primary school.
Its tactics include arguing that customers can order salad from its drive-through branches, that they could cycle or walk there, and that its sponsorship of local football teams promotes health and wellbeing.
McDonald's, which plans to open 200 new restaurants across the UK and Ireland over the next four years, has also deployed a specialist GP to argue that obesity is caused by “over a hundred” factors other than fast food, and that its menu contains nutritious and low calorie options.
A McDonald’s spokesperson says: “Local decision making is a critical part of the planning application process, and we always want to work in partnership with local councils to ensure our plans are right for the community.”
But experts tell The BMJ the threat of a McDonalds’ appeal has a chilling effect on councils and means they would be more inclined to wave through a planning application for a new branch regardless of their public health concerns.
The investigation found the firm has lodged a total of 14 appeals with the Planning Inspectorate – the central Government agency that oversees appeals against local authority planning decisions – over the past five years and lost only one case; two cases are ongoing... (MORE - details, no ads)
https://unherd.com/2025/02/britains-poli...evolution/
EXCERPT: . . . Talk to officers, and there really is an “end of days” feeling at stations up and down the land. If, to put it bluntly, we failed the victims at Rotherham and Telford and a hundred other places so catastrophically, how can we ever recover, either professionally or in our relationship with the public? The answer must begin with reform. No — not another report, but genuine change, a red-tape-cutting Trumpian revolution everywhere from the law to leadership, which together can expunge 30 years of failure, and finally build a service fit for the 21st century.
The last few decades have been torrid for British policing. Austerity led to plummeting officer numbers, and a recruitment and retention crisis. The service’s obsession with DEI impressed activists, but led to no discernible improvements to performance. Then came Covid, casting the police as government stooges. All the while, the public became tired of authoritarian busy-bodying around Non-Crime Hate incidents, especially with the virtual decriminalisation of theft, and after Sarah Everard was murdered by a serving officer.
Amid all this rot, it’s surely worth asking: what, in this day and age, is policing actually for? It’s a question that seems to baffle the Home Office, College of Policing, Police and Crime Commissioners and the National Police Chief’s Council. Conquest’s Third Law of Politics springs to mind here: the simplest way to explain the behaviour of any bureaucratic organisation is to assume it’s controlled by its enemies. It’s an overused term, but it’s impossible to avoid “Blob” here too. Spend long in British policing and you’ll see what I mean: the self-interestedness, the sluggishness, the groupthink, even as trust collapses and crime soars.
Once you grasp that basic fact, it’s easier to conceive of a solution: a Musk-like insurgency, with a Milei-like chainsaw, against complacent bosses. In practical terms, I’d start with a wide-ranging Royal Commission on policing. That’s surely needed, and not just because the last one was in 1960. Turbo-charged public inquiries, Royal Commissions are independent and uncomfortable to the powers-that-be... (MORE - missing details)
McDonald’s thwarts council efforts to stop new branches by claiming it promotes ‘healthier lifestyles’
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1072450
INTRO: McDonald's is overturning council attempts to prevent new fast food outlets by claiming they will encourage healthier lifestyles, reveals an investigation published by The BMJ today.
Based on Freedom of Information requests, it shows that the firm has won planning appeals against local authorities in some of the most deprived areas of England, where around 1 in 4 children are obese by the time they leave primary school.
Its tactics include arguing that customers can order salad from its drive-through branches, that they could cycle or walk there, and that its sponsorship of local football teams promotes health and wellbeing.
McDonald's, which plans to open 200 new restaurants across the UK and Ireland over the next four years, has also deployed a specialist GP to argue that obesity is caused by “over a hundred” factors other than fast food, and that its menu contains nutritious and low calorie options.
A McDonald’s spokesperson says: “Local decision making is a critical part of the planning application process, and we always want to work in partnership with local councils to ensure our plans are right for the community.”
But experts tell The BMJ the threat of a McDonalds’ appeal has a chilling effect on councils and means they would be more inclined to wave through a planning application for a new branch regardless of their public health concerns.
The investigation found the firm has lodged a total of 14 appeals with the Planning Inspectorate – the central Government agency that oversees appeals against local authority planning decisions – over the past five years and lost only one case; two cases are ongoing... (MORE - details, no ads)