England: Land Of The Free

Remember the English summer (what we had of it)? The sunshine, the barbecues, the soft fruits in season, the curfews....

Police say the summer trial in the Cornish town of Redruth, which comes to an end with the resumption of the school term on Monday, led to a fall in anti-social behaviour in the town.

So, never mind that it was unjust, it 'worked'. So they are, naturally, planning to do more of it:

That has encouraged police and councillors in other parts of Cornwall to consider adopting the scheme in their own areas, particularly during the forthcoming half-term and Christmas holidays. Police in the South Wales town of Barry are also looking to introduce a similar curfew to cope with gangs of youths on the street.

And Shami Chakrabarti has finally woken up:

But civil rights groups say such curfews unfairly target the young. Shami Chakrabarti, of Liberty, said: "The police have enough powers bursting off the statute book to deal with troublemakers regardless of their age and without a blanket curfew. I have seen anti social behaviour on the streets of this country and it comes often from people of all ages."

Well, yes Shami, but it's too hard. And they're too busy persecuting their own who spill the beans on the sorry excuses for 'policing' that pass muster with HQ these days. In fact, things just like this...