Of all Bunter Johnson’s recent appointments, I feel that Home Secretary, Priti Patel has the right idea, but is being hampered by the cultural madness of modern Britain. At the moment, she is accused of bullying her civil servants. One of these paper pushers was terribly distraught after all-night meetings seeking to reverse a High Court ruling barring the deportation of twenty-five foreign criminals. In fact so distraught was this worthy that he collapsed and was found in hospital to have a sodium deficiency.

It was a stupid story but I found it hard to believe that civil servants were actually being forced to work beyond six in the evening. Poor lambs!

But Ms Patel faces far greater challenges than that provided by the disgruntled desk drivers in her department. Justice itself is falling into complete disrepute. Take the case of eighteen year old Ben Mathews, who was savagely beaten for no reason at all by a complete stranger.

Cut, bruised, bleeding and badly shaken, he went to the local police station, only to find that his attacker – an off-duty prison officer – was already there. The cops told Ben that they wanted the attacker to say sorry and take part in ‘community resolution.’

This meant that this pratwinkle would not receive a criminal conviction or even a caution, but all would be well if he apologised to the traumatised young man he had attacked. How can that be justice?

Ben’s mother told reporters ‘They wanted Ben to sit in the same room and talk to his attacker – he just couldn’t do it. He will live with the mental scars of this attack for the rest of his life.’

Of course he will, while the prison officer, who for some reason, cannot be named received a written warning about his conduct from the Ministry of Justice and was allowed to keep his job. With this absurd policy of ‘community resolution,’ he carries on without a stain on his record. This is justice?!

It seems that the notion that criminals are bad people who need to be punished and deterred has been abandoned. Crime is now officially a disease to be cured by ‘treatment.’ The criminals themselves are not to be blamed.

We’ve begun to see this in operation in all aspects of modern justice – disappearing police and courts, endless feeble cautions and unpaid fines, prisons which spit out their inmates weeks after they enter.

And, of course, more crime. Robbery and murder will in time grow as common as burglary and assault have become since we gave up detecting or punishing them. And then they’ll no doubt be eligible for ‘restorative justice’ too.

The police, like our immoral, greedy ruling class, no longer believe in right and wrong. They are paramilitary social workers who do not themselves blame criminals for their crimes. They see it as their job to negotiate neutrally between ‘offenders’ and ‘victims.’

The only thing they’ll really come down hard on is people trying to defend themselves or their property or those who do not share their own ultra-leftist views.

This is a national problem that is putting us all in danger. I don’t blame individual officers but if Priti Patel can somehow make modern police chiefs remember that their main job is to protect the public then I will certainly support her all the way.

I wrote about the lack of gumption in the Cambridgeshire police force the other day but they are in the news yet again.

A £400 Ridgeback Hybrid bicycle, stolen in Cambridge the other day would probably have been sold on for about £200. It belonged to A&E doctor Michael Brooks and it didn’t just vanish into thin air. A witness spotted it being taken from outside a pharmacy. The thief had ridden up on a battered old BMX, forced the lock on Dr Brook’s bike, and pedalled away. A straightforward criminal offence – or should have been and Dr Brooks had two big clues to offer the cops. The witness lived locally, recognised the thief and knew exactly where he lived. As well as handing over the full name and address, the doctor also gave officers the BMX so they could get the thief’s DNA. It was a classic case of ‘bang to rights’ and should all have been very straightforward to investigate.

But no: after seven days of silence from the police, a mystified Dr Brooks phoned them to ask what was happening. Sweet Fanny Adams was the reply although perhaps not put in those words. Yes, they’d had obtained a DNA sample from the BMX but they hadn’t been round to interview the suspect. Why would they need to ‘interview’ him I wonder. They had enough evidence to arrest and charge him, but for some reason the case had been officially closed. The evidence may have been handed to them on a plate, but they’d scraped it straight into the bin. 

Dr Brooks has had five bikes stolen now. No one has ever been arrested for it. One was nicked in full sight of his railway station’s CCTV cameras but police told him they had no time to trawl the footage. The doctor offered to do it himself but was informed that would breach data protection laws.

This is surely a crime in itself and one committed by those paid to prevent crime. Bike theft is an epidemic throughout the country but nothing is being done about it. Two forces – Wiltshire and Dyfed-Powys – recorded Two hundred and forty two bike thefts apiece last summer, but there was not a single prosecution between them. 

Homes, cars, bikes – the message from admittedly hard-pressed police to thieves couldn’t be clearer. Help yourself, Fellas. We won’t get in your way.

Sort it all out please Ms Patel. The efficiency of our police forces must surely be a priority.