Flops & robbers
BURGLARY is a despicable crime.
It’s not just the theft of precious possessions, often with huge sentimental value and therefore irreplaceable.
It is the violation of the victim’s home — a place they should be able to feel safe in — that leaves them traumatised.
To the police, however, it’s just a crime number, a brief investigation, hand out a victim support leaflet and . . . give up.
Or that’s how it seems.
The failure to solve a single burglary in one-third of the country last year is a national disgrace.
And the clear-up rate for the other two-thirds of the country is abysmal. It’s part of a sickening trend.
New figures show that 99 per cent of phone thefts reported to the police do not result in anyone facing punishment.
Just like shoplifting, which has reached epidemic proportions, the abject failure of cops to even try to catch the villains responsible has effectively decriminalised property theft.
Police chiefs and the Government should hang their heads in shame.
They are failing the people they are meant to serve and protect.
Fuel to the ire
FORGET its previous “defining mission” to boost economic growth (which failed).
The Government’s current “No1 priority” is tackling the cost of living crisis.
So how’s that going?
Ed Miliband’s Net Zero obsession is lumbering Brits with some of the most expensive electricity across the globe while supermarkets and industrial firms are having to pass those costs on to consumers.
With war raging in the Middle East, energy supplies look perilous and petrol prices soar.
While Tory leader Kemi Badenoch outlines how to reduce household energy bills by £200 a year by cutting VAT, the PM bleats that he can’t possibly override his Energy Secretary.
And yesterday Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said she sees no need to reverse a planned fuel duty hike.
There are five million white van men who face passing on soaring diesel costs to customers who would strongly disagree. Plus countless other motorists who can’t afford to get around.
Presumably they’re not a Government priority.
A.I. know nothing
AN American family is moving from Florida to Torquay because their AI-powered ChatGPT software recommended it as the best place to live in Britain.
Perhaps the chatbot is a fan of classic sitcom Fawlty Towers — famously set in the resort — because the family wants to take over a B&B there.
At least they should know how to make a Waldorf salad . . . and won’t want to mention the war.
