Surrey Advertiser, January 27 2011

One moment we thought it was a wasted evening; moments later we were hurtling through the streets of Elmbridge. The borough’s police team deals with all sorts of reports on Friday nights, as reporter Claire French was about to find out…

SPENDING the evening in a police van on a Friday night isn’t my usual way of starting a weekend. But when I was given the opportunity to accompany two police officers in the execution of their duty, I was excited at the prospect of seeing Elmbridge through the eyes of the law.

An evening briefing by Elmbridge Neighbourhood Sgt Mark Bracknell kicked off the shift, with constables, special constables (volunteer police officers) and community support officers (PCSOs) sharing information about known troublemakers to look out for.

We left Walton Police Station shortly before 7.30pm in the van. “This one was used during the summer riots,” Sgt Bracknell informed me.

We were joined by PC Dan Moreton, a member of the Cobham and Oxshott neighbourhood team by day. It was Friday the 13th and it became clear quite early on that this was not a usual Friday night on the beat. The temperature was below freezing and the streets were bare. Would it be lucky 13?

With only a few calls coming through on the radio, officers set out to check areas associated with crime and antisocial behaviour. Car park meeting points for boy racers and secluded areas used by doggers were an obvious port of call.

Two drivers parked up in a road close to Cobham were the first to be checked. The driver of an estate car was trying to sleep, and the details of a man who said he was going to sleep in his car before driving to Burton-upon-Trent were also checked.

Officers are able to use their smart phones to check the details of vehicle registration, giving them access to information about the owners.

Patrolling the borough and supporting other officers was the job of Sgt Bracknell and PC Moreton. Most officers work in pairs and have their own areas to patrol.

As well as looking out for people breaking the law and backing up other units, a lot of the evening work involves interacting with the public.

“It’s a lot easier when you’re nice to people and show them some respect,” Sgt Bracknell told me.

During the course of the evening, we stopped to speak to bouncers and revellers outside pubs and bars and groups

of young people out for the evening.

Approaching the roundabout linking Queens Road and Seven Hills Road in Hersham, a Ford Transit van went past and the police van’s blue flashing lights went on, but to my disappointment sirens were not necessary.

Catching up with the van, a group of four men heading to a party were let out of the back of the vehicle.

Insisting they had “come from the bushes”, the driver finally accepted he had broken the law by not ensuring his four passengers were in seatbelts.

The young driver disclosed that he and Sgt Bracknell had come into contact before when he was pulled over on a previous occasion.

He was given a £60 fixed penalty notice and three points on his licence.

“People around here know me well,” Sgt Bracknell, who has worked for Surrey Police since 2001, said.

I ask him if he thinks there is too much red tape in modern frontline policing. Are there really too many forms to fill in? He doesn’t seem to think so:

“You get quicker with experience,” he said.

Our next job was to check a unit on an industrial estate where incidents of stalking have been reported in recent months. An adult television channel is filmed from a property in Hersham and a number of women have apparently been harassed after finishing work.

“It looks like a quiet night,” proved optimistic as minutes later we were called to back up another unit at a ‘domestic’ incident.

The hysterical shouting of a man was coming down the radio.

As we approached at high speed, the heated argument that was being carried out behind a hedge could clearly be

heard from the street.

As I waited and watched from the van, more police cars turn up, sirens blaring, coming to assist their colleagues.

Three people are arrested.

The arrests prompted an abrupt end to my evening on the beat at 1am.

Signing the man into the custody suite and filling in paperwork took the two officers off their patch.

After a cup of coffee and a sit down, another car heading back to Elmbridge returned me to Walton Police Station.

The adrenaline that one officer had spoken of earlier in the evening hit me as I reached my front door at 1.45am.

The events I witnessed were different to the crime I regularly write about; domestic arguments are shadowed from the

public eye, but they take up a lot of police time.

What I saw was a snapshot of the issues officers face every day.

Asked if the evening had encouraged me to sign up as a special constable… I am still considering it.

This article was first published in the Surrey Advertiser.

18th May 2011

Fleet Street hasn’t been out of stories this week – even with what seems like a record number of super-injunctions preventing the papers reporting sleaze and sex. First there was the Premier League footballer; then the famous actor; then on Thursday, Liberal Democrat peer, Lord Oakeshott, used parliamentary privilege to reveal that Sir Fred Goodwin, like BBC political interviewer Andrew Marr, had been using a super injunction to cover-up an affair. The Mirror reported that the woman was a colleague of the former Royal Bank of Scotland boss and that he had overseen two of her promotions in the run-up to the bank’s collapse.
Glamour model and former Big Brother contestant, Imogen Thomas, was accused in court of trying to blackmail an unnameable Premier League family man after their six-month affair was about to become public.

In a tearful, perfectly practised speech lasting no more than a few minutes outside the Royal Courts of Justice, Miss Thomas asked exactly what Parliament is trying to work out: how is it fair for one person’s name to be spared and another’s trashed?

Jemima Khan woke up in a “bloody nightmare” earlier this week after a rogue Tweeter accused her of being one of the many celebrities using the expensive gagging order. She tweeted: “Rumour that I have a super-injunction preventing publication of ‘intimate’ photos of me and Jeremy Clarkson. NOT TRUE!” Unfortunately for Ms Khan, whose brother Zac Goldsmith MP has also been identified as using a super injunction, it was her own Twitter storm that caught the eye of the British media.

Clarkson used his Sunday Times column to deny the rumour; Rod Liddle’s innuendo-ridden ideal dinner party in the paper two weeks dropped hints at who had taken out the innocuous injunctions slightly less obvious than Private Eye’s editorial.

*************
Chris Huhne too may have wished he’d taken out a super injunction after reports of his apparent driving and expenses scandals found their way into the headlines. Huhne has been dogged for the past few weeks as his estranged wife, Vicky Pryce, revealed to journalists that he had asked her to take a speeding fine for him. Police in Essex are now investigating the claims, with Huhne due to speak to them in the coming weeks. Allegations of “false declaration” over election campaign expenses and a second extra-marital affair have also dogged the Energy Secretary.

*************
Like Huhne, cabinet colleague Ken Clarke’s comments on some rapes not being as serious as others caused what he described as “media brouhaha”. Labour leader Ed Miliband’s call for the resignation of the Justice Secretary was criticised; Spectator editor, Fraser Nelson, however, urged David Cameron to “cleanse his Cabinet of the undead”.

*************

Politics and politicians are no stranger to controversy, but news of Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s arrest in the United States rocked the diplomatic world – surely creating some of the most memorable front pages of the year so far.

France was said to be in shock after the International Monetary Fund’s managing director and potential Socialist party presidential candidate, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was arrested in New York City. French media law makes it an offence to show photos of a person in handcuffs before they have been found guilty. Strauss-Kahn’s lawyer has already warned the French press that his client will sue if they continue to publish “prejudicial” images.

Having been taken off a flight by police at JFK airport, the 62-year-old was arrested and detained for an alleged sexual attack on a chambermaid at the luxury Sofitel hotel – a charge that he denies.

Strauss-Kahn quit his position at the IMF on Thursday, sparking speculation as to who will take over. After hinting that he would block any efforts of former prime minister, Gordon Brown, of succeeding Strauss-Kahn as the head of the IMF, David Cameron shall be relieved to hear that Brown will not be putting his hat in the ring.
Martin Kettle over at the Guardian considered Peter Mandelson as the only British contender in the race. Chancellor George Osborne instead was rumoured to be considering nomination of Christine Lagarde, the French economy minister. Mandelson, however, could be expecting a new role, as David Cameron prepares to back the former business secretary as the new Director General of the World Trade Organisation.

Sheffield Wednesday Community Programme

David Cameron’s flagship National Citizenship Service, launched by Sir Michael Caine last April, had the vision of recruiting 600,000 year 11 students.

But it has been revealed by government’s NCS advisor Paul Oginsky that young people will be expected to pay up to £100 to join the Big Society scheme – effectively locking out those who cannot afford to pay.

See my report yesterday’s People for more…

The closure of the Daily Sport and Sunday Sport came to an emotional end on last night’s BBC2 Newsnight (31:00). But if the newspaper really is to stop publishing, why is it recruiting a Sports Editor? (see below)

Yesterday, newspaper owner Sport Media Group (SMG) announced on its website that the company had ceased with immediate effect after its loan repayment of £50,000 (which was deferred for six months from September 2010) had come to an end.

The National Union of Journalists is calling for a full investigation into the collapse of the Daily Sport and Sunday Sport, whose circulation peaked at 189,473 in 2005.

Administrators will meet on Monday to decide how to pay its 131 members of staff.

One wonders just what the new Sports Editor will be doing if there is no newspaper to produce?

For anyone interested in the position, the closing date is the 14th Apri 2011.

As published on Brighton Lite

Yesterday he was snapped frolicking around London on a bicycle with Terminator star Arnold Schwarzenegger. Today, London Mayor Boris Johnson has become the face of the ‘Big Bouncy Society’.

As part of the ‘Green Travel’ drive in Brighton and Hove, Johnson and Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas have unveiled the new carbon neutral transport service outside the Town Hall.

But how safe are these so-called ‘Boris Bouncers’? With Conservative councillors having already attempted to remove a cycle lane in the city (at a cost of £1.1million), it could be said that Brighton is not quite ready for what critics call ‘a menace to drivers’.

During a pilot scheme held in Wilson Avenue last year, space hoppers were shown to be three times more dangerous to cyclists than cars for their slow reaction times and heavy impact.

While conventional modes of transport in the city face cutbacks, ‘Boris Bouncers’ and the forthcoming bike hire scheme are likely to have new funding allocated to them. For those with mobility problems, the news may not come as a welcome surprise. Nor will it be well received by local Labour or Conservative groups who much prefer sitting on buses.

Colonel Gaddafi’s people – those same people he told BBC News’ Jeremy Bowen still “love” him – are fleeing over the Libyan borders as the bloody violence continues. According to the UNHCR (the United Nations refugee agency), 172,000 people have crossed into neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia since 20 February.

As western leaders condemn their former ally, the UNHCR continues with the work it was doing in protecting people against the Gaddafi’s regime. The organisation worked in Libya to protect the human rights of African migrants headed for Europe, until it was expelled in June 2010.

Desperate attempts to “bribe” world leaders have included halting exports of oil and an end in cooperation with the European Union on tackling mass migration into Europe.

But it isn’t the first time Gaddafi has threatened to end ‘migration management’ in Libya. In August last year, the Daily Mail reported that Gaddafi told the EU it would need to pay £4.1 billion to keep the Libyan border into Europe secure:

“Italy needs to convince her European allies to accept this Libyan proposal – five billion euro to Libya to stop illegal immigration.

“We don’t know if Europe will remain an advanced and cohesive continent or if it will be destroyed by this barbarian invasion. We have to imagine that this could happen but before it does we need to work together.”

As David Cameron and President Barak Obama are pushed to take action and perhaps even confront the despot, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi told Il Messaggero that: “We must wait and see. It’s best not to enter into specifics just yet… we have many interests in the area as well as being geographically very close to Libya.”

European political leaders are lacking agreement in what to do next. Humanitarian aid workers have limited resources and even less power. 15,000 people are thought you be leaving Libya each days; walking miles with what few possessions they can carry with them.

David Cameron was criticised last week for his choice of timing when inviting arms dealers on a trade envoy to the Middle East. As the Philip Stephens wrote in the Financial Times recently, Cameron is naïve to say that a foreign policy based on trade is preferable to what he called a “liberal interventional” approach.

The government is a leading international voice against Gaddafi’s regime, but its shortfall could come when it looks to the Treasury to finance an intervention. The Ministry of Defence recently announced 11,000 troops would lose their jobs. ‘Senior officials’ have said that this, along with the decommissioning of ships and planes poses the question of whether Britain can afford to take on Gaddafi.

Producers of The King’s Speech were quick to thank the now redundant UK Film Council for its financial backing of the film at last night’s Bafta Awards.

Culture minister Jeremy Hunt abolished the UK Film Council in June last year, saying his department should establish a “less bureaucratic relationship with the British Film Institute”.

Producer Emile Sherman accepted the film’s award for Best Film and thanked the quango, saying:

“(The UK Film Council) Without you, this film could just not have been made. It is a real testament to the government’s subsidy to the film industry.”

The Spanish cultural ambassador asked for my take on the nini generation a few months ago. Nini is used to refer to a young person neither in education nor employment. A generation thought to being doing nothing, nada, nini. Or NEETS (not in education, employment or training, to be precise), as the less loving Labour government called them.

“There’s no jobs,” we hear teenagers crow down television cameras and out through television screens whilst we eat our dinner. But it is not just teenagers who are finding it hard to find work. Graduates emerge from university with a CV containing lists of modules and drinking societies.

In an increasingly experience-lead labour force, young people are finding it increasingly more difficult to get experience. And then, if they are lucky enough, they can experience the perils of working, without pay, in an internship or work experience, which they are lead to believe is the way of getting a foot in the door.

NEETS was the naughties category used to define those not in work or education by national and local government,. Their chronic media depiction represents the same as the hoodies that Dave envisaged that giving a hug would help. But this pool of people is backing up. They are the ones who are fresh out of school, they are also the recently out of university or just out of a job.

Spain’s youth unemployment sails high at around 40 per cent – the highest in Europe. But this isn’t just ‘our’ problem. The nini generation is everywhere. Tunisia’s ‘jasmine revolution’ is said to have sparked off after a young unemployed man, Mohamed Bouazizi, set fire to himself. Tunisia’s unemployment figure too is concentrated to the under-24s, of which around 30 per cent don’t work.

Egypt, where 50,000 people have joined the Facebook page for a protest organised for Wednesday has seen a number of people set fire to themselves in recent weeks. As reported in the Observer today, a UN report described Egypt’s young people as being in “waithood” – forced to wait for their lives to begin.

NEETS and ninis too are in waithood. They wait for their big break into the world. Record numbers of people were denied access to university last year. Next year they will be made to pay up to three times as much as previous students. The Future Jobs Fund was scrapped. The ‘lost generation’ is merely losing young people who want to work and study to the depths of the Jobcentre. And their staff are going on strike. What hope does our nini generation have?

The fashion industry contributes £21bn to the economy each year. It deserves government support.

Naomi Campbell wasn’t the only national treasure being celebrated at Tuesday’s British Fashion Awards. With the support of the London Development Agency, London Fashion Week contributes around £100 million to the economy, accordingto City Hall. But when asked last month whether the LDA’s £4.2 million grant would continue to be paid to British Fashion Council, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, was unable to answer.

And though we may think that the Mayor’s particular and personal interest in Fashion Week ends at the legs towering in Louboutins, the British fashion industry does, in fact, directly contribute £21 billion to the economy. Indirect spending, notably on Magnums of Cristal, nights at the Dorchester and first class flights bring in a modest contribution of £37bn every year. 816,000 people in Britain work directly in the fashion industry – nearly three per cent of the total workforce. In an industry that brings twice as much economically to the public purse than publishing (£9.9bn) and car manufacturing (£10.1bn), it is a shame that the government is yet to confirm whether the LDA will be able to hand over the grant after the 2010/2011 season.

At the beginning of the spring season Fashion Week in London, Johnson commented: “It is a city where boundless imagination and creative talent emerge from our colleges, and out of leftfield, onto the catwalks and into stores around the world.

“We have just published a report that shows how important fashion and other creative industries are to London’s success – and will continue to be as our economy emerges from the recession. That is why I am committed to supporting London’s creativity through skills development and as part of our ongoing economic recovery action plan.”

Following the Browne report into the funding of higher education, the coalition has shown an interest in cutting government funding to arts and humanities subjects – in favour of ‘priority subjects’ – ignoring the value that creative subjects and industries have in the British economy. The government’s attempt at creating a tiered system within subjects will only create a divide in the amount students pay to study, not in the importance of a subject.

This article was first published on the New Statesman website.