I was driving home from taking my kids classes in Montrose & was listening to the radio. I really should avoid listening to the news as I usually hear something that winds me up & gets me all bitter & twisted, & tonight was no exception.

It seems that the SNP have decided that to stop overcrowding in prisons, people who would receive custodial sentences of under 6 months should receive an 'alternative' instead, with more use being made of community service etc. As soon as I heard this I had to fight the urge to bite my steering wheel in half!

I keep saying that a major problem in government, & in the civil service folks who advise ministers; is that many of them just don't understand the problems they're trying to tackle. They don't understand the mindset of the people they're trying to deal with. We get loads of stupid initiatives to deal with knife crime because they don't really understand the people involved & how they think, & they don't really understand the knife itself. This carries over into this latest idiocy, as they don't really understand the sort of person that they are dealing with here. They may see lots of statistics (& we all know how reliable they are don't we!) but they don't really 'get' the actual reality of things at ground level. They simply can't get inside the head of the little chav gang member, its so far outside of their nice middle class university educated life that they'd have as much chance of understanding a visitor from Proxima Centauri!

I worked doors for 19 years on & off. I spent a great deal of time mixing with the criminal underbelly of Scottish society. Here is the truth folks, the hard core troublemakers are going to be laughing at you. They already laugh at the criminal justice system. They already think of politicians as a bunch of airheads. Trust me, the gang members that got invited into the parliament just think that:

1/ They must be really dangerous & tough if they are so important as to get invited there.

2/ The people who invited them are 'saft in the heed bampots'.

The repeat offenders who are in court on a weekly basis, & who generally face these short sentences laugh their heads off at the punishments they get. When they get a fine they don't care- they get to pay it off at £5 a month from their dole money. When the get community service they think its a laugh, & half the time don't turn up. When they get a short sentence they think its great as they generally have better food, no bills, & a better standard of living than they normally enjoy; all the while seeing their old friends. If anyone thinks that community based punishments REALLY stop re-offending then I have some Eastern Block Currency & a timeshare on Mars you might be interested in!

The majority of violent crime, housebreaking, shoplifting, car theft etc etc etc, is committed by a minority of habitual criminals. I agree that someone who has made a genuine mistake & has no prior criminal record could benefit from not getting banged up in prison. But ladies & germs, some of the people I see Sheriff Stein letting off with a slap on the wrist every week in the local paper are HABITUAL CRIMINALS who are not going to get rehabilitated & just cause people constant misery in the community.

Until the SNP realise that they can't be warm & fuzzy & progressive anymore with law & order. We need some tough justice. We need the habitual offenders out there -  the people who ENJOY hurting people & ruining everything they touch - identified as being HABITUAL CRIMINALS WHO ARE NOT GOING TO BE REHABILITATED, & DEALT WITH STRONGLY SO THAT THE DECENT FOLKS IN SOCIETY DON'T HAVE TO SUFFER BECAUSE OF THEM, & BECAUSE OF STUPID PEOPLE WHO'S WISHFUL THINKING GETS THE BETTER OF THEIR GRASP ON REALITY! I'm sorry if I'm sounding a bit strong here, but I'm tired beating around the bush trying to be polite. The sooner we realise that the best way to lower the levels of crime in society is to remove the repeat offenders from having the liberty to commit those crimes & sow misery wherever they go, the sooner we will see a less violent & crime ridden country. Oh, & by the way- stop worrying unceasingly about the human rights of these poor little housebreakers & muggers. Prison isn't meant to be a nice place to be, & the next time you hear an ex-con whining about how nasty it was inside, remind them that THEY PUT THEMSELVES THERE BY BEING A CRIMINAL! I did a seminar for a group down near London earlier this year. One of the guys on the course was a prison officer & he commented to me "If the victims of crime & their families saw just how cushy prisoners have it inside there would be a huge outcry". I was gobsmacked when he told me they had a room in his prison which was full of brand new TV's- because if an inmate smashed a TV they had to replace it straight away because of their 'human rights'. Does anyone else see the lunacy in this, hello McFly????????????????

Now hear this..... Now hear this..... BUILD MORE PRISONS & USE THEM TO KEEP THE PEOPLE WHO RUIN SOCIETY WHERE THEY DESERVE TO BE! The people I knew who carried weapons with the aim & intent to use them were ALL known to the police. They were ALL constant re-offenders. If the justice system had intervened & put them inside for a considerable time then many people wouldn't have had misery introduced into their lives by them. I've said before that several US states have '3 strikes then you're out' laws. If you commit 3 felonies then its a mandatory life sentence in a Federal Penetetiary, this is where the phrase '3 time loser' comes from. Now remember, these folks don't bother about deterrents- what the 3 strikes law does is take these people out of circulation for 15 years or so, saving alot of people who would have otherwise become their victims. If we want to see a real drop in violent crime, knife crime, drug related crime, theft & housebreaking- this type of law would work wonders if applied with a will.