Gesture Politics with Knives

Today was almost a summer's day - when the sun was out it was quite warm, but cloud and a fresh breeze meant that inbetween the bursts of sunlight it was more like April than July.
But this was better than the rain we've been getting, and Nosher and I got on with the work of tending our little plots down on the allotment.
The first broadbeans are now being harvested, the greenhouse lettuces are now ready, and the courgets are almost there.
At lunchtime we sat down in our old chairs on the small patch of grass outside Nosher's shed, and I half expected him to tell me how wonderful nature was. But he had other ideas.
'Our cardboard-cut-out Home Secretary' he began 'has announced that, in order to combat knife crime amongst the young, offenders caught carrying a knife will now be taken on a guided tour of local casualty departments to gawp at the results of knife attacks and see how much misery results. How this is supposed to put the little buggers off carrying a knife is beyond me - more likely to encourage them I think - I mean, look how potent and frightening a weapon this is!'
'I think the idea is that first-time offenders will be offered this approach as an alternative to a community sentence' I suggested.
'Community sentence?' spluttered Nosher 'what is this country coming to? Then we have Dave "the people's toff" Cameron insisting that all people found to be carrying a knife should have a jail sentence. Do you know the practical implications of that? There aren't enough cells in which to lock them all up in! Of course most of them will get community sentences, just as they do now! It's gesture politics, by both Nu-Labour and the Tories, because they know that there simply aren't enough Police on the streets to catch enough of these scumbags to make the slightest difference to what's going on, and even if they did catch a significant number, there isn't enough prison capacity to lock them up anyway. The joke is on us, I'm sorry to say. We're the mugs for putting up with this deceit and manipulation.'
'But what's the alternative?' I asked 'The LibDems are hardly advocating policies that would make any real difference. Our entire political and intellectual elite, with few exceptions, have been allowing this to go on for fifty years now, and so nothing is going to change however we vote.'
Nosher gazed at me for a moment, his face infused with the kind of pleasure a cat displays whilst playing with a mouse.
'You are, of course, quite right' he said 'but the more people who openly express their disgust with what is happening in this country, the more likelihood there will be of a political grouping emerging that might cater for the views of those who wish to see things change. I guess that's the best we can do in this country, which is now an appalling example of how low a society can sink when its leaders are, almost without exception, self-serving hypocrites.'
'Well, it's not all bad' I said 'this evening my wife is taking me to a concert in a village church a few miles from here, in which a small orchestra will perform Mozart's overture to the Marriage of Figaro, followed by Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, the soloist being a young girl of around 17 who is, apparently, exceptionally talented, and who attends the local comprehensive school. Not all is bad in this country - not yet, at any rate. Some people are still trying to hold our culture and society together.'
That evening my wife and I attended this little concert, and it was one of the most moving performances of Mendelssohn's violin concerto I have ever listened to.
There is hope.
More from http://www.overthegardenfence.blogspot.com/ soon.
Find out more at http://www.paulsturdee.co.uk/ and http://www.pgsbooks.co.uk/
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Best wishes, and let's all try to keep hope alive.