Baking bad
THE brazen looting of Greggs is appalling enough — but it is a mere taste of an epidemic blighting retailers nationwide.
The vast majority of us are appalled at the thieves’ arrogance and entitlement — and the injustice of them grabbing food and sauntering out unimpeded.
But our politicians and police preside over a system criminals find irresistible.
Cops seem too thin on the ground to respond rapidly. Besides, it is simply not a priority.
If the crooks sent a snotty email to their child’s school or offended against wokery on Twitter, a small army of officers would hammer on their door.
But sentences for low-value theft are derisory or non-existent for those unlucky enough ever to be nicked.
Retail staff are paid too little to risk tackling them — and warned off it by their firms. Tannoy warnings that “shoplifting will not be tolerated” ring hollow.
When will police take this seriously? Perhaps when the Left learns the effectiveness of deterrence — like jail time guaranteed for any repeat offender.
This plague needs strong medicine.
Race folly
IN history’s greatest anti-racism speech, Martin Luther King dreamed of people being judged not “by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character”.
A message apparently lost on West Yorkshire Police as they reportedly bar white British recruits temporarily in favour of minority candidates.
How can they hire the best young coppers to serve the public if they DO judge them on skin colour, not aptitude?
Bosses claim “diverse communities” must be represented by police who “reflect” them.
Why? Isn’t that where our multiculturalism went wrong? Why should a community have its “own” cops?
Many black and Asian recruits will make brilliant police officers on merit.
Not via some patronising, woke leg-up.
Ed-on crash
YET again the eco lunacy of Energy Secretary Ed Miliband smashes head-on into reality . . . and puts thousands of jobs in peril.
Last year, to send the world a “clear signal” Britain was going green, he banned a new mine in Cumbria intended solely to produce coal for steel-making.
Now his Government, desperate to keep the Scunthorpe steel plant open and save 3,000 jobs, is reduced to offering to buy its Chinese owners coal shipped in from abroad.
When will Keir Starmer wake up to this menace at the heart of his Cabinet?
Meanwhile the Government MUST save Scunthorpe, with temporary nationalisation if necessary.
Losing our steel industry would be another nail in Britain’s coffin.