News Rage UK: Home Secretary statement on annual crime statistics.

Fleet Street used to have a drinking culture. Maybe it's hard drugs now? How else can one account for journalists failing to connect the story linked above with the one I blogged about here? If you believe domestic burglary in Britain is down by 54 percent, there is no hope for you. You are destined to live in a Britain of one party government, constantly-exceeded 5 year plans and shortages of everything caused by counter-revolutionary saboteurs.

Last weekend, Mrs P's aged mother asked me to look at a contents insurance proposal for her home. She lives in a Thatcher-privatised house on a council estate oop North. Her renewal is coming up and she had an offer which was going to save her £50. It all seemed fine. The institution was respectable enough and the cover was actually better. But still the premium seemed high to me at 25% of the cost for our own (much higher) cover. Bear in mind that all of her possessions are worth less than one of my wristwatches.

As she has no internet connection, I painfully navigated one of those market comparison sites on my mobile phone. Not only could I not get her a cheaper quote, I couldn't get her one at all. On the basis of her postcode, not one company would offer cover. I didn't alarm her by saying so. I just told her that she should go ahead with her plan. But what does that say about her risk of burglary?

Like his predecessors here, here, here and here, Alan Johnson is lying. He is lying because journalists are too drunk, high or biased to connect his - carefully engineered - statistics with those that contradict them. Mainly he is lying because it works. Sadly, it only works because his electors are lazy fools and he knows it.