TALKING SHOPThere are those who are doers and those who are talkers about doing. We all know people and organisations in both categories. The common description of the latter is a “talking shop”. It is generally not a description which implies admiration. Of course there must be communication in all walks of life but when that becomes an end unto itself derision is perhaps an accurate description. Perhaps the League of Nations was a prime example and laterally its step child, the United Nations, is following in its footsteps. Closer to home there is a grand grouping known as Partnerships Against Crime. This appears to be a talking shop par excellence.

Whilst it is becoming progressively more obvious that those employed at the Home Office and Justice Ministry do not have access to the font of all wisdom the increasingly farming out of their ancillary functions is now somewhat routine. Perhaps the genes I have inherited from my dinosaur origins and which inhabit my reptilian brain are not quite as repressed as they should be but at the first large scale public outing for this CRP talking shop which was held recently it was said, “.......He also gave powerful statistical evidence to demonstrate the effectiveness of exclusion schemes.” This could be simply described as displacement theory………push a problem out of sight so it becomes somebody else`s problem. It is a case of now you see now you don`t.

Sooner or later the treatment for binge drinkers and repeated anti social behaviour will have to return to more basic methods of control. It will be a matter of “when” not “if”.