The Immoral Minority
I'm glad I took my daughter a decade back - because it's killing itself through negative vibes. Me, I led a massive choir in a huge funk concert 3 years back. That's pretty positive, we turned William Onyeabor into a cultural icon = literally, I was browsing through events listings and there was his sunny mush and stetson. Nothing to do with him, it was just an icon. Anyway, I'd thought of going, I enjoy pan - but the scrum getting in put me off. And now they're adding to the scrum with more inside the perimeterm it seems. They - the Met. And I'm not talking about the orchestra.
It's not as if this 63 year old whose career took him close to Special Forces about half the time is a stranger to blades. I bear two knife wounds. The thing is, carrying is not funny, and so if you have to carry, don't inflict your fear on the rest of us. And the same applies to the Met. They've used Article 60 to suspend your civil rights in the Carnival Area on the grounds that someone died halfway across London on Saturday, in a place where such things have happened since the dawn of time. I know the spot well, in the 1980s I used to play whistle in a Friday night lockdown in The Harp of Erin the next corner up. It's an Estate Agents now. In 1595 Kit Marlowe died that way there. Over four hundred years ago, Shakespeare's chief rival, aged 29. I'd love to know the character of the poor guy who died recently was. Probably an Estate Agent. The Met's fear is understandible then. Dangerous people, Estate Agents.
But it's not just me, my lass, who as a two year old could be found being bounced on the knee of the SAS Sergeant who became iconic as the guy in the gas mask when they ended the Iranian Embassy siege, she's turned out true to type, my missus was froma family of Welsh rugby players and I'm not slight either - so she now weighs more than I do and her circle are all rugby players. They're not going, not because they can't handle themselves, but because the thing's out of control. I can think of a long list of ways to get a blade into Carnival, and so all of this tech is for show. At the same time, removing so many coppers from the rest of London paints the areas outside with a big red hit me target, so I'll remain home and welcome the blaggers with flack jacket, helmet and machete, come and get it. All of these are things I have stached against the need, because I've needed them in the past, and because where I live is half an hour blues-and-twos from the nearest nick. And for such protection I pay hundreds a year.
What is the effect of the knife arches? You have to separate yourself from your keys, your money, perhaps a pen. Those are not going to reach you again safely. An arch takes a minimum of 20 seconds a person, so 3 a minute. One million visitors will take 333 333 minutes, therefore, or the better part of 9 months. OK, they're using more arches. I hope. They'll need nigh on 10 000 to cut the wait to a reasonable 5 minutes. Is this what my money's being spent on? Crap technology? Last year they used image recognition. It didn't work, they spent their time hassling the innocent. Just because they can. IT's not going to work this year, either. It's show, look what you get for your money. Mismanagement.
Now, my missus spent years in Munich. I've been to Carnival, and I've been to the BeerFest. They're both as big. And do you know what security they have there is? A man on the door, sometimes. When you get a million people, things are going to happen, anyway, focus on dealing with that. Two women were killed overnight in Solihull. It happens. Don't play Chicken Little. Sometimes you have to trust the population a little. Oops, we're takling about the Robocop Met here. I recall going to an advance screening of the first Robocop film. In Streatham. I think I was likely the only white face in the audience. It was a scream, the banter back was hilarious. And I didn't get searched going in.
The thing is, where you have a checkpoint, you have a scrum trying to get through it. And you know who loves scrums? Thieves. Did the Met ever realise they're actually creating their own statistics? That's what I mean by out of control. The rest of London, at risk because an all-time record number of coppers are getting dahn and duty. Oh well, I've recorded my contribution to Notting Hill. In a fortnight's time, a Walking Opera tour. Me, I'll likely be under the knife - in hospital.