ACPO

Just seen an ACPO bod on the news, unusually not in police uniform. Have often wondered about this, I thought there were strict rules about wearing the uniform off duty?

The right to kill burglars

I'm a bit confused by this. While I can get gleefully behind the populist feel-good idea that some scumbag who burgles your home is fair game, I have a niggling feeling. Or rather several.

1. Isn't reasonable self defence already protected in law?
2. Define burglar. Would there have to be signs of forced entry? Is an unlocked door OK or does there have to be broken glass or something? Does the person have to be holding an item of your property at the time of the baseball bat hitting their head? Is there any threshold in value of said item?
   
3. What happens when someone gets killed by mistake?
4. How does this sit with the 80 or so reasons an empowered person can use to force entry against a homeowner's will? What reasonable measures must a homeowner take to check a 'burglar' isn't a perfectly legal gas engineer who has smelt gas at the property?
5. While I think that a bona fide burglar deserves everything that comes their way, let's just indulge the bleeding heart liberal bit first. They might have turned to crime to fund a drugs habit. These people need help before it gets to that point.
6. Once you've got druggies out of the equation, that probably does leave your despicable career criminal. But then, they probably shouldn't be able to commit the offence in the first place because they should still be in prison for their previous crime.
7. Then there's the timing. At the same time Ken Clarke wants to reduce the size of the prison population and the Tories are going on about Big Society.

Ken Clarke

You want to reduce the prison population? Legalise drugs.

HS2

Can't help thinking it's a monumental waste of money.

The economic benefit ratio must be weighed against the economic cost of that deferred taxation. That's once the optimistic assumptions have been adjusted, such as the demand for it, the assumption that time spent on trains is wasted, etc. Then this must be compared to the benefit of spending that £17bn on tax cuts.

Those jobs it will create? What about the jobs it will cost because the government has to (at some point) tax us all for an extra £17bn? As for bringing Britain into the 21st century, investing in our future, those are the kinds of vacuous truisms any dubious project can claim it will achieve.

That breakneck deficit-reduction plan

Coalition's spending plans simply don't add up, according to various left-wing economists, including

Richard Murphy, Director, Tax Research LLP.

It seems if there's an open letter going round that's vaguely critical of the government, the man will sign it.

Saab jet

From here:

Investment in the Gripen project "has generated an additional social return to society on the order of magnitude of at least 2.6 times the original development investment", according to Mr Eliasson.

What about the social cost of the taxation required to raise that capital? Besides, what is social return? I'm sure it's a very difficult thing to quantify.