Malcolm Blair-Robinson's Blog, page 47

Weekend FREE DOWNLOAD: Tor Raven: Gothic Crime.

For two days only. A chance to own a vintage style thriller free for your Kindle library.

 

 

St.John Whilloe is the black sheep member of a wealthy legal family, whose firm of solicitors looks after the affairs of many of the top families in the country. He is consulted by a young woman who claims to be frightened by her husband. Things are not as they seem and St.John finds himself drawn into a complex web of intrigue and murder. He is soon in a race against time to solve a mystery with roots in a tortured family history, with sinister paranormal undertones.

 

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Trump and the Mid-Terms

There are three possibilities. The first is that Trump wins and the democrats fail in their bid to regain the House. There is no Blue Wave. The second is there is a Democratic surge and the Trump presidency is hobbled by a hostile Congress. The third is that there is a blue wave in the liberal parts of the US, but the Republican vote holds up in the heartlands and blue collar urban neighbourhoods. In that event not a lot will change. Both sides will claim success, with maybe the House margin between the parties narrowed, but control remaining in Republican hands.

The demographics will shift however, whatever the party count in the end. Many old and machine politicians on both sides are retiring and their replacements may well be not only younger but women new to politics and Me Too women at that. That will be a change more profound than Trump himself. And very good for America.

Weekend FREE Download: Secrets from WWII

FOR TWO DAYS ONLY

Adolf Hitler is reviled as the greatest tyrant in history. Yet behind this well-deserved image, there was a man with personal and political secrets known to very few and almost unknown to conventional historians. This remarkable novel reveals his hitherto unknown connection with England, including a doomed love affair and a secret pact with Churchill. It is based on the personal story of the author’s close family and includes a non-fiction Author’s Memoir. This gives personal biographical details and recollections, which reinforce Tor Raven’s conviction that his interpretation of real historical events is more accurate than the accepted truth. 

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Brexit: A New Phase?

There are a number of optimistic sounds from both sides of the channel and from Ireland that agreement may be nearer than we think. If this is the case it will produce a step change in the whole Brexit drama and change too the nature of the political dynamic in the UK.

The reason for this conclusion is that from the very day of the referendum result there has been no clarity as to what Brexit meant. In principle yes, but not in detail. So if these hopes of agreement are realised, the whole country, Remainers and Leavers alike, will at last know where we are headed. And it is then that the real political battle will begin. For it is then than the deal will come before the Commons. Where the very survival of the government and perhaps even Brexit could well hang by a thread.

Hess Enigma: READ FREE on Kindle Unlimited or Buy

Tories Melting Down?

Yesterday a minister resigned and received accolades from across the party spectrum but especially from the Tory back benches in the Commons. The spat is over betting machines, about which this blog knows next to nothing, but the budget is already overshadowed. More to the point opinion polls show that the vast majority believe austerity has not ended.

It was rumoured that Brexit negotiators were close to a financial services deal with the EU, but this notion was rubbished by Brussels within hours. The Americans have gone bananas over the new Google etc tax, which they say discriminates against American companies and will make a trade deal with the UK difficult. Dominic Raab tells us that he expects to have an exit deal together with a good outline of a trade deal  to follow, by November 21st. He is off to Brussels today so we should soon know if this is wishful thinking or leaked fact.

If it is fact the chances of the deal getting through the Commons are not good unless it meets all of Labour’s tests, which seems unlikely. Meanwhile the pressure on public services is causing most of them to come very close to dysfunction (more dreadful statistics of police under funding, under manning and overstretching today) which in turn is likely to build to a point where the government itself is crushed.

A week is a long time in politics. For this government it needs to be. It might not have many left.

 

 

 

Zara Vine: READ FREE on Kindle Unlimited or Buy

Rebooting The Police: Time To Think Smarter

The extraordinary cost of modern organised crime and its damage to the entire economic structure, is given prominence across the media today. It raises questions about which sort of crime must take precedence over another in the public interest. All of that is backward thinking. Crime is crime. If you are the victim of it, is does not matter what category it falls into. The State owes you solution, justice, and closure. Because it is a fundamental failure of the State that the crime happened at all. And if the States makes excuses about the fact that your crime is not on the priority list, two things happen. You become a very disgruntled citizen and criminals who commit that sort of crime know they can do so with impunity. That in turn tells us something. Something bad. It tell us that law and order as a concept is broken. It has been replaced with lots of law and much less order.

To deal with this we need a different kind of policing designed not to fit the locality but to fit the nature of the threat and the challenge of preventing it. The idea of forty something underfunded police forces all over the country, replicating everything the other does, often with systems and even people who do not talk to each other, presided over by scattered elected crime commissioners for whom but a handful of people vote is, frankly, silly.

We already have the National Crime Agency. That is good. We need to add to it with:

The National Traffic Police to deal with enforcing traffic laws, RTAs etc.

The National Investigation Branch to investigate and solve all crimes below the threshold of those covered by the NCA .

The National Cyber Force to fight cyber crime (not cyber security) of all kinds from pedophiles to fraudsters.

The Community Police Force to carry out high visibility local policing, crime prevention, victim support and to investigate social, domestic and petty crime.

All of these forces can have local offices and the Community Police Force should man police stations, one for every neighbourhood and open all hours, just like it used to be. The CPF can have local input in its leadership and management. If you want to keep these pointless Crime Commissioners to save somebody’s face you can do so, at this level only.

Yes it may all cost more, although the present arrangements are awash with duplication and system failures which are costing dear, but the savings on the cost of crime will run into countless billions. The nature of crime has changed but the nature of policing hasn’t. There have been some good innovations and tinkerings at the margins. But the time has now come to do the job properly.

Tor Raven: Transatlantic Thriller: Download or Paperback

At the heart of the British State lies a secret to keep which a cabal of shadowy establishment figures is authorised to kill. At the centre of the drama is a family with baggage from the past which has access to the truth and determines to expose it. That provokes a battle of wits among security services on both sides of the Atlantic, with links into Russia, Germany, France and Africa. A gripping narrative taking place in the modern day with a cast of ruthless characters determined to kill their way to victory. Male and female, old and young, engaging yet sinister, none quite what they seem. A sophisticated thriller of unusual pace and power written in an edgy modern style. Over 400 pages.

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Saudi Arabia: The War In Yemen

Shocking though the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi certainly is in fact, in its grizzly brutality and in the difficulty in getting the Saudi’s to admit the truth, the even bigger worry is the war in Yemen.

Because in Yemen many tens of thousands are already dead, but many more will die and especially many children, unless action is taken now to stop the war, end the blockade and allow critical supplies to reach the trapped civilian population. In other words we can save lives if we bring optimum pressure to bear on the Saudis. We have to do that. Nothing sadly can bring Jamal Khashoggi back to his family and friends, but we can all contribute to saving so many children and innocent civilians leaving theirs. Now is the moment for the government to act.