Rehabilitation of Offenders

In today's Southend Evening Echo there was an article about the conference on Wednesday with Nick Alston the new Police and Crime Commissioner. There was a quote in the Echo from a local Tory councillor who shall remain nameless, stating he is going to ask magistrates to give out tougher sentences. This is a contradiction to Chris Grayling's vision. Chris Grayling and the Minstry of Justice have instructed magistrates and crown courts to hand out more community based sentences to educate and rehabilitate offenders. Offering a holistic approach to a offenders is much more beneficial as this approach can address the underlying reasons why a person offends. Punitive sentence packages do not work for low risk offenders as statistics have shown they actually increase offending, young people see prison as a badge of honor and a criminal record gives a young person a identity and sense of importance. In my opinion there should be more restorative justice and the vicitim is in control and of the how the offender is sentenced, and the offender is more aware to the damage to the community and the victim, this should be the future of criminal justice.

Man's Search For Meaning

Today, I had the opportunity to reflect about the last three weeks news both national and local news. The economy has come to a stand still, eventually there will no High Street shops and our High Street will be a ghost town with unwanted and unloved buildings.Horsemeat in beef burgers which can open a debate about the issue of cheap food and obesity. Southend Council has stopped giving out black bin bags. In my opinion the general public should be encouraged to recycle their wastage and not rely on black bin bags. I believe all this doom and gloom about the national and local issues creates an atmosphere of permissism, and I think of Victor Frankl book 'Man's Search for Meaning' his personal memoirs of his years spent as a prisoner in Auschwitz concentration camp. Victor Frankl found his meaning to his life, by being truthful to others around him and focused on how survive in place where there was no survivors only victims of biggest mass murder in history. I believe that if people where to find a meaning to their human existence and not rely material pocessions, food, addictions, moaning about council cuts to make them feel better, a person well-being would improve and they would be more in control of their lifes. STOP WORRYING AND START LIVING

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

My thoughts and prayers this christmas are with the families who have been flooded out of their homes. These families will not have the opportunity to enjoy Christmas as their homes are inhabitable and unsafe. In my opinion the spirit of Christmas should be a time of reflection to think of others who are less fortunate then ourselves.

Web Cams!!

I do not agree with the Southend Council spending £20,000 on web cameras and streaming the council meetings onto the internet, I have always believed spending on web cams was a waste of council tax payers money. However, I now looking forward to the experience because it could become more entaining then watching Big Brother or I am Celebrity!! My passion is watching how humans interact with each other and I am aware in my observations the majority of Southend Borough Councillors have over inflated egos, Southend Borough council meetings could be the only thing to watch in 2013!!

A Real BBC Soap Opera

I started this week with a heated to debate with a collegue about the recent saga (I call it a saga, because I hope it will end soon), at the BBC and allegations about Jimmy Saville. Our concern was the repeated interest in discussing and writing about sexual abuse. The victims of sexual abuse and victims who have never disclossed these victims of abuse are being traumatised by the repeated media attention to this horrific crime. The victims have been robbed of their childhoods and their future, victims of sexual abuse can go to have mental health problems, drug and alcohol issues, family breakdown, been in prison, and they could become abusers themeselves. The NSPCC has seen an an increase in victims coming forward over the last three weeks, and these investigations will have to be referred to the local authorities and the police and these investigations will have to come out an every decreasing budget. In my opinion Eric Pickles the Secretary of State should offer a compensation fund for the victims of sexual abuse who have been in the care of the local authorites. If this doesn't happen these victims have been let down again.

Police and Crime Commissioner

I always believed the police should be impartial and should be void of politics. The Police and Crime Commissioner role is another way for the Coalition government to have more control over the police force. In my opinion the electorate need to made aware if they vote for a Police and Crime commissioner who represents a polictical party, they will effect vote for the the policitcal party and their values. I do not want security companies to be brought in to replace police staff because they are a cheaper opition. I want and I also speak for the majority of the people I know, would like a police force who are compentent in their role and will deal with crime effectely and will also look after the victims of crime, the polictical parties have not identified to help the vicitms of crime and strategies to reduce crime in their campagining. I have campaigned for Mick Thwaites Independent c andidate because I believe he is the only suitable candidate for the role as Police and Crime Commissioner.

Being a Woman

I like write about local issues, but as a woman I felt compelled to write about the Austrialian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and her recent rant to the speaker in the Austrialian Parilament about his ongoing sexist comments and his dislike for women. The world needs more policiticians like Julia Gillard to speak out about Women's rights, far too long women have been discriminated in policitics and our opinions and haven't always been valued. My other issue of the week. The Jimmy Saville sexual abuse case has brought to my attention how the community has a responsibilty to care for the most vulnerable of society. The council tax paying public need know they can trust a council to make ethical decisions, when they are investigating allegations of child or adult abuse. This all costs money and comes out of the local authority budget and council tax revenue. In my opinion child and adult protection should be priotised over flower beds or grass cutting!!! I am aware this may be difficult for some of the council tax payer public to understand and they may be believe it the council duty to provide flower beds, however the council also has a duty of care to keep their residents safe.