Sometimes the reforming radicals are those
who also seek to conserve.

The gist of the argument here is that the State should have control of a widespread, integrated camera system to track “offenders”. Instead, “the CCTV network in the UK has been built up in a piecemeal way, driven by local authorities and the private sector more than by the police.”

I’m reminded again of Pratchett’s observation (if I recall it correctly), “the news that the innocent have nothing to fear should strike terror into the hearts of the innocent everywhere.”

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We squeezed in three jumps this morning: one tracking, one fun and a four way formation.

The Porter’s door is small for four big lads:

So, despite practising the exit, we broke the formation while upside down and reformed before crossing over and under one another a couple of times. Great fun and a good finish to the trip with a fast, well-timed landing.

I’m acutely aware that skydiving isn’t environmentally friendly. Obviously, not jumping is off the table: there are already too few opportunities for fun, adventure and personal responsibility in a risky environment.

While my car, my bikes and – when I remember! – my commercial flights are offset, I can’t yet offset my jumps. Clear Offset have offered to cover skydiving: they just need the facts, which I am trying to collate with UK dropzones…

I heard a journalist complaining that Boris just gets “stooges” to do all the work.

Isn’t that the whole point? Have a vision and line up enough competent people to do what you want?

Canvassing, business, technology… no time for posting this week.

Skydiving at Lillo this weekend

A taxi driver reminded me tonight of something my father, a carpenter, has long told me:

the worst kind of government for the ordinary working man is a Labour government.

Endless intervention, condescension, degrading regulation, a crumbling economy, ineffective legislation and inefficient management of the public services: these are the hallmarks of Labour’s self-serving big state. “Progressive” politicians may mean well, but their approach just doesn’t work. Yes, a social safety net; yes, free education and healthcare; but not this endless, painful tinkering with society in pursuit of “progress”.

What most people want is to be left alone to make their own way, to be protected from criminals and to rely on a safety net if they fall on hard times. The left “progressives” are failing on every count.