Last updated 15:51, Thursday, 22 May 2008

ZERO tolerance New York style is coming to our nation’s capital and to a street near you.

We’ve had enough of intimidating behaviour, we want our streets back, and thanks to Boris Johnson and our local police initiatives, something is being done about it.

What exactly is NYC style zero tolerance? Having just been there, the city that never sleeps was teeming with visitors.

We saw no-one under the influence of alcohol. Security is everywhere, on street corners, buses, tube stations - confident smiling policemen, often two or three together, helping tourists, assisting traffic flow and boosting public morale - this is New York’s answer to fear on their streets.

Appeals for public cooperation is advertised widely on NY buses and trains. It reads. “If you See Something - Say Something!”

Last year alone, 1,944 people saw something and said something and were thanked by the city’s mayor for keeping their eyes and ears open and not keeping their suspicions to themselves. In NYC, it’s working, so why not here?

America was changed by 9/11. Americans are making their streets safer and protecting their country.

The political will to do the same in the UK is compromised by our ties to the European Union.

As well as our streets we need to get our country back, before some power-hungry committee in Brussels parcels us off as the “Le Manche Region.”

We have to much to contribute to Europe but not from the inside. Within it’s constricted walls we are feeling more and more like a squashed lapdog. We should separate as friends before we fall out as mistreated tenants.

What, I wonder, would American’s Homeland Security department think of our open borders and an immigration policy which enables baggage handlers at Heathrow to work without criminality profile checks!

Our non-existent national security reminds me of a Ford Sierra I once regretted buying. I took just one week for me to realise my mistake, I couldn’t keep oil in it or water out!

RAYMOND HALL
Isel Road
Cockermouth