aint the police WONDERFUL

This is a personal note.....
On 12 july some competitors came to a venue I was working in , looked around and left. Unusual, but acceptable.
On leaving I found my 3 advertising boards I'd erected for the event had gone walkabout. These are £30 each so its a reasonable theft.
The competitors had left a note for each exhibitor asking if they'd like to work with them at an event a cpl weeks hence as well.
So I went to the event and lo and behold my boards were there advertising their show...
Having seen how our intrepd police operate before, I decided to ignore the cops and just retrieve them. As I was doing this, the organiser walks out and calls the cops.
having seen the speed of them managing this [they only took a cpl mins- I decided they hadn't so I did , just to make certain. ]
The Force duly arrived some half hour later, and took verbal statements.
As I hadnt a receipt for the goods at the time [ was at my accountants], he said it was my word against theirs. FAir enough I suppose in Law.
As I was a little irate at his point [I had really lost my rag as these guys knew they'd nicked it and I'd told the cops I just wanted them back- but they were adamant they were theirs] . The thieves then gave a compromise and said if I could produce a receipt on MOnday they'd give them back. Not ideal, but I thought that would allow them to give in gracefully.
On Sunday I found a board of mine from the same batch- and retrieved the receipt and off I went to get my goods back.
One item I've forgotten to mention was that the size of the boards had to be proveable [implicitly via the receipt]
On arriving , we found they'd cut one side of the board to change its shape . Obviously they thought that would be fine, but they'd replaced a fixing rivet with a totally different one where they'd had to cut mine off to adjust the size. The font font size,wording , font spacing strengthening gusset etc were all the same as my board, so it was still obvioulsy mine.
As they still wouldnt part with it [ amidst much swearing curses and other such fun] we returned home and called the cops. As we were now formally asking a complaint against a specific person living at a specific address they said they would come round for a formal statement. FINE
Then they phoned to say that as the theft had taken place in LOndon rather than just outside it [where Id found my property] they'd transferred it to the Metropolitan Police, and Id have to contact them. Why they can't speak to each other I dont know, but it figures.
So I phoned the Met the next day [today]. This is the system for transferring crimes.
Details go to the nick dealing with it
These are transferred to [in my case Southgate- but it could be London wide]
whwich generates a number and then the crime is active again - but it takes days to do that!
So now its back in limbo
Its not the worlds biggest crime, buut I found my stolen property and I want it abck - is it too much to ask ?

Blair/Eu and the CAP

Our dear sister country France has always defended the CAP [where farmers get protected against competition , the citizens pay through the nose for food and where corruption runs rampant- witness the UK foot and mouth travesty] basically because the government is so scared of the farming lobby .
Good news for France now. I was reading the Sunday Times magazine and there was an article about that country. Stuck in the middle of the article was a couple of statistics. In 1990 France had 1 million farmers, now it has 600,000.
Also most of the dosh given to them goes to the large farmholders and small farms are closing hand over fist apparently.
presumably this means France is getting less euros for it's farmers than it used to ? , but whatever, Mr Chirac please note your farming opposition now has only half of it's members than it had 15 years ago , so maybe you should talk to that nice man Tony Blair

terrorism - the definition-

The Intelligence Community is guided by the definition of terrorism contained in Title 22 of the US Code, Section 2656f(d):

—The term “terrorism” means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience.

—The term “international terrorism” means terrorism involving the territory or the citizens of more than one country.

—The term “terrorist group” means any group that practices, or has significant subgroups that practice, international terrorism.

It's primarily the first sentence that is significant.
"usually intended to influence an audience." is a sort of get-out clause and governments can claim terrorism where it is not intended [so is not really part of the definition].
"noncombatent targets"- a strange word to use- military would be the simple one. During the Second World War, power plants, rail links etc were targetted sometimes in France by clandestine agents. So we did commit terrorism at that time.
Shootings of some Palestinians come under this category also. I was thinking that the above definition was good till I saw that phrase 'clandestine agents'.
Mind I have been wondering how to get a definition of terrorism for ages, but without implicating other countries, so I'm quite glad that the official one doesn't do that either.
Notwithstanding the above caveats, it's good that we have a working definition- let's hope we dont commit terrorism whilst working against it ?........ The term 'clandestine agents' sort of says 'maybe,maybe not'

Terrorism - a query

This bit I do not understand:
Two parts of the Koran
a) you shall not take your own life
b) you shall not take other lives
There are caveats about 'enemies', however.
Islamic Holy guys can decree who is an enemy , and this is how the troubles started, firstly with Israel [I'm leaving it open whether it pre 1967 /post or both] and then with Saudi clerics preaching the States was the Great Satan [years ago -but may have been until recently for all I know]

My query is this: if the clerics get it wrong and a muslim 'goes to war' and dies, what are the consequences for that guy in Koran terms- does he get 'acquitted' or is he damned ? Presumably the cleric gets his come-uppance ?

It might sound facile, but could raise a few queries in the mind of a potential terrorist.

HM government is planning to raise a few new laws on terrorism, namely planning/incitement . I still can't seem to find a true legal definition of a terrorist, though , so this law if it comes about is going to have a HUGE loophole in it for future uses...........

London Bombings overheard comment

This is a straight overheard comment.
I was cruising in a predominantely US passenger {US} liner when the atrocity occurred.
Obviously there were lots of discussions, but one comment on a table behind me was 'Well that'll hopefuly finally get the Brits angry' [or words to that effect].
This one I cant understand- do Brits come across in the States as 'stiff upper lip', 'wimps' or what?
We've been having terrorist atrocities in the UK for years, partly financed by US donations, so what are they getting at ?
Ok- off my soapbox now and back to straight 'reports' from now on