Serious crime down by a fifth? And trivial violent crime? How's that doing, Alex?

One, two, three, four, I declare a Samizdat war! :P

It's dangerous to make a case based on government statistics, especially when the extension of drinking hours has been so recent. Nevertheless, allowing 24 hour drinking was a major victory for freedom. Even if associated crime rose it would need to be balanced off against the increased happiness afforded to those who wish to peacefully enjoy a drink at 3AM.

Next step for freedom: ending the "war on drugs."

I'm not sure how you can claim that the government lied about a 23% drop in crime and then in the very next blog use that same statistic to say that you were right about some policy that would reduce crime.

Ken,

The two articles are by different editors.

Disraeli chuckles. This fall, if you believe the data, over a six week period coincided with a massive increase in policing "on the beat" during Christmas. Oddly al-grauniad (the source for asi) plays down this aspect...

Five, six, seven, eight - government "facts" are what we hate.

I can't believe Alex posted before referring to at least one source concerning the increase in policing.

Disappointed, to say the least with both Alex and the ASI.

I would like the freedom to use tabbed browsing without obnoxious javascript popping up extraneous windows. Any chance of that?

I would like the freedom to use tabbed browsing without obnoxious javascript popping up extraneous windows. Any chance of that?

No chance whatsoever.

I know it is a radical notion but the Samizdatistas (our contributing authors) do not actually have to agree with each other. We have an editorial vibe, not an editorial position on things.

This blog posting is great. Your views are very true. Everyone should start thinking as you are doing.

Elliot Daverty

24-hour drinking is one thing. The establishment of vast 'vertical drinking' houses is another. I know this is not very libertarian, but I think licensed premesis should pay their license fee based upon a factor of square footage, capacity and seat/stand ratios. I am biased, as I do not see why a small traditional British boozer should pay the same license as some immense "leerkeller" which creates orders of magnitude more costs on the community. These huge places are being subsidised IMHO, and that should be stopped.

TimC, the idea that something that is less taxed is "subsidised" is a bit NuLabour for my tastes. B^)

OTOH, there is no libertarian reason for taxes to be irrational. For example, business rates favour large shops over small ones, because the market's natural discount on rents for large premises translates, through rating valuations, into disproportionately high taxes for small shops, thus "subsidising" (in your terms) horrible high street chains of stores. Rates could be based on average rents in the whole town or city, rather than individual valuations. Small shops would not then be taxed disproportionately and city centres would become more attractive over time.

The trouble with suggesting sensible reforms of taxes or licensing fees to our current rulers, is that you just know they will stealthily increase the taxes in the course of "reforming" them.

Mozilla User,

Mozilla or Firefox? I'm on Firefox and this site works fine without strange pop up windows. The only thing that doesn't work is the formatting buttons when I am writing a post.

Ditto me with Camino. Javascript pop-ups are, in fact, optional.

Whilst I take Perry's response as the last word on this, I'll just give a quick reply to the users who requested more information.

Mozilla 1.7 series did not have the popups but I am now using the 1.8 series and the popups are present. I believe this is due to some tweaking in the way popup blocking works between the different release levels. In the 1.7 series I believe that all javascript popups are blocked but in the 1.8 series, popups which are the result of user interaction have been enabled (this is genuinely based on improved usability for things like bank websites).

I believe there has been some talk of tabbed-browsing window opening forcing new windows to be in new tabs but as the Mozilla suite is no longer really being developed, I won't be holding my breath.

Nevermind, it seems I have been sideswiped by a Mozilla peculiarity.

On my desktop which has the older Mozilla, I use the middle mouse button to open new tabs. This gives me the behavior I so desire.

On the laptop I have the newer Mozilla installed but I never quite finished installing the drivers which would have enabled the middle "mouse" button so I have been using ctrl-click to open new tabs.

Whilst these should produce the same effect, it appears that ctrl-click activates the onclick part of the link whereas middle-click does not.

I have installed the correct trackpoint drivers and now middle click now opens only tabs and not new windows so I guess I can continue to cope with Perry's abysmal web design ;)

I agree with the principle that an establishment should be allowed to sell booze 24 hours a day if it wishes (as long as, of course, it accepts all tort liabilities).

However, the governments changes have meant a great INCREASE in paperwork - putting great strain on independent pubs (which, unlike the chains, do not have legal departments).

As for a "23% drop in serious violent crime".

Government statistics have stopped being just distortions and have now become lies.

I'm sure this doesn't need to be pointed out yet again, but I will anyway.

Violent crime is falling because no-one can be bothered to report it, as, just like car crime and burglary, unless you are going to claim off your insurance there is no point phoning up to get a crime reference number. Because, believe me, that's all you will normally get.

Of course, if the police come round, you might well get arrested for something anyway, so best not to risk it, or having to turn out to court to be stabbed by the offenders family, who are out-raged that Chav Jr. got a whopping £50 fine...