Leatherhead Matters

Last week:  Recorded crime fell by 12% in the last three months of 2007, the largest drop in at least five years - according to Home Office figures

Today:    The UK prison population has reached the highest ever of 82,219 - Sky News

How can these two statements be reconciled? The clue is in the first line: “Recorded crime”. In typical, New Labour fashion, the government has progressively redefined what is counted as a crime, particularly for public disorder “crimes” where a caution has now become the norm. The prison data cannot lie. This represents those who have committed the most serious and/or serial offenders….and it’s at the highest ever!

The government has consistently taken a cynical view about investment in the prison infrastructure, believing there are no votes to be won on this subject. But, it has now become a political issue. Any chance of prisons providing rehabilitation is surely diminished if not lost in cram, jammed prisons. But, even worse, prisoners are increasingly being released early and there is substantial pressure on the judiciary when sentencing since they know that prisons have the “FULL” sign on the door.

Another example of short termist & cynical thinking by this government.

According to the Pingdom, there are more than 162 million web sites on the internet today. We have come a long way since the first baby steps of the World Wide Web. Back in January of 1996 we had 100,000 web sites, and back in mid-1993 there were only a total of 130 web sites.The chart shows how we got from 1 to 162 million web sites and you can see the “blip” caused by the dotcom crash 2001-2002). However this hardly registers when you see the enormous growth in web sites since then. It’s also easier to comprehend why we now need Google to navigate our way among 160+million web sites. Wonder how many of these sites are now just dead or, obsolete web trash? 

Notes on the numbers

You can now leave your mortal coil and not even leave a carbon foot print when you are buried or, cremated (or, at least only a teensy weensy one).

A British company called Ecoffins is importing environmentally friendly, burial & cremation products from China, such as hand woven urns, and pandanus (wild pineapple) coffins. And yes, they have helpfully done the calculation on CO2 emissions for the journey from China & it’s only equivalent (for one burial casket) to the fuel consumed on your journey to the church or, crematorium! How thoughtful. It certainly does away with all those brass fittings.

I am just a little bit concerned though about whether the products are fit for purpose. There is no mention on the site about any sort of inner lining to their products (aplogies but, it’s the engineer in me that worries about these things!). Now this may appear to be nit-picking but, is it intended that, in this green approach to burial & cremation, the mortal remains leak out through the whicker work or, gently waft your ashes into the environment.

So next time you are wandering through the bluebell woods you may come across an Ecoffin product. This could set a whole new fashion for burial above ground like the American Indian.