undyingking (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
undyingking) wrote2007-03-21 10:23 am
undyingking) wrote2007-03-21 10:23 am
Love vigilantes
Went to an interesting meeting with the police etc last night, at which they revealed that the new strategy is going to aim to remove street prostitution from Ipswich altogether -- and not just by letting them all be murdered, which has been how they've mostly been going about it up till now. Using a combination of rehab, safe houses, ASBOs and ABCs (Acceptable Behaviour Contracts -- a new one on me), plus cracking down on kerbcrawling, and "designing out the problem" (which I think means planting some trees), the desperate punters of Ipswich will soon be reduced to using only the town's multitude of brothels and massage parlours.
The interesting aspect was that they reckon that as a result of the murder inquiry they have more information on all aspects relating to the lives and work of prostitutes than any police authority has ever had anywhere in the country. So they want to act by targeting individual prostitutes' individual needs and problems, before the information gets stale. This sort of approach has been kicked into the long grass before because it's too expensive, but obviously it's a heck of a lot cheaper than a murder investigation. The current bill for that is around £20M: so if last year Ipswich had bought each of its prostitutes a gold-plated luxury yacht, that would have been pretty good value if it had kept them off the streets and unkilled.
In other news, we had our new shed (kit) delivered at the weekend, so it's now been soaked, blown about the garden, and battered with hail. Ideally I'd like to paint it before assembly (in time-honoured Airfix tradition) but that relies on the weather being good for long enough for it to dry. I also have the slight practical problem that the only piece of garden large and flat enough to build it on is its intended site, but that's so hard into the corner that if I start it off there I won't be able to get all the way round it to do the screws etc. And once the panels start getting joined together, it'll be too heavy for me to move by myself. Joy! Anyone any practical tips from similar experience?
Also at the weekend came![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
glittertigger and zandev, not in kit form but all the more welcome for that. Lovely to see them, and we tested out a new cafe on the marina, and even got slightly closer to fixing the decidedly broken Gothic Game -- zandev's suggestion of blending it with Cluedo seems potentially fruitful.
The interesting aspect was that they reckon that as a result of the murder inquiry they have more information on all aspects relating to the lives and work of prostitutes than any police authority has ever had anywhere in the country. So they want to act by targeting individual prostitutes' individual needs and problems, before the information gets stale. This sort of approach has been kicked into the long grass before because it's too expensive, but obviously it's a heck of a lot cheaper than a murder investigation. The current bill for that is around £20M: so if last year Ipswich had bought each of its prostitutes a gold-plated luxury yacht, that would have been pretty good value if it had kept them off the streets and unkilled.
In other news, we had our new shed (kit) delivered at the weekend, so it's now been soaked, blown about the garden, and battered with hail. Ideally I'd like to paint it before assembly (in time-honoured Airfix tradition) but that relies on the weather being good for long enough for it to dry. I also have the slight practical problem that the only piece of garden large and flat enough to build it on is its intended site, but that's so hard into the corner that if I start it off there I won't be able to get all the way round it to do the screws etc. And once the panels start getting joined together, it'll be too heavy for me to move by myself. Joy! Anyone any practical tips from similar experience?
Also at the weekend came
glittertigger and zandev, not in kit form but all the more welcome for that. Lovely to see them, and we tested out a new cafe on the marina, and even got slightly closer to fixing the decidedly broken Gothic Game -- zandev's suggestion of blending it with Cluedo seems potentially fruitful.