Police reforms, PS v1.8 sort of, into the traffic, and Millfields.

Meant to get to this yesterday, but a large pile of work dropped from on high. New reforms are being mooted regarding suspects (presumably to match the stop and question stuff). They want to extend the 28-day holding period and be able to questions people after charge. Now hold on that's just being greedy. The point of wanting to extend the holding period is so you can question them further so why do you need the ability to question them after? That great big spook terrorism shows up. It's to stop terrorists. There are reasons why these restrictions are in place, it's to prevent abuse.

If you can hold someone for 29-days without charge why not 30 why not 40 why not a year stuck in limbo? If you can question someone after they've been charged what happens if during that time they admit to something else, can you charge them again; do you tack it onto the original charge. What if the original evidence wasn't enough to convict and you use evidence obtained by questioning after they've been charged? How easy to hold and charge someone then give them a script to read during 'questioning' to convict them once you discover that the original evidence isn't enough.

No these restrictions are in place for a good reason and it should take more then the mention of terrorism to throw them away.


Onward the PlayStation 3 now at version 1.8, that is unless you check the backwards compatibility list which still lists the latest update as v1.7. so no changes for previous games then?


Traffic yesterday was horrendous, but for good reason - a lorry parked just beyond the Stour bridge either loading or unloading something. Blocked off the entire road and required some of the crew to direct traffic around it. At 8:45 on a weekday morning! Clever, so very clever. Dropping someone off in town this morning also proved problematic, not least attempting to get into town. The normal cars parked outside Flamingo (I thought those bays were for shoppers Mr EBU) meant that the wider vehicles were facing their normal difficulties in getting past in half-a-lane while facing a queue of traffic trying to get over the bridge.

Two long buses in the bus-stop, well one splitting the lane and the bus-stop and the other parked behind; a laundry van, some delivery vans, and every parking bay in the High Street full-up (again so many people shopping at 8:45). Turning the corner to loop towards York Street, I had to swing into the wrong lane to avoid the hidden delivery van before getting onto Lion Hill. Of course all the bays in York Street were full, plus the no-parking along the right-hand lane.

I ended up parking across the exit to the basin developments, my passenger got out and of course a car pulled up along that road to get out. Polite enough not to honk I might add. I then trundled down the one-lane of the two-lane York Street; merged into High Street, sitting in the middle to get past all the cars and found Gilgal etc. mercifully clear.


So I'd promised to help my father shift some furniture near Millfields, sorted that out reasonably quickly and then had a chat with some of the neighbours. I mentioned where I worked and that elicited a response about the bridge and thus we got onto the topic of roads (I do have other topics of conversation honest). So this is all hearsay rumour etc. Originally Mill Road wasn't going to join up with the Millfields island, it was going to be a cul-de-sac until that was dismissed by needed provision for emergency vehicles (looking at the area this makes perfect sense). At the meeting held to discuss the development it was said that the island would be at the same level as Mill Road, does this look level to you? Finally the reason there's no sign posted to warn you about the upcoming junction on Hartlebury Road is that the road is not adopted. All good fun.

Making our farewells, my father asked if I'd been round the new estate - not for a while - so we went on a tour. The houses are very nice, the roads are atrocious; I'm not exaggerating. Unmarked speed-bumps, raised ironworks, square-cut holes in the road, and in one place a piece of the kerbstone had simply tumbled off and fallen into the road. No signs that anyone was actually doing any work on it. I'll see if I can get down there this weekend to take some shots.