Archive for the ‘Drugs & Alcohol’ Category

What happens when a nation obsoletes the traditional family structure?

Can a nation survive without strong families? You need to know the answer to this question, because strong marriages and families in Britain are devolving to unprecedented levels. But if we reach back into antiquity, there is one powerful empire that does offer a precedent—a chilling one. But things in modern Britain are different, right?

On February 14, the UK Office for National Statistics reported that the percentage of Britons getting married for a second time is falling, but not because marriages are lasting any longer. Marriages are still breaking up at record rates. It is just that now fewer people are choosing to remarry following a divorce.

Cohabitation is the new trend. And Britain is a world leader.

My mistake. Cohabitation is actually the old “new trend.” The new new trend is single mothers who have never lived with a man at all choosing to live alone on state benefits. According to new research by sociologist Geoff Dench, these premeditated single mothers believe they have no need for a spouse and that their children have no need for a father.

Of the one in four mothers who currently live without a man in their house, half have made the conscious determination to live alone.

How dangerously ignorant.

The increasingly rapid breakdown of the traditional family is an ominous indicator because it coincides with several other uncomfortable facts. Besides leading Europe in crazy “families,” Britain also leads in rates of obesity, public drunkenness, drug use, and sexually transmitted infections. It is also a leader in illiteracy, crime, teenage pregnancy and, well, brand awareness.

Is it any wonder that Britain is also the leader in family breakdown?

Yet when faced with this list of disturbing accomplishments, it is amazing how blind many people are to the looming social and national disaster facing the country.

History shows that once national family life breaks down, societies are on the downhill slide. “[T]he strength of any nation depends on the strength of its families,” Gerald Flurry wrote in the March 2009 Trumpet. “Family is the rock-solid foundation on which a country’s superstructure is erected. That was the case for both America and Britain.” Note the past tense.

Strong families were also the concrete foundation of the Roman Empire during its heyday. “Back then, when people talked about Rome falling, they were scoffed at and scorned,” noted Mr. Flurry. “When Seneca, the famous Roman, warned that Rome would fall—even telling people why it would fall—the people ignored him. In the words of Seneca, one of the foundational reasons Rome would fall was the fact that ‘they divorce in order to remarry. They marry in order to divorce.’”

Seneca warned that family breakdown would destroy the Roman Empire—and it did! And it is destroying Britain (and America) today.

In his masterpiece, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbons identified five major causes that contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire. First on the list was breakdown of the family. The other factors included increased taxation, an insatiable craving for pleasure, an unsustainable buildup of armaments, and the decay of religion.

Doesn’t Rome before the fall sound like today’s United Kingdom? The looming disaster is hard to miss.

Some few in Britain acknowledge something is wrong. But there is a conspicuous—and ominous—lack of drive for action. Even those politicians who publicly endorse the idea of supporting traditional families have shown through decades of inaction that they don’t have the will to stop the downhill slide and make the controversial changes necessary to get families back on track.

Writer Melanie Phillips suggests things are to a state now that the government should give dowries to men who get married for the first time. This would “increase their worth to women” and “send a powerful signal that men are not worthless creeps but are essential to family life.”

Wow. How the British man has fallen since the feminist revolution—to think that state-funded dowries are needed to show that men are not worthless in family life, of all things!

A real man should have his own career and be able to provide for his own—before getting married. And he should be the solid core of that marriage and family for the rest of his life!

Yet according to some, British family life is not in crisis. “[T]his country has never been broken by anyone or anything,” said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. “[F]or all the challenges, I don’t believe Britain is broken—I think it’s the best country in the world. I believe in Britain.”

Sounds just like something Seneca’s countrymen might have said.

All the while, nationwide collapse is thundering closer as the bulkheads snap under the pressure. The evidence is clear. A host of studies have shown that stable families result in children who are less prone to violent crime, better educated, less likely to take drugs, healthier physically, healthier mentally, and less likely to have teenage pregnancies.

Why do we have children today who publicly harass and denigrate their teachers, calling them fat and obese? Why does London have a higher crime rate than Istanbul? Why do government officials feel the need to hand out morning-after pills to 11-year-olds? Why are British girls having up to four abortions by their 18th birthday?

Because there has been a serious breakdown, of one kind or another, in those children’s families.

And because nothing is changing, Britain as a nation will—just like its families—fall apart. History provides no examples of societies that can remain viable without viable families. Even the mighty Roman Empire fell.

It is cause and effect.

God says that when you break His laws on marriage and family life, He will send curses as correction. Through the Prophet Jeremiah, God says, “For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right” (Jeremiah 23:10).

In this verse, God says there is a direct connection between marriages and escalating national problems. The phrase “their course is evil” implies aggressively running after evil ways like runners in a race. As Melanie Phillips points out, British society is totally geared toward not only promoting single motherhood, but towards denigrating fathers. Britain is steaming full-speed ahead contrary to God’s laws.

Therefore curses are inevitable.

Jeremiah says the land will mourn and the pleasant places will be ruined. Britain is suffering intense natural disasters. Over the past few years it has suffered devastating crop failures and cattle diseases. Flooding has taken huge tolls. Severe snowstorms have blanketed the nation. Economically, its place as the world’s financial capital is gone, the pound is under attack, and the nation is on the brink of financial collapse.

The phrase “their force is not right” implies a failure in military action. The Hebrew word for “force” means valor, victory, mastery, might, mighty (act, power), power, strength. It’s a military word. God warns us that national sins destroy military might. Today, British troops are worn down and short on equipment. Troops are heading home from failures in Iraq and will probably come home from a failure in Afghanistan soon as well. Just a couple of weeks ago, the Daily Mail lamented that if Argentina were to take the Falklands, the bitter truth is that Britain doesn’t even have the resources to send a task force to retake the islands. That is a far cry from the nation that once boasted the world’s largest empire backed by its most powerful navy.

But that is the thing with curses; eventually they result in destruction. Family breakdown in Britain is breaking the nation. And worse is yet to come. If you don’t believe it, just ask Rome—or the now largely vanished British Empire.

No matter ones Religious belief or lack of it this article is pertinent and relevant in many ways.
The facts speak for themselves.

Jim Ferguson

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Community pubs facing tax bombshell

Sunday, March 7 2010

Shadow Housing Minister Grant Shapps has warned of a ‘tax bombshell’ faced by community pubs this April.

New research by the Conservatives reveals that Gordon Brown’s tax inspectors are hiking up business rates for local pubs across country. Friendly community pubs with darts and pool tables face the biggest threat.

This comes as figures show that a net 3,690 local pubs have closed under Labour, according to official records held by tax inspectors.

“Gordon Brown has pushed local community pubs to the wall”, Shapps said, pointing out that at the same time Labour has ignored “the binge-drinking dens that have wrecked our town centres and fuelled violent crime”.

The three key elements of the tax bombshell are:

• New tax hikes on local pubs: New analysis of Government figures slipped out before Christmas has revealed that pubs, pub restaurants, wine bars, wineries and coaching inns face above-inflation hikes in their Rateable Values – and thus their tax bills. This will be top of Brown’s above-inflation rises in alcohol duty imposed in the Budget.
• Stealth tax on pub sports: According to the tax inspectors’ guidance, features such as a pool room, skittles alley, bowling green, children’s play area and darts have been targeted. The clipboard-wielding inspectors have secretly toured pubs, recording “pool, darts or football teams playing in leagues”. Pubs showing sport will not escape, as Sky Sports will be taxed extra, Ministers have admitted.
• Stealth tax on nice pubs: The tax manuals tell the state snoopers to take photographs inside and outside the pub, and record “Does the pub appear friendly and popular?”. Factors being logged include good beer cellars/stores (thus taxing real ale), “rare and unspoilt pubs”, and beer gardens (taxing those which have ducked the smoking ban).

“Not content with a council tax revaluation to tax people’s home improvements and scenic views, Gordon Brown also wants to hammer the nice local pub with higher local taxes”, Shapps said. “Only Conservatives will stand up for the local community pub”.

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Drunk 12-year-old girl rushed to hospital

Another point in all of this is the fact that people should simply not have to run the gauntlet of drunks and drug addicts often fighting while in Accident and Emergency. Its bad enough being there trying to deal with whatever has happened without this going on which adds to the stress and suffering of people there especially children.

Jim Ferguson

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Soft touch justice by this Labour Government is getting out of control and putting members of the public at serious risk. Whether its Labour or the inadequate policies of the SNP administration in Scotland all across the UK we see examples of mind boggling stupidity. The fact that highly dangerous criminals are being allowed out to harm innocent members of the public must be stopped.

In Scotland things are no better. With equal stupidity Kenny MacAskill the Justice minister is mired in scandal after scandal yet refuses to listen to people alarmed and disgusted at the SNP policies where the odds always seem to be in favour of the criminal.

I am confident that a Conservative Government will restore the balance and get common sense back into policy that will properly protect members of the public and put a stop to the mockery of the Justice system.

Jim Ferguson

Twenty killers on the run

Friday, January 29 2010

Dominic Grieve, the Shadow Justice Secretary, has responded to news that 754 offenders recalled to prison after breaching the terms of their licence are still at large or unaccounted for.

Amongst the missing offenders are seventeen murderers, and three people convicted of manslaughter.

They also include nine rapists, six paedophiles, ten other sex offenders, seventy burglars, and seventy-five people convicted of robbery.

Grieve said that people “will be understandably concerned to learn that so many murderers, rapists and sex offenders who should be in prison are still at large”.

“Labour’s policy of releasing prisoners early with inadequate supervision is putting the public at risk”, he added.

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The Highland Capital of Inverness is seeing its unfair share of drug activity and as I took part in a multi agency briefing at Police Headquarters I could not help but be moved by the story of Kate Shanks who lost her Daughter Suzanne through addiction to drugs.

Families are being devastated through their children becoming addicted to drugs and the anguish this causes not only for the person who becomes addicted but also the family is truly tragic. For the sake of our communities I would urge that every member of the public be more aware and contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 where they can report all drug dealing in total confidence without giving away any personal details.

Our communities must take a stand and support the Police in bringing these evil drug dealers to justice but the Courts and the Criminal Justice System must ensure these people are removed from the streets of Scotland and no longer threaten our families and young people and take a harder stance as far as drug dealing is concerned.

Jim Ferguson

Kate Shanks speaks to BBC

BBC NEWS
Mother’s plea over drug dealers

The mother of a woman who died of a suspected heroin overdose has appealed to the public to help police catch drug dealers.

Kate Shanks, of Elgin, lost her daughter Suzanne earlier this year. The 30-year-old was found dead in her flat in Culloden by her father Gordon.

Mrs Shanks spoke out to add weight to efforts by Northern Constabulary and Crimestoppers Scotland.

She said: “Drugs only lead to misery and heartache.”

Northern Constabulary have previously warned that Inverness’s expansion as a city had made it and the surrounding area a target for drug gangs.
“ I would encourage people to report anyone they suspect someone may be dealing or using drugs ”
Kate Shanks

The force is promoting Crimestopper’s Ditch a Dealer campaign.

Last month, a study by the University of Glasgow suggested the number of injecting drug users in Scotland was continuing to increase.

The researchers estimated that in 2006, 23,933 people in Scotland were injecting drugs representing about a 30% rise on estimates for 2003.

Mrs Shanks said in total there were about 55,000 drug addicts in Scotland.

She said: “I would encourage people to report anyone they suspect may be dealing or using drugs.

“There are a number of reasons why people take drugs, but in the case of youngsters it is usually peer pressure. Suzanne was only 18 or 19 when she became a full blown addict, having experimented with other drugs prior to that.

“I would like to say to all youngsters – drugs only lead to misery and heartache and no one wants to end up like Suzanne or put their family through the torment we have gone through.”

In the summer, drug users, their families and friends were offered training in spotting signs of an overdose in a bid to cut drug-related deaths in the Highlands.

NHS Highland, which was leading the pilot project, said at the time that six people who abused illegal substances had died in the area since January.

Training covered calling the emergency services and basic first aid.

Naloxone, an antidote to drugs including heroin, was also made available.

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I am very pleased to be involved with Blue Light which is a partnership of several organisations working together including, BID (Business Improvement District in Inverness), Northern Constabulary, Safe Inverness, Crimestoppers, Inverness Crime Prevention Panel, Highland Council,  Youth Inclusive, Street Pastors and Brook Advisory.

Jim Ferguson

DJ “Unicorn Kid” and “Look Mum its the Dj’s” were the star performers at the last event when 200 young people were entertained at a Blue Light Disco at the Ironworks. The evening was a huge success for young people from all over the area, some from as far as Wick.

Unicorn Kid had been requested by fans who had been entertained at Belladrum earlier this year and was besieged by autograph seeking attendees at the end of the evening!
Most youngsters attending, left with either an autograph or a photo taken with him.

The evening had been supported by Next, Tesco and Macdonalds with generous Raffle Prizes.

Liz Gilchrist, Vice Chair of Inverness Crime Prevention added:
“I was really pleased at the support received from the four national companies who have businesses based in Inverness, particularly Tesco who have been proactive supporting this type of partnership initiative throughout the country and encouraging safer neighbourhoods”.

Jim Ferguson Chair of Crimestoppers Highlands and Islands also thanked the companies for their generous support and said:
“I hope the Disco’s go from strength to strength as it is the type of event which is to be encouraged, proving that a fun evening could be had without alcohol”.

Steven Kerr of Inverness Business Improvement District and newly appointed Chairman of the Blue Light Steering Group said:
“I was delighted with the success of the evening and we are working to encourage even more young people to attend future Blue Light Discos. Steven went on to say that visits would be made to all the Senior Schools in the area to promote future events to the 13 -16 year age groups, the next being on 27^th November and a Silent Disco on 20^th December.”

Both events are to be held in the Ironworks.

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Its unacceptable to see such distress caused to people who take a pride in their property and who seem to be getting plagued by acts of vandalism. Of course its not the Police who we should be blaming as they are doing a great job overall. Its the courts and the pathetic weak justice system under this present SNP Administration and until stiffer sentances and proper deterents are put in place we will see this kind of problem growing worse.

Jim Ferguson

CALLS for tougher punishments for vandals who cause blight their communities have been made following a spate of attacks on Hallowe’en.
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At least three homes, one car, a garage and garden walls had yellow paint thrown on them in Balnakyle Road, Lochardil, overnight on Saturday.

Jim Ferguson, chairman of Inverness’s crime prevention panel, believes communities must be on their guard.

“We are once again witnessing acts by people who think they can get away with basic lawlessness,” he said. “The vast majority of people are sick to death of this kind of behaviour.

“What we really need is strong measures to thoroughly punish the perpetrators of damage and vandalism and, until we can find the stomach and will to do that, we are going to see more and more incidents happening across the region and it’s unfair on hardworking, decent people who have mindless thugs wrecking their property.”

Hard labour for older culprits and fines for the parents of younger vandals have been suggested by Mr Ferguson, who is also chairman of the Highlands and Islands branch of Crimestoppers – an agency which he believes could be key in catching these criminals.

“Crimestoppers offers anonymity to those with information,” he said. “But people are scared of what is being done and the problem is that there is no deterrent.

“The only way we are really going to stop these people is to make them too frightened to actually commit such crimes and at the moment they are not, which is the whole crux of the matter.

“They are basically giving two-fingers to the entire system and the community because they know they are going to get away with it and until we actually knuckle down and take robust action we are not going to get far.”

One of the victims of Saturday’s night vandalism in Lochardil was retired policeman Colin Sutherland, who was away when the paint was thrown at his window and garden wall.

“This is not an isolated Hallowe’en incident,” he declared.

“There has been other incidents. They covered the bollard in paint two or three weeks ago.”

The street bollard which was smothered in green paint. Bobby Nelson

He explained neighbours on both sides of the street had suffered similar vandalism and complained of underage drinking in the area.

“We are suffering intolerable disturbance here and over the years we have been phoning the police and getting very little or minimal response, so much so I have already written to my councillor and intend to write to my MP because it is not good enough,” continued Mr Sutherland, who praised Highland Council staff for cleaning the paint from his window last Sunday.

“The neighbours are equally incandescent with the police response over the last few years to repeated complaints of disturbance, annoyance and vandalism.”

Other vandalism on Hallowe’en included a car windscreen being broken in Ardconnel Terrace overnight and a wing mirror being ripped off a vehicle in Hill Street.

The attacks add to a series of worrying incidents over the past month including 15 cars being damaged in Hilton, paint stripper being thrown over three vehicles at Highland MOTS in Seafield Road and a £1300 window at the new £10.5 million Highland Archive and Registration Centre near Bught Park being smashed.

Inverness police are appealing for information on any of the incidents, particularly the Balnakyle Road vandalism.

“Those responsible may well have been covered in paint,” said a Northern Constabulary spokeswoman.

Anyone with information about these crimes should contact Inverness police on 01463 715555 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

andrew.dixon@inverness-courier.co.uk

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