The British state’s capacity for force, its ability to control its borders, streets and even whole communities, has collapsed. Fewer than 6 per cent of crimes with a victim result in a charge. Our prisons are full and further mass early releases are inevitable. Our high streets are full of ‘shops’ which serve as obvious money laundering fronts. Economic growth eludes us, however much migration we welcome.
It’s hard to find a measure on which the state is succeeding. Perhaps that’s part of why it so visibly uses violence against those least likely to resist: the law-abiding majority who are most likely to comply. That exercise of force may serve as a way of showing that it can still act.
Ten more days of hearings?! They are really dragging out the punishment.