man was straight to his feet,
'What about the old retired guy who filmed someone vandalising his car, causing a couple of thousand quids worth of damage. When the old guy went out to confront this ned, he got a load of verbal abuse and pushed about, so he took a swing at him. Next thing, he finds himself up in court, charged with assault, criminal record, the works. And get this, a social worker came to the house to find out what compensation he could afford to pay this ned, out of his bloody pension! And believe it or not, even though he had been filmed causing the damage to the car, the ned still walked away with just a caution! You can't tell me that's justice.'
'That's like Gavin Ward,' a woman from the audience said, 'He caught someone using his ladder to climb in his window a few nights ago, and then was charged with assault for pushing him to the ground.'
Others told of teachers forced to resign over trivial incidents, of shopkeepers targeted because they wouldn't sell alcohol to teenagers, and similar stories of perceived injustice.
Finally, Allan stood again, put his arm in the air for attention.
'Just supposing I heard a noise downstairs during the night, go to have a look, and it turns out there's some guy inside heading my way. Now I know our John left his baseball bat at the top of the stairs, so I think, right pal, try coming up here, and you're getting it!
Thing is, I don't know if he has knife or something, or if there's maybe two or three of them in the house. I've got a wife and two kids to protect, and I'm scared if I warn him, it'll give him the chance to get the better of me. So I wait nice and quiet like, then I hit him as hard as I can! What happens then if he ends up in a coma? Or dead even? Am I going to prison for defending my family and my property?'
Superintendent Campbell considered his question gravely.
'My advice,in that situation, would be to make plenty of noise to let him know you're aware of his presence, chances are he'll not hang around to be caught, and, of course, phone the police. A confrontation is never a good.......'
'Phone the police!..... down the Craigends you'd be as well sending a letter, the time it takes your lot to get there!' shouted a voice from the back of the hall.
Campbell tried again,
'I can understand the anger, the urge to take the law into your own hands but it is in everybody's interest to let us do the job we're trained for.'
The man who mentioned the dog biting the youth spoke again,
'At our work, we can't go for a crap without a risk assessment and a safe method of work statement....... In triplicate.' There was a ripple of laughter.
'Now, I'm not suggesting that our burglar has done quite the same thing, but he has assessed the job, and decided the risk of getting caught or hurt isn't high enough to stop him,'
'And he must know there's a chance of getting hurt because you can guarantee, if someone broke into his house, they would get an almighty hammering! So why should we have any sympathy for anyone who deliberately chooses to put themselves in that position?'
Another man spoke up.
'There's some off these junkies, they're so off their heads you just couldn't afford to take a chance with the nutters.' There was a murmur of assent from the audience.
Allan spoke directly to his local MP.
'What about you, Mr Wellington, would you support or condemn someone who injured a burglar in their own home?'
'Clearly I could never condone the use of excessive force in these circumstances, but I would support anyone the courts felt were acting reasonably. However, a point I would make is the commitment this government is making towards the causes of crime, mainly poverty, particularly amongst the youth of today.
By eliminating the hardship many youngsters face, we can steer them away from a life of crime, reducing the probability of the kind of situation you describe occurring.' Keith Boswell jumped to his feet.
'What would you know about hardship among the young?'
'You lived a life of privilege, and didn't even know it. You probably thought everyone went to private school like all your friends, neighbours and relatives, with your skiing holidays and your trips abroad, your tutors to make sure you got to university.....'
'This has got nothing to do with my upbringing...' Wellington was trying to say.
Boswell ploughed on,
'Or if you didn't make it to university, one of daddy's friends would find a cushy job for you at their firm. The chances are that the only person you ever met who lived in a council house was the cleaner or the gardener! And yet you think you can empathise with some kid growing up on a tough estate in a household where nobody has a job! The nearest thing to hardship you ever experienced was a bad zit before a hot date, and yet, for the kids who have nothing, you even took away the slim chance they may have had to go to university. Took away the chance to make a better future for themselves, by increasing tuition fees beyond the reach of all but the middle classes.
At least some of us here have an idea about dealing with hardship, some of us know what it's like to scrape down the back of the sofa for a few pence to buy a loaf of cheap bread and a tin of beans......'
Wellington was now rolling his eyes in mock despair, infuriating Boswell even more,
'Oh yes, you can laugh Mr Wellington, the MP who had the brass neck to claim expenses for the cost of a landscaper to plant a flowerbed in his front garden displaying his party's logo in blooms! And you still seriously expect us to trust you, of all people, to do the best for our kids! I don't think so.'
'I would point out that I paid back every penny of that expenses claim.' Wellington protested.
Allan Ross decided that he had heard enough.
'This lot would put tits on a milk bottle.' he muttered under his breath before getting up to leave. As he headed for the door Chalky Whiteside caught his eye, made the universal sign for “Fancy a pint”, Allan nodded and they headed for the door together.
Chapter 3
Julie watched David's Porsche pull away, waving just before it disappeared out of the gymnasium car park, then climbed into her own car. She sat for a moment staring into space, feeling the euphoria gradually subside, to be replaced with an overwhelming sense of guilt. She thought about Allan. And about David. And about the mess she was getting herself into.
It had been so easy to convince herself that this was no sordid little affair. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt so alive, so desirable, so in love. David made her feel like a teenager again. She found herself watching out for him at the gym, or at the bar everyone seemed to end up in afterwards, and she pined like a silly schoolgirl when he wasn't around. He appeared to find her interesting and funny. They had real conversations instead of the monosyllabic grunts the family seemed to exchange at home.
Her reverie was broken by a group of skateboarding school kids hurtling past, squealing with excitement. She anxiously scanned their faces, checking that John and Mandy weren't among them.
Finally, she came to
