Guns don’t kill people, people do? Yeah right

The other week, in London, I saw a very drunk man going crazy in the street.

He was shouting and ranting and generally looking, I imagine, much like the unarmed man shot dead by police in Charlotte, North Carolina, last week, like “a bad dude”. (To quote the description of the police officers involved in the Charlotte shooting.)

He was quickly and quietly subdued by two police officers, one male and one female. No shots were fired and no three days of rioting ensued.

Contrast this with America, where police would have arrived on the scene with guns drawn, doubt in the pit of their stomach, who fear what might happen when they are gone. If you think the situation is bad now, it is likely to get a lot worse. All of those things – vetting, following up references, supervisors – take time and, most crucially, money. The independent f inancial watchdog The Accounts Commission released a report last week stating that, just to maintain their current level of social care provision, Scotland’s councils would need an extra £ 667million over the next four years. That’s to maintain a system that already allows for McCrackens and Houstons. Of course there is the argument that, no matter how much money you throw at a system, there will always be the possibility that a few rotten apples will creep into the barrel. But then you where their paranoia (that crazy man might also have a gun) would already be cranked pretty high, where their fingers would already be itching towards the triggers…

Last year, 1134 young black men were shot by police in the US – 1134. (More than five times the number of young white men.) Now no one would claim all of these people were innocent but did they deserve to die in the street, without judge or jury?

Incidentally, you might be wondering about the number of people shot by police in the UK in 2015. A staggering total of three. But guns don’t kill people, people do and all that. look at the statistics and notice that, during Tory rule, allegations of abuse in care homes for the elderly have more than doubled – from 748 cases in 2011 to 1634 last year.

And you look at the fact that tens of thousands of care workers in the UK are paid less than the minimum wage.

Contrast this with Denmark, for instance, where there are real state subsidies and consequently much better wages, where caring for children is seen as a prized job, and you find that more than 60 per cent of day centre staff have a degree in pedagogical education.

They work with the language and physical development of the children and how they interact with each other.

And you begin to wonder if we are on the road to a barrel filled almost entirely with rotten apples. It is almost like a barrel filled by the lowest bidder, looking to achieve the highest possible profit margin, with the minimum amount of fuss. That kind of barrel.