Who says the State is running out of ideas in the fight against crime?

If you tried to make stuff like this up, people would laugh at you. This is how violence and drunkenness are policed in Britain today. I'm not surprised by it though; personal experiences can often reinforce a nagging feeling that things have gone terribly wrong.

For me, it was the time at a cricket match at Lord's a year or so ago. As I was walking past the Nursery end to leave by the North Gate, a vile drunk yob stuck his face to within three inches of a female steward and screamed "We fucking did you!". There were two police officers three yards away and they...smiled indulgently. I thought about remonstrating politely with them but realised this is the Met, they'd think twice about arresting a violent yob for assault but would nick me without thinking.

So, when I see stories like the above, it is all part of the same indulgent attitude. It is strange that on the one hand we have parts of the State making ominous noises about alcohol, while other parts of the State let the worst excesses of alcohol pass without notice. If I were paranoid I'd think that they wanted to let things get so bad that, after a few years of friendly media coverage, they'd be able to crack down seriously on anyone who dares to drink. I'm sure that's their fantasy scenario, but I imagine the reality is more prosaic - like all huge and powerful organisations, it is not a single identity with a common cause but a sack full of competing and contradictory interests, much like the Nazi party was.

On the one hand, you have the Department of Health, now vying with the Home Office as the most sinister department of government. These people have moved well beyond the old position of advising about health but letting people take the consequences of their own behaviour; their aim is now coercion, bending the public to THEIR will and their ideas of how people should live. Their excuse is cost, but never believe any public organisation which professes to be worried about costs - they are lying. This is about power.

On the other, you have the Police. The public 'services' in Britain have never been known for their German-like efficiency and devotion to duty, and the police are no different. Still, in the old days they knew what the law was and they enforced it. A generation of university educated (brainwashed) senior officers later, and now it is an organisation which believes that criminals are all victims and not responsible for their behaviour.

It is simple - if you want to cut down on drunken violence, spend a year arresting people for being drunk and violent, and publicise it widely. If, by some miracle, arresting people is permitted by the Human Rights Act, by the end of the year I think drunken violence would have declined somewhat. It's a new and exciting policy, but it might work.