Letter: Take me to the pub - it's safer than A&E
Well, it's official, the Government is reducing reported crime statistics on three fronts.
Firstly, they are closing many police stations making it harder to report crime and now rely on people ringing some obscure call centre with all the palaver that entails...
Have you been stabbed? Press 1. Are you dying? Press 2. Have you been burgled? Press 3 and we will give a crime number.
Any other callers press 4 and listen to nice music and put your problem down to experience!
Secondly, they are closing many hospital accident and emergency departments so many more people die, broadly reducing the number of people able to report crime.
Thirdly, they are allowing the police to massage crime statistics so that they can announce with gusto that crime is falling.
I don't believe actual crime is falling, and until we see a marked reduction in alcohol and illegal drugs abuse – the main drivers of crime – we will not see crime come down.
I appreciate that statistics can be made to show a variety of trends but the increased number of deaths in hospitals is so worrying that I have told the wife, "If I have a heart attack, don't take me to hospital, take me to Wetherspoons", as statistically, less people die of heart attacks in Wetherspoons than ever do in hospital!
Bob Mills, Shrewsbury
