Natural yogurt.

Victim support, Muslim style.

Here in the UK victims of rape are given special support from the Police and their attackers are pursued. Things are very different in Bangladesh as this report posted on The Dhivehistan Report clearly shows.

The victim of repeated rapes who has become pregnant is being forced by local leaders to marry the man who abused her and sentenced to a beating for the "crime" committed. This is the story of a teenager in the village of Char Padma in Faridpur district of central Bangladesh.

Omar Faruk is a teacher from the "Maktab", the village Islamic school. The imam has long abused the minor, taking advantage of the position of prestige within the local community. The girl is in the seventh month of pregnancy, her physical and mental health are not good, and she risks a premature birth.

For several months she hid the violence and pregnancy, for fear and shame. When her belly started to grow, the news spread throughout the village. On July 18 last the Arbitration Council met, consisting of a group of experts led by Fazlur Rahman Fazal, to discuss the matter and issue a verdict. The meeting ended with a conviction of 101 lashings a head for the young girl and the imam, author of the violence.

Local sources revealed that both have already received 25 beatings, pursuant to the decision. The girl will even have to marry her torturer, who has two previous marriages behind him. In Bangladesh, women are often victims of violence and abuse, most of which goes unpunished.

...I am shocked by the brutality of this story. The 101 lashings demanded by a local court for the victim of rape is obscene. For the girl to have to marry her abuser is simply gross. Some people want Sharia courts in the UK but the actions of this Arbitration Council demonstrates clearly just what is wrong with Islam. This is simply evil and it goes hand in hand with the teachings of this most intolerant of all religions. Victims of rape should be supported and not further abused by society leaders. Thankfully, Bangladesh and Britain are worlds apart and we can provide justice for victims of rape.

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway .

This 223 page book is fiction but it relates to the actual Siege of Sarajevo. At four o'clock in the afternoon on 27 May 1992, during the siege of Sarajevo, several mortar shells struck a group of people waiting to buy bread behind the market on Vase Miskina. Twenty-two people were killed and at least seventy were wounded. For the next twenty-two days Vedran Smailovic, a renowned local cellist, played Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor at the site in honour of the dead. His actions inspired this novel, but Steven has not based the character of the cellist on the real Smailovic, who was able to leave Sarajevo in December of 1993 and now lives in Northern Ireland.

This story involves 4 characters, the cellist, Arrow - an Army counter-sniper, Dragan - a baker, and Kenan - a father going in search of fresh water. This book deals very heavily with the thoughts of all 4 characters as they come to terms with the grim reality of the siege. This is a very odd little book as it tells the tale of these 4 characters, who do not interact with each other. I found this story a shocking and challenging read. All the characters are at grave risk from sniper attack and you never know if anyone of them will get shot in the next paragraph. This fear builds steadily and you feel as though all the characters are sitting ducks and their time is running out. This is a very sad book which demonstrates just how fragile our civilization can be.

This novel shows the frailty of life and the writing style is very dark and haunting. The story is very creepy with death always lurking around the corner. It is quite a depressing read and the reader feels trapped. Like the characters you will begin to question life, civilization, the role of chance and the power that knock-on events can have. This novel also explores peoples' hopes, what a lack of power means and how people seek ways to develop some measure of control. This is why the cellist plays each day at four o'clock. It is his only means of control, he cannot fight or rebuild his city, the only power he has is his musical talent of playing the cello.

This book is Okay but when I finished reading it, I felt quite numb. It was then that I thought about the realities of urban terror and the 7/7 London bombings in 2005. I would not recommend that bloggers buy this book but if you are offered this book as a free-read then you should devote your leisure time to reading it.

The final waybill.

Friends who read this blog will know that my day job is driving a coach for National Express. You simply do not jump onto the coach, sit down and drive away. Every driver is legally and morally obliged to do a full safety inspection of the coach before he begins to drive away. Health and Safety is the number one concern in our job and we take this responsibility very seriously indeed. You only have one chance to get things right and you are well aware of worst case scenarios. You take all steps to ensure that you, your coach and passengers are safe at all times. Once you are satisfied that your coach is Okay, you drive off on your merry way, ready always to do anything to maintain your health and safety.

I was very saddened to read this story of another coach driver on the National Express network.

Tributes to hero coach driver
Thursday, July 23, 2009, 06:30

THE widow of a coach driver from Hull has said his heroic actions as he fell ill at the wheel were typical of him.

Harry Hutson, 60, was driving a National Express coach on the A63 westbound, near South Cave, on Tuesday, June 30, when he had a heart attack.

Despite being in severe pain, Mr Hutson managed to pull into a lay-by and bring the vehicle to a halt.

The father-of-two, from north Bransholme, was taken to hospital where an initial operation seemed to go well.

But tragically, Mr Hutson then suffered an averse reaction to his blood thinning medication – something which affects only one in 10,000 people – and died the following day.

Sitting in her living room and surrounded by hundreds of bereavement cards, Gail Hutson, from north Bransholme, told the Mail she was proud of her popular husband.

She said: "It didn't surprise me that he put his passengers before himself because that's just him.

"Harry enjoyed his job – he liked being on the open road."

Following Mr Hutson's death, his wife, 52, received a letter from Colin and Hilary Smith from Filey in North Yorkshire, who were passengers on the coach.

They wrote: "We will be eternally grateful for the safe way Harry drove his coach and how he parked it in such a safe place when he was having serious chest pains.

"He was truly a hero."

Mrs Hutson, who works at Asda in Kingswood, said her husband of 29 years was a happy-go-lucky character who loved a practical joke.

Mr Hutson, a Hull FC fan, enjoyed fishing and spending time with his wife, their twins Lesley and Vincent, 34, and their four grandchildren – Dylan, three, Vinny, 10, Kelsea, 13, and Keely, 14.

Mr Hutson, a former long distance lorry driver, was born on Somerset Street, off Hessle Road, west Hull.

Alastair Coxon, head of contracts and procurement at National Express, said the firm were deeply saddened by Mr Hutson's death.

He said: "Despite being taken ill whilst driving Harry showed great skill and professionalism in bringing his coach to a safe stop.

"This heroic action has already brought Harry much deserved praise from some of his customers.

"It is sad that Harry is not around to hear National Express say 'thank you', not just for his actions on that occasion, but for 12 years of professional and safe driving on our network."

... I have never met Harry but I understand why his widow Gail is so very proud of him. Harry, like all coach drivers take their responsibilities very seriously indeed and we will do whatever we can to maintain the safety of ourselves, our coach and the passengers. Harry's thoughts were probably on which was the safest and best way to get out of this situation. Where is the best place and with the minimum risk to stop so that he can recover from this situation?

Harry was a credit to our industry which he has fully demonstrated by his final actions. My thoughts are with his family as they come to terms with his final departure.

Getting the right man in .

We all have our talents and we find some things easier than others. Over time our garage door has become a little rickety and recently it jammed on me again. It has jammed a few times and I have had to jiggle the cable around the left hand cone to tease the door into compliance. A couple of weeks ago it jammed again and no jiggling with the left hand cone made it work as the right hand cone would not release. Christopher and I played with it, we tugged and pushed in all directions and no joy was had. We pulled some more and eventually we got it to close. The garage was secure but the door would not stay up to put our car inside. Still, our car is okay on our drive, the garage locks so I could fix it another day.

I go inside our garage, I prod and poke. I push and pull but still no better. I look on the internet to learn how garage door mechanisms work. I sleep on many ideas of how to fix our garage door. I come back another day and use an Allen key to release the spring clamp. This appears to make no difference except it makes the door really heavy to lift up. I try moving this spring clamp again but it still is no better. The door is very heavy to lift, it will not stay up and both cables will not wind onto their cones and stay slack all the time. I concede defeat and agree to call a man in. I draw up a short list of telephone numbers after looking on the internet and yellow pages. I go to work for my day job and leave the telephone calls to Gail. We compare quotes and attitude of competing companies and decide to go with The Garage Door Centre of Unit 9, The Brickyard Business Park, Western Avenue, Cardiff CF14 3AT Telephone Number 029 20694111. They agree to come the next day to fix our garage door.

I was at work when the guy came so I missed the fun. Basically it went like this, guy looks at the door and asks who has been trying to fix this! He tells Gail it will take around 30 minutes to fix. He replaces both cones and cables. He sets up the spring and the other adjusters. He has finished his job and asks Gail to inspect his work. Well, Gail cannot believe it. You unlock the handle and the door lifts up like a duvet. It is so light to lift and Gail is shocked by how easy it is to open. It rises to the top without the previous extra push being required. Gail tells the guy that it has never opened like this from new, 10 years ago. Ah, replies the guy, that is because the door was fitted by a general builder and not a garage door fitter. So Gail pays the guy the amount that was agreed over the telephone, £65 plus VAT, totaling £74.75p.

I am very pleased with our garage door and this tale shows that sometimes you simply have to get the right man in.

First the homosexuals, now the obese, so who is next in the Souter firing line?

Stagecoach is considering suspending any of its workforce in possession of a vocational license to drive PCVs who happen to weigh in excess of 120kg. There have, apparently, been cases throughout the country where rotund drivers have been suspended from duty pending an appointment with the company doctor, who has – in consultation with the driver concerned and the company – produced an ‘action sheet’ that includes dietary modifications to ensure the employee is able to lose weight.

The Chief Executive of Stagecoach is one Brian Souter , the well-known bigot from the Church of the Nazarene who believe that the homosexual lifestyle is sinful and is contrary to the Scriptures. In 2000 Souter was the prominent leader of the Keep the Clause campaign , which aimed to resist the repeal of legislation known as Clause 28 of the Local Government Act 1988, which dealt with the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities. Souter funded a private postal ballot in Scotland to gauge public opinion on the issue. Souter supported the poll to the tune of £1million.

...So, first the homosexuals, now the obese, so who is next in the Souter firing line? I have nothing against homosexuals or the obese. What annoys me is the picking on minorities by wealthy, bigoted Christians. George W Bush or Brian Souter, the attitude is the same and their bigotry simply stinks.

The DVLA has strict licensing of PCV drivers and you have to pass a medical before you can learn to drive a Passenger Service Vehicle. Once you have your licence to drive buses and coaches you have to pass repeat medicals every 5 years once you become 45 years old. This independent government body is the only outfit who should judge a persons' fitness to drive a bus or a coach. The DVLA know what is important and in the public interest, unlike the views held by wealthy, bigoted Christians. A drivers' obesity or body mass index is their own private business and should make no difference to their ability to do the job. Having driven buses and coaches for over 28 years I can tell bloggers that there is no physical strength needed for our job. Even in the old days before power steering and synchromesh gearboxes there was never any need for physical strength in the job. Now with power steering and automatic gearboxes even little limp wristed women like Margaret can do the job just as well as a strong man! Also with this Stagecoach limit of 120 kg - 19 stone, no account is made of the drivers' height. A 19 stone 5 foot 6 inch tall man is more obese than a 19 stone 6 foot 4 inch tall man, yet both would be discriminated against because of their weight on the scales, not their ability to do the job.

So, who is next on the Souter hit list? Let me think now, I am thinking blue, a large flowing blue gown. Will Brian Souter start banning cross-dressers from his buses and coaches? Could Brian Souter, in an act of religious intolerance that is typical of right wing Christians everywhere, start to ban passengers from wearing a Burqa ? He could claim that the banning of Burqas was the right thing to do because male suicide bombers disguised in womens' burqas stormed government buildings and security headquarters in co-ordinated attacks which killed a dozen people and injured 22 others in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday. Our government may have reduced the official terrorist threat classification from "severe" to "substantial" but Brian Souter could raise the fear of terrorism by banning his Muslim passengers from wearing traditional Islamic dress.

Time will tell and we will learn which new minority has become out of favour.

Forking around in Bradford.

I was in my hotel in Bradford last night, sat in the bar reading the newspaper whilst waiting for my dinner. I turn to page 7 and I am shocked by what I am reading.

... Women wearing trousers? All right, if they have to. Men giving up ties? It had to come, perhaps. But abandoning the knife and fork as eating utensils? Is nothing sacred? Not according to research by Debenhams, which has identified a profound and shocking change in Britain's dining etiquette: people are giving up the knife and fork at table in favour of the fork on its own. Forks now outsell matching knives by almost two to one across the country, the department store revealed yesterday.

In its place, the American habit of using a single fork in one hand is gaining ever more ground, the figures suggest, because knives are not needed for the pre-cut pizzas, chips, burgers and pasta we increasingly consume. Sales figures across Debenhams' 155 UK stores have revealed that large, main meal forks are outselling their matching knives by almost two to one. London branches are leading the way, with customers in the capital buying almost three forks to every knife. Restaurateurs also report that the trend is becoming visible in dining out. "The knife will always be there, but people are definitely using fewer of them," said Hadi Aknin, the maître d'hôtel at the Launceston Place restaurant in Kensington, west London.

...Well I cannot be having any of this slovenly behaviour. I think that eating with only a fork is gross. What is the world coming to? I like my knife and fork thank you very much, even though friends find it strange that I use a knife and fork to eat a poppadom. I agree with the comments made by John Walsh on this forking issue.

...What a ghastly, babyish way of behaving – as if Nanny used to cut up your meat and potatoes in the nursery, and you never grew out of it.

...Well said John, adults know how to eat and we should not be behaving like children, especially in public. Then my dinner came, a nice little number, a special of the day, roast chicken with Indian potato. What was in the paper napkin? A fork and thankfully a knife! A nice spot of civilized Adult Dining.

Hold Tight by Harlan Coben .

This is a fast paced 432 page crime/thriller which starts when a woman is murdered and continues by describing a teenager who is coming to terms with the suicide of his friend and his parents are worried about him. This is a great book and I cannot find a fault with this novel. I vote this book a HIT and I have given it 5 stars on the Book Army website. Of the 22 books I have rated on Book Army, only 4 other novels have been given the top score of 5 stars by me. With Hold Tight, Harlan Coben ticks all the right boxes for me. I think that Harlan is a very clever man and this book is a thinking-mans' thriller.

The story is very polished, the plot is very tight. This novel covers a lot of ground and is very entertaining. What is different about this novel compared to other thrillers is the number of active characters involved. Hold Tight has 19 major characters but the joy of the story is the sheer diversity of these characters. This is a story of real life across the whole community and not a tiny section of society. Every character is different and has their own special role to play in this story. But it is more than this, Harlan does not tell this tale as A speaks to B and then something happens. Harlan tells the tale from the viewpoint of each character, like using a first-person writing style but he does that with all 19 characters and no character is the lead or hero. The reader then develops an empathy for all 19 characters and even for a minor character who is on his way out for sloppy performance! What this book demonstrates is that Harlan clearly understands people, he knows exactly what makes people tick.

This is a very involved story and I really enjoyed reading it. Part way through this book you understand why the subtitle of this book is "Every family has it's secrets". By the end of this book you know the secrets of all 6 families and they have a knock-on effect on each other. This is a thriller and not a comedy book but there is a tiny bit to make you smile on page 114...

The fat guy with the Jerry Garcia beard and tie-dyed tee was still waddling toward the entrance, but he wouldn't notice anything that did not involve a doughnut.

...Is this observation important? Ah, I will not spoil this excellent story for you!

Nice work if you can get it.

London Mayor Boris Johnson dismissed the £250,000-a-year he earns from a second job as "chicken feed". Mr Johnson, who is paid nearly £140,000 for his day job, was quizzed over his lucrative contract with the Daily Telegraph during an interview for the BBC's HARDTalk programme. He responded: "It's chicken feed."

...Well, I knew that newspaper columnists were paid good money for their copy but I was shocked to read that Boris Johnson was paid £250,000 a year for his weekly column in the Daily Telegraph. For him to describe this pay as chicken feed is very arrogant and it is an insult to London voters on normal pay. He is supposed to represent people and have his feet on the ground but his attitude to his side-line shows he is living in another world. Why the Daily Telegraph are paying so much for his column is beyond me as there are plenty of journalists out there looking for work. Okay, his brand is a household name but surely newspaper readers want content and are not bothered by the author's name.

I think there are many journalists working for regional newspapers who will envy the pay lavished on Boris for his weekly column. Regular journalists work all week for probably a tenth of what Boris gets for his Sunday morning side-line. I am all for paying for merit or content but not for paying big bucks for celebrity writers to get on their soap-box.

Roadworks cause chaos in Cardiff city centre.

A SINGLE set of roadworks looks set to slow Cardiff’s rush-hour traffic to a crawl for the next nine weeks. Roads into Cardiff city centre were reduced to chaos yesterday – giving motorists their first taste of the problems in store from a 24-hour-a-day programme to change the layout of a crossing outside Cardiff Castle.

Vehicles were bumper to bumper and backed up on major roads across the city as a result of the three-lane route passing the castle being reduced to one lane in either direction, creating a bottleneck for rush-hour traffic. Critics last night branded the work, which will create a 10m-wide crossing area made of granite, as a shambles. Scores of motorists trying to get into the city through Canton, North Road, Llandaff, Riverside and Grangetown found their vehicles reduced to a near standstill as the partial road closures had a knock-on effect. Tailbacks developed along Cowbridge Road East in Canton, Cathedral Road in Pontcanna and North Road in Gabalfa, with similar mayhem as commuters returned home.

Click here to read the rest of this news story and click here to read the webpage of Cardiff County Council about these alleged road improvements that include the laying of Chinese granite paving slabs.

Well I witnessed the chaos and gridlock yesterday morning and it was indeed staggering. No matter which way you tried to get into or out of our city centre you faced severe delays and gridlock. The traffic simply backed up in all directions. There is no way around it because of the demographics of our city centre, through routes and the River Taff and it's bridges. The council say to use alternative routes but this is not possible because of the layout of our city centre. Any alternative route you use to skirt around the city centre is of little use because of the gridlock that these roadworks have caused.

Any project you do will have a cost-benefit analysis. What were our council thinking when they considered the implications of these roadworks? Nine weeks of chaos and gridlock for playing about with a pavement and a pedestrian crossing. This can never be worth the severe disruption that these roadworks entail. Thank you for nothing Cardiff Council, never mind your big idea for the use of Chinese granite paving slabs, how about we give the councillors Chinese burns for the discomfort they have imposed on everybody living or working in Cardiff. There is nothing wrong with the existing pavement and pedestrian crossing. The money could have been better spent elsewhere in our city and we could have saved ourselves nine weeks of chaos and gridlock.

Cardiff taxi driver fined for smoking in cab.

Cardiff taxi driver has been fined for smoking in a licensed hackney carriage. The proceedings were the first issued by Cardiff Council under smoke free legislation.
Goldeep Singh from Llanon Road in Llanishen pleaded guilty to the offence under the Health Act (2006) Smoke Free Premises etc (Wales) Regulations 2007 and has been fined £65 with costs of £120 and a victim surcharge of £15. Mr Singh at first refused to pay a Fixed Penalty Notice under section 7 of the Health Act but in line with the Council's smoking enforcement protocol was then referred to Cardiff Magistrates Court where he pleaded guilty to the offence on July 6.

Councillor Ed Bridges, Chair of Cardiff's Public Protection Committee said, "A taxi is a public place and it is illegal to smoke within the vehicle. The no smoking rule applies at all times whenever a taxi is used and the council is under duty to ensure it is enforced.

...What a silly and arrogant man Goldeep has been! It annoys me the number of people who insist on smoking in public. These smokers willfully display an arrogance that stops people confronting them. I really enjoy foreign holidays but the only fly in the ointment is that smoking is often allowed in enclosed public places. Of course back home we can enjoy enclosed public places because of the smoking ban. You do however quite often have to run the gauntlet past people smoking outside these public places.

There is no reason why we should have to put up with people smoking in enclosed public places and this includes taxis. We all know how long the stench of cigarette smoke hangs in the air and how it stays on furnishings. Anybody who cannot live without smoking for over four and a half hours is clearly a drug addict and has serious problems. Goldeep should have respected the legislation that has been in-force for a long time now. For him to refuse a fixed penalty notice is childish and his stupidity has cost him £200 in total.

Mock the Week .

Nice to see that Mock the Week has returned to our televisions for another series. It is broadcast on BBC2 at 21.00 on Thursdays. This comedy show combines the best elements of a panel show, with stand-up and improvised games featuring two teams of comedians taking a satirical swipe at the news and world events.

I think this is the best comedy panel show around and it beats all the others for content. It is very witty and near the knuckle. The comedians are happy to take risks with their humour and they are not bothered if the audience cringes! Well done guys, nice to see fresh humour on my television.

Does the Queen shit in the woods?

For years this expression had fooled me, I thought that the Queen was like everyone else. I believed that everyone went to the toilet in the woods, royalty included. Then I got married and Gail assured me that only men went to the toilet in the woods. I did not believe her and told her the tale of Susan walking over Dartmoor. Susan told John and I to continue walking along the path and that she would catch us up later. John and I smiled and we continued walking. We did not think anything of this, we thought this was normal. Gail however insists that only men do it outside and that ladies need proper clean toilets.

However, Gail does like a certain popular music group called Take That. They can have a great effect on women as they dream of Gary Barlow. Watch the video below taken on the 20th June 2009 outside the Take That concert at Hampden Park in Glasgow. This video shows equality in action and proves my case that both genders can go anywhere!

There is another way!

Next year Google will release it's own operating system that is based on it's Chrome web browser. Google has gone the way I thought it would and is including a version of Linux linked to it's own Chrome web browser. This should work really quickly for the user and I think Google is right to approach an operating system from the side of a web browser as this reflects the users' major use of their computer. As more and more information is gathered from the clouds of the internet it simply makes sense to operate your computer from a browser. This minimal approach should be clean and quick, giving internet users just the bones of want they want in a brief and consistent way. I wish Google well in their quest for a better user experience. What is the point of the long start-up and close-down times of Windows? I do not believe that the average user wants such a bloated operating system that Windows has become.

The Rose Labyrinth by Titania Hardie

The back cover of this book reads...

Before his death in 1609, the brilliant Elizabethan spy and astrologer John Dee hid his most astonishing secrets, trusting his descendants would one day bring them to light. That time has come.

In 2003, Will Stafford inherits a strange legacy from his mother: a key and an ancient script with an enigmatic note. Deeply intrigued, he travels Europe seeking answers to it's riddles, unaware that someone is following his every move.

Back in London, Lucy King becomes entangled in Will's cryptic labyrinth. As it's mysterious twists take her from France to New York, and from literature to myth, in search of it's hidden treasure, she has never been closer to the truth, nor in graver danger.

...Well I thought, this book should be worth a punt as I really enjoyed reading The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown, two years ago. How wrong I was in buying this book! If you liked The Da Vinci Code then do not bother reading The Rose Labyrinth as you will be very disappointed. This story is very slow and there is nothing much in the way of action. There are 528 pages in this book and there are just 2 small changes in the plot taking place on pages 85 and 216. Finally on page 224 you are told the meaning of a labyrinth...

A guide with the verger began explaining in English. 'In the twelfth century certain cathedrals were decreed pilgrimage cathedrals to relieve the numbers of people making journeys to the unstable Holy Land at the time of the Crusades. Many of these had labyrinths added, which became known as "the Road to Jerusalem". Originally they were walked at Easter, just as the classical labyrinths had been a dance of spring to celebrate returning vegetation. The experience of walking, however, was meditative, calming, focusing. Many people find it brings them nearer to heaven, ready to comprehend the will of God. For the minutes that you walk it, you are outside of time: your concerns are inward and spiritual, rather than material and temporal.'

...I found this novel poor, shallow and very long-winded. It is drab, it is not exciting, it is not credible and certainly not entertaining. I suggest bloggers to avoid this book as it did not meet my quality threshold. Although with 528 pages there are plenty of words to read there is no depth or attitude to please the reader. This is like a soap-opera starring Lucy and Alex but in real life people would not be bothered to act like the characters in this story.

Where is the disciplinary procedure?

I am shocked and very angry about the story over the deaths of two German Shepherd dogs who died when they were left in a parked private car outside the Nottinghamshire force's headquarters while a the Police Officer went inside. He returned to find them both dead. Experts said it was so hot - temperatures reached 86F (30C) - they would have died within 30 minutes. It emerged that the dog handler was on duty at the time and the dogs were left in his private car, parked in the main staff car park outside the headquarters. The deaths were immediately referred to the RSPCA and the Independent Police Complaints Commission. Under the Animal Welfare Act, the officer responsible could be jailed for six months or fined £20,000. A force spokesman said the officer had not been suspended and refused to say how long the animals had been left in the car. The dogs were found at 2.15pm as temperatures outside the building in Arnold, Notts, reached 29.3 degrees Centigrade, the hottest day in the area for three years.

The spokesman said: "The welfare of all animals owned by Nottinghamshire Police is of paramount importance and we endeavour to take every measure possible to ensure their well-being and safety." The IPCC said it would not be investigating and referred the matter back to Nottinghamshire.

...So where is the standard disciplinary procedure over these deaths? I am angry that this Police Officer has not been suspended but has been allowed home to prepare his case at leisure and then maybe have a chat with the RSPCA next week. I think that the IPCC should investigate the deaths of these defenseless animals in the same way as any other death in Police custody. The Police spokesman is also an annoying hypocrite when he states "The welfare of all animals owned by Nottinghamshire Police is of paramount importance and we endeavour to take every measure possible to ensure their well-being and safety." yet the Officer has not been suspended or named.

It is common sense not to leave animals in locked cars. You know yourself just how hot it gets in cars and you are glad to get out and escape the heat. Any workman looks after his tools and guards against theft from vehicles. These highly trained Police dogs are the tools of the handler's trade and they should be cared for with the same diligence as all the other resources. This Officer would have been trained in animal welfare and he has not just ignored common sense but in my view has been guilty of gross misconduct and should be dismissed after the formalities have been done. I hope the RSPCA brings this case to court and this officer is sent to prison for his crimes.