The Gist: Police and numbers, Tax talk, Debate echos

Hello again!
The Dáil is back in session and so are we.

Police and Numbers
Irish police are considering going on strike for more pay. However, it is illegal to go on strike. So they instead all call in sick at the same time.
However, the CSO released figures suggesting it might not make as much difference as it ought, as 16-17% of all crimes aren't even recorded in the system for recording crimes. And when they were recorded, they seemed to suffer a sort of grade deflation with up to a third of certain serious crimes given a lower seriousness grade than appropriate. And then, finally, 37% of all the crimes marked detected didn't appear to have been... well, detected.

This report into the problems with the official figures was released at the same time as the official figures, which showed that the police were being very successful and there was much less crime.

Hard to know what more there is to be said on all that.

Oh, the head of the Garda Inspectorate went to the Dáil and agreed she was disappointed that lots of police promotions and senior appointments had been made without their involvement, as their founding law suggested should happen. Nothing was done about it.

Tax Talk
The budget is coming up. It is the talk of the Dáil. Unfortunately, that means we have to listen to suggestions like giving returning emigrants a tax cut. This suggestion, which would have managed to break EU law, be spectacularly racist and be comically unfair can only have been intended to lock up the Mammy vote who want their Johnny to come back with his little kids.

Anyway, Enda sank it today, leaving the next daft notion ready to take its place in the noise machine.

Debate Echos
Bloated moral homunculus Donald Trump continued to demonstrate his temperament by sulking loudly about being flattened by Clinton in their debate, days later. This is all to the good and long may it continue.

That's your news in Gist.
Simon