President Bush's recent attempts to wreck the UN's efforts to control small arms exports were widely ridiculed by liberals as doing the bidding of America's National Rifle Association. Indeed, if the NRA president, Charlton Heston, were ever killed by a lone gunman, I would be the first to say: "It's what he would have wanted."
Next to Bush and Heston, David Blunkett must come third in the awards for "testosterone-fuelled policy". However, Blunkett's macho posturing, with his threats to use water cannon and plastic bullets on rioters, left me wondering whether rottweilers could be trained as guide dogs and if he might consider getting one just to round off his no-nonsense image. He could even put up a picture of his new best friend outside the Home Office, with the slogan "Break In and Make His Day". I look forward to Blunkett saying: "Don't worry, he won't bite. He's just being friendly," as the brute chews or humps senior police officers' legs. And it would certainly make Newsnight more exciting to see the slobbering hound straining at the leash, while its master snarls at Paxman: "One more of your smart-arsed, middle-class questions and the fooking dog will fooking sic yer." I, for one, would collect as many used stamps as Blue Peter would need were they ever to appeal for Blunkett's guide Rotty.
Blunkett's comments on plastic bullets follow on the heels of his predecessor Jack Straw's threat to use them on May Day protesters, and play well with certain Daily Mail readers. Especially the ones who think that Torquemada should be running the Home Office and the only thing wrong with the Spanish Inquisition was that it was Spanish.
Indeed, some liberals might even suggest that the use of plastic bullets could be a timely and welcome change from the lead ones that the police seem so keen on putting into people. However, in 1998, the UN Commission on Torture recommended "the abolition of plastic bullets as a means of riot control". In 1999, Chris Patten's report on policing in Northern Ireland recommended that plastic bullets should be "discontinued as soon as possible". Some may find it easy to dismiss the UN criticism - but if a politician of Patten's conservatism criticises plastic bullets, then something must be drastically wrong with their use. That "something" is the fact that, since 1969, 17 people have been killed with plastic or rubber bullets in Northern Ireland. Eight of the 17 were children.
The Patten report recommends that "an acceptable, effective and less potentially lethal alternative" to plastic bullets be found. Instead of this, new Labour has merely overseen the creation of a new plastic bullet, known as L21A1. "New Labour. New Bullet", as a Millbank press release might have put it. However, like many of new Labour's initiatives, the effects of the new bullet are likely to be worse than the old one.
The Ministry of Defence's internal committee for assessing L21A1 is the Defence Scientific Advisory Council. Its report states that if the new bullet strikes the head, "the severity of injuries to the brain is likely to be greater with the L21A1, due to the higher pressures in the brain, and the greater penetration of the projectile".
It goes on to say that if the L21A1 "strikes perpendicular to the skull ('head-on'), there is a risk that the projectile will be retained in the head". Yet, despite finding that the new bullet could cause more harm if it hits the head or chest, the report concludes that it " will reduce the overall frequency of serious life-threatening head injuries".
So how is a bullet that is more harmful going to result in less harm? Simple, the report says. The new bullet is more "accurate", and all the security forces have to do to make the bullet safer is follow a few guidelines. Like aiming below the ribcage and not firing it within a range of 20 metres of their target. So that's fine then, except for the fact that the "probability of ricochet . . . will be higher with the L21A1" - thus making it less accurate. Also, there is the rather awkward fact that firing the plastic bullets at waist height (as recommended) is, of course, approximately head height for a child.
Then, there is the research done by Relatives for Justice, a campaigning group. This shows that 70 per cent of those killed by plastic bullets in Northern Ireland were shot in the head and 85 per cent were shot at distances of less than 20 metres. All of which points to the conclusion that the new plastic bullet is likely to be at least as harmful as the type it replaces. New Labour. New Bullet. Same Old Shit - as the Millbank press release might say.
The issue of plastic bullets has a global dimension. In 1997, Amnesty International found that the plastic bullets fired by the Kenyan police on unarmed, peaceful demonstrators bore the name of a British company, Hayley and Weller. The company is now known as P W Defence and is a subsidiary of Chemring plc. This month, when Chemring was asked if it assembled, manufactured or sold plastic baton rounds, it denied any current involvement. "We pulled out of that market three years ago," said Chemring. "That's odd," we said, in a style befitting That's Life, "because your catalogue and the current Jane's Police and Security Equipment Yearbook [from the reliable arms rag] say that you do." "Ah," said Chemring, taking the Doc Cox role, "they got it wrong." With a grimace showing a mouthful of Esther's teeth, we said: "What about your catalogue?" Chemring said the stuff we were looking at was old. Strange, then, that the catalogue was picked up at an arms fair in April this year. Catalogue shopping is never easy. Pity those poor arms buyers, trying to work out what's in stock and what isn't using these old brochures.
