And now live to our man on the ground...

The news in the UK today has been full of the events leading up to and including the death of Jean Charles Menezes, who was shot in London after the bombings.

Initial reports published by the media suggested that the shooting was justified as Menezes jumped the barriers, was wearing a bulky coat that could hide explosives and failed to respond to verbal commands from the authorities. Now documents leaked from the IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission) inquiry suggest that the shooting was entirely unwarranted - that we had strolled through the station, stopping to pick up a free newspaper, he was wearing a denim jacket and was restrained before he was shot. They seem to show that the shooting was the result of a suspect identification of the man when he left his flat.

While I think everyone agrees the world would be a better place for this having not happened, what I've noticed is after each and every one of these 'revelations', people (including the media) rush to come to conclusions. The public are now screaming for a public inquiry, based on leaked information from an incomplete inquiry. What happened to gathering all the information and then basing opinions thereon? The IPCC have yet to complete their report, let alone make it public. Calling for a public inquiry only implies that you have no faith in a commission set up to investigate the police but be independent from them (the clue's in the title - INDEPENDENT Police Complaints Commission). Admittedly based on the leaked documents it does seem almost certain the shooting was a huge mistake and if that is the case then the appropriate people should be punished.

But I'm sick of this culture of leaks in the UK. A leak from some Government department, a leak from this or that commission. This information is not yet in the public interest. I've said in a previous post that 'in the public interest' is not the same as 'interesting to the public'. It only should become public domain once the inquiry is completed. I can't imagine the horror felt by the family finding out this information from the media instead of from the Commission, as if finding it out that way wouldn't be bad enough. And then for the lawyers to jump on the leaks seems callous, even for lawyers. I was very impressed by the head of one of the civil liberties groups who said that everyone should wait for the appropriate information to be reviewed before coming to any conclusions. Usually I would have expected someone in her position of ranting on about the erosion of civil liberties in this country. Needless to say, I was very pleasantly surprised. It's a pity the lawyers couldn't show the same common sense.

So why is the prevailing culture to conclude first and ask questions later? Simple really. People have become used to instant access to information. They (or the media) then make snap-shot conclusions that are based on partial and unsubstantiated 'facts'. It's like stating as a fact that one football team is definitely the winner before the half-time whistle has been blown. And then changing that conclusion at various intervals throughout the rest of the game. It's ridiculous, and I can imagine quite upsetting or frustrating for those actually involved. The news programmes and media outlets are all clamoring to have the next big story out before all the others to satiate this hunger for up-to-the-minute information, seemingly without regard for being able to have a decently researched or accurate or complete story. Then they can say, quite honestly, that the inaccuracies in their stories were a result of them not having all the facts. That's if they're made to answer for the inaccuracies at all. After all, we can't have the freedom of the press challenged just because they're not actually telling us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

What can we (Joe Public) do to counter this trend? All the usual. Stop using the offending outlets, obviously. Will it happen? Of course not. As long as there are enough people who crave the instant access, the inanity will continue. It's like the mob mentality. I remember when some of the less reputable papers in the UK printed names and photos of convicted child molesters. Suddenly mobs formed and people we beaten up and property was vandalized. They deserved it, you might say. Perhaps, but it turned out that several of the names and pictures had been mistakes. How can you rectify that sort of mistake? And will mob mentality learn from this? Certainly not - since the mob mentality isn't based on intellect or reason, but on gut reaction and instinct. So, basically, as long as we crave instant news, as it happens, with full coverage and on the spot comment and react to that instead of a balanced, researched and thought out story containing at least most of the salient facts, we're pretty much screwed as a society. Joy!

My advice? Watch the news. Look at the internet. Read the papers. By all means. But take everything with a pinch of salt. Don't jump on bandwagons, don't join mobs. Make up your own mind using all available information and lots of common sense. And above all, try not to take actions that you wont be able to take back, unless you are absolutely, 99.99% sure you wont have to.

Most of all, realize that nobody knows everything (unless you believe in God, that is) and the likelihood of you always getting both sides of the story from one place is very, very low...

Something for nothing.

Why is it people these days seem to expect something for nothing? I have a specific beef at the moment, and that's my landlord and the agent representing him. Useless does not begin to cover it. Let me fill you in...

Back in the earlier months of 2005, my girlfriend and I decided we wanted the feelings we had when we left each other at the end of the night to go away. We started looking for a flat. We talked to a few estate agents in the area we were looking (Grayshott, Hindhead, Beacon Hill) and they started looking. We saw a few places, but due to the state of the UK housing market in the South East, we were looking at shoe boxes, frankly.

Then one of the agents (I guess it would be unfair to name them, but anyone who has had problems in the Beacon Hill area will no doubt know who I mean, and anyone who really wants to know can email me) found a place - Royal Huts is a fairly new development of flats. It was relatively spacious, well decorated and in a convenient spot. So we went for it. We filled out all the credit forms and handed over a cheque for the credit agency checks. Everything seemed to be going well when we heard from the agents that the landlord had put the flat up with another agency for more money and had got interest through them. That should have set alarm bells ringing, but I was leaving my job and moving in with my girlfriend - I was, admittedly, distracted. The agent told us there was another property we might like. It was a four-bedroomed place they would let us have at the same price as the two-bedroomed place as it was not in the best condition. We took a look.

The agent was lucky here, as both Mel and I could see through the bad condition to see that this 1930's place had huge rooms (for the UK anyway). We raised some concerns, but were told they would all be dealt with. We were told it would be cleaned top to bottom, painted top to bottom, a broken window would be replaced, old furniture removed etc. We decided to give it a go - if we didn't like it we would only be there for 6 months anyway. We went back and looked again around a month later, just under a week before we were due to move in. We raised the same concerns as before as not all the concerns had been addressed, but were again told they would be sorted. Where were those damn bells?

The day came to move in. The agent that had been showing us around wasn't available to do the handover, so another agent came along. The first issue came to light. Although we had a key to the front door, there was no key to our flat (we share the entrance with another flat). We said that that needed fixing there and then and the agent dutifully said she would get someone out that day. Issue number two. It was obvious as soon as we stepped in the door that the place hadn't been cleaned properly. If a vacuum cleaner had been run over the place, it wasn't one that worked. The oven was a state (still is actually, despite several goes at cleaning it). The issues mounted. The broken window wasn't fixed. Although most of the rooms had been given a new coat of paint on the walls and ceilings, the landings and the entrance hall had not been done, and the window sills, doors and skirting boards had been neglected. Various light fittings were broken. The list continued. We thought, what the hell. It's a place to live. In we moved.

Then we started looking through the inventory. A few more issues came to light, but the main two issues were that the shower leaked from the wall and the pilot light in the central heating kept going out. We filled out the inventory and delivered it back to the agent, expecting a plumber to be arranged to come and sort at least the shower.

Jump forward three months. Do we have a working shower? Nope. Do we have a date when it will be fixed? Nope. Do we have a working pilot light? Nope. Any joy of it being fixed? Nope. And why is this? Do we think there could be a veritable famine of plumbers? A shortage of shower expertise? Any valid reason for the delay? You must be joking. The truth is brutally simple. Our landlord is in the business of taking money, not spending it. And the kicker? Our landlord is the manager of the estate agent letting the place. The agent's boss is...the landlord. So can we even count on the agent bringing appropriate pressure on the landlord to get things sorted? I think not.

So what to do? I can't withhold rent, as since I am unemployed I needed my sister to act as guarantor, so if I choose not to pay, they go after her. I try and keep the pressure up on the agent, but what chance does he have? He can't even go to his manager and say he's got a problem landlord. Maybe this is just meant to be one of those character building moments. But it sticks in my throat. That people out for a quick buck can impact my quality of life and really not give a flying fudge. I know I shouldn't worry about it. It's only a flat. But frankly it's my money he's screwing around with, and I resent the hell out of it. And unfortunately there seem to be enough people out there to make my custom pretty unimportant to him. That and I'm told he got the properties in the area with more than a little help from daddy dearest to try and make some quick money from the proposed A3 tunnel project (long story short, part of a major road is to be diverted through a tunnel, causing house prices along the old part to increase once the traffic doesn't come past any more). But the bitter part of me takes comfort in the fact that the tunnel has already been delayed, and now a decision isn't expected soon. Add to that the time it will take to complete, and I feel so much better. Hopefully by the time it's finished, it will be his son that benefits, and not him.

Excuse the bile. I need to get it out though, and I don't want to bore my girlfriend to death - she gets a rant on how incompetent the agent and the landlord are at regular intervals.

Anyway, back to the question at hand. Why do people expect something for nothing? Because for as long as there are good people out there, there are others to take advantage of them. Lovely system. Checks and balances is it? But will I change? I hope not. I'd rather be frustrated at those who take advantage as opposed to someone without a conscience. Just as well being good is it's own reward...