Julian Cole

Say a little prayer and reduce crime in your neighbourhood. This unusual form of crime prevention has been adopted by police in Nottingham, and the results are said to be encouraging.

The force has joined with local churches in a "crime prayer-vention scheme". Yes, I know this initiative slips easily somewhere between biblical and bonkers, and, yes again, the title of this scheme does sound as though it originated in a pun-heavy newspaper headline. But they've been saying their prayers in Nottingham and are swearing by the results. Well, probably not swearing by them, but you get the picture.

Officers claim crime has fallen by ten per cent since the deployment of prayers. Inspector Alan Stuart, an active Christian and lay preacher who came up with the idea, believes the drop in recorded youth crime can only be put down to prayer. While a local vicar added her own explanation: "God wants us to act, but He needs us to be specific so that his power can be targeted. At the moment we're praying about underage drinking."

It is true that teenagers who drink too much are foolish and putting themselves at risk. Yet how easy it is to say this from the safe shores of fortysomething land, when attempting to buy draught cooking sherry is the dimmest of memories, along with all those nights in the pub before the age of 18.

And I wonder what form such a prayer might take? "Our father who art in heaven, could you please do something about all those spotty teenagers drinking cider in the alley behind our house, and, oh, while thou art about it, keep an eye on my bike and make sure it doesn't get nicked."

Now I confess to a little difficulty with all this. If God is prepared to act to cut crime in Nottingham, where was he during all those earthquakes, fires, drownings, and murders happening elsewhere at the time? And when the call came through from Nottingham-shire, how come the celestial switch-board didn't answer: "Sorry, God is too busy flooding Mozambique to answer your call. You are held in a queue. He will get back to you as soon as is heavenly possible."

Now I can anticipate a criticism here. If the floods in Mozambique were indeed caused by global warming, as many experts believe, then man and not God is to blame. A fair point, but one which only leads to the obvious conclusion. We make and solve our own problems, and if the police in Nottingham want to believe that praying reduces crime, they must be more gullible than is usual in the police force.

By the way, the actress Lily Tomlin had something to say about praying, which she described as: "When you talk to God. Not to be confused with schizophrenia, which is when He talks back."

What careless times. First Curtis Mayfield, now Ian Dury. The great soul singer died on Boxing Day. I heard the news that day and slid in a CD, to remind me of all the fantastic music Mayfield made.

Another soul great added to the Seventies soundtrack of my student days. Otis Redding was already dead when his voice sang (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay out of the student juke-box.

At parties, Ian Dury was the man, and his classic album New Boots And Panties!! pulsated the smoky air. Now the 'Renaissance geezer' has died of cancer, aged 57.

Dury was a true one-off, a brilliantly clever lyricist, and a funny, spivvy, brave man who overcame many difficulties, not least the childhood illness that left him a "raspberry ripple", to borrow his own description. His music was like nothing else heard then or since, an ebullient collision between punk and music hall, outrageously common and beautifully literate, all at once.

Now the geezer's gone.

30/03//00

If you have any comments you would like to make, contact Julian Cole directly at julian.cole@ycp.co.uk

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.