So what are our laws for then?

Labour were forever trumpeting the "fact" that crime was falling despite peoples personal experience, plus the interesting fact that a lot of people didn't report crimes anymore as they felt the police weren't interested.
Seems that of the crimes reported, 75% of those deemed serious weren't ever solved anyway.

Express.

SOFT justice under Labour’s Britain was exposed yesterday by the revelation that thousands of criminals were let off by police.

Official figures showed only one in four of the most serious crimes reported to police were solved.

Of the 4,338,604 notifiable offences recorded in England and Wales in 2009, 28 per cent, or 1,204,967 offences, were marked as detected, the Ministry of Justice figures showed. But only half of those detected by police resulted in criminal charges. 

More than a fifth, 269,552, offences were dealt with by police cautions and just under one in 10 led to penalty notices.

In all, 1.7 million defendants had their cases taken to court in 2009, with only 94,586 being sentenced in a crown court. Of these, 51,801 were jailed, with an average sentence of 24.3 months. But 19,749 were given a suspended ­sentence, 16,174 received a community sentence and 2,300 were fined.

Of the 1.3 million cases dealt with by magistrates, 943,194 people were fined, 179,593 were given community sentences and 48,389 were jailed.

The MoJ statistics showed the number of defendants found guilty of violence soared by 4.6 per cent to 43,300 in 2009, compared with 41,500 the previous year. The number of offenders found guilty of drugs offences also rocketed by 7.4 per cent from 52,900 to 56,800.

The figures showed the number of women found guilty rose by nine per cent to 314,700 in 2009, compared with the previous year, and was up 43 per cent compared with 1999.

The number of men found guilty remained unchanged from 2008 at 1.05 million, which was down 11 per cent from 1.18 million in 1999.

However, overall crime recorded by the police fell by eight per cent in the last year. Reported incidents of ­criminal damage were down 17 per cent, offences against vehicles were down 16 per cent and domestic burglary fell by eight per cent compared with last year, the latest Home Office figures for the year to June 2010 showed.

Violence against the person, which includes murder, attempted murder and causing death by dangerous ­driving, also fell, down seven per cent from 421,072 to 392,473.

Firearms offences were also down, dropping two per cent from 8,113 to 7,966. But the number of recorded sexual offences rose by eight per cent.

The statistics were released the day after the Government’s Spending Review outlined plans to cut the police budget by four per cent year-on-year to 2014-15, raising fears that the number of officers could fall by up to 20,000.

The total spending cut on police amounts to between 14 per cent and 20 per cent, depending on how much money is raised through council tax.

The first thing that springs to mind is what on earth are we paying them for? Don't get me wrong here, I know it's simplistic and that red tape and bureaucracy as well as imbecilic political correctness all divert resources away from catching criminals, not even the feared cctv really prevents crime either. Take into account the never ending war against motorists and you do have to wonder what the point of the police is anymore. They do appear to be unfit for purpose more often than not siding with minorities against the majority too if my observation of the police handling of EDL demo's is to be taken as an example.
So, what do we want? Well a crime free environment in which to live is a plus, also a clear definition of what is a crime and what is simply someone doing their own thing. Prison being the place we put people who harm others, not themselves, a society of few laws yet rigorously enforced. A place where you could drive at over 100 mph on the motorway, yet know if you have an accident and injure or kill someone, you'll go to jail for a long, long time, not just get a slap on the wrist and a 3 year ban.
Simple laws, where the definition of harm is seen to be how it affects others, go around robbing pensioners, expect 5 to 10 years, pull a knife and threaten someone, 2 years, hurt them 5 to 10 depending how bad, possibly more sentencing being open ended. Murder someone, life, meaning life, other sentencing being on a scale of personal harm to others. But no crime at all to carry a knife or gun, that's down to individual responsibility.
Fact is, Labour opened our eyes as to how ineffectual the law and the enforcers of it are. I can't bring myself to thank them for it though, they were after all responsible.