No Rock And Roll Fun

IT'S THE ROCK MUSIC WHICH IS TO BLAME: Police, generally, love a music festival - not only is there plenty of overtime and, apart from the Leeds festival, little prospect of anything real much to do, but their wages bill gets a lot of help from the organisers. Best of all, of course, there's loads of young kids with the little scrappy bits of drugs - easy to pick off, all count as a crime "cleared up", so it does wonders for the conviction rate. The only problem is, of course, all those drug offences you're suddenly 'solving' have a knock on effect onto other figures: so it is that picking off the T In The Park attendees with little bits of blow has made Perth and Kinross look like it's some sort of drugland: they've had an apparent 45% rise in drug offences since 1999.