“Perhaps Gray has a point.  When I was at school they had the cane and the slipper, and it made you think twice.”

Yes, Gray mentions that, too.  He claims that back in the eighties there was none of the anti-social behaviour that plagues our country today and he thinks it is because schools knew how to discipline kids. These days, teachers can’t even shout at their pupils without being sued by the parents.”

“Is he demanding that these changes are implemented before Thursday?”  Harvey asked.

“No.  Again, he wants the people to decide.  He wants the government to promise to hold a referendum one year from now, but only if the majority of the votes through his website are for his proposals.  He says that holding a referendum gives both opponents and supporters of the changes the chance to put their arguments forward.”

“So they should promise him a referendum, and when it’s all over they can retract.”

“Oh, our Mr Gray thought of that, don't you worry.  He said the government can refuse to hold a referendum if they wish, but in doing so they admit that they are happy to let repeat offenders back on the street time and time again.  With the whole country glued to this story, and with millions of them having been victims of crime in recent years, I don’t think they will be very popular at the upcoming election.  If they promise to hold the referendum and retract later, they will be seen to lie to the people.”

“It looks like Gray has it all worked out,” Harvey said.  “Mind you, he has had months to prepare this, and we only have days to stop him.”

“That’s usually the case, Andrew, but they never think of everything.  We just have to find the one flaw in his plan.” Hammond rose and put on his jacket.  “I’m going to grab some dinner before the main show.  I’ll be back before eight-thirty.”

Hammond left the building and pulled his collar up to combat the evening chill, hoping that his assertion was correct and that there was indeed a flaw in Gray’s plan.

In his thirty-seven years in the service he had been through many scrapes and overcome many adversaries, but the vast majority of the time they had been aware of the threat early on and had the time and resources to deal with it.  Tom Gray had turned all that on its head, putting them on the back foot from the start and leaving them very little room for manoeuvre.

If there wasn’t a flaw in Gray's plan, if this was a no-win situation, then people were going to die and there was nothing he could do about it.

Chapter 8

“Hi.

“Well, it’s time to find out what will happen to Simon Arkin.  I’m not going to hype this up because this isn’t something I’m relishing.  I am only doing this because I personally think the government have failed us when it comes to punishing criminals, repeat offenders in particular.