Angus Macpherson is Police & Crime Commissioner for Wiltshire Police. He recently told a business breakfast meeting that the police were now working as a region, taking in Gloucestershire, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall, but, he added, “We will not lose Wiltshire Police – neighbourhood members of the police, working and living in local communities. ItContinueContinue reading “Softly, Softly”
Tag Archives: Police
Winners & Losers
Writers on Bristol, from the Rev. George Heath in the 18th century to Bryan Little in the 20th, have seen in it ‘the London of the West’, a city that would dearly love to outshine its larger rival but is not above copying its every move. So ‘a Boris for Bristol’ stands firmly in thatContinueContinue reading “Winners & Losers”
The Tiny Society
It’s often said, with an air of superiority, that the Russians don’t really get democracy, that they prefer strongman rule. Democracy, in the sense of open public debate followed by free and fair voting, is something we used to do tolerably well in most areas. But recent decades have seen us slide more and moreContinueContinue reading “The Tiny Society”
Urban Harvesting
Much has already been written about the unrest that has struck Banbury, Bristol, Gloucester, Oxford, Reading, Southampton and other places since the weekend. Over a long, hot summer, many more words will appear, whether or not the events themselves recur. After the political debate, the weighty inquiry will ponder and pontificate. Recommendations will be insubstantialContinueContinue reading “Urban Harvesting”
Resentment & Resistance
BBC Radio 4 this morning picked at the dilemma facing the Coalition over planning. On the one hand are those concerned, genuinely or for electoral reasons, that our environment is being serially degraded by development and that something needs to be done about this. Handing control to local folk seems like a good start, thoughContinueContinue reading “Resentment & Resistance”
Nonsense. Nonsense. Nonsense.
So there we have it. Three practically identical guided tours of Fantasy Island, courtesy of the main London parties.Now that the manifestos are out we can see that the all-pervading theme of this election is that the sins of the bankers are to be visited upon the users of public services, even unto the tenthContinueContinue reading “Nonsense. Nonsense. Nonsense.”
Wessex Regionalists 