Just how far removed from this have we become?

Britain used to take pride in the fact that our police officers were servants of the public. These days they have begun to look and behave increasingly like a paramilitary force, with flak jackets and headcams.

It's not just the look of our Police that has changed beyond recognition. Bit by bit the role and purpose of our police has been changing, too.

Every time an atrocity happens the pressure is on to find out who was to 'blame' (apart , that is from the guilty party themselves ); so that for instance the Police took nearly as much criticism for the Soham murders as the murderer himself.

Instead of tackling the root cause - liberal sentencing regimes that mean violent offenders who would once have gone to jail for ever are walking the streets- we have blamed the Police.

This has led to a much greater use of intelligence and observation; and a massive increase in the level and detail of information held by Police and other authorities and the increasing tendency to use 'profiling' techniques to identify people with the potential to commit offences such as sex crimes and violence, as well as terrorism.

So bit by bit we have moved from a situation where the Police have a duty to serve, assume we are innocent unless proven guilty, and act as a deterrent to crime by their presence on the street and more and more to a situation where the Police are only there when a problem has already occurred, have a duty to prevent crime using all available means, and will frequently assume we are guilty unless we can prove otherwise.

A whole range of crimes are now covered by legislation that has shifted the onus of proof from prosecutor to defendant - from money laundering to drink-driving the assumption has become that if you become a suspect, you are guilty unless you can prove your innocence.

And now the Home Secretary wants to derogate from Human Rights legislation and re-introduce stop-and-search laws that would be seen as unacceptable in several totalitarian countries including Iran and China.

For those of us just old enough to remember our police as a reassuring, friendly presence this is an unacceptable development. I want to live in a free country where I can walk the streets without fear of being mugged - but not in fear of being harassed by Police demanding to know my business either.

The courtroom is the place where justice should be done; not the streets.

Do what I say, Not as I do.

It really beggars belief that our very own Lib Dem MP is in the papers again trying to blame the Conservative and Labour parties for the Freedom of Information act excemption for MP's.

For those who don't know a Bill has been passed last Friday which could exempt MP's from the requirements of the Freedom of Information act.

The bill was passed on a free vote, which means MP's had no instructions either way from their party whips and could vote as they pleased. No amount of spinning by the Liberal Democrats alters the fact that MP's made the regrettable decision to excuse themselves from public scrutiny all by themselves.

A number of MP's on all sides of the House voted agains this bill while some MP's - including both the South Devon Liberal Democrats who have made such a fuss about this in public - didn't vote last Friday so the bill survived.

Fortunately David Cameron has promised that Conservative Peers will oppose this measure in the Lords and as a result it will probably not become law.

In the meantime this yet one more example of Liberal Democrats jumping on a bandwagon about an issue in public but when it comes to the crunch - when they really could have had a say - doing nothing about it in private.

The 2007 AGM season is over.

Like Christmas the 'AGM season' seems to arrive sooner and last longer every year.

As PPC I have to try and attend an extraordinary number of Annual General Meetings - there are half a dozen local ward Associations, seven Conservative Clubs, a couple of non political associations I am involved with and finally, our Conservative Association AGM that occurred last night, and I try and get to as many as possible.

These AGM's always seem to remind one of a glorious past; our great civic forbears set up these pillars of due process in Victorian times to protect donors and ensure 'fair play'. I cannot help but marvel at the determination of some people to ensure every letter of due process is followed. From 'apologies for absence' right the way though to 'any other business' each and every AGM follows the same format under the hawkish eye of sternly critical committee members.

I do wonder about the need for this when in some cases the bodies concerned can consist of little more than the committee members themselves (not St Marychurch ward committee pictured, they are a successful group doing well.) This leads to the charade of having to 'elect' officers when in nearly every case there aren't any new volunteers and the same people are perenially re-elected without the need for a vote, in a process that is unnervingly reminiscent of a kind of 1950's Communist era.

Last night we racked through the official stuff in a few minutes and then spent half an hour discussing politics - much more fun.

All credit then to Chairman John Cowie for making the evening enjoyable, and relevant, and above all for thinking about his members first.

A Bad day to try and bury bad news

• £5,000,000,000 goes 'missing' on Tax Credits shambles
  
• Housing market in turmoil over HIP fiasco
• Judges refuse to back Government over Ministry of Justice plans
• UK Government will miss it's child poverty targets says Bernardo's

These are just four of the leading press stories in todays newspapers. The New Labour fiasco rolls on and on with one embarrassing cock-up after another.

If Gordon Brown does nothing else he needs to get a grip on the way this country is being run and do so quickly, but the problem is that many of the biggest cock-ups are in fact down to him.

Three out of four of todays stories are directly or indirectly related to Gordon Brown and his insistant meddling in departments across the piece.

Having read two biographies of Gordon Brown (including the excellent one by Tom Bower) I remain convinced that a Gordon Brown government will be WORSE than a Tony Blair one.

If Britain was a public company either it's board would have been sacked by now or it would have been taken over by someone else.

But I suppose we are undergoing a 'break-up' bid with Alex Salmond in Scotland aren't we?

There is much fuss in the media about wether the Grammar School issue is our equivalent to Tony Blair ditching the Labour constitutinal clause 4 commitment to nationalisation thereby proving that New Labour had broken with it's socialist past.

The idea that Cameron wants a ‘clause 4′ moment over anything is to completely misunderstand the nature of the Cameron project; and David Cameron personally.

He really, really, does not want to have a fight with parts of the Conservative party.

His style is genuinely non-confrontational - he really does want a return to consensual politics -people working together for the best- and he is completely truthful when he says ‘if the Labour party comes up with a policy we agree with we will back it’.

So entrenched have some political activists become that they see politics as a war, but the public don’t; they just want to see our country run properly.

Everybody knows that on some issues party politics - the adversarial system- has become pointless and in some cases damaging, education is one such area.

There are only 160 or so grammar schools left against over 3,000 secondary schools. The Conservatives haven't introduced new Grammar Schools in 18 years in Government and nobody has seriously imagined that we had any plans to roll out Grammar Schools across the UK.

I believe that everyone has talent somewhere. The job of a good education system is to find that talent and make the best of it. That could and should include artistic ability, sporting ability, mechanical aptitude, and any other number of abilities that thousands of children have but which is not valued or honed by the old system , and isn't happening under the comprehensive system either.

The public schools do a better job on this. Bryanston is recognised and known as a very artistic public school, for instance, against Harrow which is very academic. The idea behind both Blairs education vision and ours is to try and replicate some of that diversity in the state sector. City academies are encouraged to specialise and accordingly they can select up to 10% of their pupils by ability from outside their ‘normal’ catchment who have notable talent in their speciality.

In additon, proper subject streaming by ability and restoring effective and worthwile discipline will do far more to help most children than any amount of posturing over the return of an old system rejected by all parties and the vast majority of parents and teachers 40 years ago.

And the idea that this is a party political ploy by us is totally wrong and shows just how insulated some Labour activists have become.

This is not a political game it’s real life. It’s about our childrens education.

How much do people care about who is the ceremonial Chairman anymore?

The local newspaper letters page has been inundated recently with indignant letters from prominent Lib Dems past and present complaining about the Conservatives decision to abandon protocol and pick their own colleague Mrs McPhail for Council Chair over last years deputy (and by rotation the person who would previously have become this years Chairman) Lib Dem Cllr Stringer.

I may be guilty of being a bit biased here, and I do feel a bit sorry for Mr Stringers wife (who we are told had stocked up with new attire for her civic year at the top table) but I think that once again, the Lib Dems are in danger of being seen to make much ado about nothing.

The fact is most people in the bay want good quality local services at a reasonable cost. they want a Council who will work hard to return some much needed prosperity and industry to the bay and they want councillors who are going to concentrate on the things that matter to ordinary citizens like keeping the place clean, safe and making sure their taxes are affordable.

As to who wears the Georgian red robe.... I don't think most people, including me, give a $%^&**!

Comrade Brown is elevated to lead the party and the country unopposed!

Yes citizens on this historic day our glorious leader is elevated to lead the Party and our great country and without the need for an inconvenient and possibly unreliable election by the people.

Who needs democracy when one has such a popular and commanding leader prepared to take control?

Citizens should be grateful and any who are not will soon be hearing from the Authorities....

(With grateful thanks to eng.davno.ru/posters/collections/stalin/ for providing the original poster)