Westminster Briefing

On Tuesday of this week I was on the 6.42 am train to London for what is called a Westminster Briefing. This entails a bunch of experts and politicians giving a run down on what they think we as local politicians should expect and indeed should be concentrating on. I, actually do not consider myself as a politician in terms of what I have to do, more a community worker with a very wide brief. I do, however consider my priorities to be local so I was interested to see if those at the so called heart of government had any idea of what was going on at the front door. The subject was the future of the CDRP process and where the whole partnership thing is going in this difficult financial environment. The direction was that things would change both as a result of a lack of resources and a potential change of government. What struck me most was the wholehearted retreat by the government spokespersons from the target orientated crime and disorder regime they had so loudly banged the drum about twelve years ago and which had resulted in the police having to spend so much valuable time in recording and making statistics look good.They proudly announced that the only target they were interested in was the public confidence in the police. Simple really but when you think of the energy this government have put into making the whole population aware of their rights for just about everything it is perhaps not surprising that the police are getting a bit fed up that an equal energy has not been applied to advising the same population of their responsibilities in making sure their communities do not descend into chaos and anarchy. This balance seems to me to be fundamental as we see the results of the social engineering experiment hoisted on this country by this administration resulting in the dramatic social change to communities as a result of conurbation density increases immigration and so on. Not forgetting a population heading for 70 million souls using the twenty four hour drinking legislation to drown their increasing sorrows.Did I learn anything new? Not really just that 'big government' is far more removed from the front door than it has ever been.