Pop pop pop
I suppose it's some comfort that the law sets the age of criminal responsibility at 10. Otherwise some of the shotgun licences issued to primary school children in Cornwall over the past three years...
View ArticleIt's all about timing
Last week Cornwall councillors voted 10-9 in favour of a 15,000-home estate at Threemilestone, near Truro. Had they not done so, they would have killed immediately any chance of a sports stadium on an...
View ArticleYet more glittering prizes
It's not just local councils which like to let their hair down at awards ceremonies. Congratulations to BBC Radio Cornwall's Laurence Reed, on yet again being shortlisted at the EDF SW Media Awards for...
View ArticleCrime and punishment (2)
My thanks to the FoI team at Devon and Cornwall police for crunching yet more numbers for me in relation to juvenile arrests and subsequent criminal proceedings. This follows my earlier inquiries about...
View ArticleHello Goodbye
Cornwall councillor Chris Pascoe texts to say he's quitting the Lib Dem group and joining the Independents. Next year's elections are suddenly in focus.
View ArticleCan Devon learn from Cornwall?
The Mayor of Torbay tells me the time has come to consider abolishing every council in Devon, including his own. Gordon Oliver thinks a super-unitary council, covering the whole of Devon, could save...
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Accidents will happen
The trouble with stories based on reams of data is that they are like looking for a needle in a haystack, with no clear idea of what the needle looks like or the shape of the haystack. So when the...
View ArticleMad dogs and Englishmen
Today's news about rabies made me wonder what happened in days gone by. I found this entry in Hansard for 24th October 1918:Mr. R. McNEILLasked the President of the Local Government Board if, in view...
View ArticleLib Dems decide, finally, to contest Police Commissioner election
The weekend's gathering of the Devon & Cornwall Liberal Democrat regional executive endorsed a recommendation that the party should, after all, field a candidate in November.The decision ends...
View ArticleHow to start a war
listen to ‘Adrian Sanders MP on the pasty tax retreat’ on Audioboo My thanks to Torbay MP Adrian Sanders for this analysis of the government's spectacular retreat on the pasty tax. Here's part of his...
View ArticleYou wait for months and then you get two...
The entertainment potential provided by Devon and Cornwall Liberal Democrats over November's Police Commissioner election seems to know no limit.In February it was all perfectly clear. After months of...
View ArticleTime up for dinner time?
We're half a year on from when we reported that two Devon primary schools were scrapping hot school meals because they said they could not afford to buy them any more.It now transpires that more than...
View ArticleCops and robbers
Thanks again to the FoI team: there's some amusing sport to be had from this list of items stolen from Devon and Cornwall police stations. Eleven thefts a year - that's nearly one a month. How did a...
View ArticleGlittering prizes
Congratulations to BBC Radio Cornwall's Laurence Reed, who picked up his third consecutive gong for best regional news and current affairs radio programme at the EDF Media Awards in Bath yesterday....
View ArticleThank you, and goodnight
Readers wondering why I seem to be suffering from writers' block are entitled to an explanation. After two and a half years and several hundred blog posts, resulting in more than 15,000 unique visitors...
View ArticleHow Devon was saved from Cornish flag outrage (or not)
I'm really not sure what to make of this - an outrageous attack on Cornish self-identity, or much ado about nothing? The controversial bit is at about 3:12. I do wonder if this isn't a case of...
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