This morning the seven million people of the north west of England woke to find they run the risk of a £1,000 fine if they wield their hosepipe to water their geraniums. Sprinklers too, for that matter, are also temporarily beyond the pale.
Clegg will not want to lose Cable or see him fail as he is – for the moment- the key member of his praetorian guard in the coalition government. Clegg has precious few true believers in his parliamentary party and Cable is from the more idealistic ‘we can make a difference’ school of why the Lib Dems are propping up a Conservative government.
A long, ignominious line of home office ministers have opted for a quiet life and done ACPO’s bidding. But for today at least, Ms May deserves two cheers for not being one of them. Her challenge, however, as always in government, is to turn rhetoric into action.
The poor benighted Regional Development Agencies took yet another blow to the solar plexus in Tuesday’s budget. Buried away on page 31 of the Budget Report was a commitment to see them “abolished.”
However painful, the truth of that day, Sunday January 30th 1972, Sunday, Bloody Sunday, deserves to be laid out for all to see; the dead and injured deserve nothing less.
