The Silly Season
The press sometimes refer to the summer holiday period as the 'silly season' - because news is light and stories appear that would not normally attract any attention - at other times of the year.
Which might go some way to explain the recent story about COSLA launching a campaign - to stop the creation of a single police force in Scotland.
I've mentioned COSLA before on the blog site - the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities - the voice of Scottish local government and Scotland's 32 local councils.
But COSLA is a reactionary body these days - in my view anyway - a staunch defender of the status quo on many issues including reform of the police service.
COSLA's position is that a merger of Scotland's current 8 police forces into 1 - will not result in any savings and actually cost more public money - £230 million so they say.
And if that's not scary enough - the Convention's leaders go on to say that this is equivalent to the loss of 7,600 police officers.
What a self-serving load of old tosh!
I can think of a few good arguments for having 8 smaller police forces - but saving money isn't one of them - and of course the figure has just been pulled out of thin air.
To say that a single police force would cost more than the present 8-strong arrangement - is completely daft and counter-intuitive.
Whatever start up costs might be involved would be small - compared to the savings from having 1 chief constable and 7 fewer police force bureaucracies - dotted around the country.
The same is true of the Fire and Rescue Service - but no doubt COSLA will be in favour of the status quo in that area as well.
The simple question is this - 'How can London (with 11 million people and 32 local borough councils) manage with 1 police force - yet according to COSLA Scotland needs 8?'
It's the silly season right enough.
Which might go some way to explain the recent story about COSLA launching a campaign - to stop the creation of a single police force in Scotland.
I've mentioned COSLA before on the blog site - the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities - the voice of Scottish local government and Scotland's 32 local councils.
But COSLA is a reactionary body these days - in my view anyway - a staunch defender of the status quo on many issues including reform of the police service.
COSLA's position is that a merger of Scotland's current 8 police forces into 1 - will not result in any savings and actually cost more public money - £230 million so they say.
And if that's not scary enough - the Convention's leaders go on to say that this is equivalent to the loss of 7,600 police officers.
What a self-serving load of old tosh!
I can think of a few good arguments for having 8 smaller police forces - but saving money isn't one of them - and of course the figure has just been pulled out of thin air.
To say that a single police force would cost more than the present 8-strong arrangement - is completely daft and counter-intuitive.
Whatever start up costs might be involved would be small - compared to the savings from having 1 chief constable and 7 fewer police force bureaucracies - dotted around the country.
The same is true of the Fire and Rescue Service - but no doubt COSLA will be in favour of the status quo in that area as well.
The simple question is this - 'How can London (with 11 million people and 32 local borough councils) manage with 1 police force - yet according to COSLA Scotland needs 8?'
It's the silly season right enough.
