Hurrah. Ross Clark writes this week's cover feature in The Spectator, titled "Labour’s punishment freaks are hounding honest citizens". Far from keeping our streets safer or cleaner, he says, the government’s new force of amateur policemen are ignoring the worst offenders and pursuing law-abiding innocents instead. (He could have called it The Petty Policeman's Ball - but perhaps that's me showing my age.)He is highlighting one aspect of a worrying trend. Local authorities are becoming our uncontrollable masters rather than our servants, as we saw for instance here, when junior minister John Healey was encouraging then to increase parking charges in order to reshape our lives - something for which neither he nor they have a mandate, but never mind such niceties.
The Tories should start saying they will repeal these measures, and saying they hope Tory councils won't go down the route that Ross compellingly describes; they should also say they want weekly refuse collections, and an end to small-minded health and safety rulings.
This should be a big opportunity for the Conservatives, and I'm afraid Eric Pickles isn't grasping it.
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