Four cheers for the four Welsh police authorities, who have now all rejected the government's demands that they should merge. Charles Clarke has set a deadline of tomorrow for them to agree to merge voluntarily, or have the merger imposed on them. Well, really! So much for giving local people more control.
This week the all-party House of Commons Welsh affairs committee accused Westminster of "rushing", and said it wasn't convinced that one force was the right way forward for Wales. But Welsh Secretary Peter Hain was dismissive, and said that while there needed to be safeguards [that S-word again] a merged force was the "only serious option" to meet modern demands.
Strangely enough, on his website Mr Hain says: "I believe in a participatory democracy in which decision-making is decentralised, and in which each individual citizen is empowered... The task of our Labour Government is an enabling one, not an enforcing one. Our mission is to disperse rather than to concentrate power."
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