(Published  Cambrian News  (print editions) 8 February 2023)

Over the past couple of days, I have been toiling with the unenviable task of swapping business accounting packages. This involved making copies of financial reports, checking for double entries, installing data feeds from the bank. Reconciling everything. This is no fun, just work that needs to be done. For carelessness in accounting attracts the eye of HM’s authorities, which can be extremely costly, and if wilful, may result in criminal sanctions. At this point it is tempting to digress into the downfall of the erstwhile Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nadhim Zahawi, to reflect again on a Tory politician found lacking in moral compass. However, focus remains local.

            The new accounting package is finely tuned and informative, yet according to this software, I am about to dip into deficit. But lucky for me, the algorithms can only crunch predictably subdued January sales figures. There is no drop-down menu to indicate that the students went away, of dry January, or that almost everyone is low on funds because of Christmas and a cold snap. February will be better.

            However, if costs do continue to increase, and if revenue did remain static, unlike our council tax and police precept, I could not compel Aberystwyth residents to increase their Rum consumption by 7.7%. Like any other business, The Vaults would either have to cut operating costs, increase borrowing, or dip into reserves (if fortunate enough to have any). The same economic reality as for all under-pressure households.

            My question is why Ceredigion Council did not deploy some of their multi-million-pound reserves to cover part of this year’s exceptional shortfall and to protect already struggling Ceredigion residents from three-figure rises in council tax bills? Going forward, how about cutting costs by downsizing? The council might think to part with some their enormous property portfolio. Start by disposing of those empty assets that currently drain under-pressure financial resources. The council have invited suggestions for what to do with the little-used Canolfan Rheidol site. Sell it.

            Furthermore, at a time when the Police and Crime Commissioner announces his 7.7% increase in Police Precept, Dyfed Powys can little afford for police officers to continue wasting their time and in doing so squandering our valuable resources. And stopping thousands of law-abiding citizens is a wilful waste of money when well over three-quarters of intercepted individuals are sent on their less-than-merry way. Thousands of officer-hours spent unsettling residents; time spent on paperwork (when required); wasted time and money that would be better spent on the effective intelligence-led policing our vast region requires.

            When operating within their own guidelines, Stop and Search is undoubtedly a useful policing tool. But with reputations of police forces across the UK plunging, current over-enthusiastic deployment results not only in wasting the valuable time of police officers, of the public, but also further undermines reputations at a time when public trust in British policing has never been lower.

            This unrelenting misuse of Stop and Search by the Dyfed-Powys Police Force will be solved when officers are commanded to operate within existing guidelines. Police guidelines we should all to be aware of, and police officers regularly reminded:

            Stops should not be carried out on:

the smell of drugs alone.physical appearance [not even Black people!] – unless matching a description of a suspect.being a known criminal or known drug user.being in an area of high crime and drug usage.

            These important parameters make clear the police are not permitted, on a hunch, or even a whiff of weed, to stop or go fishing in the pockets and bags of our menfolk. That being Black, or a young man, or out late, or around South Beach, are never in themselves sufficient grounds for unwelcome police scrutiny. That unless our behaviour is genuinely suspicious, where we go, what we do, and when we do it, is no business of any well-intentioned police officer.

            Following existing guidelines and therefore acting only with ‘genuine suspicion’, one might expect the vast majority of thousands of police stops in the region to result in operational ‘success’. On the contrary, Police reporting consistently shows that Dyfed-Powys police officers almost always get it wrong when guessing who is and who is not a ‘genuine suspect’. What a colossal waste of our valuable police precept and obviously operationally counterproductive when it comes to alienating law-abiding men who otherwise may have provided valuable community relationships for Dyfed-Powys Police.

            This can all change with two simple directives from our Chief Constable. Firstly, that Dyfed-Powys Police Officers follow existing police guidelines, that ‘genuine suspicion’ means an officer is confident that any stopped individual is committing a crime or is about to commit a crime. Secondly, that getting this judgement almost always wrong is poor policing and will no longer be acceptable; no longer encouraged by the Chief Constable to provide a low-effort boost to the Force’s proactive policing statistics, as now appears the case.

An Aside

With my sharpest and most acerbic pencil poised, it was much to my chagrin that I found myself agreeing with the two fundamental arguments of Conservative Association Chairman, Patrick Loxdale’s first article (Right Field – 25/01/23). Baffled, I read it again – to make sure.

            Ignoring the dubious deployment of more complicated mathematics (I suspect we may need to get used to that), Patrick, in successfully counting to two, identifies the important point that unlike most modern democracies, legislation passed by the Senedd does so without the critical scrutiny of a second chamber. Where we diverge in ideology is that from my side of the political fence, this democratic deficit adds another good reason for Welsh independence, a process during which a second chamber, likely an elected chamber, would almost certainly be created.

            Patrick is also right to highlight the possibility of nefarious motivations and the potential undemocratic consequences of increasing the number of elected members to the Senedd. If the answer is more MSs, probably best to revisit the question. And if such an increase intends to provide ‘jobs for the boys’, or attempts to benefit one particular political party, such expensive expansion should be resisted. Especially now. But in the longer term, we need not fear grand schemes for party entrenchment. We the people are fickle. In a heartbeat, established political parties all but disappear – I refer to the Liberal Democrats. New political ideas rapidly emerge and immediately control the agenda – I refer to UKIP. For we Brits are open to hearty and persuasive rhetoric. We like a fresh voice with an appealing new take. No party gets to lock themselves in, however much they might try. Study recent-history books, perhaps the next General Election, to be reminded that politicians who take our electorate for granted do so at their political peril.