How ‘Nice’ is Wiltshire?

Beautiful countryside, cultural paradise, high standard of living, low crime rate – we are lucky indeed to live in God’s Own County (keep it secret from Yorkshire, poor deluded souls). But for how long?

The news last month that Chief Police Officers were proposing the reintroduction of internment without charge or trial ‘for as long as it takes’ to cope with terrorism suspects in our country, was, frankly, spine-chilling. It has nothing to do with being left-wing or right-wing and everything to do with Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, Parliamentary Democracy and the liberty generations of Britons have fought and died for – and still do. It may be necessary and justified – but we will all need to be convinced.

So I wrote to our excellent Chief Constable. I reminded him that in July I had agreed in Parliament to double for one more year the 14-day limit to a 28-day limit on detention without charge (under judicial supervision) which he had convinced me was necessary. I pointed out that any decision to extend further such an infringement of the liberty of our citizens was not a matter for decision by the judiciary or the police but by Parliament. I look forward to listening to his case. Please let me know what you think.

Knives and guns
The violent culture that leads to stabbings and shooting is not - yet- part of the Wiltshire way of life. But we are not immune. Over the past ten years fourteen people have been stabbed to death in our county – technically known as ‘homicide involving a sharp instrument’.

Hate crimes
In July I was asked to help with two cases of racially motivated hate crime. The first involved a person living in a village close to Salisbury who after many years could no longer visit the pub because of the level of verbal racial aggression and abuse. The second involved foreign language students abused by a gang of local youths in the City centre.

Of course, we like to think that Salisbury is a cut above the rest of Wiltshire - but I am sorry to report that in our county, this sort of hate crime has been increasing rapidly. Between 1999 and 2006 racially or religiously aggravated recorded offences have totalled 109 common assaults, 181 woundings and 760 cases of harassment. Of these, 47 common assaults were proceeded with and 25 were found guilty. Of the 14 woundings proceeded with, only one was found guilty. Of the 166 harassment cases proceeded with, 107 were guilty. Recorded cases of wounding and harassment in Wiltshire have both quadrupled since 1999.

Britain’s Broken Society
Today’s teenagers are the first generation in history to be less healthy than their parents. And in Salisbury we are privileged compared to Glasgow where 55 per cent of households have no earned income and in one ward male life expectancy is down to 54 years – less than Gaza, North Korea or most of sub-Saharan Africa. In England, life expectancy for men is around 74 and for women around 80, and in Salisbury it is around 77 for men and 81 for women.

Not even in Salisbury can we ignore the fracturing of families and the undermining of values that bedevils our nation. We shouldn’t be surprised that it took a (very good) Bollywood actress to remind us of the traditional British virtues of tolerance and courtesy when 24 per cent of kids are being brought up by a lone parent, 42 per cent of British marriages end in divorce and we have the highest teenage birth rate in Europe. Is all this unrelated to the fact that alcohol-related deaths have doubled since 1990 and one third of 16- to 24-year- olds binge drink each week while 26 per cent of children have taken drugs?

Drowning in facts
Unless an MP’s mind is closed, the management of information is an increasing challenge. The least I can do is share some with you! Next time you buy a chicken, ask where it came from. It may not be very local. In 2005 there were 9,404 consignments of poultry meat inspected on entry to the UK. Of these, 5,530 came from Thailand, 3,263 from Brazil and 354 from Chile. Buy local, I say!

Two million motorists are driving on our roads without insurance – that’s about one in ten. They are a dangerous menace. Parliament has done something useful and given Police the powers to tackle this. New Automatic Number Plate Reading equipment also helps. There are now 300,000 convictions for uninsured driving every year – and 600 vehicles a week are seized, and either destroyed or released on payment of charges and production of a valid insurance certificate.

I’m often asked why we don’t adopt the French system and insist on an insurance disk on the car. In the UK it is the driver who must be insured, not the vehicle. This means that older, safer drivers pay less and premiums are loaded against accident-prone younger drivers. Sorry, kids – you know it makes sense.

And finally…
Good news from the new RSPB Winterbourne Downs reserve – turtle doves and quail have arrived. Kestrels and Barn Owls are doing well, but sadly the wet summer led the Lapwings to abandon their nests. Stone-curlews are awaited. The Wiltshire Botanical Society reports that 33 of the plant species sown there last year have grown successfully. Now, those are the sort of facts I like!

Robert Key MP