Welsh lessons for the Met

I came across this rather heart-warming piece by Rosamund Urwin in today's London Evening Standard.

Welsh lessons for the Met

On Friday evening I went to see the Peckham peace wall. Patrolling the streets around Rye Lane were the Welsh police, the "Heddlu". Theirs appeared to be a "hearts and minds" mission: every officer had a permanent grin, they already knew the names of the local shopkeepers and I witnessed one be remarkably charming to a woman who was ranting at him. Perhaps the Met could learn a little something from the approach of their provincial colleagues.

London Evening Standard, 18 August 2011

That makes me feel rather proud of our police. Well done bois.

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

'Provincial' eh?

MH said...

OK, "provincial" doesn't sound right. But cut her some slack.

"The Welsh Police" certainly does sound good, though.

Anonymous said...

Are we not a 'province' of the UK? I thought the fact that we are and many of us don't want to be was the point of this blog!

Kelv said...

I also quite like the sound of 'the Heddlu', and during the riots It was interesting to see so many English tweeters specifically expressing their gratitude to 'the Heddlu'. Maybe Richard Brunstrom was onto something!

MH said...

We're part of the UK (for now at least) but we're not actually a "province", Anon. That's the correct term for Northern Ireland, though of course "provincial" has a more general meaning. Technically, we are a "country" of the UK.

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Of course the big thing now is to make sure that the police and justice system is devolved to Wales within the next year or two; in the same way as it devolved to the country of Scotland and the province of Northern Ireland. It wasn't just Brunstrom, Kelv, I think all the chief constables are in favour of devolving this to Wales.

Anonymous said...

What do you meant Richard Brunstrom was right?
Did he want the Police in Wales to be only called Heddlu??? may have missed this story!

As for the riots- it was hilarious to see Twitter going mad with people asking "who are the Heddlu Police" - I'm sure they thought it was some secret police. It was also weird to see Heddlu vans drive around areas like Marble Arch.

Kelv said...

Very nearly! In 2008, he said he'd quite like only 'Heddlu', not 'Police', to appear on police vehicles, along the lines of the Irish Gardaí...

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/10/12/ditch-police-from-cars-says-brunstrom-91466-22014997/

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