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Hats off to bobbies' helmets

Hats off to bobbies’ helmets

The familiar police uniform is part of a civilised society, says Magnus Linklater

    On the surface it was hardly the   
most significant development of
the week, but it did leave a
faint sense of depression -
more of a pang really, which is
sharper, but doesn’t last as long.
Plans are afoot to [id:8224] the
British police uniform; the idea is
to give the police force ‘a new
corporate image’.    It goes deeper than that,   achieved a crime level lower than
    It wasn’t the awful jargonhowever, and it is not, I think, justit has been for 25 years, suggests
which hurt, but rather thea reactionary spasm, an irritatedthat in areas where people feel at
revelation, deeper into the story,response to any change whichhome, where there are familiar
that the traditional policeman’s[id:8228] a sacred institution. I dobuildings, street signs, shops and
helmet may be replaced. Thenot spring to my typewritercafés, crime is recorded at lower
new-look British bobby, itwhenever some piece of Euro-levels than in places where roads
appears, will no longer belegislation overturns a Britishare being torn up and new offices
equipped with that absurd butprecedent, because some of thembuilt. And this, suggests the
familiar headgear based on aare in dire need of overturning.research, is because there is a
19th-century Prussian armyI do not mind in the slightestclear [id:8232] a past which most
design, which has established hishaving [id:8229] tell us to clean uppeople believe to have been more
image, corporate or otherwise, forour beaches or improve oursettled, in which they can feel
the best part of 130 years. It istraffic signs.confidence.
considered [id:8225] the exciting    But other things [id:8230], and    This sense has little to do with
new approach to law and orderpolicemen’s helmets are one ofefficiency or the social benefits of
which is to be part of 21st-centurythem. They are part of themodernisation. People minded
Britain.national fabric. They may not beabout red telephone boxes
    Why does one mind so much?ideally designed for the modernbecause, although they often
Why should some minorbobby. But that is part of thestank of urine and were the
tinkering with one of our nationalpoint: they hark back to an ageregular target of vandals, they felt
emblems cause [id:8226] than awhen we had a more comfortable[id:8233] and solid, built to last by
serious assault on ourrelationship with the forces ofa more confident age.
constitution, such as reforminglaw, when policemen rode    So as Britain’s chief
the House of Lords orbicycles rather than wailingconstables ponder on the merits
introducing a Bill of Rights? It’sBMWs, when they told us toor otherwise of the bobby’s
partly, of course, that bit ofmind how we went rather thanhelmet, they should bear in mind
Parkinson’s Law which says thatbeating us up. They are, [id:8231], athe question of security in its
detail will always retain thelink with the better and strongerbroadest sense - the confidence
attention while [id:8227] pass usaspects of British tradition, thethey inspire as well as the
by: a local council, it pointed out,things we cherish rather thanprotection they offer. In the long
may approve a multimillionpoundmerely miss.run that may be every bit as
hospital investment in a    This may have an importanceimportant.
matter of minutes, but will thenbeyond the merely practical.
devote hours to discussing a newResearch in New York City,‘The Times’, September 22, 1995
£ 5,000 bicycle shelter.where the Police Department has