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 jargon | | however, and it is not, I think, just | | it has been for 25 years, suggests |
which hurt, but rather the | | a reactionary spasm, an irritated | | that in areas where people feel at |
revelation, deeper into the story, | | response to any change which | | home, where there are familiar |
that the traditional policeman’s | | [id:8228] a sacred institution. I do | | buildings, street signs, shops and |
helmet may be replaced. The | | not spring to my typewriter | | cafés, crime is recorded at lower |
new-look British bobby, it | | whenever some piece of Euro- | | levels than in places where roads |
appears, will no longer be | | legislation overturns a British | | are being torn up and new offices |
equipped with that absurd but | | precedent, because some of them | | built. And this, suggests the |
familiar headgear based on a | | are in dire need of overturning. | | research, is because there is a |
19th-century Prussian army | | I do not mind in the slightest | | clear [id:8232] a past which most |
design, which has established his | | having [id:8229] tell us to clean up | | people believe to have been more |
image, corporate or otherwise, for | | our beaches or improve our | | settled, in which they can feel |
the best part of 130 years. It is | | traffic 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 order | | policemen’s helmets are one of | | efficiency or the social benefits of |
which is to be part of 21st-century | | them. They are part of the | | modernisation. People minded |
Britain. | | national fabric. They may not be | | about red telephone boxes |
Why does one mind so much? | | ideally designed for the modern | | because, although they often |
Why should some minor | | bobby. But that is part of the | | stank of urine and were the |
tinkering with one of our national | | point: they hark back to an age | | regular target of vandals, they felt |
emblems cause [id:8226] than a | | when we had a more comfortable | | [id:8233] and solid, built to last by |
serious assault on our | | relationship with the forces of | | a more confident age. |
constitution, such as reforming | | law, when policemen rode | | So as Britain’s chief |
the House of Lords or | | bicycles rather than wailing | | constables ponder on the merits |
introducing a Bill of Rights? It’s | | BMWs, when they told us to | | or otherwise of the bobby’s |
partly, of course, that bit of | | mind how we went rather than | | helmet, they should bear in mind |
Parkinson’s Law which says that | | beating us up. They are, [id:8231], a | | the question of security in its |
detail will always retain the | | link with the better and stronger | | broadest sense - the confidence |
attention while [id:8227] pass us | | aspects of British tradition, the | | they inspire as well as the |
by: a local council, it pointed out, | | things we cherish rather than | | protection they offer. In the long |
may approve a multimillionpound | | merely miss. | | run that may be every bit as |
hospital investment in a | | This may have an importance | | important. |
matter of minutes, but will then | | beyond the merely practical. | | |
devote hours to discussing a new | | Research in New York City, | | ‘The Times’, September 22, 1995 |
£ 5,000 bicycle shelter. | | where the Police Department has | |