Home Office Minister Alun Michael has called for people from more varied backgrounds to take on the role of overseeing their local police forces.He has warmly welcomed the publicity campaign launched by the Association of Police Authorities to support the search for new candidates to fill vacancies falling in April 1999.The campaign’s key message is that independent members should represent the widest possible range of people in the community. Independent members work alongside councillors and magistrates to make up the full police authority.Mr Michael said: “Police authorities have a crucial role in modern-day policing. They give strategic direction to the local police force. They oversee its performance. They seek to ensure that it delivers the service the local community wants

Read more on ALUN MICHAEL CALLS FOR NEW BLOOD ON POLICE AUTHORITIES…

The new regional bodies of government should be brought in to develop greater coherence and co-ordination of provision for post-16 education and training, is the conclusion of a new report.

The report, from the Institute for Public Policy Research, sheds light on the large numbers of young people (around one in ten), who regularly truant, leave school without any qualifications, and who then do not go into education, training or employment.

Read more on CALL TO STANDARDISE PROVISION FOR TEENAGERS…

Arthur Sheldon – Institute of Economic Affairs

Over-government is now a serious problem in many countries, says Arthur Sheldon in a new IEA Hobart paper. Instead of accounting for about 40 per cent of GDP,government spending should decrease to nearer 20 per cent. Then citizens would be less inclined to try to escape from government control, as they are now doing in big numbers, because government activity far exceeds what they would freely have chosen.

Read more on THE DILEMMA OF DEMOCRACY – THE POLITICAL ECONOMICS OF OVER GOVERNMENT…