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UK's most senior officer says new budget cuts require 'radical action' He claims police needs to catch-up with the changing nature of crime Others claim scale of cuts to come could decimate neighbourhood policing

By Rebecca Camber for the Daily Mail

Published: 18:44 EST, 14 December 2014 | Updated: 05:56 EST, 15 December 2014

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Warning: Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe says forthcoming cuts in police budgets will endanger the public unless radical action is taken

The public will be put at risk unless police forces merge to save costs, Britains most senior officer warned last night.

Scotland Yard commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe called for the traditional landscape of policing to be ripped up, replacing 43 forces across England and Wales with nine regional super forces.

He has warned that forthcoming cuts in police budgets will endanger the public unless radical action is taken.

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Get rid of 34 police forces to save cash, Scotland Yard's Bernard Hogan-Howe says

Illustration: Kerrie Leishman.

The Sydney Botanic Gardens and Domain, while a gift from governors Phillip and Macquarie to the people of Sydney, is of its essence, a gift of nature.

Its attractive deep cove, with its two long tongues of green reaching down to the harbour at Bennelong Point and at Mrs Macquaries Chair, is essentially the landform shaped down the aeons. It is broadly as it was before European settlement. That is what is so wonderful about it a place defined by naturalism. But even more than that, a garden space made richer by its developed horticultural heritage.

The Sydney Botanic Gardens is one of the great gardens of its kind in the world. We therefore have a duty of care to maintain and protect it.

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The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trusthas outlined a plan which fundamentally commercialises this historic garden place. The plan seeks to give the gardens a railway station, a ferry wharf, a hotel, a permanent sound stage and, as inappropriate as these things are, worse than that, three clumsily placed buildings. According to the draft plan, a 100- to 200-seat cafe and function places in each of the very points that the two green tongues touch the harbour Bennelong Point at the foot of the Opera House and Mrs Macquaries Chair and a separate extension of the Art Gallery of NSW jumping the expressway to land in the gardens themselves.

Jorn Utzonset his Opera House and the steps to its podium against the immediate rolling green hill rising from the Man OWar steps reaching to Government House. It is a poetic picture of nature juxtaposed with major architecture. Where that rolling hill meets Utzons steps, the gardens trust wants to erect a building. And a big one. The insensitivity of it is breathtaking. And to what purpose? The draft plan tells us "an orientation centre, associated retail, 200-seat cafe, 100-seat outdoor dining area and public toilets". In other words a mini-mall.

But not happy with that detraction against the site, the trust seeks to repeat it at Mrs Macquaries Point. Here, on what is probably Sydneys most natural and sacred site, with panoramic views from the Opera House and Harbour Bridge to Bradleys Head, the trust intends to construct another building. And that building, according to the draft plan, is another cafe, retail and function space with a terrace under a glass canopy. In other words, a blot on the landscape. But in this case, the most sensitive bit of landscape in the city.

One can only imagine the growth in the tourist bus traffic that will tear Mrs Macquaries Point to pieces as tourism operators pour their clients into the cafe and function space. These tourism operators want to sell the nature that Sydney offers while reserving the right to trash it wherever they think they can make a faster and more convenient buck.

One can understand the greedy and crass tourism industry wanting to build these things, but having them done at the behest of the gardens trust the supposed trustee of this natural domain is what is truly disturbing.

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A blot on Sydney's landscape

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Washington (CNN) -- Washington is entering a new era of kamikaze governance, this time with Democrats at the helm.

Thursday night's spending showdown saw progressive Democrats unexpectedly emerge as the agitators ready to drive the nation off a cliff to win concessions and progressives say it will happen again.

"The fight last night was a shot across the bow that progressives are ready to stand and fight, and there are millions of Americans ready to jump into the fray," Ben Wikler, Washington director for MoveOn.org, a progressive group, said on Sunday.

Progressive members of the Democratic Party are gearing up for what they expect to be many battles needed to defend their values as Republicans seek to chip away at a variety of Democratic priorities when they take control of Congress next year.

A prime example of such skirmishes came last week. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren objected to a GOP provision -- attached to a broad spending bill -- that rolled back a key portion of the Wall Street reform law. Her opposition prompted dozens of Democrats to defect and triggered a last-minute scramble for support; President Barack Obama himself made calls to win lawmakers back and stave off a potential government shutdown.

The spending bill eventually passed the Senate on Saturday night and on Sunday, Democratic leaders downplayed a possible rift within the party.

READ: Top Dems deny there's a party rift

But the nearly 2,000 progressive activists and operatives who descended on Washington over the weekend for the annual Rootscamp gathering felt otherwise.

Panels addressed things like #HillaryProblems and the lack of understanding between the grassroots and establishment wings of the Democratic Party. And panelists and attendees alike endorsed the newly antagonistic moves from their elected officials this week.

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Progressives prepare for Hill battle

Washington is entering a new era of kamikaze governance, this time with Democrats at the helm.

Thursday night's spending showdown saw progressive Democrats unexpectedly emerge as the agitators ready to drive the nation off a cliff to win concessions --- and progressives say it will happen again.

"The fight last night was a shot across the bow that progressives are ready to stand and fight, and there are millions of Americans ready to jump into the fray," Ben Wikler, Washington director for MoveOn.org, a progressive group, said on Sunday.

Progressive members of the Democratic Party are gearing up for what they expect to be many battles needed to defend their values as Republicans seek to chip away at a variety of Democratic priorities when they take control of Congress next year.

A prime example of such skirmishes came last week. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren objected to a GOP provision -- attached to a broad spending bill -- that rolled back a key portion of the Wall Street reform law. Her opposition prompted dozens of Democrats to defect and triggered a last-minute scramble for support; President Barack Obama himself made calls to win lawmakers back and stave off a potential government shutdown.

The spending bill eventually passed the Senate on Saturday night and on Sunday, Democratic leaders downplayed a possible rift within the party.

But the nearly 2,000 progressive activists and operatives who descended on Washington over the weekend for the annual Rootscamp gathering felt otherwise.

Panels addressed things like #HillaryProblems and the lack of understanding between the grassroots and establishment wings of the Democratic Party. And panelists and attendees alike endorsed the newly antagonistic moves from their elected officials this week.

"How do we make change in general, as we're seeing from the streets of DC to Ferguson to New York? I do think that sometimes you have to shut it down," said Alana Krivo-Kaufman, a 27-year-old Rootscamp attendee and an organizer with Jewish Voice for Peace.

And with Republicans taking control of the Senate next month, the imperative for progressives to hold their ground on key issues could grow ever more urgent.

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Progressives gird for Capitol Hill battle

Mai Kow land clearing - 11 December 2014

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The plan to ban broad-scale land clearing on farms was due to come into effect next month.

The Tasmanian Government is confident a decision to scrap a plan to ban broad-scale land clearing will not breach its commitment to retain 95 per cent of the native forests that existed in 1996.

New rules that were expected to come into effect next month would have prevented farmers from clearing more than 20 hectares over five years.

But Resources Minister Paul Harriss has announced the limit will remain at 40 hectares a year while a review of the permanent native forest estate policy is undertaken.

"Business as usual will be available from the first of January 2015 to the first of January 2016," he said.

Mr Harriss said only 720 hectares were cleared last financial year.

"That 95 per cent of the native forest estate which existed in 1996 still has about 6,000 hectares in the bank," he said.

Vica Bayley of the Wilderness Society has warned broad-scale land clearing puts threatened species such as the orange-bellied swift parrot at risk.

"In some regions of Tasmania there's absolutely nothing left in the bank," he said.

Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association's Jan Davis said the move will allow them to expand crops to capitalise on the benefits of new irrigation schemes.

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Native forest clearing on farms ban ditched by Tasmanian Government

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