Week ending 18th December

Our Friday miscellany of the week's news and events
Thanks a million ... (well, 30,000 anyway.) Your continued support saw our blog celebrate 30,000 hits during the course of the week. Thanks for helping to make our little effort so successful ... and please tell your friends where to find us. We were especially touched when a new reader wrote to tell us: "I do enjoy reading your blog, as it gives me a better idea of the state of the place than I could read in any biased newspaper!"
Talking of which ... We commented the other week on the "new look" Boston Standard, and how it now offers readers even less through the use of bigger pictures, bigger headlines and larger typefaces. This "improvement" is growing apace as this week's issue shows. Some pages carry no more than three stories, and a count across the main news pages show an average of just two to a page.
New books? This is a library! ... We don't like the colour scheme, but after years of campaigning, we welcome the news that Boston Library is getting a face lift. What's on the cards? New carpets, signs and general decoration and "convenient" self-service technology. We have our doubts about this latter offering. In all the years we've been using the library, we've seldom seen anyone manage to operate the "convenient self-service" photocopying machine without having to call for help. There will also be improvements to the "People’s Network" computer suite - (don't you hate the "people's" tag that's tied to everything these days? Another welcome benefit will be the introduction of more natural light, and we hope that the terrible strip lighting will at last be consigned to the bin. The staff counter will be removed, "leaving more space for new books" - although why we couldn't have had more new books years ago is anyone's guess. Boston Library has been a bleak source of new books for years - but we live in hope. And let's hope they can get ride of the smell.
That's all right then ... After the last full council meeting we quoted the question posed by County and Borough Councillor Ramonde Newell regarding the withdrawal of the warning flood sirens. He appeared to be very concerned that the sirens were on the way out, suggesting that their international language was really the only way to warn people of impending danger. Yet now he's written to the local press praising the replacement system to the skies and apparently associating himself with the changes he appeared to be unhappy with by signing himself as a County Councillor and Borough member for emergency planning. As far as we can see, Councillor Newell is merely repeating what he was told at the meeting. In the interest of everyone's safety, we hope that he will check it out in more detail as soon as possible. The idea of one politician believing what two others tells him beggars belief!
Plodding along ... We welcome the news that Lincolnshire's Chief Constable hopes to "put more officers on the beat" in Boston - even though we've heard it all before. But we confess to being a little nervous about the subtext that goes with the pledge. "The budget has not been set but we will be presenting plans for more uniformed officers in each division," says the Chief Con. Forgive us if we think that sounds a bit like " how much are you going to give us if you want some extra police for your borough?"
Smarmer of the week award goes to Target columnist George Wheatman for his item on the pressures of being a council leader. He makes it sound as though the criticism heaped on the heads of leaders past and present is somehow unjustified. Generally it is deserved - at least at the time. He also speculates that there will be jockeying for the leadership "if, come next spring there is a change of political complexion after the borough elections." If there is, we will be greatly surprised. The next borough elections are not until May 2011. We thought that George might have known this - or if not, someone else at the Target would have spotted the mistake. Or was it perhaps just wishful thinking?

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