A police dog sniffed my trousers very thoroughly when I visited Norwich station today, while its keeper kept a weather eye on me. I wasn’t looking unusually dubious, it just happened. Then I glanced round and saw that the station was full of police officers. There must have been 50 or more. Understandably concerned, I approached one group and asked if there was a problem. “No need to worry, sir,” came the response. “This is a public reassurance exercise.”
‘Public Reassurance!’ I hope they found my comments useful. To whit: if this is meant to reassure the public, it’s not working. Conversely, it would scare the c**p out of any sentient being. Then they fessed up: actually, they were looking for drugs. Well, obviously. So why not say that up front? Honestly, this constant need to spin is giving PR a bad name.
The train from North Walsham to Norwich is a well known haunt for drug smugglers! I heard it was a training exercise though.
Think yourself lucky. Yesterday I travelled all the way from Falmouth to Norwich and not a police person nor drug sniffing dog to be seen. Not even a bloomin’ egg sandwich either. Honestly, a 5 hour train journey from Truro to Paddington and no sandwiches to be had. ‘Oooh, sorry, we didn’t realise how busy the train would be today.’ Well, virtually ALL the seats had reserved tickets on, and the train was about 20 carriages long – how difficult is it to work out?