Leader - Violence is stretching to the countryside

In the quiet heart of the Shropshire countryside has been visited a violent crime of the sort more commonly associated with urban gangland environments.

Armed with a machete and baseball bat, raiders burgled two homes in broad daylight in the village of Wollerton, terrorising the occupants and ransacking the homes, before escaping in a Land Rover stolen from one of the properties.

Given the haul, which seems to have been unremarkable in the league table of criminal plunder, the level of violence offered was out of all proportion and deeply worrying because it suggests that violence and terror was an integral part of the modus operandi of the culprits. Planned violence, in other words.

In a largely rural county like Shropshire shocking events like this stretch police resources. Community spirit does however give this county an advantage over the gangster badlands where people look the other way or are reluctant to co-operate with investigations.

The crooks did not appear from nowhere, and did not disappear into nowhere. So somebody will have seen something which will be significant to the investigation, probably without knowing it. Cracking cases like these can be a case of piecing disparate clues together like a jigsaw. Someone out there may have a missing piece.

Police often stress that crimes such as this are rare, and we should not let our lives be governed by fear of crime.

But you get the feeling that these particular crooks are the sort of hardened criminals who will continue until they are caught.

That is why it is doubly important that witnesses come forward to help police. Because if this gang gets away with it, somebody else living in the countryside may be the next victim and put through an ordeal of fear and trauma.

Honeymoon about to end:

After "pastygate" comes the bizarre possibility that hot cross buns, that traditional Easter treat, will be slapped with VAT if served hot, but be cheaper if they are served cold.

Barely a day goes by when David Cameron and his administration do not attract more negative headlines.

Mr Cameron has been a "presentational" politician very much in the Tony Blair mould. After a while, the media tires of the facade and starts to dig behind it to find what is really there underneath the slick and shiny veneer.

It is noticeable that those in the press who have supported and championed Mr Cameron are now in the vanguard of those who are sniping at him.

He has been in office long enough to have built up a track record. Judgments are starting to be made, not on promises and spin, but on what he has actually done. Or not done.

With Tony Blair, the showman act received repeated electoral encores. With Mr Cameron, the honeymoon has ended much more quickly.

We are going to find out how the media-friendly Mr Cameron copes when the media becomes decidedly unfriendly.