Remember the general election campaign, and the rallying cries from David Cameron and his colleagues calling for softer sentences for drugs crooks?

Across Britain there are people who are working hard for modest pay and are struggling to manage on the meagre amount left over when they have paid all the bills.

They came to Britain looking for work. But now they are not in work, and 371,000 of them are claiming benefits, a huge drain on public finances.

Shropshire’s waste contractor Veolia must feel that it is everyone’s favourite punchball at the moment.

Some people have a happy Christmas, some people have a raucous Christmas, and there are always a few who have an out-of-control Christmas, making what should be a time of peace and goodwill a pretty busy period for the police.

The row over the amount of cash that is being raked in by hospital car parking charges at the Royal Shrewsbury and the Princess Royal does not go to the heart of the issue, which is one of principle.

There may have been a time when the public perception of scrap metal theft was of a petty crime committed on a relatively small scale by likeable rogues who made a few pennies from their ill-gotten gains.

It will be deeply ironic if the damage to a wind turbine which has temporarily closed a windfarm in Mid Wales was caused by high winds.

It is one of the oldest of trading traditions. You display your wares outside your shop, showing them off and drawing in the customers.

The system of making complaints about mistakes in energy bills, about faulty meters, and other problems with your energy supplier, is working very well – for the energy companies, that is.

Were the High Speed Rail link planned to pass through Shropshire, the protests on environmental grounds would make the objections to new electricity pylons across the county look tame indeed.

Tonight, Shropshire radio presenter Adam Green features in a timely BBC TV documentary examining the issue of social drinking. He took part in a month-long project to give up booze throughout December party season, with some eye-opening results.