At the end of a sunny week, I hopped back on to my motorbike and headed to Weymouth to catch up with Inspector Barry Gosling, of Dorset Police. He's in charge of looking after Weymouth and Portland and I went for one of my regular meetings to listen and support. The meeting itself was in confidence and some of things we spoke about I cannot repeat here. The issues ranged far and wide, from drugs to anti-social behaviour. Both Barry and I are delighted that the Prime Minister has announced he intends to recruit another 20,000 police officers, and not before time. I have lobbied hard on this for years, often causing disquiet among my own Party, but, having served in N Ireland on three operational tours, I know full well the significance of having troops/police officers on the streets in numbers. It both reassures and deters. I would like to congratulate the police for a superb 100-day initiative over the summer that proved highly effective. I am extremely grateful to all police officers in Dorset who do a great job, often in difficult and potentially dangerous circumstances.