But one of Mr Allen's local authority partners, Eric Milligan, who sits on the Lothian and Borders Police Board, said the idea of a single force betrayed the localised history of Scottish policing and threatened the independence of the force.

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Too many do not have the independence of mind or force of commitment to do so.

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Yet as soon as the Greek nation regained independence in 1830, the force of the moral argument was always on the Greek side.

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