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Chief constable proud to join ranks of the druids
SPEED camera fan police chief Richard Brunstrom became a druid yesterday.
The North Wales chief constable joined an order of Welsh bards at the National Eisteddfod near Swansea.
Membership of the Gorsedd of Bards is the highest honour bestowed by the annual Welsh language festival and is for people deemed to have made a significant contribution to Wales' language and culture..
Mr Brunstrom joined a procession of robe-wearing new recruits on the rain-swept Eisteddfod field.
He is known to readers of the Police Federation's official magazine as "the godfather of the speed camera" and even the Gorsedd's most senior members are not exempt.
Archdruid Selwyn Iolen, who presided over yesterday's ceremony, got a speeding ticket from North Wales Police when he was rushing home to see the second half of a football match recently.
Eisteddfod-goers can now address Mr Brunstrom as Spider after he took the Welsh translation Prif Copyn as his bardic title. It is a pun on the Welsh phrase for chief constable (prif gwnstabl).
Mr Brunstrom, 52, who has been learning Welsh for five years, said he was extremely proud to receive the honour.
"I don't think I have ever felt English. I'm a passionate European and I'm passionately in support of devolution in Wales. I don't think my wife understands this. She doesn't speak Welsh."
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 11 February 2012
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