NOT long ago while on holiday, I got caught up in two demonstrations on the streets of Istanbul, complete with water cannon and police officers with riot shields.

The first was about political prisoners and the second shortly afterwards, on the subject of freedom of the press. Needless to say I got involved in that one.

Trouble seems to follow me around, or perhaps it's the other way round.

On my most recent break, which ended last Saturday, I narrowly avoided a more genteel demonstration of public feeling, this time on the waterways of swamped and sinking Venice.

At the weekend, members of the Comitato NO Grandi Navi, a group campaigning against the giant cruise ships that deposit some 30,000 visitors each day onto the fragile lagoon, took to dinghies to make their point.

Venice has around 60,000 visitors a day, but most the cruise passengers do not stay overnight, therefore making little or no contribution to the city's economy.

One campaign group founder said: "Most of them just want to take a selfie in St Mark's Square before they go back to their ships."

To my shame, I didn't even do that.

I disembarked from one of five giant vessels docked at the port, jumped into a taxi and headed for the airport for a flight home.

The nearest I got to St Mark's was viewing from 200 feet on deck 13 of a 96,0000 tonne ship, as illustrated by the picture opposite.

The long term threat to Venice are grave.

UNESCO's world heritage site committee recently postponed a decision on whether to put Venice on its list of endangered sites.

A report last year came out with a worrying assessment of the effect on the city's teetering foundations from overcrowding, construction and pollution.

I have no idea about the environmental effects of huge cruising industry across the planet.

But at the risk of sounding like a total hypocrite for obvious reasons, it's clear that a new assessment of how mass (and growing) tourism across the whole planet is long overdue.

THE public consultation isn't over yet, it still has a few weeks to run.

The councillors haven't had their say and have been told to be careful not to fall into the trap of pre-determination.

But judging by the wording to be found in an increasing number of council reports, the merger of Bournemouth and Poole at least looks like a done deal.

For example, a document inviting tenders for 'Bournemouth and Poole Rough Sleeper Team and Associated Services' says the two councils are "currently in discussion with each other and other neighbouring local authorities regarding the possibility of the development of a merged South East Dorset unitary authority. Whilst the exact details of a merger are yet to be confirmed, it is expected that the merger itself will take place in 2018/19."

And in a report from BoP on the Raising Educational Standards Workshop Group, explains: “The consideration of the reconfiguration of local authorities in Dorset also has an influence on this proposal as it is likely that Bournemouth and Poole and possibly other areas will form a new authority in 2019."

At least the two councils are singing from the same hymn sheet.

Residents who are still giving their opinions might not be so pleased to learn that it all seems to be going so swimmingly.