Demands from other parts of the public sector are a huge burden. Forces are always there to help in times of need, but they are not a substitute for the NHS, ambulance services, or mental health practitioners. Maybe a directly elected health commissioner might help?
With households feeling the squeeze, have a duty to be smart and imaginative in making policing budgets stretch as far as possible.
Police effectiveness must be boosted by a strategic shift to prevention. 20,000 extra cops has to mean one million fewer crimes, not 200,000 more people in front of the courts.
One force can complete vetting of officers in two months, while another can take up to eight months. In Bedfordshire, we are part of a closer Tri-Force collaboration with Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire.
Recently the Government’s commitment to tackling this abhorrent crime has come into question.
There are 227 NHS trusts in England and if they all spent the lowest of these figures, £231,611, the total cost would be £52.6 million. 1500 nurses could be employed for that sum.
When I was responsible for the £600 million a year London Development Agency, I was shocked at how much management focus was just on getting money out of the door.
If we don’t avoid the bear traps, we will face another attack from a new ‘son of UKIP’ force that could unwittingly hand power to a Labour-led coalition.
With 16 years of opposition experience on the Council, I have some idea of how to hold an administration to account and I will continue to do this over this council term.
If officers on the beat were the answer, Britain today would be safer than it was in the 1960s. Yet the data tell a very different story.
Some Tory members would see such a development as nothing less than an establishment coup: as a conspiracy of bad actors working together to win revenge for Brexit.
As this marvellous city prepares for Diwali, I trust leaders and communities will come together to extinguish the hostility and tension which have darkened the last few weeks.
Braverman declares that the police must have all the powers they need to stop protesters “who use guerrilla tactics and bring chaos and misery to the law-abiding majority”.
The Home Secretary received a spontaneous standing ovation for bombarding the liberal Establishment.
Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil use a tactical handbook written by a true fanatic, and an effective response must recognise this.