Bruce Laughton - Labour's Negligence is Criminal.

Political Leadership can help Nottinghamshire Policing

I can well understand if officers in the Nottinghamshire police are unsettled. My contact with them suggests they are professional, committed and determined to protect the people of this county. They will be saddened by headlines asserting a 'unique team' from outside their force has been brought in to 'sort them out'. Add to this talk of an East Midlands police merger including Derbyshire and Lincolnshire and it is easy to see why in Nottinghamshire a 'policeman's lot is not a happy one'.

Last May Ged Clarke,my Conservative County Council colleague, published figures to suggest the Nottinghamshire Constabulary is undermanned. He compared area populations and police numbers in various parts of England to demonstrate our Notts 'thin blue line' is considerably more stretched than elsewhere. His findings were received with surprise by many. It had been presumed that when establishing staffing levels account had been taken of the gang and gun culture being tackled by the county's police.

Local Labour politicians at the time made no response to Councillor Clarke's challenge. Their public utterances majored, as now, on the proposed new police station for Arnold, presumably in the hope of gaining some electoral advantage. It is simple to see why they choose to remain silent. Only this week [03/02/10] police evidence to a Coroner's Inquest into a particularly brutal gangland double murder demonstrated the strain under which the police work. Why had Nottinghamshire Labour MPs and most especially Vernon Coaker, then a Home Office Minister for the Police, not taken action to ease their burden. Their political failure must lie at the root of the difficulties faced by Nottinghamshire's police today.

It was not too long ago that two police services were the butt of regular press criticism. One was the Nottinghamshire Police; the other the London Metropolitan Police. The latter now rarely features in the public consciousness. Boris Johnson has seen to that. Upon his election Boris quickly stepped in to wrestle control of the police from its Labour led Police Authority and a discredited Home Secretary. He then appointed a new Commissioner with the instruction to concentrate, not on politics, but on policing. He was to turn his back on political and community pressure groups and seal the police contract with the public. As a result the doctrine of proportionality has been dropped in favour of effective policing. Knife crime in London has fallen.

What a contrast to Nottingham where this week [02/02/10] the Nottingham Evening Post carries a story which invites Labour Nottingham Council Leader Jon Collins to 'recognise the city has huge gun and knife issues that will not go away'. The writer goes on to observe that 'politics will always tarnish the battle against gun and knife crime simply because City leaders appear to only back projects that galvanise their involvement'. It is this same Labour which has the majority of Councillors on the Nottinghamshire Police Authority. They have held sway under the Chairmanship of County Councillor John Clark for too long. Similarly police in the City and County of Nottinghamshire deserve a fresh start so that they can seal their contract with the public.

Vote for a fresh start and a safer Britain.

Vote Conservative at the General Election.