Tories must tackle Wild West Britain

WHEN Sara Thornton, the chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, stuck her neck out by saying forces should stop wasting time on wolf-whistling and historic sex investigations and focus on fighting real crimes, the Mail feared hers would be a lone voice in the wilderness.

And for good reason. The upper echelons of British policing were long ago filled with box-ticking, politically correct officers who sound a lot like social workers.

‘Are her colleagues listening?’, this column asked. But yesterday a string of chiefs responded with an emphatic ‘yes!’ Take Dave Thompson, West Midlands chief constable, who warned that if police don’t turn up in emergencies, then their ‘legitimacy disappears’.

Or Bedfordshire’s assistant chief Jacqueline Sebire who says forces ‘can’t do everything’ and must focus on thugs wreaking havoc. With refreshing honesty, and echoing this paper’s view, she adds: ‘Is it like the Wild West out there? Yes it is.’

Yet while many senior officers realise their priority must be combatting spiralling levels of burglary, robbery and violence, the penny is yet to drop in Westminster.

Predictably, Labour’s Diane Abbott rejected this dose of common sense, and demanded that all sexist comments be recorded so police can ‘ promote certain behavioural norms’.

More worrying was the pathetic response of security minister Ben Wallace, who blamed elected police commissioners and gave the impression that their priorities aren’t a matter for the Home Office. In a week when more money for beat policing was notably absent from the Budget, ministers cannot hide from the tide of violence engulfing towns and cities across the country. Indeed, if they do not lead from the front on this most critical of issues, they will pay a very high price with the electorate.