Snitching on neighbours is becoming our new national pastime

Aletter arrives in the post. It has an air of sternness that I don’t much like. My hunch is correct; I’ve been reported to something called “Operation Crackdown” for driving at 38mph in a 30mph zone in West Sussex when I visited my mother a few weeks ago. I scan the words quickly to see what my punishment is: a fine? Points? Court and the clink?

Actually, it’s nothing, because Operation Crackdown isn’t an official police exercise. Instead, the letter has been prompted by a bunch of local vigilantes wearing hi-viz jackets, standing in a Sussex village and taking turns with the radar gun. I remember seeing them at the time and thinking, “Ha! Lucky I’m going at the correct speed!” so a trip to Specsavers might be in order once we’re allowed out again.

Having clocked offenders, the hi-viz jackets report them to the local police; the local police send out threatening letters. I can’t be stung for a fine or penalty points, but my details will be kept by Sussex police for 12 months and “if the vehicle comes to our notice again, it will be investigated further”.

All right, hands up, I was speeding and certainly above the fabled 10 per cent that one is supposedly allowed in certain situations. Fair enough, I’m sorry. And yet I can’t help feel peeved at this busybody snitching. That’s partly because I’ve been caught out and nobody likes being told off. But it’s also because the letter’s landed at an unfortunate time, a time when there’s a mad increase in smug, curtain-twitching around the country as people rat on their neighbours for taking their dog out for another wee.

Northamptonshire police revealed this week that they’ve received “dozens and dozens” of calls from informants saying: “I think my neighbour is going out for a second run – I want you to come and arrest them.” Just imagine calling the rozzers at a time like this because