Only had £49 stolen from you? Get over it

This week the Metropolitan Police announced it is to stop investigating some low-level crimes in response to mammoth spending cuts. The force has been told it must save £400m by 2020. As a result it won’t have the resources to investigate thefts of under £50, car crime and some assaults, unless a suspect is already identified – with CCTV only combed for 20 minutes.

In response the fire service announced it would only being fighting blazes of over a metre in height and doctors refused to see anyone unless they had been ‘more than a tad ill’ for three months.

Of course that’s not true, but the fact is there’s only so much you can shave off public service budgets.

Fifty years ago the thought of having no community bobbies would have been laughable but if cuts continue the concept of a selective firefighters and picky paramedics might stop being such amusing concepts.

Out of the emergency services it is only the police who have some wiggle room in terms of what they deal with, and who can blame them for using it?

What the Met is doing is very worrying. These crimes may seem small but to the victims – who will now presumably be told in a nice way to get over it – they have a big impact.

When you’ve been told to save so much in such a short space of time is it really a surprise that the force’s only option is to move the goalposts?

But there’s only so far you can push them and at this rate the only logical next step is sponsored response cars.