Jacqui Spliff backs away from the weapon...

So Home Secretary Jacqui Spliff has now decided we can't have direct democratic oversight of our police forces. Professional politicians from all sides have rushed to support her decision.

It would be illuminating to know how many of the protagonists in this article broadly supporting her are Common Purpose 'graduates'.

Elected Chief Constables, along the American model, ensure a community gets the policing it wants, not what the politically correct want to foist on it. It's perfectly possible to arrange the law on campaigning such that a system doesn't polarize on party lines, but, even if it did, it would still be far more LOCALLY accountable than the present, arcane, way of making appointments behind-the-scenes.

It's depressing that the Police Federation has no view on this (or if they do it's not being heard), since they are supposed to be the voice of the bobby on the beat. As anyone who participates in Neighbourhood Watch will tell you, the good men and women at the sharp end of policing the nation (literally!) are tired and fed up with the power plays of their superiors. They want to catch villains and lock them safely away, not waste resources on 'cultural awareness' and homosexual rights brainwashing, and we want them to be doing that. They also want to be better rooted in the communities they serve, and locally elected civilians with oversight would be an ideal way to help everyone work more closely together.

How then can it be right that an 'überclass' is back running the show, and that this is endorsed by professional politicians across the board, unless there is some tune that they are all humming quietly under their collective breath?

Not for nothing does the introduction to the English translation of Corpus Juris describe it as a 'system of repression'. After the raid on Parliament itself, the Met. in particular have now simply become the Home Office's enforcers.

The biggest irony is that, with this cowardly decision, in a style Ms. Spliff is famous for, the police are now more politicised than they have ever been since the days of Sir Robert Peel. Yet another bastion of British freedom is placed beyond the reach of the ordinary people.