The government has corrupted our police

We've all heard the expression "lions led by donkeys". At the moment it's most frequently used in the context British soldiers being tasked with fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, without the right equipment for the job and a lack of logistical and manpower support caused by the useless Ministry of Defence. But there's a domestic version of lions being led by donkeys that people forget about all too quickly.

I'm talking about our ordinary policemen and women who are managed by out of touch and largely useless desk jockey senior officers. The always excellent Inspector Gadget blog has a fantastic example of senior managers focusing on what matters in their bureaucratic parallel universe instead of what matters to people in our towns and cities and the rank and file police officers who are there to protect and serve.

Labour's concerted effort to turn our police into target driven automatons is responsible for this. Police officers have been transformed from a force that exists to enforce of law and order, by investigating crime and arresting criminals, into a curious mix of woolly social workers and crushers of political dissent. The government has corrupted our police forces to serve its needs rather than ours.