Tomlison

There have been a couple of ex-senior policemen interviewed on the Today programme this week. They both spoke volumes, sometimes with guarded responses. For the officer who clobbered Ian Tomlinson not to face a charge is quite incredible and very disturbing.  It follows in a long line of similar events where to simply turn these incidents on their head and ask. "What would have happened if it had been a PC killed by a member of the public?" It is very informative.

It does the police no good. It reinforces the belief that there is one rule for those in charge and another for the rest of us. It does our society no good. Loss of confidence is one thing. Deep animosity and suspicion are something else. Most decent policework is done with the help and support of the public. We are sliding down a slippery slope.

As the Raol Moat case follow up showed, there are parts of this country where the police are seen as the enemy. There are several reasons for this. It does not help the cause when citizens carrying out their right to protest are seen by some officers as criminals or potential terrorists. Individual plods are not to blame - it comes from higher up the food chain. NewLabour had an an appalling civil liberties record. 13 years of trying to look tougher than the tories on Laura Norder.

We need decent leadership, a Royal Commission with a strict timetable to review the decline of policing with consent and political leaders prepared to tackle iniquities and injustice.