What are your thoughts?
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn opened fire on the prime minister, Theresa May regarding her record of keeping Britain safe and has accused her of not listening to warnings on safety as she has cut police numbers by a staggering 20,000.
Corbyn said on Sunday evening “You cannot protect the public on the cheap. The police and security services must get the resources they need.”
Piers Morgan wrote today in the Mail Online and said: “lest we forget, was the same woman who when she was Home Secretary for six years slashed UK police numbers by 20,000.”
Morgan also wrote that a “One-time Community Police Officer of the Year, Damian O’Reilly, pleaded with her to reverse cuts in local policing in Manchester.”
I had to leave,”he told her directly, ‘because the changes that have been imposed have caused community policing to collapse.”
He continued: “Intelligence has dried up. There aren’t local officers, they don’t know what’s happening. They’re all reactive, there’s no proactive policing locally. That is the reality ma’am.”
“Neighbourhood policing is critical to dealing with terrorism. We run the risk here of letting communities down, putting officers at risk and ultimately risking national security and I would ask you to seriously consider the budget and the level of cuts over the next five years.”
The apparent response by May was to accuse O’Reilly and his colleagues of scaremongering and sneered: “This crying wolf has to stop. The last five years have shown that it is possible to do more with less.”
O’Reilly said warned that it “is s that our police force has been so badly decimated by these savage cuts it cannot possibly defend us properly.”
But yet when a crime has been committed and the police don’t turn the public goes into a rage against the police that ultimately divides the community. So yes, O’Reilly in my opinion was correct.
Whichever way we look at this the police need more numbers for the protection of all us and to enable them to be more proactive rather than reactive.
Monday Britain’s top cop, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Cressida Dick was with the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan speaking at the scene of Saturday’s terrorist attack.
Khan said: “It’s a fact that the more resources that police and experts have, the better job they can do.”
“I’m really pleased that the police do a fantastic job with the resources they have, but over the last seven years we as a city have lost £600m from our budget, we have had to close police stations, sell police buildings, and we’ve lost thousands of police staff.”
“Over the next four years there are plans to cut a further £400m from our city’s policing budget, there are plans to change the police funding formula, which could mean we lose up to £700m on top of that, which leads to a total loss of our policing budget of £1.7bn.”
I would bet my Scotch egg that Dick would be delighted with this reversal as would London’s cops who really are against it all the time.
LondonLovesBusiness spoke with a police source recently who said: “We just do not have the resources and many incidents that take place we are limited with police powers that restricts us and frustrates us as it prevents us from doing what we are good at.”
Monday Conservative culture secretary, Karen Bradley had a very awkward live TV interview with Piers Morgan, she just kept dodging such a simple question on police cuts to the frustration of many.
Bradley said to Morgan on ITV Good Morning Britain the he is asking her “pub questions” and she dramatically floundered.
Morgan accused her of not wanting to admit to “the reality of the police cuts” during their on-air clash.
Bradley then said: ““What I’m interested in is making sure that we have the right resources, the right powers, and the right training and capabilities.”
“I am assured by the police that they have that to deal with the counter-terrorism threat, but we need to look, learn lessons and make sure that we act where appropriate and we need a leader who is prepared to take those decisions, and that is Theresa May.”
Morgan was persistent, he pressed her yet again for the simple answer to a very simple question, she said: “Piers, we are here to talk about how the attack on Saturday, how we react to that attack, and how we make sure on Thursday that we have the right person elected to Downing Street so that we can deal with it.”
Chuka Umunna Labour MP Tweeted Home Office figures in response to the Morgan interview.
He said: “Minister Karen Bradley refused to tell @piersmorgan on @GMB today if armed officer numbers are up or down. Answer: down.”
Minister Karen Bradley refused to tell @piersmorganon @GMB today if armed officer numbers are up or down. Answer: down (via @MattChorley) pic.twitter.com/GYK7DHZmJ1
— Chuka Umunna (@ChukaUmunna) June 5, 2017
The next time we are so frustrated and want to yell at the police for not doing their job, think on, it’s not because they don’t it is because they are forced into a position that is making impossible.
That said our brave police attended Saturdays horrific terrorist attack and within just eight minutes killed those murdering B*****ds. I am very proud of what our police do and fully support their need for more police powers and funding.
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