'Law as interpreted by Mickey Mouse'

The British police force, once the finest in the world, has now been reduced to a police farce.

The blame for this can be laid at the feet of gutless politicians and senior officers, who pander to the whims of every pressure group.

The military has similar problems. The problem with these chief officers, with a few exceptions, is that they came through the graduate system – accelerated promotion.

This was a scheme introduced in the 1960s to encourage those with degrees to join the police force. Nothing wrong with that, in moderation. Why shouldn’t the police have a few intellectuals?

Unfortunately, since Tony – education, education, education – Blair, everyone must now have a degree, and we now have the problem of all the Mickey Mouse universities that have sprung up, giving out Mickey Mouse degrees – psychology, sociology, business studies etc.

This country is in need of engineers, scientists, doctors etc – the difficult subjects.

Mickey and Minnie are left with either teaching or joining the police force.

So, these embryo chief officers of police jet off on their race for the top jobs, away from the sharp end and tax-paying public.

Here they become known as the butterfly boys and girls, flitting from one department to another, for just a couple of lines on their CV.

Clipboard in hand, detached from the reality of policing the streets, instead they organise focus groups and write mission statements.

I am sure many will recognise this quote: “I was to learn later that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganising, and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress whilst producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralisation.” Petronius AD66.

Ring any bells?

Retired police officer

Address supplied

BREXIT

Matching result with reality

I refer to the letter from Paul Nuttall MEP, May needs to Walk the Walk (LP Letters, October 10).

The opening line from Mr Nuttall is almost laughable when he states that no-one said the Brexit negotiations would be easy. My recollection of the Brexit campaign was that leading Brexiteers were saying it WAS going to be easy. Can Mr Nuttall not remember that whenever leading Brexiteers were faced with expert claims that Brexit was a bad idea, the stock response was that it was scaremongering by Remainers? Can he not recall that Gerard Batten, the UKIP Brexit spokesman, claimed in a television interview that the negotiations with the EU could be sorted out in one afternoon!

Perhaps Mr Nuttall can also refer us to any discussions from Brexiteers, pre-referendum, about the Irish border issue. Did they recognise there was a potential problem and come up with a possible solution? Did they come up with the technology solution then? It is far more likely they never even considered it.

Mr Nuttall’s suggestion that it can all be resolved by current technology sounds like the armchair football critic who reckons he knows how to run a premier league team better than the head coach.

Does Mr Nuttall and those others who keep banging on with this myth really think that the Government and the EU would ignore it if such a solution was possible?

So what if the Irish border issue cannot be resolved?

What does Mr Nuttall think of a “no deal Brexit”? Is that a Brexit we should pursue, even if it appears disastrous for the economy?

As for the referendum, Mr Nuttall seems to overlook the fact that there were significant lies by the Brexit campaigners, the most notorious probably being the false claim that we were paying £350m per week to the EU and the suggestion we would give that money to the NHS. Why didn’t the leave campaign give the full true picture to the public rather than a series of misrepresentations ?

The true Brexiteer position is that Messrs Nuttall, Farage, Johnson, Rees-Mogg etc have the luxury of being the armchair critics without having to take responsibility. Had the Brexit campaign been presented in a responsible manner in the interests of the country, rather than the self-interest of a few, we may not have ended up in the mess we are in now.

When Mrs May finishes the task of reconciling the referendum result with reality, we will know where we really stand. The Brexit issue should then go back to the electorate to make a decision on the facts rather than the fiction that has been sold to the public. Those mentioned above don’t like this suggestion. They insist that a referendum result based on misrepresentation should be honoured.

They don’t want it going back to the electorate because they believe the result will be different as the truth emerges. But, as with all armchair critics, they will reserve their right to blame those who have to do the real work, make the real decisions and who will have to deal with the fall-out in the years ahead. They will never blame themselves.

E Harrison

via email

MISSING

Has anyone found my ID?

My original family Iraqi ID was lost in Preston city centre on Monday, October 29. Names on the ID are F M Mahmood, C S Hamad, K S Hamad, A S Hamad, B S Hamad and H S Hamad.

Kazal Hamad via email

If you can help, please email [email protected] or ring 01772 554537 and we will pass your details to Kazal.