John Reid doesn't get it either

The new Home Secretary, John Reid was being interviewed on Breakfast this morning. He stressed that what people wanted to see was the effects of good policing. He is partly right, but he just could not bring himself to say what people really want - more bobbies on the beat. This is probably because he cannot deliver. We have record numbers of policemen and have for a few years, but the Government still won't tell us where they are.

The single biggest thing that John Reid should do is to start a bonfire of bureaucracy in the home office so that police authorities can get policemen out in communites being visible (and by this I mean waking around estates, not just city and town Centres), providing the only real measure that will reduce fear of crime.