I am grateful (again) to @NathanConstable. I had the read the article about West Yorkshire Police and dutifully spluttered coffee into my All Bran but Nathan tweeted that we should read he comments, which I had failed to do. 

The gist of the article was about the reduction of Police Officers and PCSOs in West Yorkshire Police since 2010.  Nearly 100 fewer officers in Bradford alone.

To offset these losses more Specials have been recruited.

The comments, however, were shocking.  Some quite vociferous condemnation of West Yorkshire Police for what? For carrying out government policy, Reform if you wish.

Has one person from the Home Office stood up and said “It’s our fault, not the Police’s. We told them to do it”?  NO

Cruella and the Milky Bar Kid are the architects of this reform, and they remain notably quiet.

We tend to be a bit parochial and most of us only take notice of the Police Forces a) Where we live and b) any Police Forces we may have served in.  This story may be being repeated all across the land.  I don’t know because I haven’t looked, but as Nathan points out, the detail is in the Comments. It seems that at least some of the Public have been taken in by the government snd HMIC and do actually beieve that it’s the Police’s fault.

A couple of years ago I posted The Crucifixion Cycle and sadly it seems to be coming true, whilst we still (in the main) enjoy a good level of Public Confidence, there are those who would seek to crucify us, and government and HMIC are doing NOTHING to correct the opinion of those who believe that it is the Plice’s fault. NOTHING.