Beat

David Cameron had thought that he was when he failed to secure the position of Metropolitan Police Commissioner for Bill Bratton.

But we certainly are now.

Chief Constables who have never made an arrest. Chosen how, exactly? Chosen by whom, exactly?

Following on from the inception of the National Crime Agency, answerable to central government and with the power to issue orders to Chief Constables, comes this.

Are professional Police Officers even supposed to take these people seriously? Does anyone expect that they will, or could? Yet someone has to be in overall command of a Constabulary.

As for recruitment from ostensibly similar legal systems abroad, that is not the same thing as a similar policing culture. An inherited colonial policing culture appropriate to a plantation society is not appropriate to this country.

Nor, which is what is obviously intended, is the robocop approach of urban America, which could not be further removed from our own traditions. Bill Bratton may yet have his day on our streets.

Although how a foreign national could be sworn as Her Majesty's Constable, including as Her Majesty's Chief Constable, is not explained, because it has doubtless not been considered.