Policing and politics

With the important elections for London's Mayor and Assembly on 1st May rapidly approaching, my latest Parliamentary report for the local putneysw15 website focuses on the critical issue of crime and policing locally. It's a subject I've written regularly about on this website too.

You can read my Parliamentary report here.

"You're all the same" is a criticism often made of politicians. Well, in this election, that can't be said. There are huge differences between Labour's Ken Livingstone and the Tories.

With Labour, Putney has just about recovered from the huge loss of police the last Conservative government inflicted upon us. That Michael Howard, the former Home Secretary responsible for sacking so many of our policemen and women came to Putney the day after the 2005 general election to quit was ironic - it's just a shame he didn't manage an apology for his disastrous policy.

Now Putney has 40 Police Community Support Officers - it had zero under the Conservatives - and crime is down: Putney is one of the safest parts of London. And, if re-elected, Ken will employ another 1,000 police officers over the next four years.

I'll be talking more about the other massive dividing lines in the forthcoming London elections over the coming weeks.