Spending cuts mean police numbers 'not sustainable'.
The Tories have traditionally liked to portray themselves as The Party Of Law and Order, which has usually meant they favoured locking people up and throwing away the key. They have never been in any way sophisticated when it comes to crime and punishment.
However, the Tories have been coy about saying whether their cutbacks will result in a reduction in police numbers; but a leading police officer is breaking ranks and saying that it will.
The President of the Association of Chief Police Officers, Sir Hugh Orde, is about to tell a conference that claims that police numbers will not be affected by the cuts is "misleading in the extreme".
This comes hot on the heels of Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson saying that his force would "shrink" as a result of the cuts.The BBC's home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said ministers had so far skirted around the question of whether budget cuts would hit police numbers.
But he said Sir Hugh was now addressing the issue and seemed to be saying that they would.
To suggest the size of the police service is sustainable, Sir Hugh will say, is "misleading in the extreme... quite simply it is not".
He will say that a balance must be struck between the "understandable demand" for more officers on the streets and the "less visible, but equally critical" duties they perform.
A very strange thing for the supposed Party of Law and Order to contemplate.
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