Party Lines: December 6th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

After Conservative, Lib Dem, Labour and Independent representatives from the Association of Police Authorities wrote to ministers urging the government to re-think the front-loading of its police funding cuts in order to “avoid long term damage to policing capability”, Ed Balls said:

“I hope the government will seriously consider this cross-party plea.”

“Police forces have already made clear the speed and scale of the cuts means the frontline can’t be protected by long-term efficiencies. It will inevitably mean thousands fewer police officers, which will undermine the fight against crime.”

“But doing all this at a time when there are a growing number of public protests, an ongoing terror threat, the security challenge of the Olympics and an expensive experiment with directly elected police chiefs is a reckless gamble. The government must urgently think again.”

On Radio 4, Chris Bryant urged new house of commons checks after the researcher spy scandal, even going as far as questioning whether Russia is a friendly nation:

“I know many people can say what on earth can a researcher get out of parliament. But if you were running the Russian intelligence operation you’d be fascinated to know some of the gossip and tittle-tattle which goes around Westminster.”

“You know, which MP is having an affair, which MP has got financial problems, because they might be susceptible either to blackmail or to being buttered up.”

“There are much bigger questions to be answered in relation to how Russia operates in the United Kingdom and whether they really are a friendly nation towards us.”

And in the commons today Caroline Flint said that Eric Pickles is more interested in bashing councils than thinking about how cuts will impact on deprived areas:

“The Secretary of State gives the impression of being more interested in trashing local councils, and chasing cheap headlines, calling councillors stupid or lazy and telling local authorities to grow up.”

“The fact is that hundreds of thousands of decent, honest and hard working people who work in local government and the millions of people who depend on the support they provide hardly to seem to get a second thought and they’ll be the ones who pay for the price for the choices this government is making.”