Q-Continuum

As a former police officer I've been following developments in the UK police with some interest but can't work out what current policy is aiming at?

This weekend, I met some former colleagues who are still in the job and I'm afraid to say it confirmed my decision to leave was correct.

Under current "thinking" serious crime should be managed by specialist agencies such as SOCA; uniformed police (pc level) shouldn't get involved in traffic matters - most traffic departments are closing and being dealt with by the new highways agency.

Similarly, more complex investigations should be handled by fewer in force central specialist units. Anti social behaviour and low level nuisance should be managed by Police community support officers and noise is now managed by local authority environmental health officers.

To add to the list, credit card fraud is now NOT the responsibility of the police to investigate but should be referred to your bank who may refer it on if they chose to. So far since April, there have been less than 60 cases of credit card fraud reported by the banks nationally. A cynic may say it's not in their interest for us to know how bad the problem is.

Finally, child protection matters should be focused towards specialist joint investigation teams and animal offences are probably handed off to the RSPCA..

Given all this .... what exactly do the police have left to do ? (And why are we all still paying as much for them to do so much less)

Apologies for those of you who may not know the current faces on the BBC, but I read an article on the way back from London that made me more angry than I have been for some time.

The two presenters shown here are Nick Ross (59) and Fiona Bruce (43) although to me their ages are not relevant. They are the anchor presenters for Crimewatch UK, a monthly hour long appeal for help on some of the country's most difficult crime cases. So what was it that made me fume like Shrek?

Well in the BBC's wisdom they have decided that this programme is so apparently youth based and culturally significant (irony) that both presenters are simply too old to be on the screen. - So forget the programme or these people in particular, its the drive for youth and bin anyone over 35 that gets me !!

To me, they both appear far from the final stages of decrepitude so what exactly is the problem ? Equally, when is too old ?

The same article told how news presenters are now too old if over 35 and two applicants for a fashion programme were turned down at 28 !

So make way for the next inexperienced embrio to honour our screens, lose others purely on a sense that they're "knocking on a bit" .. If anyone has read Logan's run it brings Carousel to mind..