MPs believe the scenes at Clapham Common are the best we can expect from the Met Police

The police are treated as a device with which to win or lose elections, rather than as an essential part of the public realm.

By Stephen Bush

Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner (Photo By Getty)

On the subject of British policing there are two schools of thought at Westminster: the first is noisy, the second is silent.

The loud argument is that the case of Sarah Everard has exposed the need for greater action to tackle violence against women and girls. On 15 March the Conservative government duly announced an extra £20m for the Safer Streets fund, which provides better street lighting and more CCTV, while on 16 March the Labour opposition unveiled a ten-point plan, which included proposed new laws to increase jail sentences for rapists and domestic abusers.