Can you think of a shabbier way for a Government to behave? The Labour MP Frank Field describes it as cruel, "penalising the poorest and most vulnerable". According to Age Concern, six out of 10 pensioners do not claim because they do not understand their entitlements. They are also worried about the claims process, or are too embarrassed.

Ministers say the changes will "fund improvements to the system so that people can claim housing and council tax benefits and pension credits in one telephone call. Money will also go towards raising pension credits and winter fuel payments."

How thoughtful. Anyone who has tried getting any sense out of bureaucrats on the phone knows how easy it will be. For the elderly and infirm, it will be a nightmare.

This is all part of the quagmire of tax credits which Ed Balls inflicted on us when he was running riot as the sorcerer's apprentice at the Treasury. In the words of Frank Field, who knows a thousand times more about the alleviation of poverty than Balls ever will: "Tax credits fly in the face of all the moral noises the Labour Party made before the election.

"They are like a wasp trap. And once a person is into the tax credit system, few will escape by their own efforts. The system is also open to fraud."

Figures show that 110,000 pensioners claim arrears for more than three months, while 70,000 make backdated claims for the whole year. Just think of the army of civil servants (with their gold-plated pensions) needed to administer that bureaucratic mess.

THE Metropolitan Black Police Association is reported to be holding its conference at York Racecourse next month. I trust they have an enjoyable time, but the fact remains that allowing this organisation to be set up was an act of imbecility by police chiefs.

The decision has caused nothing but trouble. For a start, the president of the National Police Association is Commander Ali Dizaei, one of the most senior officers at Scotland Yard. In other words, a senior police chief is acting as head of a pressure group – why was that allowed to happen?

Dizaei has been suspended from his job after claims that he advised a defence team during a Met prosecution. The MBPA, which seems to imagine it has a right of veto in disciplinary matters, immediately said: "We support Ali 100 per cent and we are confident that the claims will turn out to be nothing. He is the victim of a sustained witch-hunt." So much for sub judice.

It then announced that it was severing links with the top ranks at Scotland Yard, would disengage from all meetings, and had no confidence
in the top officers or the Police Authority.

Old-time coppers must be turning in their graves at this performance.
Has discipline been completely abandoned in the police service?
There are two excellent organisations open to all officers: the Police Federation and the Superintendents Association. Police Authorities and Chief Constables should have no dealings with anyone else.

The threat of "severing links" should be met head on by making the severance permanent.



PEOPLE still haven't grasped the real reason why Gordon Brown is unfit to be Prime Minister. It has nothing to do with intelligence or experience. It has everything to do with character.

Ken Clarke put it well when Brown moved to Number 10: "Gordon was insufferable as a colleague. As a boss, he will be intolerable."

A leading commentator described him as "an indecisive brooding bully with a streak of yellow a mile wide".

Anyone of any stature has been elbowed out. Brown now sneers at "novices", yet he deliberately filled his Cabinet with novices unlikely to prove a threat.

Even today, if his Cabinet still contained men like John Reid, Charles Clarke, and Stephen Byers, the picture would be entirely different, but Brown is too insecure to tolerate their presence. He deserves everything that is happening to him.



WHO said this in 1977? "The situation is awful. Immigration is rising at a rate of 60,000 a year, with no prospect of ever stopping it. That is a new black town every year."

Answer: the head of Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan's policy unit at Number 10, as revealed now in Bernard Donoughue's diaries.

What a pity they didn't share their fears with the electorate: instead there were the usual smears of racism against anyone daring to even mention the problem.

So it went on, decade after decade, under both parties, with no one of the political class believing the electorate had any right to be told. It still goes on today – only more so.