On the front foot

In this instance, however, Yvette Cooper – the Shadow Home Secretary – is right to play for time by asking former police chiefs to help devise a future strategy for her party.

She has sound grounds to do so. The last Royal Commission on policing was held 39 years ago. Yet the nature of policing has changed fundamentally over the past four decades, not least the advent of human rights legislation and the primary terrorist threat to this country coming from Islamic extremists rather than Irish republicanism.

These changing challenges are now compounded by a spending squeeze that will see the police front line stretched even thinner, despite Ministers claiming that sufficient savings can be accrued elsewhere.

Yet, rather than deciding the Police Service’s size, scope and remit, and then looking at how these criteria can be funded, the Government seems intent on adding another tier of bureaucracy – elected police commissioners – that are simply not a priority in the current climate.

The fact that Sheffield-born Bernard Hogan-Howe is the fourth person to head the Metropolitan Police since Boris Johnson became Mayor of London three years ago provides proof that this concept is flawed when police and political priorities clash.

However, while commissioners will inevitably form part of the review which is to be headed by Lord Stevens, a former Met boss, it is important that this exercise remains politically independent.

Those heading this august group need a “blank sheet” of paper – and a commitment from Ms Cooper that their results will be taken seriously, even if the findings are at odds with past or present Labour policy.