No justification for police plan

Put together, it re-enforces the impression that the Prime Minister does not have a coherent narrative and that he does not understand the public’s growing anxiety about the economy. He should be working “morning, noon and night” – the mantra once adopted by Lord Heseltine – to create a growth strategy.

Take the plan to reduce the number of MPs by 50. This was a grand gesture, made by Mr Cameron after the Parliamentary expenses scandal, that will save taxpayers £12m.

Yet the decision to put back polls to elect police commissioners from next May until November 2012 will cost £25m.

Put simply, this means the taxpayer will still be £13m worse off – and that is before taking into account the expenses which will be incurred in providing commissioners with offices, and staff, that reflect their new-found status.

This calculation alone should be sufficient to persuade Mr Cameron that it is not worth the political upheaval.

For if the Tory leader thinks that Britain can be better governed with fewer MPs, then why does he think that the country needs more police chiefs to cut crime?

Furthermore, directly-elected individuals do not have a great record. The Metropolitan Police now has a fourth different head since Mr Cameron’s Eton contemporary, Boris Johnson, became Mayor of London in 2008.

More locally, the taxpayers of Doncaster will testify that the introduction of elected mayors in their town has been a costly mistake because of the acrimony that this additional tier of decision-making has caused.

Given that the most likely candidates for police commissioners will be MPs who have lost their seats, or local councillors with their own agendas, Mr Cameron would be advised to put his trust in local Chief Constables – professional crimefighters – before he wastes even more time and money on a flawed concept that is simply not affordable, or justifiable, in an age of austerity.