Tom Richmond: CCTV row convicts Labour as the guilty party

Johnson was forceful with his power of persuasion; he is one of the few former Ministers who has made a successful transition to the Opposition benches.

If only he was standing for the Labour leadership. His gravitas would contrast with David or Ed Miliband, one of whom will become the next Opposition leader. The problem with the Miliboys is they look, and

sound, just like David Cameron and Nick Clegg.

Yet Labour, I'm afraid, is wrong on speed cameras and CCTV. The former was allowed to become a money-making device for the Treasury, rather than a means to reduce accidents, while the latter continues to be under-funded.

When Labour came to power in 1997, Ministers would unveil new CCTV schemes as part of their "tough on crime" agenda. They talked about reassuring communities – and the Home Office PR machine sent out swathes of documents showing how much money was being spent in each area.

It was convincing stuff. Until, that is, Ministers were asked what

would happen once the Home Office funding had run out in two or three years hence. There was silence until Jack Straw, the then Home Secretary, was forced to concede that local authorities would have to pick up the bill. And that is the problem now.

Local authorities no longer have the means to do so, given the scale of the extra responsibilities that Labour placed upon them and the scale of the spending cuts now required. Invariably, there are now

insufficient staff to monitor the cameras for anti-social behaviour, or to help catch criminals.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for CCTV and speed cameras. But their use needs to be effective – and that is the issue that the Government, and the Opposition, need to address.

IF David Davis, the disillusioned Haltemprice and Howden MP, is,

indeed, behind a secret "Brokeback Club" that is sceptical of the coalition Government, why has the former SAS reservist allowed his plans to be made public?

My hunch is that Davis wants the attention and is happy to be portrayed as a magnet for dissenters after being overlooked for a Ministerial job when David Cameron formed his government, even though he served under John Major.

The reason is clear. Cameron has still not forgiven Davis, his one-time leadership rival, for resigning as Shadow Home Secretary and forcing a vanity by-election two years ago on the issue of civil liberties.

IT is another senior Tory backbencher, John Redwood, who made a far more telling political intervention this week.

Urging MPs not to join up with Davis, he then questioned why some health authorities are planning cuts to operations and services for patients when they have been told spending will rise in real terms?

He went on: "The answer to any health manager who offers such fare

should be a polite 'No', and a requirement they start to manage

better." I agree.

THE Ministry of Defence's accounts were this week "qualified" by the Whitehall spending watchdog after it was unable to account properly for more than 6bn of equipment.

It is the fourth year in succession that the National Audit Office has issued such a warning. It would, of course, be unfair to blame the new Government for the failings of its Labour predecessors, including John Hutton and Des Browne who now reside in the Lords.

But the NAO's verdict in 12 months' time will indicate whether Cameron's Government is more efficient than Labour under Blair and Brown.

IT looks like the coalition has chosen to inherit some of the previous government's "spin" tricks. On the day that Ministers announced new criteria for rail franchises, five newly-appointed Tory MPs tabled virtually identical questions on this issue. This was surely too much of a coincidence.

What they should have been doing is taking Philip Hammond, the

Transport Secretary, to task for failing to offer any guarantee that the East Coast franchise will retain its York HQ when the service is eventually re-privatised. He says that he should not impose such constraints prior to a tender. I disagree.

If his government is genuinely committed to jobs and investment in the North, then he should make this a condition of any new rail operating licence for the East Coast route.

THOSE who continue to pillory Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, for suggesting that the Iraq War was illegal should think again.

The Sheffield Hallam MP was merely repeating the assertion that he made during the televised leaders' debate – and he would, inevitably, have been accused of hypocrisy if he had deviated from this viewpoint.

Just because Clegg-bashing appears have become a new national pastime does not justify such criticism in this instance.

As such, it's a shame that Parliament did not have sufficient time, before its summer recess, to debate Keighley MP Kris Hopkins' request for "an urgent debate on the representation of, and the confidence of the House in, the present Middle East peace envoy" – one Tony Blair.

TALKING of national pastimes, it was Harry Redknapp who came up with the most plausible reason yet for the failures of successive England teams – the decline of street football.

He's right. Even though the summer holidays are in full flow, you rarely see youngsters playing in the street – either because it is no longer safe to do so or they are obsessed with computers.

What does this say about modern society?