'Taxpayers just want to feel safe walking in the streets'

WEDNESDAY will see our battered Chancellor take to her feet to outline the budgets for all Government departments in her latest spending review. Rachel Reeves will no doubt be glad when the day is done. All eyes will be on the areas she has cut to save cash.

- Duncan Barkes

Concerns have been raised about a reduction in police spending, with senior officers sounding the alarm that any drop in funding would impact frontline services.

A letter from police chiefs to the Prime Minister warned: "A settlement that fails to address our inflation and pay pressures would entail stark choices about which crimes we no longer prioritise."

These words should send a shudder through any law-abiding taxpayer as it indicates that unless there is adequate police funding, crimes will simply be ignored or not investigated.

I know I am not alone when I express my growing anger and frustration about what feels like an increasingly lawless country.

Every day I see examples of anti-social behaviour by those with zero respect for the law or their fellow human beings. They make life miserable for people because they know they will not be challenged or face any consequences for their actions.

The scourge of shoplifting is off the scale, too. My local Co-op store has taken to putting packets of sausages in Perspex boxes with GPS trackers attached to try and deter folk from nicking them.

It is absurd. But I have seen people stride into shops, take what they want off the shelves and blithely stroll out.