Truth will out

When I go for gentle stroll around the neighbourhood, I generally don't wear a biological warfare suit or full plate armour. The reason being - should I have to spell it out - is that the chances of me being assailed by a marauding dragon or accosted by a cloud of anthrax during my perambulations are remarkably small. Anyone who has had to wear armour or protective equipment of any description will probably agree that it is awkward and restrictive, and not something that you'd do unless you had to. So why on earth do the police bother with protective vests? Simply - and obviously - because they need to.

Or at least, they thought they needed to. However, that was until Harriet Harman assured us that protective vests are merely a stylish, but optional, accessory item. Well that's alright then. Council tax payers up and down the country will surely be delighted by the fact that police forces will no longer have to buy those expensive stab vests; unencumbered police officers will rejoice in their ability to flit effortlessly from mugging to burglary like care-free spring lambs.

Absolute and utter bollocks, of course.

Inner city estates, like those around North Peckham, are not much short of war zones, as everyone - including that lying bitch Harman - knows only too well.

Beatrice Smith, 63, said despite regular trouble on some of the neighbourhood's estates, locals were never issued stab vests. "There were two stabbings nearby earlier today, and I'd rather see her spending time sorting the crime problem out than posing in such a ridiculous outfit"

Far from being an innocent bit of dressing up, I think it far more likely that Harman was advised to wear protective clothing. And being fully aware of the danger she was in, she leapt at the chance.

Incidents of violent crime in the borough of Southwark, which includes Peckham, have increased by 6.9 per cent in the last 12 months.

As Philip Johnston in the Telegraph points out

The picture of Harriet Harman touring the mean streets of her inner London constituency, wearing a stab-proof vest and surrounded by police officers should be a defining image of Labour’s term in power.

And indeed it is. The defining image of an administration that has precided over an explosion in violent crime and anti-social behaviour; an administration that survives by peddling lies and meaningless statistics. But the reality of an MP so afraid of venturing onto the streets of her own constituency without being surrounded by burly police officers and wearing body armour cannot be denied.