Down beat

POLICING in England and Wales is in crisis and things are about to get nasty. That, at least, is what the coppers would have you believe. Ahead of the annual conference this week of the Police Federation, the policemen’s union, Steve White, its leader, cautioned that budget cuts could mean a move towards more “paramilitary” policing, with officers using water cannons, rubber bullets and tear gas. Theresa May, the home secretary, accused him of scaremongering. Mr White’s logic is certainly fuzzy. But his warnings highlight the deteriorating relations between the police and their traditional allies, the Conservatives.

Police today are warier of heavy tactics than they once were. Chris Donaldson, a retired police officer, was on the streets of Tottenham in 1985, when riots broke out around the Broadwater Farm estate. He was back there in 2011 when disturbances erupted after police shot and killed Mark Duggan, a suspected gang member. Three decades ago, police were far more willing—sometimes overly so—to use force, says Mr Donaldson. In the 1980s, at the height of battles with striking miners, the police “would definitely be instructed to charge at times,” says Peter Neyroud, a former chief constable now at Cambridge University.