http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8436110.stm

I'd say the answer's somewhere in the middle there, but I'd guess that even as a previous Home Secretary, Straw wouldn't have a clue...

Well, if the plod didn't spend all their time "stopping and accounting" innocent photographers, perhaps they'd have more time for crime fighting.

Give them all palm pads and, no puns please, more "helmet cams" (yes they do exist), get civilians to do all of the paper work then they will have more time, and be forced, to stay out and catch criminals.

Help pay for this by removing CCTV and retraining the staff to do the paper work in the stations instead.

More efficient, better spending of public funds and more crime stopped and prevented.

It's not quantum physics.