The Law's mouthpiece
Mr Charles McLachlan, the talkative Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire, spoke eloquently at his press conference on Tuesday about the tribulations of his police in controlling miners' pickets. He also spoke at some length about the sufferings of those miners who wanted to work: 'It is not a chess game for the working people and families in the middle of it because they are having a bloody awful time. It is time the rest of the country began to realise this ... I wish everyone would realise the guts of the Nottinghamshire miners who are walking through this wall of abuse every day.' It would be hard not to agree with Mr McLachlan, but one is still left with a slight feeling that it is not for him to say such things. It is understandable that he should praise his own men, but what right has he to praise miners who want to work? Of course, he should not affect to be neutral between law-breaking pickets and law- abiding 'scabs', but Mr McLachlan's task is to uphold the law rather than to say what he thinks about the great issues of the day. It is not surprising that policemen feel that their thoughts on social problems are better worth hearing than those of most public chatterboxes — the police, after all, are in constant touch with reality — but the more they join in public debate the less they are respected because they enter controversy and appear to be less businesslike.
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