What is going on with our virtue-signalling police? asks James Whale

But it emerged last week that the force is appealing for witnesses at UK airports.

Posters produced by the Met’s counter-terrorism unit have been spotted at Heathrow and other airports, asking anyone who travelled to either Israel or Palestine and witnessed “terrorism, war

crimes or crimes against humanity” to report them to the UK police.What the hell is going on with our police? It’s not as if they don’t have plenty of work to do at home already, without

importing overseas conflicts on to our streets.Police have reportedly received more than 40 referrals, the vast majority allegations of war crimes against Israel, which will no doubt do

wonders for relations between the Met and British Jews after officers were filmed tearing down posters of Israeli hostages, allegedly on the grounds of reducing “community tensions”.

Former London Mayor Boris Johnson pointedly suggested police “would be better off fighting knife crime in the capital”, than investigating war crimes halfway across the world.

He said: “This sounds like a worrying politicisation of the Met Police – especially after Met officers were seen tearing down posters of Israeli hostages in Gaza. When I was Mayor of London

I made it clear we would not import foreign wars or disputes on to the streets of London.”

No wonder new guidance to police in England and Wales from the National Police Chiefs’ Council suggests officers ought to try to go to properties that have been burgled – ideally within an

hour of the burglary being reported.

But why, oh why is this guidance even necessary? When did we get to the point that police WOULDN’T turn out for burglaries?

Come to think of it, when did it become acceptable for them to pretty much not turn out to most crimes?

Obviously, there’s a great show when some poor so and so is murdered, thank goodness, but the rest of us are often given a crime number for insurance purposes then told to go away.

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What sad times we live in. Shoplifting plagues high street stores and supermarkets, protesters (both anti-Israel and those Just Stop Oil loonies) bring our towns and cities to a standstill,

while the roads are taken over by boy racers.None of this seems to count. Where does this mania for virtue-signalling come from and what’s next?

Did you get mugged in Kenya? Was your pocket picked in Cairo? Somehow I don’t quite see this, but you never know.

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