SCOTT MARMION is half right in his latest letter.

I agree that no-one voted for Julia Mulligan to take control of the fire service; a power grab if ever I saw one.

However, there is more behind the separation of police and commissioner powers.

Reading the former Home Secretary Ken Clarke’s autobiography, Shades Of Blue, I was struck by how much he and other Conservative politicians disliked the police service.

It wasn’t what I expected but he made it clear that he thought the police were largely unaccountable.

It doesn’t surprise me that the police were then subject to substantial cuts for which we now pay the price in higher crime.

No wonder Jeremy Corbyn’s promise of more police played well at the last election.

However, the Conservative Party’s introduction of Police and Crime Commissioners, if flawed, tried to bring about better accountability of police to an elected person.

Like local government officers and civil servants the police need that accountability, though that doesn’t mean that elected people should dictate every detail of operations.

If accountability means politicians taking responsibility then I support it. No-one should be above a political process.

Roger Backhouse,

Upper Poppleton, York