ABSTRACT
One might be excused for failing to notice that the solid figures of James Callaghan and his Cabinet constitute "our Socialist rulers". It would be less excusable to assume that socialists have nothing to learn from Mr. Whitelaw's words, for, as he rightly said, ordinary people are concerned about questions of crime, and look to governments to ensure their protection. Popular definitions and analyses of the "crime problem" may be misguided in many ways, and socialists can have an educative role to play. The political character of police unionism is clearly historically variable. British and American police associations have acted as right-wing pressure-groups, in the period after the First World War they showed tendencies of radicalisation. The political character of police unionism must be seen as a reflection of the general balance of class and political forces in society, and is not necessarily a monolithic conservatism.
