Boris tells the police to 'get medieval' with rioters

There are lots of police-related stories in the papers today that caught our eye.

The Mayor of London Boris Johnson has waded into the argument on whether the police should be able to use water cannons, reports The Daily Telegraph.

Speaking to members of the London Assembly, Mr Johnson said that the police should be much more 'assertive' when faced with rioting:

'You get medieval immediately on these people and you come down much harder, and you don’t allow a mentality to arise of sheer wanton criminality'.

He added that water cannons were 'not military weapons' and that the police had 'much more violent' weapons at their disposal. 'If you look at a baton round', he said, 'it's no joke if you get that in the eye'. We're not sure if the Mayor was speaking from personal experience

In a separate report the Telegraph claims that police numbers have fallen to an 11 year low. Read our director Richard Garside on why a more radical downsizing of the criminal justice system would be a good thing.

Finally, The Guardian reports on comments by the Lord Chief Justice that the Metropolitan Police were blurring the boundaries between public service and big business. His comments came in a review of a case in which the Met agreed to help Virgin Media with a private prosecution in return for receiving a 25 per cent share of any compensation received by the company.