Obviously amazing in that the Mail seems to have no recognition that the least that a police authority could do, as a 21st public sector employer, is to give police the same rights as everybody else who has been off sick for a long time (or get sued, quite justifiably.) Do they want to force lame or frail policemen out on the streets?

Also amazing is the Mail setting itself up as the policeman’s enemy. They usually make shrill law-and-order noises on a daily basis.

Attacking sick policemen, even in print, seems so unspeakably churlish that you’d expect there to be an ASBO specifically targetted against it.

You can only hope that the Mail editor gets burgled and the police send a bubonic plague carrier (who’s been forced back to work after 3 days) to investigate.

If ever a job could be said to cause “stress,” you would think being a police officer was it.