There’s no doubt that our political parties are gearing up for a General Election.

Many observers have predicted that it will be held before the end of the year as the Brexit saga shows little sign of being finalised any time soon.

Politicians were put on the alert when Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the end of austerity measures and a massive new multibillion pound spending spree on schools, hospitals and the police.

Whether we are on a pre-election footing or not, the news that Cumbria is set to receive more than 50 new police officers should be welcomed by all.

We may have a small population, but we have a huge area to cover and that has become more difficult in recent years as numbers have been stalled.

Such has been the concern over the lack of government funding for police in recent years that the county force has only managed to maintain numbers by increases in the council tax.

This has provided an extra 45 officers over the past two years.

Like Peter McCall, the county’s police and crime commissioner, we are delighted that the government will be funding the extra tranche of officers.

More officers will make the rest of us law-abiding citizens feel that much safer. The one thing that deters criminals more than the fear of a custodial sentence is the thought that they might be caught.