Yesterday in London, at about 11.25am, armed criminals attempted to rob a jewellery store in Piccadilly.

Members of the Flying Squad, carrying out an intelligence-led operation, moved in immediately to arrest them. All four suspects were detained, but not without a desperate struggle. Four officers were injured, one of them severely. He remains in hospital in a serious but stable condition. Two axes, a machete and a knife were recovered at the scene.

Yesterday in London, just after 6pm, a man was attacked on the Winstanley Estate.

Police officers attended the location and found a man in his thirties who had been stabbed. Despite their best efforts, he died at the scene. Two other men who had also been stabbed were found nearby and rushed to hospital. One witness, quoted in the Evening Standard newspaper, stated that there was “blood everywhere”.

Yesterday in London, just after 8pm, a van collided with a pedestrian on Regent Street.

Police officers, along with paramedics and colleagues from the Air Ambulance attended the scene but, despite all their best efforts, the man died at the side of the road. It was the desperately sad duty of the police to find and inform his next of kin.

Yesterday in London, at about 10.30pm, a woman was murdered and a number of other people were injured in a knife attack in Russell Square.

Police officers – including Armed Response Vehicles – raced to the location and were on scene in less than 6 minutes. With little or no thought for their own safety, they chased and detained a suspect. He remains in custody in a South London Police Station.

Yesterday in London, away from the headlines, police officers and their police staff colleagues went about their jobs. They looked for missing persons and they arrested domestic violence perpetrators. They investigated serious sexual offences and they searched knife crime suspects. They protected the vulnerable and they confronted the dangerous. And they did a thousand other things besides.

Yesterday in London, hidden from public view, police officers and their colleagues were investigating terrorism, organised crime, human trafficking, child abuse and every other form of human wickedness.

Yesterday in London, that’s what the police were doing.

In just one city.

On just one day.

It’s what police officers are doing every single day – in every single part of the country.

And I for one am grateful.