National Police Chiefs have said that rural police officers might end up carrying guns because of a lack of specialist counter-terrorist officers.

Ed Davey has said that this would be a disproportionate move.

Police Officers carry out dangerous and often lifesaving work on our behalf, not least in the face of ongoing threats including terrorism. We must therefore ensure that armed officers are able to respond quickly to situations. However, any move towards routinely arming officers would be totally disproportionate and contrary to the principle of policing by consent. There needs to be sensible guidelines in place to ensure that armed officers on our streets do not become the norm.

We’ve been through this in Scotland in recent years and Liberal Democrats successfully fought for a more sensible approach. I was horrified to hear of a police officer with a gun going into a wee highland bakery to buy his lunch. There’s no need for that.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings