My Shout - Stepehen Oliver MD of Union Pub company

What will 2006 bring? Stephen Oliver hopes the police will put more effort into cutting crime and less into haranguing hosts

As the old year drifts into the new one, what will 2006 bring for us in the drinks and pub industry? Will we have a year in which the pace of change settles down or will it be even more frantic than the last one? Will the numbers of takeovers and mergers diminish as industry consolidation slows down or is a new wave of acquisitions about to begin? Will licensing be something we remember as a distant distraction or will it be a headline-grabbing issue again? Will smoking in pubs remain a fuzzy dilemma or will the Government come up with a workable solution? And finally, will the police get back to catching criminals rather than harassing licensees?

I ask the last question because I worry that the police are becoming increasingly politicised and ineffective.

A few days ago, one of our tenants was visited by two police officers. She'd been out for 20 minutes walking the dog.

She arrived back at her pub to be told in no uncertain terms that, because she is the DPS, she couldn't be off the premises at any time and if she did it again they'd shut the pub.

It was a blatant misrepresentation of the law by the police and we put them right on the matter pronto.

The net result, however, is an intimidated licensee whose relationship with the police has been shaken for absolutely no reason.

Then, also a few days ago, a local hunt in Derbyshire was almost outnumbered by police in vans with mobile CCTV units, checking to see whether the ludicrous law on fox hunting was being observed.

Foxes killed: nil; valuable use of police time: also nil. A scoreless draw but one where the taxpayer foots the bill.

And then to Mandy. She works in our recruitment and training department. On Christmas Eve she had her phone and purse nicked from her handbag in a pub.

Brazen as you like, the scrotes who took her belongings lingered around afterwards. Her mates even caught and held one of the thieves while the police were called. They never bothered to turn up and they had to let him go. The phone's back now but the money's gone.

There's more evidence to indicate who done it than in an average episode of Morse, but has anyone from the constabulary been to see Mandy and get the facts? What do you think?! They're all too busy out there chasing people chasing foxes or hounding publicans who take their dogs for walkies.

Perhaps she should have told the operator when she dialled 999 that as well as having her purse nicked, the thief was an under-age drinker. That would have got them round in a flash.