DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Put this 'softly-softly' policing in the dock 

While not in the same category as rape or violent assault, burglary is still appalling. It’s a scary experience when your home is being raided and looted.

How devastating that police are so unlikely to arrest a perpetrator that the public feels this deeply traumatic crime has been effectively decriminalized.

In a report today, a retired senior detective says it is evidence that policing in the UK has, disconcertingly gently, “gone astray”.

Senior officials seem to have lost sight of their basic role: catching and deterring criminals. The result? Criminals are encouraged to break the law.

And is it a miracle? Confronted with eco-extremists blockading a fuel depot in Essex, police chiefs expressed sympathy for their cause. And although a young man was stabbed, six others stabbed and 200 arrested at the Notting Hill carnival, Scotland Yard blithely insisted the event was “largely good-natured”.

The report, by think-tank Policy Exchange, unveils imaginative ideas to improve detection rates, rouse armed forces from their complacency and downtime – and restore the shattered relationship between police and the law-abiding public.

By this time next week Britain is getting a new Prime Minister. Such a sensible, forward-looking report should be at the top of your reading list.

Taken for fuel

From exorbitant parking fees to sky-high vehicle taxes, it’s no wonder motorists feel like cash cows.

Now vehicle owners have become victims of another racket. And seldom has the expression “highway robbery” seemed more appropriate.

A Mail investigation has revealed that ruthless fuel giants benefited from the August bank holiday by spiking pump prices, while failing to fully pass on the drop in petrol costs after they moved to the UK due to the war in Ukraine had soared.

Filling up a family car costs £22 more at some petrol stations. But what choice do drivers who have already been crushed have? Either fill up – or sit on the side of the road without fuel.

By pledging to grant more licenses for companies to drill for oil in the North Sea when she becomes prime minister, Liz Truss would ease the burden – although it will take time.

Until then, the ministers must ask gas station operators to stop the rip-off. After all, motorists are voters, not wallets on wheels.

Moaning Meghan

With every narcissistic statement made to the American lifestyle magazine The Cut, Meghan Markle demonstrates an unlimited degree of hypocrisy and arrogance.

If she and Prince Harry are so obsessed with their privacy, why would they reveal their secrets – including other barbs against the royal family – to a journalist at their California mansion?

If she believes so strongly in the virtue of forgiveness, why is no calculation too small for her – conceited or not?

And her boast that her marriage to a white prince sparked celebrations similar to those of the end of apartheid in South Africa is both delusional and disrespectful.

It’s true, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s antics will wow their bosses at Netflix and Spotify. But millions more are finding it increasingly difficult to stomach the self-obsessed couple who cash in on the name of the monarchy it relentlessly denigrates.

• As a black hole of politics and personality, it’s easy to see why the knives are ready for Sir Keir Starmer. It’s no secret that Andy Burnham, Greater Manchester’s ambitious mayor, wants to replace the Labor leader who has angered unions by not explicitly backing strikes that are crippling the country. In contrast, Mr Burnham is courting the hard left by saying he would like to join them on the picket line. This is Labour’s real ugly face. They put the interests of their union paymasters above those of the suffering public.