THERE could be no better time than the present for politicians to set their differences aside, banish all thoughts of vying for personal advantage, and work together for the good of the people they collectively represent. It s asking a lot of them. It isn

THERE could be no better time than the present for politicians to set their differences aside, banish all thoughts of vying for personal advantage, and work together for the good of the people they collectively represent.

It's asking a lot of them. It isn't in their nature to work together, unless they are forced to by circumstances beyond their control, but work together they must.

Yet there are worrying signs that individual parties are trying to take ownership of matters that adversely affect the whole community, and which can only be properly fought by the whole community acting together - including our elected representatives.

At the present time there are two particularly important issues that require a consolidated rather than confrontational approach from our politicians: the threat to our local post offices, and the proposed closure of police stations in Hampstead, Golders Green and Kentish Town.

In the latter case, substitute the word 'service' for 'stations' and you will see precisely what is at stake. Make no mistake, this is not a battle over bricks and mortar. It is about the quality and accessibility of our local policing services, and it cannot be won by making sentimental arguments based on a historical connection to the buildings themselves.

This is about people standing up for the traditional values that the police services themselves once believed in - having the police at the heart of our communities, in a highly-visible and ever-present manner, not stuck behind a desk or a counter of a corner shop where they disappear from view once the shutters come down.

Crime is not a nine to five pursuit for criminals, and it cannot be for police services either, no matter how much the strategists and number crunchers would want it to be.

When the threat to police stations is taken alongside the proposed closure of a whole raft of post offices, we can see that it is the very fabric of our communities which is under threat, the proud values of yesteryear being reduced to little more than cost evaluation exercises by the people in power.

Thankfully, people who really care about their communities have already shown that they will not stand idly by and merely spectate at the piecemeal destruction of the things that help to bind our communities together. Amid all this, the last thing we need is opportunist politicians turning these important local issues into political footballs.