CCTV discussion has reached a stalemate.

Both sides have convinced themselves of the cameras’ effectiveness, or not. I suggest a non-political third way.

If each household owned its own recordable CCTV system protecting its own property – especially if it lowered insurance premiums – I’m sure we would all invest in superior ‘state of the art’ technology at a fraction of the price paid by local authorities, but giving better quality pictures of any guilty party which could actually be used in court – unlike 80 per cent of current evidence.

The authorities won’t agree, of course, because it takes away some of the ‘big brother’ powers demanded by our nanny state.

But if every burglar knew that they would have to circumvent a private CCTV system every time they carried out a break-in, they would find this inherently more frustrating than attempting to influence those controlling a single public CCTV system, resulting in lower burglary rates.

Now that’s what I call democracy in action. Come on, David Cameron, step up to the mark.

Mick Heavey, Oxford Road, Old Marston, Oxford