This week, a leading bookmaker announced odds as to when Gardaí might be armed. In case you fancy a flutter, it’s 10/1 for armed police on the beat by 2010;  4/1 by 2012 and  2/1 by 2015.

This is interesting stuff—and not only the odds-on the likelihood of it taking up to a decade to settle the ‘to arm or not to arm’ question. The odds are being taken on the timeframe, not on whether it will happen.

Above all, how interesting that it’sPaddy Power’s press release that I find in my e-mail in-box, rather than any urgent call from a political leader for a public debate on how best to police an increasingly violent and lawless society.

Once we looked to politicians for leadership. But now, instead of the initiative being grasped, it seems that it’s more in our interest to bet money on whether or not any leadership will be provided in this area at all.

When it’s a bookmaker, not a politician, who can set our tongues wagging on a issue of civic and political significance, it raises serious questions for our leaders.

But what are the odds that they’re listening?

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