Britain’s once-proud police force has been reduced to a politically correct shambles with orders to recruit Gypsies and not to arrest extremist Muslims “in case they become more extreme.”

The latest moves to cripple effective policing in this country have come in the form of two directives in as many days.

The first outrageous directive, drawn up by the Government’s counter-terrorism board, will be sent to all police forces later this year. It says that police must not charge Muslim extremists in many hate crime cases “to stop them becoming more militant.”

Officers will be advised not to proceed when evidence of lawbreaking is “borderline.” Examples of crimes to which a blind eye may be turned include incitement to religious hatred or viewing extremist material on the Internet.

The move is obviously designed to appease the broader Muslim community and to lower the shockingly high rates of prosecution of Islamists in this country.

Between 11 September 2001 and 31 March 2008, there were 1,471 arrests of Muslims under terrorism offences in Britain. Of these, 521 resulted in a charge of some form, with 222 people charged with terror offences, and 118 people charged with terror-related offences, such as conspiracy to murder.

According to the new guidelines, police must avoid “alienating Muslims on the fringes of extremism by dragging them to court.”

Ironically, a senior Whitehall official was quoted as saying that one of the reasons for the move is to lower the number of young Muslims being sent to jail – where they “might fall under the influence of extremist preachers while serving prison sentences.”

The second outrageous directive, issued by the Association of Police Authorities, has ordered police forces to recruit gypsies so that they “reflect the communities they serve.”

This move was slammed by John Midgley from the Campaign against Political Correctness who dismissed it has “absolutely astounding.”

“What we want is the best possible policemen, not policemen appointed by a tick-box culture.

“How ridiculous it is for them to suggest that the police force needs to be representative of the society in which we live.

“On that basis, ultimately they would want to employ criminals as police officers as a proportion of society is made up of criminals.”