WE should all be thankful that we are not being forced to suffer the painful and depressing hardships that face the average citizen of Greece.

But that doesn’t mean that there are not difficult decisions ahead as the economic situation here shows little sign of imminent improvement.

My unease at the growth of our surveillance society has been put on record – computers and cameras seem to be monitoring our every move.

But perhaps we now have to swallow our scruples in order to stay safe.

Lancashire police are telling us the massive cuts forced on them by the government mean they are not going to meeting crime-busting targets.

Too many people have lost their jobs apparently to enable the force to maintain the efficiency levels it was able to reach a few years ago.

So should we just resign ourselves to accepting that life is inevitably going to become more lawless – not just because of pressures on police but also because more men are certain to turn to crime as families get poorer because of increasing unemployment and decreasing benefits? (I say ‘men’ because males are responsible for the majority of the nastiest offences involving violence as well as theft).

The short term answer surely is ‘no’ we should not.

We must make up for fewer police by installing more CCTV to catch, and hopefully deter, robbers and thugs because they know they will be caught on camera.

Last week Victoria Street and Whalley Range in Blackburn came under the CCTV umbrella after complaints from shop owners who reckoned they didn’t have the same protection as counterparts in the town centre.

But there are clearly holes in CCTV cover at the town’s heart too as an appalling incident also highlighted last week.

A homeless man was badly beaten in the early hours as he slept close to the vehicle entrance to the shopping centre next to the main post office and only a short walk from the back of the town hall.

This is precisely the sort of incident that should have been caught on camera so the deranged attacker can be arrested and locked up.

We now have to put the civil rights arguments to one side in order to protect the vulnerable in the most practical way possible from the actions of a growing number of merciless thugs.