In September 2010 I called a summit of political leaders in Scotland as swingeing cuts to police funding were being mooted. I did think about just calling a meeting but the word alone didn’t do justice to the seriousness of what was on the horizon. Besides, it’s far easier to decline a meeting, and no PA or diary secretary would ever contemplate trying to reschedule a summit.

The Tories and Lib Dems said yes. Labour wanted to be sure the SNP would be there – which I assured them they would be – even though there was considerable hesitation from them to do so. After weighing up the optics for the party of government not attending a police federation-called summit – they agreed.

A summit with all the headlines the grandly titled gathering deserved duly followed. The justice spokespeople for the main parties were in the room. Chatham House rules applied, and the honesty and candour from all – on both the wider challenges for the public finances and the specific implications for the police – were clearly understood. The politics didn't disappear, but for a couple of hours tribalism was put to one side because the problem was bigger than point-scoring.

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I often think back to that day in my conference room and how pragmatic political foes were in the face of the conflicting realities of finance and service delivery. At that time the SNP was unassailable and could easily have ridden the fall-out of not attending........

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