A SELF-HELP guru - known as the Sumo Guy because his motto is Shut Up and Move On - is being paid �82,000 to help Cambridgeshire police officers become more positive.Paul McGee has testimonials from Manchester United Football Club and Marks & Spencer o

A SELF-HELP guru - known as the Sumo Guy because his motto is "Shut Up and Move On" - is being paid �82,000 to help Cambridgeshire police officers become more positive.

Paul McGee has testimonials from Manchester United Football Club and Marks & Spencer on his website but the Taxpayer's Alliance says employing him for the police will be a waste of money.

Some 2,785 officers and 179 specials are due to take the training, costing �29 per staff member for a three-hour session.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive at the TaxPayers' Alliance said: "While it's important that officers have the necessary support, spending tens of thousands on self-help is a waste of money and an insult to victims of crime.

"These workshops do not represent legitimate psychological care, they are a gimmick and this money would be far better spent fighting crime and putting more bobbies on the beat."

The key to the sumo training is to get people to carry on despite setbacks and for individuals to understand how setbacks affect them.

A section on Mr McGee's website has the six principles of sumo:

Change Your T-shirt - take responsibility for your own life.

Develop Fruity Thinking - thinking affects emotions, which affect actions, which affect results.

Hippo Time is OK - it is alright to wallow over setbacks but not for too long.

Learn Latin - carpe diem - seize the day.

Ditch Doris Day - forget sera, sera, whatever will be will be - create your own future

Remember the Beachball - increase your understanding of other people's world - apparently the colours you see on a beachball depend on your perspective.

Chief Constable Julie Spence told The Hunts Post: "To improve public services, an investment in staff needs to be made. Allowing staff to do their own thing the way they've always done it does not get the most from tax payers' money."

She added: "There's a blind belief that just by having police officers and doing things the way they have always been done will deliver the required results but that's just not true."

She said the public level of satisfaction with the police had gone up tremendously.

"A few years ago it was in the high 50 per cent mark, and in some areas of the force we are now measuring 72 per cent. This is a big change and you can't expect to deliver public services without an investment in change and in staff. This shows that the public approves of what we are doing.