The controversy over Boris’s breach of due process yesterday has rightly rumbled on today.
First, this morning’s Guardian front page gave some extra insight, including the extraordinary revelation that Boris
insisted no permanent successor needed to be appointed until the Conservatives took over in Downing Street
So for the sake of getting a politically correct (I intend to turn this term on the Right whenever appropriate) new Commissioner, Boris would have been happy to leave the country’s most important police post in a state of flux for an indefinite period? Extraordinary. Perhaps this is what he’s really thinking of when he calls for a “lengthy” replacement process.
Of course, this revelation has another revelation implied within it: clearly, in planning this coup, Boris must have been working to the assumption that there will be a Conservative government during his tenure (which we know he’s not currently planning to renew beyond the four years we’re stuck with him for). In other words, this plan was an explicit breach of the current Tory party ban on ‘triumphalism’, aka complacency.
At the other end of the day, Channel 4 News put together a good piece summing up the day’s developments, including Boris’s pathetic attempts to defend himself against the indisputable charge that he unilaterally ignored procedures: he’s said several times today that he “consulted widely”, although has declined to say with whom, which leaves me filling in the blanks as “with Conservatives”. He certainly didn’t consult the Metropolitan Police Association, apologising to them in writing today specifically for not doing so.
Particularly interesting in the Channel 4 News report was the revelation that Blair’s departure will be investigated further by the Home Affairs Select Committee of MPs in a few weeks’ time, when they will question Home Secretary Jacqui Smith about the circumstances surrounding yesterday’s resignation. It might be interesting, but on the other hand it’s not clear quite how much she’ll be able to reveal, given that by the time Boris’s supposedly ‘wide consultation’ had reached her, the resignation was a fait accompli.
Tags: ignorance · procedures · Sir Ian Blair7 Comments
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So, as a result of Boris’ apparent desire to excercise his mandate muscle London does not currently have an active metropolitan police commissioner, and at least one candidate is saying he doesn’t want the job after what has occured.
In Boris’ own words this will be a “disruptive few weeks” for the force.
Chaos meter goes up.
Indeed - Boris has managed to spread the chaos that’s characterised his dealings with the organisations that the Mayor *is* directly in charge of into those he isn’t.
By 2012 all of London will be a burnt-out wasteland
“he “consulted widely””
That’ll be:
a) The Daily Mail
b) The Daily Telegraph
c) Kit Malthouse
That’s pretty wide, isn’t it?
Earlier this year the Tories spoke out against politicians meddling with police chiefs:
“Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: ‘The Government wants to increase its central control over senior police appointments, a measure sure to politicise policing and further undermine officer morale. This reflects the Stalinist reflexes of Gordon Brown’s Labour party. Yet again this government seems unable to resist the urge for centralisation.’”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1021837/Ministers-hire-chief-constables.html
Oh that’s funny.
Of course, the politicisation of the police goes two ways - ACPO, for instance, are hardly in a position to complain about political interference with the police, with their hotlines to friendly tabloids where they spout off about things in order to influence the Home Office.
[...] of politicians hiring and firing police chiefs, as recently as the end of May (with many thanks to James Buller for spotting this): The Government wants to increase its central control over senior police [...]
I am no fan of Boris, but who cares about ‘due political rights’ when in the real world, Ian should have been fired for sheer incompetence after the shooting of De Menezes.