"Mayor Boris Johnson finds his plans for a new, more effective regime at the yard thrown into disarray. He and his deputy Kit Malthouse favoured Sir Paul for the job because they believed he was a quietly competent officer who would concentrate on nuts and bolts policing rather than the political dabblings of his predecessor.
"But the furore over the arrest of Mr Green has drawn Sir Paul into a fiasco that transcends almost anything the gaffe-prone Sir Ian Blair managed."
Well of course. Presiding over the shooting of an innocent man is one thing, but to arrest a senior Tory MP? That's quite another:
"Can the head of any organisation ever have screwed up quite so badly, so quickly, as did Paul Stephenson, the acting Met commissioner, on his first day? Even Sir Ian Blair took a few months to implode — and for sheer outrageousness, the Damian Green affair exceeds even Sir Ian's worst political blunders."
Note to Paul: if you want to get on in this town you need to be a bit nicer to this lot and a bit harsher on this lot. Oh look, they've already found their man.
4 comments:
So a policeman who arrests an MP and then releases him after questioning him is no good, but a police man who advocates 40 days+ detention without trial is fine. I guess it all depends on who you're locking up.
Yes Chris, I'm particularly looking forward to David Davis's statement on the appointment of Sir Hugh Orde if it happens.
Stephenson didn't do what Boris told him to. He's done for.
Another example of Boris's petulance when not in control of events, I think. Cue a stand-off with Wacky Jacqui.
In other news, Boris is again on record welcoming substantial improvements in bus crime detection initiated under his predecessor. The job's quite easy if you promise to deliver things that are already being delivered.
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