Pleb Gate

[tomlinson 879]

On the radio this morning, a government representitive defended the ongoing name calling episode because the police changed, or were creative, in their reporting of the incident. This sort of thing, he said, results in distrust of the police. Who do we trust? Certainly not politicians either as far as I'm concerned. I think the whole 'playground' row is a monumental waste of expensive personnel's time and our money!

[Rob.L 1,088]

At a time when the Police have seen their pay and pensions attacked, when they're being expected to do more with less, this Plebgate farce only serves to distract attention from the 11% pay rise our MPs are being given.

Tony Parsons summed-up the "trust an MP or a policeman" question quite well though...

The Public Will ALWAYS Pick A PC Over An MP

IF you wake up in the middle of the night and someone is kicking down your front door or climbing through your bedroom window, who are you going to call – your MP? I thought not.

The Prime Minister says the British people are losing their trust in the police. He is dead wrong. In our blood and bones we know the police are all that stands between everything we love and the wicked world. And yet it increasingly feels like slagging off the police is a national pastime up there with binge drinking and Morris dancing. The police have had a rotten week. They stand accused of being far too soft when they interviewed Jimmy Savile near the end of his vile life. They are charged with lying during the probe into Plebgate, when then Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell, the berk on the bike, allegedly called Downing Street cops “effing plebs” — something he denies.

And the police are condemned for threatening to arrest a dwarf called Charlie for impersonating a policeman while he was handcuffed to a groom called Darren who was dressed as a pantomime horse. Officers told 4ft 5in Charlie that his tiny truncheon was a lethal weapon. “I’ve been doing the act for years and never had any trouble until now,” protests Charlie. “I told them, ‘We’re just having fun’. They said my truncheon — which I’d specially shortened — was a lethal weapon. I said, ‘It may be to you guys but it never leaves the holder’. I got it from eBay.”

And, for the first time in our history, the police are being used as a blunt instrument to beat the newspaper industry. Dozens of journalists are currently on bail without charge. Some are awaiting trial. Some are my colleagues. Some are my friends. Some of the charges against them are patently absurd. All of them have had their lives put on hold, their careers wrecked and enormous strain put upon their families — when the police should be chasing the truly wicked.

All of which makes the police sound soft on wrongdoers and hard on the innocent — and those dressed as a pantomime horse.

But there is another side to the police and you will get to see it on one of those cold, dark nights when your luck runs out. When I disturbed some burglars just before dawn, the police showed up within minutes of my emergency call. They were young. One male, one female. And I saw that they face dangers the rest us cannot dream of every time they go to work. Cameron says the police will lose public trust because of the way they are conducting the aftermath of Plebgate. Why? The British people couldn’t care less about Andrew Mitchell. Personally, I wouldn’t urinate on his bicycle clips if they were on fire.

The police don’t just do a difficult job, we ask them to do an impossible job. We expect them to provide a “service” as though they are a mobile phone company and not enforcers of the law.

You saw their dilemma during the summer riots of 2011. Hanging above those helmets are soft courts, human rights laws, slick lawyers and powerful institutions — from the BBC to the Conservative Party — who are always keen to slag off the police. If the police had felt free to crack a few skulls early on in the riots, entire neighbourhoods might not have gone up in flames.

Cameron and his crew are far too quick to, in Kipling’s immortal phrase, “make mock of uniforms that protect you while you sleep”. For at the end of the day, and in the middle of the night, when your luck runs out you will be only too glad to see someone who risks life and limb for total strangers every time they go to work.

The Prime Minister is completely wrong about our coppers. If the great British public is forced to choose between their politicians and their police, we will always choose the Law. That’s who I want to come running at four in the morning — not my local MP, Glenda Jackson, the Labour member for Hampstead and Kilburn. Glenda probably hasn’t even got a Taser.

[mick2me 3,033]

Rob.L

I will give you a 'like' and take time to read your post when I get more time.

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

Yes the police do a difficult and sometimes dangerous job.

But the three that went into Andrew Mitchells surgery and arranged a press conference for when they came out and then proceeded to LIE should be sacked.

Not to protect Mitchell but to protect other members of the public about whom they might also LIE whilst giving evidence against them in court.

There are bad eggs in every basket and these three have lost all credibility, apart from anything else they now cannot do the job we pay them to do.

You can just imagine the scene, copper takes witness stand, holds up his note book for reference and gives evidence. Some smart assed defence lawyer then stands up and asks " constable are you not a proven liar if fact are you not the same constable who lied to the press about Andrew Mitchell MP. Case dismissed another villain returned to our streets.

One more point they must be as thick as chocolate eggs not to suspect that a slime ball politician would not be recording their meeting.

[darkazana 1,736]

What is really outrageous about this is a 45 second remark has so far cost £250,000! Who will pick up the bill (pardon the pun)?