Well as I’m sure you have all been informed by the BBC, Both Sir Paul Stevenson and ‘Yates of the Yard’ have resigned in relation to the Metropolitan Police investigation into corruption.
Having met and worked with both of these gentlemen, I am horrified by the loss of Sir Paul who was and remains one of the finest police officers this country has. The loss of Mr Yates on the other hand is long overdue - a poor quality policeman with a long and appalling record of misjudgement and carelessness.
Whether or not ether of these men has substantiated links to the current crisis or to the ongoing corruption investigation is a complete irrelevance. The Metropolitan Police are responding in line with quality advice and will in all likelihood continue down the path of severing its links both viable and vicarious to this scandal.
There is a lot of talk by both the BBC and other media outlets in relation to “the crisis at The Met”. Having advised over the years all the government bodies involved in this ongoing scandal I believe the Metropolitan Police is not in crisis. The ‘Met’ has a strong and well thought out strategy to quietly and quickly remove any person who could be seen as involved, may they be guilty or not, and thus remove its self from this ongoing storm.
The removal of Sir Paul and of Mr Yates is the beginning of a clean up but not a clean sweep. The current corruption scandal in all likelihood goes far deeper than any of us realise and the public must understand that it is not in the interests of London or the country to pursue the underlying issues vigorously in the public eye.
The Gentlemen’s resignations and I am sure the many others that will follow, will allow the Metropolitan Police to ‘be seen to be’ dealing with the crisis. These actions are in the public interest and I’m sure we will find that their involvement is quickly removed from the news agenda.
Once the Met no longer has to defend itself to the media, it will have the ability to deal with the underlying problems without interference and without degrading the British police force’s reputation any further.
An investigation must be held and that investigation must in turn be held to account, but ‘vox populi, vox dei’ is not the answer.
We have a democracy in this country and to deal with all of these hugely substantial issues we must allow Parliament to lead us in this matter, especially when one realises that the reason this issue exists is because the media has had massive control over the establishment. Although it may seem the media is being tamed, you don’t have to look very closely to realise it is exerting more power right now because of this scandal than it did when it caused it.
The media is protecting itself and hiding its guilt by attacking politicians like Mr Cameron and civil servants such as Sir Paul. It is time the underlying issues were dealt with properly in line with the law instead of by media pressure forcing the hand of government officials.
We have already lost one good, honest and honourable man to this scandal and I imagine we will lose several more before the final judgement is out.
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