In less than an hour members of the London Assembly’s Police and Crime Committee (PCC) will quiz the Metropolitan Police chief. The PCC has indicated it will make the most of Cressida Dick’s appearance by questioning her about the parties that have been held. The grilling could prove uncomfortable if she refused to explain why Downing Street’s parties were not being investigated.
London Assembly members Caroline Russell of the Greens and Caroline Pidgeon of the LibDems will lead the questions, after Tory Shaun Bailey quit as chairman of the Police and Crime Committee following revelations of his own “raucous” lockdown breaching party before Christmas.
The Metropolitan Police chief has come under pressure to investigate the parties given other parties held in London at the same time were investigated, and prosecutions followed. That the law is not being enforced equitably has become an issue for the under pressure police chief. Downing Street has been informed of the planned change of stance…
The Met’s morning isn’t going much better than No. 10’s, as Jolyon’s Good Law Project has just issued formal legal proceedings against the force over their failure to investigate the No. 10 party on 18 December 2020. Prior to Christmas, the project asked the Met to explain their decision not to investigate and, if they couldn’t, reverse their decision. As Jolyon’s team point out, each new party revelation makes the Met’s policy of not investigating even more damning.
Their letter points out the force’s absurd policy of refusing to carry out any investigative work of its own, merely relying on No. 10’s unbelievable assurances that no rules had been broken. Despite Guido having many differences with Jolyon, he’s right to press this one – the Met have been inconsistent in how they apply lockdown laws to Downing Street staff and us mere plebs. Jolyon says:
“You can have the rule of law, or you can defer to the powerful. But you can’t have both. Cressida Dick’s cat will know that multiple criminal offences were committed. It shames the Met, and ultimately all of us, that she refuses to investigate.”
Bring it on…
Yesterday, a statement from the Metropolitan Police claimed officers were not in the “immediate vicinity” of BBC Newsnight journalist Nick Watt as he was harassed by anti-lockdown cranks at Monday’s protest, however footage of the event show police idly standing by, mere metres from the incident. Based on the damning footage Guido will let co-conspirators decide whether police officers were in the “immediate vicinity” of the attack…
This video clearly shows Nick Watt being chased, harassed and abused right in front of police officers who just leave the mob to get on with it, really concerning
— Liam Thorp (@LiamThorpECHO) June 15, 2021
https://t.co/xDYpSiCCko
The Met swiftly deleted that and instead tweeted:
“We acknowledge the concerns that have been raised about the police response during this incident. We take those concerns seriously and will be reviewing our actions with a view to improving the policing of events for all Londoners.”
The Met have also arrested Martin Hockridge, 57, in connection to the incident and he is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on June 29th. It’s been tough week for the Met who just yesterday were accused of “institutional corruption” over failures in the murdered private detective investigation. With the police force steeped in controversy Ms. Dick’s critics are up in arms again…
After the Met Police chief Cressida Dick was handed a dossier of anti-Semitic comments by Labour members by LBC in September, the police initiated a criminal investigation and have now made three arrests. On the advice of the Crown Prosecution Service, two men and one woman from Wandsworth, Birmingham, and Tunbridge Wells were arrested on suspicion of “publishing or distributing material likely to stir up racial hatred.” The Police said they “will not comment further on the details of the investigation.” These three people were all Labour members when Cressida Dick was first handed the leaked Labour dossier by LBC…
Gavin Williamson has found himself in the familiar position of being widely pilloried this morning after saying last night that the military “would always be ready to respond” to help fight Britain’s knife crime epidemic. Which does sound pretty silly out of context…
What all the rotten tomato throwers have failed to realise, or deliberately ignored, is that Williamson did not just make his suggestion out of the blue, it was actually in response to a direct suggestion by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick earlier that day, who told LBC that the military could be called in to help fight knife crime. Guido is never adverse to a little bit of gentle public teasing but if the Twitterati are going to pile on anyone over this it should really be Dick not Williamson…
