Robin Wilton's esoterica

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08 Nov · Tue 2005

Politicisation of Police advice

This evening the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair (no relation) has spoken at a lunch with political journalists in Westminster to assert the 'chilling' evidence he has seen of the terrorist threat to Britain. This is quite an unusual step: Sir Ian's post as a senior police officer is not an elected one in the UK system: he is a career policeman. While one would expect anyone who rises to such a post to have a shrewd grasp of political realities, he is in a very different position from the equivalent, elected post in the US, say, and conventionally would stay out of political debates even when the latter concerned law enforcement. Yesterday, Tony Blair addressed the Parliamentary Labour Party and stressed the political dimension of the current row over anti-terror proposals. He reportedly referred to the political advantage of maintaingin a tough stance against terrorism relative to the other parties. In a more public address yesterday he invoked the memory of those killed in the 7/7 bombings, and of the rescue workers involved in their immediate aftermath. He has also repeatedly strssed the dichotomy between voting for the government and the law neforcement professionals, and voting against the proposed laws; voting for 90-day detention, or voting against the national interest. This has been partisan and emotive rhetoric of a kind which is usually scrupulously avoided in the area of anti-terrorism policy, where cross-party consensus is considered to outweigh the usual game of political point-scoring. Another gambit deployed by the Prime Minister was to, effectively, disown the policy. 'This is not a proposal thought up and put forward by the Government', he said, 'this is what the police and the security services tell us is essential if they are to be able to do their job'. The old "it's not for me, it's for my daughter" ploy. It was not an edifying sight. One of his party's MPs made what I thought was a telling point in reaction to this, when interviewed on the radio this morning: it's the job of the police to press for the most effective possible enforecement. It is not their job to balance that against the wider interests of civil liberties, public policy and geo-political outcomes. That is the job of elected parliamentarians. Except that according to the party leader, those who exercise that right are, by definition, acting against the national interest. This is not good policy-making, and it is certainly not as good as the country's citizens deserve.

Posted by racingsnake @ 10:37 PM GMT+00:00 [ Comments [1] ]

Comments:

With Ian "Creepy" Blair briefing for 90-day detention legislation, sounds like I didn't escape Police State UK a moment too soon. Particularly in view of his recent failings, he needs to be told as rudely as possible to leave policy decisions to elected representatives. But face it, gutless mainstream Joe Public doesn't deserve rescuing from the Control Freak Blair brothers. So those with the wherewithal, contacts and confidence should be preparing to fly the coop. And don't for one moment think that relocating to a same language, same culture, same food, same religion, former colony actually qualifies as emigrating. Although I suppose there’s always Canada if the MemSahib won’t even consider, “Ship me somewheres East of Suez.” The irony is that in escaping Britain over infringement of civil liberties, miscarriages of justice, etc., you can easily fetch up in an even less democratic country. Trust me, when it's not your own country it’s simply not an issue. The "English gentleman" still plays well in Asia (until reality catches up with image), and you can always move on. I’m in Japan because as a white, native English speaker, my welcome couldn’t be warmer. But it depends whether you are looking for a place to retire or want to maximum income. As long as you can remit your ill-gotten gains internationally, you could do worse than start entry level with "English teacher, Shanghai." Namely, the 21st century version of seek your fortune in the colonies. And for those escaping from a failed marriage with a western woman, arriving in Asia single is like going to heaven without going through that humiliating process of dying. The reason so many people's emigration attempt fails is they don't get far enough (culturally) from Britain for long enough. Your maximum chance of success is when the supply and demand ratio in your favour is at its highest. Although your selected country’s economy is a factor. You have to realise that it's UK government policy to encourage the middle class to emigrate, so look out for ex-pat disenfranchisement. The risk-takers leave and the risk-adverse stay, the very people that are uncritical of government. The immigrants more than take the place of those departing and Britain remains Labour of decades. This is the cunning plan, predicted as far back as the 1950's. So get out before the rush.

Posted by Andrew Milner on November 09, 2005 at 03:38 AM GMT+00:00 #

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