Police rule out new phone hack enquiry

Now I find all this rather incredible. 3000-odd famous people have had their phones tapped by the News of the World so the Guardian alleges. The country is hopping mad today. The police have a two minute enquiry and Yates of the Yard pops up to say there is "insufficient evidence" to carry out a further investigation.

What does that mean? That there is some evidence but he couldn't get the necessary proof to pin an arrest on anybody? Either there is no evidence and it is all a fabrication or there is some evidence. Using weasel words like "insufficient evidence" just leaves us all thinking that there is no smoke without fire.

The clean-up of public life is still awaited, then?

Met Police were politically fishing for Smith!

The days are ticking by for this wretched government. All spin and deceit big time, they are. Gordon Brown eventually says sorry for the disgusting emails one of his creepy entourage sent to Derek Draper about senior Conservatives. He seemed totally at loss to realise the damage this kind of thing does to society.

Now we are told that the police who burst into Damian Green's office were actually using the event as an opportunity to rifle his files to check up on any personal contact he may have had with Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti, who is a regular critic of the government.

This shows all the hallmarks of a clumsy administration putting clumsy pressure on a willing police force. Damian Green, who is the Conservative immigration spokesman, said, "This feels to me like a fishing expedition on somebody who embarrasses the government of the day. That's very disturbing. To have the police searching for contacts between opposition politicians and civil liberties campaigners isn't something anyone should feel comfortable with."

No, I don't and that's why I'm highlighting it here. Pity I can't use searchlights!

Ian Tomlinson G20 death - police officer faces manslaughter charge

The Daily Telegraph is reporting that the police officer at the centre of the Ian Tomlinson attack may face manslaughter charges. Following on from what I have been thinking about modern policing, the facts seem to suggest that, had there been no video footage of the attack, this police officer would never have come under investigation.

The police are like all other agencies today. The first instinct is to cover-up, then spin a denial, then admit that "something may have happened". Every fibre of the New Labour state is of this persuasion. It is not right. Definitely not.

Paul King, Mr Tomlinson's stepson, has said, "First we were told that there had been no contact with the police, then we were told that he died of a heart attack; now we know that he was violently assaulted by a police officer and died from internal bleeding. As time goes on we hope that the full truth about how Ian died will be made known".

It's like pulling teeth, Paul!

Police chief quick to apologise

Met Police Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick has unreservedly apologised for his inappropriate remarks. Today he issued a statement saying he had reflected on his comments and apologised "for any offence or embarrassment" caused. Very good!

I couldn't put it any better than George Miller from Hampshire on the BBC website. "Mr Quick's remarks show unthinking bias and poor judgement from a man whose position demands total impartiality."

At least he had the good sense to repair his mistakes.

The quick and the dead of New Labour

It isn't really surprising that a senior policeman should go off the handle and attack the Conservative Party in a most peculiar way. Over the last ten years, the politically correct and secular mindset of New Labour has permeated every section of society. The police are no exceptions. That a man by the name of Quick should be so quick as to declare his innermost political thinking through diatribe speaks volumes.

Mr Quick has taken umbrage because the Mail on Sunday revealed that Mrs. Quick was running a vintage car rental business from the family home. Quick off the mark, her police boss husband, says, referring to the Damian Green inquiry, "The Tory machinery and their press friends are mobilised against this investigation in a wholly corrupt way, and I feel very disappointed in the country I am living in. I think it is a very spiteful act, possibly to intimidate me away from investigating Mr Green, and I feel it has put my family at risk." Not only is it outrageous for a policeman to behave like this, it shows how he really thinks. Using perjorative words and phrases, like "Tory machinery", "mobilised", "wholly corrupt way" and "very spiteful act", without having the wit to check anything out before opening his mouth, shows how cosy this policeman's mind is with being anti-Conservative.

I think the Conservative Party has acted with restraint and deserves an apology! And Mr. Quick - a little message for you. I too feel very disappointed in the country I'm living in - with it's politically correct nonsenses, financially corrupt government and the general elevation of weasel wordsmiths to positions of authority.

The disappointment of it all!

The one thing the British police have difficulties with it seems is the handling of social misfits within the context of murder inquiries. Stefan Kiszko was wrongly convicted of murdering Lesley Molseed. His particular problem was being an immature man with sexual, social and medical problems. He was "caught" with dirty mags in his car, fitted up for the crime, convicted of murder and life went on as usual. On his release Kiszko benignly felt able to blame nobody but indicated a desire for matrimony and domestic bliss. He died about a year later.

The police said that this could never happen again. I well remember my sister saying, when Barry George was first charged with murder, "Looks like they've just picked up the local nutter!" - and it seems she was right. Eight years after his conviction Barry George walks free. However, the Metropolitan Police are not so sure. Scotland Yard said it was disappointed by the verdict but respected the decision of the court. Disappointed? That Barry George wasn't rotting his life away on the flimsiest of evidence. Are they now too casual to get their boots on to detect the crime? Probably.

The Metropolitan Police is now an organisation built on the business of statistics, political correctness, short-termism, and internal politics. The Barry George's of this world come low down on the list of priorities.

Society needs to get a grip of how we deal with those whose lives have become a mess. Barry George was "known" to the authorities but the authorities didn't care much. So we are left with a crime that will be unsolved, a much-loved TV presenter's family in distress, another family relieved after eight years campaigning and the rest of us left wondering.

Only the police are disappointed!