Slowly but surely, British people from all faiths and backgrounds are being confronted by a minority who hate the liberal democratic west of which their country is an integral part and to which it has contributed so much.
This is not something that needs to be buried in any arcana about the Ministerial Code. Rishi Sunak does not need an inquiry to tell him whether he asked for changes to Suella Braverman’s article or not.
Let the protesters gather in one place, have their event, and disperse. No march. I’m reluctant to believe that the Met can’t police a rally properly if it puts its mind to it.
One can give the police more legal powers, update the official definition of extremism, and all that. But it won’t produce different outcomes without a sea-change in how senior officers approach public order policing.
The current minimal-confrontation approach too often seems to leave officers tacitly enforcing the codes of the ugliest and most violent sections of society.
First, Islamist extremism will use woke like a human shield. Then, once it has exhausted its purpose, it will cast aside, like that LGBT flag last Saturday.
Politicians urge zero tolerance – but there’s a gap between law and enforcement. If the Met can arrest 155 anti-lockdown protestors, why can’t it do the same to pro-Hamas ringleaders?
Armed officers and soldiers obviously cannot have carte blanche to shoot as they please; but there must be some allowance for the impossibility of always getting every split-second judgement right.
When the number of crimes in London has reached over one million a year, it is clear that the situation is out of control. The Mayor just offers gimmicks.
For there to have been only eight stabbings at this year’s Carnival is remarkably low, given that two million people attended.
We often seem to be scared of making the case for less spending, but spending sometimes seems to have no relationship with outcomes.
Despite the law being absolute with regard to imprints, the police officer writes “the imprint issue was corrected and a compliant version was distributed.”
It is my job to champion the police, and I am both energised and reassured when I speak to coppers, so many of whom do truly heroic work. But is also my job to hold them to account. And trust has been lost.
There has been a decline in their strength within the Metropolitan Police Force, amounting to a reduction of 18.5 per cent – from 4,373 in 2020 to 3,688 in 2021.
If Suella Braverman wants to restore “common-sense policing”, she should start by overhauling the Public Order Act.