Straight Copper 63


Very rarely, Sky News let a normal person be interviewed. There was a policeman representing Met beat bobbies on this morning who was great – I caught his name as Paul Blecksley, but perhaps misheard as I couldn’t turn him up on google. He had some brilliant one liners, of which my favourite was “If senior officers did less dining and less politicking and more detecting, the taxpayer would be better served.” He also asked why on earth policemen needed a spin doctor anyway, and pointed out that if a normal cop accepts a thank you bag of chips from the local chippie, let alone a £12,000 holiday, he is for the high jump.

This was refreshing as he came immediately after New Labour’s shadow minister for policing (sic) – a name I am not bothered I didn’t catch – who said Stephenson was a man of great integrity blah blah blah.

It is quite wrong to believe that the well-connected bent cops like Hayman and Yates are supported by the average cop. They are rather detested, as was “Lord” Ian Blair. If anyone can find that straight talking interview, let me know. We won’t be seeing him again on mainstream media.


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63 thoughts on “Straight Copper

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  • Tom Welsh

    How I miss David Copperfield! (I wonder if he is still a Mountie…)

    But to have any dealings with the ordinary police on the beat, or doing everyday detective work, is to be impressed with their intelligence, education, common sense and downright decency.

    Pity that, in the police as elsewhere, the really big chunks rise to the top.

  • Ian

    Its blown up too much now, but wonder if this will be whitewashed (us usual with Police wrongdoing) if the IPCC have an enquiry into it.

  • OldMark

    ‘It is quite wrong to believe that the well-connected bent cops like Hayman and Yates are supported by the average cop’

    Spot on Craig.

    This was very much the point made by former assistant Commissioner Gilbertson in this article, which poured scorn on the 3 top cops you name, and also had a well justified dig at ACPO.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2015548/News-World-phone-hacking-When-senior-policemen-think-business.html

    I suppose there may be an element of pot-kettle-black to Gilbertson’s article, given that he has a regular writing gig at the Mail (just like Hayman at the Times, in fact), but he seems here to be speaking truthfully & from the heart.

  • Paul

    So just to be clear, this “straight copper” hasn’t actually been a copper for 12 years now…

  • wendy

    still too choreographed this story.

    t blair and d cameron (amongst many mp’s) are up to their necks in it yet still walking “free” .

    we’re clearly only being told the tip of the iceberg interms of what has been happening, as the bbc and tory – neocon media battten down the hatches.

    and as for the ex met chief .. he clearly is pointing fingers at cameron and the home sec. .. will anyone run with it?

  • mary

    Jonaangus A bit of background in case you did not know. The Daily Beast was founded by Tina Brown and another. She is Harold Evans’ wife. He was famously sacked by Murdoch so no love lost I assume.
    .
    About Us
    .
    The Newsweek/Daily Beast Company LLC formed in February 2011 when the revered print brand and the thriving young news site completed their merger, bringing together the warp speed 24/7 website with the depth, analysis, and investigative power of a great print magazine. The combined operation now attracts over 9 million unique online visitors a month and the magazine reaches 14 million readers across America, and millions more through its international editions.
    ,
    The Daily Beast was founded in 2008 as the vision of Tina Brown and IAC Chairman Barry Diller. Curated to avoid information overload, the site is dedicated to breaking news and sharp commentary. After the merger, The Daily Beast became the online home of Newsweek Magazine, which has served as the world’s preeminent conversation starter since its founding in 1933. Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and Talk, serves as Editor-in-Chief of both publications.

  • OldMark

    Jonangus- thanks for the postcard; good to see my favourable impression of Charlotte Harris at the phone hacking discussion at LSE last week confirmed by the New Yorker journos.

  • Suhayl Saadi

    There used to be a couple of ‘straight coppers’ who commented on this blog, one retired, the other serving: ‘Steve’ and ‘Redders’, remember? A pity they seem to have drifted away; they often had valuable insights (literally) from the front line. It would’ve been useful to have heard their views on all this stuff. Maybe they still read the blog, though? Steve, Redders, if you’re reading, any thoughts, guys…?

  • Herbie

    All this “straight copper” meme is there purely for the reassurance of middle England that everything they held dear isn’t collapsing around their arse. They always trot this nonsense out in times like these.
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    Better to let the whole shambollocks collapse and build something better and more properly accountable than continue plastering over the cracks of a crumbling edifice.
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    They won’t do this of course. The plasterers will already be about their trade.
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    My guess is that they’ll now appoint a woman as Commissioner, and all media will sing praise to her sanctity and purity and break with the bad old blokey past. Won’t change anything substantive of course, but the powers that be will give thanks for women in times like these.

  • Jonangus Mackay

    2:20 pm:
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    As predicted, John ‘Binbag’ Yates has finally been dragged kicking & squealing into the nearest wheelie bin.
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  • Jonangus Mackay

    If I might employ my favourite Californiaism, Mary:
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    Thank you for caring enough to share that with me.
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    Only too well aware of the ups & downs, comings & goings, unseemly gossip concerning Mr & Mrs Tina Evans over the years. I”ve followed their fortunes if anything too closely, before they left these shores & since.
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    Who among hacks did not, apart from Harry himself & the lustful late Auberon Waugh, always have reservations about the upwardly unstoppable La Brown?
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    Mr Evans’ biggest failing was to let himself fall for the lying assurances of the repellent Murdoch when Thatcher was eager to give him his first bumper payoff: Times Newspapers.
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    Evans allowed himself to be spannered out of the Sunday Times editor’s chair where his achievement-based prestige at the time rendered him effectively unshiftable. He was bedazzled by the offer of the opportunity to do for the Times what he’d done for the Sunday Times.
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    Murdoch double-crossed him — predictably & completely. His mistake was a major shot of WD40 that lubricated Murdoch’s rise. British cultural life & the cause of investigative journalism have never recovered.
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    For all his failings — & I witnessed others at sometimes fairly close hand through the 70s — Harold Evans remains one of my very few heroes. I trust him. And, on most matters journalistic, I even trust his second wife.
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    I do not for one nano second trust Rupert Murdoch.
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  • Herbie

    There’s an interesting case going on in Scotland at the moment.
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    “A police officer who “could not be bothered” to arrest a suspected robber has been found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice”.
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    “Sheriff Richard Clark told Selby: “Given the nature of the offence the imposition of a custodial sentence is a disposal for consideration.”
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    I seem to remember a Yates of the Yard who couldn’t be bothered going through bin bags of evidence, on much much more serious matters than burglary.
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    Compare and contrast…
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    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-14156329

  • mary

    Yes bye bye John Yates and hello Cressida Dick late of Operation Kratos and Jean Charles de Menezes RIP.
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    I still want to know what pressure was applied to Yates by Blair in the Cash for Honours fisaco.

  • Scouse Billy

    Indeed, Mary – this is one family size can of worms.

    The Gladio operation of 7/7 is the big one as far as the Met is concerned – though I’m not holding my breath…

  • mary

    s/be fiasco and sorry for misspelling your name Jonangus. You know much more about Harold Evans, whom I admire too, than I can remember. I do remember the thaliomide expose which I think took place in his time.

  • dreoilin

    What was she called? The ‘Gold Commander’ on that operation? Poor Jean Charles, writing back to his mother telling her how much safer Britain was than São Paulo … it’s so very sad.
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    “It emerged that hollow point bullets had been employed and a senior police source said that Menezes’ body had been “unrecognisable”. (Wiki)

  • Jonangus Mackay

    Cressida Dick. Agreed: OMG.
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    Electricians up & down the country are advised to mind how they go.
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  • Scouse Billy

    Sky News have just announced Dick’s appointment (acting head of counter-terrorism) stating that she’s highly regarded at the Yard but is not without controversy – i.e. in charge of the de Menezes killing (I paraphrase).

    How far and wide this “crisis” in the establishment will go is now anybody’s guess – Murdoch has plenty of ammo and won’t go down without a fight… 😉

  • Jonangus Mackay

    Of course, I generalise:
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    What Scotland Yard top brass lack in dishonesty, they more than compensate for in arrogance. And vice versa.
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  • dreoilin

    “According to The New York Times, a New Jersey company called Floorgraphics accused News Corp. in 2009 of hacking into their password-protected computer systems to obtain proprietary information, then allegedly spreading “false, misleading and malicious information” about the firm, causing them to lose important contracts.
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    “News Corp.’s response to the scandal was to buy Floorgraphics outright, after offering a $29.5 million settlement.
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    “Cases like Floorgraphics’ are hardly unique: in recent years, the Times noted, News Corp. has paid over $655 million in settlements and hush money to keep allegations of anti-competitive and illegal behavior under the rug.”
    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/07/18/former-fox-news-producer-claimed-networks-brain-room-led-to-phone-hacking/

  • Scouse Billy

    The politicisation of the Police is only matched by that of the new Lysenkoism i.e. politically motivated science.

    The Director General of CERN has put a gagging order on phycicists who may just have conducted a truly enlightening experiment that could have far reaching implications for our prediction and adaptation to climate change – problem is they can’t tell us:

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/07/18/cern_cosmic_ray_gag/

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