http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/12/met-commissioner-bernard-hogan-howe
It looks like Johnson has got his man. I'm reminded of the scene in 'Heaven's Gate' in which the terminally weak and terminally corrupt John Hurt (too skinny to play Johnson, but otherwise perfect) calls in the cavalry to rescue the bad guys and restore order. There will now be some discreet, or, perhaps, manic sweeping up of the evidence and a 'war on gangs', to follow the equally delicious 'war on terror' and 'war on drugs'. In the mean time the hopeless Mark Duggan's funeral had a bunch of big black cars, a bishop and a glass coach. Would that any of us had such a send-off. Hogan-Howe and Johnson might just ponder that one.....
Three years ago we had a great police force led by people who could add up and work out the percentages - despite the running commentary from Victoria 'don't know squit about art, but I need the dough' Wadley. We've still got a great police force, but the top brass seems to have succumbed to some form of moral ataxia, ducking and weaving and spinning their way in to ignominy. Now Lebedev provides the commentary, and it's a fine commentary, but Johnson is still playing to the Standard of 2008. Never mind phone-hacking (what do they have on him?), or unemployment, or housing. It's gangs, gangs, gangs, gangs. Never has County Hall looked more like an antheap, or, on the other hand, less like an antheap because ants work for a living and there is no work (and less thought) going on in County Hall. No thought, for starters, that the rise in rents, the loss of the EMA and rising youth unemployment might be the makings of an uncertain future. For all of us, not just those pesky gangs. Holding our noses, we hope for better times and a better Mayor.
It looks like Johnson has got his man. I'm reminded of the scene in 'Heaven's Gate' in which the terminally weak and terminally corrupt John Hurt (too skinny to play Johnson, but otherwise perfect) calls in the cavalry to rescue the bad guys and restore order. There will now be some discreet, or, perhaps, manic sweeping up of the evidence and a 'war on gangs', to follow the equally delicious 'war on terror' and 'war on drugs'. In the mean time the hopeless Mark Duggan's funeral had a bunch of big black cars, a bishop and a glass coach. Would that any of us had such a send-off. Hogan-Howe and Johnson might just ponder that one.....
Three years ago we had a great police force led by people who could add up and work out the percentages - despite the running commentary from Victoria 'don't know squit about art, but I need the dough' Wadley. We've still got a great police force, but the top brass seems to have succumbed to some form of moral ataxia, ducking and weaving and spinning their way in to ignominy. Now Lebedev provides the commentary, and it's a fine commentary, but Johnson is still playing to the Standard of 2008. Never mind phone-hacking (what do they have on him?), or unemployment, or housing. It's gangs, gangs, gangs, gangs. Never has County Hall looked more like an antheap, or, on the other hand, less like an antheap because ants work for a living and there is no work (and less thought) going on in County Hall. No thought, for starters, that the rise in rents, the loss of the EMA and rising youth unemployment might be the makings of an uncertain future. For all of us, not just those pesky gangs. Holding our noses, we hope for better times and a better Mayor.
