Police "chief" Sir Hugh Orde is in the news currently, ridiculing any suggestion that politicians were in any position to control the riots earlier this week, and also commenting very publicly on future government policy.
If what he said on Newsnight on Thursday is true, three questions arise:
1 Why was there a clamour in the newspapers for senior politicians to return from holiday if it was the case that they were "irrelevant" (to use Sir Hugh Orde's word) to whether the riots were controlled or not? Did the journalists simply get their facts wrong (ironic considering the lectures they like to give to bloggers about the importance of fact checking)? Or were the newspapers trying to inflame the situation by creating a false narrative of politicians letting London burn while they lounged around in the sun?
2 If Sir Hugh Orde is correct, and the police were entirely responsible for the decisions taken about policing the riots, then they have a lot of explaining to do about why the situation got out of control. We spend a lot of money on maintaining the police force and yet when gangs of teenagers challenged them they were found wanting. If the police cannot adequately explain why they "held back" in the first two days then it is reasonable to ask for one or two heads on a plate.
3 Is it really acceptable for senior police to talk directly to the media on sensitive issues of public policy? I thought we had got beyond all that. And in addition to celebrity footballers and celebrity models and celebrity Speaker's Wives are we now going to have celebrity police chiefs constantly in our face?
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