Conservative MP - Police Rant.
Discussion
ViperPict said:
eharding said:
whoami said:
eharding said:
ViperPict said:
scenario8 said:
ViperPict said:
Does the UK have a constitution?!
Yes. It may well be significantly easier to "point to" or hold or read from, for example, the constitution of the USA, or France or Israel, but we enjoy a nice malleable long serving uncodified constitution all the same.
eharding said:
ViperPict said:
eharding said:
whoami said:
eharding said:
ViperPict said:
scenario8 said:
ViperPict said:
Does the UK have a constitution?!
Yes. It may well be significantly easier to "point to" or hold or read from, for example, the constitution of the USA, or France or Israel, but we enjoy a nice malleable long serving uncodified constitution all the same.
kerish. You are clearly VERY fluent... Red 4 said:
Gene Vincent said:
Was it really 'very' public? Who made the running here, the MP? Is it really that offensive?
No... no... no.
It was said in the street so yes, that is in public. It is even more public now that the press know what happened. No... no... no.
Mitchell comments are very offensive when you consider his position.
The end. Night night.
Threatening to arrest the Chief-whip is going to elicit press attention so I suggest it is possible that our jobsworth having seen someone 'fail' his 'attitude test' by calling him a pleb and walk away scot-free was one unhappy bunny.
His position... he looks down on the lower middle-class cop and probably the rest of us... that is his real 'crime' here, he thinks cops are socially below him, he's right, he's middle to upper middle-class, this IS a Conservative Government (well those lib-dems are tossers so they don't count) did he think the Chief-whip might think we are all equal or something and invite him in a for a petit-four and a glass of claret four guarding a gate so well?
The huge irony is that the gate was wanted by the Police for years, they previously had to lift the old gate up to facilitate entry, the representation was made along the lines that they could open the gate 'on demand' far more readily with a proper hinged structure... and just like any guard dog would, the police have now taken 'ownership' of the gate, it's theirs and any 'opening the gate on demand' has been forgotten.
It's so mental it beggars belief.
greygoose said:
If the Chief Whip thinks it is acceptable to swear at a policeman and call him a pleb then he is an idiot, it is easy enough for opponents to fire accusations that the Conservative leadership are out of touch toffs without someone like this providing them with free ammunition.
Well, more importantly why the hell didn't he just use the Jedi mind-control techniques they teach at public schools? - I mean, even back in the eighties at my minor West-Country public school they taught us those, right from Day One in the Lower Fifth - focus the prefrontal cortex, wave the hand, capture the brain-stem function of the subject, say "Of course these are the gates you want to open", and job's a goodun.Given that he clearly didn't use the Light side of the Force, was patently in possession of a bicycle, and went off on some screaming fit - it all just yells "Sith" as far as I'm concerned - and given that Tony Blair has suddenly dropped off the radar, I think I know what the source of the infestation is.
eharding said:
Given that he clearly didn't use the Light side of the Force, was patently in possession of a bicycle, and went off on some screaming fit - it all just yells "Sith" as far as I'm concerned - and given that Tony Blair has suddenly dropped off the radar, I think I know what the source of the infestation is.
I assumed (perhaps wrongly) that Peter Mandelson was the Emperor and source of the infestation, wasn't Blair just the acceptable public face of the Sith?It wasn't Mitchell's finest hour to be honest. It wasn't smart politically and it doesn't present his character particularly well - The measure of the great man is his treatment of the little man and all that - but, ffs, why did the situation ever occur in the 1st place?!
A hint of self awareness/emotional intelligence from the cop in question would have (a) seen him getting his way and (b) prevented a situation that, I suspect will damage the officer's career far more than the Chief Whips.
A hint of self awareness/emotional intelligence from the cop in question would have (a) seen him getting his way and (b) prevented a situation that, I suspect will damage the officer's career far more than the Chief Whips.
Gene Vincent said:
The 'troops' (what with him being the chief-whip are the ranks of the MPs) that is the government.
"Just open the fking gate!"... "No, it's more than my jobsworth!"... get the drift?
You have an odd view of "jobsworth". He is in fact going his job as a professional."Just open the f
king gate!"... "No, it's more than my jobsworth!"... get the drift?The police are guarding no10. There is a reason they have big gates and a bloke with a gun. Its not for an MP to demand they open the gates just because he has a particularly high opinion of himself.
ClaphamGT3 said:
98elise said:
He's now appologised but has denied what he said.
So now he's calling the police liars......he is an utter tt!
Oh the irony....So now he's calling the police liars......he is an utter t
t!Perhaps the police officer is lying?
The good thing is the downing street entrance is normally surrounded by tourists, so hopefully someone independant will give their side.
ClaphamGT3 said:
It wasn't Mitchell's finest hour to be honest. It wasn't smart politically and it doesn't present his character particularly well - The measure of the great man is his treatment of the little man and all that - but, ffs, why did the situation ever occur in the 1st place?!
A hint of self awareness/emotional intelligence from the cop in question would have (a) seen him getting his way and (b) prevented a situation that, I suspect will damage the officer's career far more than the Chief Whips.
Indeed. And there lies the problem. The officer whould have been following his instructions but because he has been criticised by some bloke who has some pull, he'll be posted. The next PC to be challenged by some bloke to the effect that he is too important to use the small entrance and needs the big gates open, will know that if he sticks to his orders he wil be posted and that if he does open the big gates, someone will point out that he went against his orders for no reason so should be posted.A hint of self awareness/emotional intelligence from the cop in question would have (a) seen him getting his way and (b) prevented a situation that, I suspect will damage the officer's career far more than the Chief Whips.
The worst place to be in this situation is in the right.
Gene Vincent said:
... he looks down on the lower middle-class cop and probably the rest of us... that is his real 'crime' here, he thinks cops are socially below him, he's right, he's middle to upper middle-class, this IS a Conservative Government did he think the Chief-whip might think we are all equal or something and invite him in a for a petit-four and a glass of claret four guarding a gate so well?
It's so mental it beggars belief.
I was performing an armed guard in the Inner Temple on a snowy January, in my wellies and greatcoat, when Quentin Hogg (also an habitual cyclist. He had his bike with him this time. He had problems walking medium distances) asked me into his chambers for a cup of warming tea. No biscuits (I doubt I would have merited things with foreign names, what with me being from the east end of London) but a very nice gesture. I would put Hogg higher in the social scale than this new boy in cabinet. It's so mental it beggars belief.
Quent, as his common mates called him, was a viscount at the time but, as I had no idea of the prescribed way to address one, he seemed happy with 'Sir'. I feel certain that he would have handled things somewhat differently. He was what we of the lower classes called a 'gent'.
Derek Smith said:
I was performing an armed guard in the Inner Temple on a snowy January, in my wellies and greatcoat, when Quentin Hogg (also an habitual cyclist. He had his bike with him this time. He had problems walking medium distances) asked me into his chambers for a cup of warming tea. No biscuits (I doubt I would have merited things with foreign names, what with me being from the east end of London) but a very nice gesture. I would put Hogg higher in the social scale than this new boy in cabinet.
Quent, as his common mates called him, was a viscount at the time but, as I had no idea of the prescribed way to address one, he seemed happy with 'Sir'. I feel certain that he would have handled things somewhat differently. He was what we of the lower classes called a 'gent'.
The Hoggs are an old and distinguished family, whose forebears created the Polytechnic Movement. Pity one of the later editions was involved in the "Duck House" business in the MP's expences saga.Quent, as his common mates called him, was a viscount at the time but, as I had no idea of the prescribed way to address one, he seemed happy with 'Sir'. I feel certain that he would have handled things somewhat differently. He was what we of the lower classes called a 'gent'.
I don't really get why some here seem to be defending or making excuses for him if the events are as reported.
I don't automatically agree with the idea that if the Police ask you to do something you do it because they're the Police, but what a totally disgraceful reaction over a presumably trivial request.
I don't automatically agree with the idea that if the Police ask you to do something you do it because they're the Police, but what a totally disgraceful reaction over a presumably trivial request.
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