Short of money HM Treasury has found £250m for extra policing of Jewish communities (not arguing there is a need) and further £100m for CT policing and antisemitism training. From: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c78y2xg0090o
There are two big obstacles to any of the recommendations being fulfilled. One, HM Treasury (aided by the Home Office) who simply will not provide the full funding necessary and it is likely that the College of Policing and maybe the National Police Service will go for a cheaper option. Two, why should anyone believe this commission IF you see who were members and realise a good number are PART of the problem that helped to create the failings.
I remained puzzled at the initial media description of the commission as 'Independent' and that word's disappearance on the day. Certainly NOT independent.
So, will the commission's report make a REAL difference? I doubt it it.
I like Dorset Constabulary's Skunkworks. Can I have a job, please?
Particularly attracted by this bit:
"I’ve never been an ambitious man, so I genuinely don’t understand the mindset. I’ve met them, though. Looked into their dead, glassy eyes. Listened to their droning voices."
The creation of Skunkworks is missing one thing, though: the means to deal with the civil service blob and associated quangos/NGOs, etc. before it can go anywhere.
Suggestions, anyone? Anyone?
Difficult, innit. The last politician to successfully bend the blob to his will was Blair, and right under our noses we watched him dismantle our constitution, with the help of....?
The House of Lords.
You see, to get anything done, you must have the HoL on your side or be smart enough to spring a surprise attack that they can't do anything about. Stuffed as it is with Labour, Lib Dem and Tory wets, it's about as left-wing as any single political entity can be without going full-blown communist.
Roughly, historically speaking, the HoL was the rubber-stamp brigade, existing to ensure legislation passed by the House of Commons (Commoners) didn't interfere with the business and politics of our betters.
But those uppity commoners appealed to a nation of comprehensive schoolgoers that "being the best" meant that a handful of GCSEs (or, in the case of Angela Rayner, just one) was the equivalent to an obscenely expensive Eton education, followed by an Oxbridge degree and ten years in the City making enough money to see them through the rest of their lives. Now we have a House of Lords packed with GCSE'ers. Sure, some of them went on to be 'PPE'd' but that's simply a former polytechnic course Blair blessed with his university wand on how to scale the slippery pole without getting caught.
So, it's tough getting anything remotely right wing through the HoL. How can things change?
Well, the answer is surprisingly simple, with a democratic mandate from voters on specific changes to the civil service.
This is where successive governments have stumbled and fallen. Almost every major decision regarding civil service change must pass through the HoL, and no matter how good it is, if they don't like it because it's far too far right, they either kill the bill or slow walk it until it withers on the vine.
Why does a mandate from the voters matter? Quite simply, if the policy is crafted skilfully, the HoL are trapped by their own duty to uphold democracy. The public have elected a party to govern the country in the full knowledge of what will be done to the civil service.
Changes to the civil service must, of course, still pass through the HoL and they will employ tricks unique to them to alter or delay them, but the government of the moment has the mandate of the people behind them.
This has, to my knowledge, never been a tactic employed by any government to impose sweeping changes to Whitehall. So with all the caterwauling from Labour and the Tories about how their hands are tied by the civil service, which of them is employing tactics to change the civil service?
As far as I can see from their published policies, neither.
So, which party is carefully crafting a cunning plan to deal with the HoL? The Lib Dems? The Greens? Restore UK (don't make me laugh)?
You just know I'm going to tell you it's Reform, and for this reason the party recruited Tory MPs with cabinet-level experience who know their way around the civil service and the House of Lords. They plan to slash and burn the cosy establishment and sack civil servants who do not wholeheartedly support the government of the day without their personal political bias clouding their judgement.
Numbers will be cut overall; quangos and NGOs will be culled. Expensive properties across London lying empty because civil servants are now working from home will have leases terminated and Whitehall will, once again, become the centre of the human machinery Reform employs to run the country, not the other way around.
A criticism often levelled at Reform is that they have no experience of government and elected MPs will be raw recruits unable to govern. Well, after 14 years of the Tory government Labour pitched up with 400 MPs who had never been in government (and doesn't it just tell?) headed by an appalling cabinet, few of whom were MPs under Blair, including the outgoing Adenoidal Automaton Sir Keir Starmer.
It's also worth remembering that around 100 years ago, Labour stormed the pitch to displace the Liberal Party. Their MPs had little to no experience.
I'm nearly 70 and this guff has repeated itself on a loop since I joined and since I retired, my thoughts, such as they are, and in no order:
1) Don't like this report? Don't worry, another one will be around in a few years time after the next scandal.
2) Direct political control of forces. I note that Farage and Lowe have explicitly stated they want political control of policing as well. I'll leave that there but you can imagine SIO's and CC's being leaned on by the RW and LW as well as the religiously affiliated. The 1964 Royal Commission got rid of the old County and Borough forces and the associated watch committees because many were bywords for corruption and inefficiency.
3) No politician will acknowledge the damage inflicted on the CJS and policing by Cameron, Osborne, May, the wierdo Nick Timothy and their hangers on.
4) Stop saying UK policing is the envy of the world. Take a long dispassionate look at what is going on and admit things have gone wrong, perhaps (horror of horrors) look at other Commonwealth and European police forces and see what they do and where appropriate seek advice from them.
5) Looking at the German and Dutch approach initial training is some 2-3 years with a mixture of classroom and practical inputs delivered with suitable candidates fast tracked for promotion or specialist roles.
6) The above won't happen because the Treasury will water down any plans and training will be a pre-read and online multi choice.
7) There are no easy answers and as the USA has shown you can smash things up overnight but things rarely improve.
All in all a classic fudge of solutions that are, in the main, unflushable turds.
I should add the IOPC needs to be sorted out. At the moment its VAR/TMO on steroids. The one thing we Brits do well is to gold plate legislation beyond the realms of sanity. I long for a politician/senior officer to say that policing is inherently messy, restraint rarely looks good and officers are frequently operate with incomplete/contradictory information. It would also help if politicians/journalists of all political persuasion did not clutch their pearls and have a fit of the swoons every time they see police using force.
I couldn't get to the end, I was getting too depressed. Ffs, Dom, stop hitting the nail on the head so accurately! 😄 It's bad enough watching the slow motion car crash that is modern police leadership and structure, without you pinpointing the particulars so tellingly! What would we do without you? 🤣
"It squares the age old circle of political control".
I love it when politicians talk about squaring the circle. Partly because it's been proved to be impossible - a widely known fact - and partly because those berks don't know that it's been proved to be impossible.
Politcal control of the Police & courts has been an aim of Westminster since I joined the Job in the late 60´s. Westminster has found the way - Chief Constables educated in the same dodgy degrees as our politicians, with no leadership skills at all. In my humble grumpy opinion, the job is well and truly screwed. If anyone in the lower echelons of the Job, I mean humble PC Plob, think it will change - never, never. Westminster has its hooks in and will not let go.
An open article by Lord Blunkett of the independent commission: https://theconversation.com/david-blunkett-police-leadership-needs-radical-reform-to-give-people-the-protection-they-deserve-287216?
Short of money HM Treasury has found £250m for extra policing of Jewish communities (not arguing there is a need) and further £100m for CT policing and antisemitism training. From: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c78y2xg0090o
There are two big obstacles to any of the recommendations being fulfilled. One, HM Treasury (aided by the Home Office) who simply will not provide the full funding necessary and it is likely that the College of Policing and maybe the National Police Service will go for a cheaper option. Two, why should anyone believe this commission IF you see who were members and realise a good number are PART of the problem that helped to create the failings.
Only two of the commission, both ladies, appeared to be independent and one was living in Australia. Three NPCC members, one ex-PCC and one College board member. For full details see: https://www.college.police.uk/police-leadership-commission/commission-members
I remained puzzled at the initial media description of the commission as 'Independent' and that word's disappearance on the day. Certainly NOT independent.
So, will the commission's report make a REAL difference? I doubt it it.
An excellent read, thoroughly enjoyable
Thank you
I read (under Police Leadership Review) the phrase
"civil service retreads" as, yes, you got it
"civil service retards"
Same thing I guess
I like Dorset Constabulary's Skunkworks. Can I have a job, please?
Particularly attracted by this bit:
"I’ve never been an ambitious man, so I genuinely don’t understand the mindset. I’ve met them, though. Looked into their dead, glassy eyes. Listened to their droning voices."
The creation of Skunkworks is missing one thing, though: the means to deal with the civil service blob and associated quangos/NGOs, etc. before it can go anywhere.
Suggestions, anyone? Anyone?
Difficult, innit. The last politician to successfully bend the blob to his will was Blair, and right under our noses we watched him dismantle our constitution, with the help of....?
The House of Lords.
You see, to get anything done, you must have the HoL on your side or be smart enough to spring a surprise attack that they can't do anything about. Stuffed as it is with Labour, Lib Dem and Tory wets, it's about as left-wing as any single political entity can be without going full-blown communist.
Roughly, historically speaking, the HoL was the rubber-stamp brigade, existing to ensure legislation passed by the House of Commons (Commoners) didn't interfere with the business and politics of our betters.
But those uppity commoners appealed to a nation of comprehensive schoolgoers that "being the best" meant that a handful of GCSEs (or, in the case of Angela Rayner, just one) was the equivalent to an obscenely expensive Eton education, followed by an Oxbridge degree and ten years in the City making enough money to see them through the rest of their lives. Now we have a House of Lords packed with GCSE'ers. Sure, some of them went on to be 'PPE'd' but that's simply a former polytechnic course Blair blessed with his university wand on how to scale the slippery pole without getting caught.
So, it's tough getting anything remotely right wing through the HoL. How can things change?
Well, the answer is surprisingly simple, with a democratic mandate from voters on specific changes to the civil service.
This is where successive governments have stumbled and fallen. Almost every major decision regarding civil service change must pass through the HoL, and no matter how good it is, if they don't like it because it's far too far right, they either kill the bill or slow walk it until it withers on the vine.
Why does a mandate from the voters matter? Quite simply, if the policy is crafted skilfully, the HoL are trapped by their own duty to uphold democracy. The public have elected a party to govern the country in the full knowledge of what will be done to the civil service.
Changes to the civil service must, of course, still pass through the HoL and they will employ tricks unique to them to alter or delay them, but the government of the moment has the mandate of the people behind them.
This has, to my knowledge, never been a tactic employed by any government to impose sweeping changes to Whitehall. So with all the caterwauling from Labour and the Tories about how their hands are tied by the civil service, which of them is employing tactics to change the civil service?
As far as I can see from their published policies, neither.
So, which party is carefully crafting a cunning plan to deal with the HoL? The Lib Dems? The Greens? Restore UK (don't make me laugh)?
You just know I'm going to tell you it's Reform, and for this reason the party recruited Tory MPs with cabinet-level experience who know their way around the civil service and the House of Lords. They plan to slash and burn the cosy establishment and sack civil servants who do not wholeheartedly support the government of the day without their personal political bias clouding their judgement.
Numbers will be cut overall; quangos and NGOs will be culled. Expensive properties across London lying empty because civil servants are now working from home will have leases terminated and Whitehall will, once again, become the centre of the human machinery Reform employs to run the country, not the other way around.
This is not yet in a fully crafted form, but details on progress can be found here: https://preparingforgovernment.com
A criticism often levelled at Reform is that they have no experience of government and elected MPs will be raw recruits unable to govern. Well, after 14 years of the Tory government Labour pitched up with 400 MPs who had never been in government (and doesn't it just tell?) headed by an appalling cabinet, few of whom were MPs under Blair, including the outgoing Adenoidal Automaton Sir Keir Starmer.
It's also worth remembering that around 100 years ago, Labour stormed the pitch to displace the Liberal Party. Their MPs had little to no experience.
Perhaps Skunkworks has a glimmer of hope.
I'm nearly 70 and this guff has repeated itself on a loop since I joined and since I retired, my thoughts, such as they are, and in no order:
1) Don't like this report? Don't worry, another one will be around in a few years time after the next scandal.
2) Direct political control of forces. I note that Farage and Lowe have explicitly stated they want political control of policing as well. I'll leave that there but you can imagine SIO's and CC's being leaned on by the RW and LW as well as the religiously affiliated. The 1964 Royal Commission got rid of the old County and Borough forces and the associated watch committees because many were bywords for corruption and inefficiency.
3) No politician will acknowledge the damage inflicted on the CJS and policing by Cameron, Osborne, May, the wierdo Nick Timothy and their hangers on.
4) Stop saying UK policing is the envy of the world. Take a long dispassionate look at what is going on and admit things have gone wrong, perhaps (horror of horrors) look at other Commonwealth and European police forces and see what they do and where appropriate seek advice from them.
5) Looking at the German and Dutch approach initial training is some 2-3 years with a mixture of classroom and practical inputs delivered with suitable candidates fast tracked for promotion or specialist roles.
6) The above won't happen because the Treasury will water down any plans and training will be a pre-read and online multi choice.
7) There are no easy answers and as the USA has shown you can smash things up overnight but things rarely improve.
All in all a classic fudge of solutions that are, in the main, unflushable turds.
I should add the IOPC needs to be sorted out. At the moment its VAR/TMO on steroids. The one thing we Brits do well is to gold plate legislation beyond the realms of sanity. I long for a politician/senior officer to say that policing is inherently messy, restraint rarely looks good and officers are frequently operate with incomplete/contradictory information. It would also help if politicians/journalists of all political persuasion did not clutch their pearls and have a fit of the swoons every time they see police using force.
I couldn't get to the end, I was getting too depressed. Ffs, Dom, stop hitting the nail on the head so accurately! 😄 It's bad enough watching the slow motion car crash that is modern police leadership and structure, without you pinpointing the particulars so tellingly! What would we do without you? 🤣
Be much happier, I suspect
Excellent analysis, thank you.
"It squares the age old circle of political control".
I love it when politicians talk about squaring the circle. Partly because it's been proved to be impossible - a widely known fact - and partly because those berks don't know that it's been proved to be impossible.
What's not to like?
Another absorbing and excellent article! Thanks, Dominic. Keep safe and keep 'em coming 👍👍
Consider it done, Dominic👍👏
All I ask, if you can, is to occasionally share stuff you like. Thanks Mike.
Politcal control of the Police & courts has been an aim of Westminster since I joined the Job in the late 60´s. Westminster has found the way - Chief Constables educated in the same dodgy degrees as our politicians, with no leadership skills at all. In my humble grumpy opinion, the job is well and truly screwed. If anyone in the lower echelons of the Job, I mean humble PC Plob, think it will change - never, never. Westminster has its hooks in and will not let go.
You and I had the training benefits of demobbed WW2 veterans who joined the job, understanding what discipline and compassion really meant.
Many of them had killed people to defend our nation. They left in the mid-80s, replaced by the graduate class.
That's when the job turned to shit.