The Metropolitan Police Authority meets on the 22nd November to discuss Sir Ian Blair's case; they cannot be left uninformed.
This body consists of members from the London Assembly, magistrates, and "independent members". Their details are here. The balance is as follows - 7 Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, who can be expected to vote no confidence in Blair out of partisanship. There are 5 Labour members, including Deputy Mayor Nicky Gavron and MPA Chair Len Duvall, all of whom can be expected to back him. There is Green Jenny Jones, who has gone public supporting Blair. Anti-hierarchical ecofeminism, right?
Then there are 9 independent and magistrates; out of these, Cindy Butts is an ex-researcher to the Economic Sec of the Treasury and therefore must be considered a Government vote, and Richard Sumray is an Olympic bid official and therefore is also captured. Considering the certainties, the vote breaks 50-50.
Then there is Faith Boardman, who is an independent member, ex-Lambeth Council CEO; i.e. probably Labour, and anyway as the former head of the CSA she cannot be expected to oppose public incompetence. 9-7 to Killer of the Yard.
Now we have Aneeta Prem (media AT aneeta.com), Rachel Whittaker, Peter Herbert, Karim Murji (k.murji AT open.ac.uk), John Roberts, Kirsten Hearn, Reshard Auladi, and that titan of statesmanship Damian Hockney(Damian.Hockney AT london.gov.uk, 020 7983 4919) the "One London" man and ex-UKIPper. (Update: See comments, he may yet be saved!)
We need to get 2 more votes than t'othersiders out of this group. Hockney opposed the HSE prosecution, but is apparently against Blair staying in office. Assuming he votes with the Government, they have a 3 vote lead; we need to get 6 of the remaining indies on board to fire the fucker. I want a full-dress blogswarm on this; think of the Iraqi employees' campaign and square it. In fact, think of Josh Marshall's US social security drive.
Who can find our four missing MMPAs?
Update: NO MORE EMAIL TO KARIM MURJI PLEASE! We don't want to alienate them with spam; and we have contacted him by other means. You might prefer to call Peter Herbert's chambers on 0207 841 6100 or e-mail clerks AT tooks.co.uk giving his name.
9 comments:
what's "socialistic" about supporting a tory/right-wing media campaign to oust the most progressive met commissioner there has ever been?
"Some things are true even if the Daily Telegraph says they are true"; Orwell.
Anyway, I'd love to see the evidence of this progressiveness. He appears to me to have made a career out of authoritarian bullying; ravers and road protestors at Thames Valley, then being Mr Terror at the Yard. He was stumping for vastly increased police powers as soon as he was appointed.
I think what "progressive" means here is "goes to Lord Levy's dinner parties".
"Hockney has gone public supporting the Mayor"
You have got this wrong. Hockney has been a long-standing critic of Sir Ian Blair and was, in fact, the first MPA member to call on him to quit. He voted "No confidence" at the London Assembly meeting on Wednesday.
http://onelondonweb.blogspot.com/2007/11/sir-ian-blair-is-living-in-bubble.html
To a first approximation, 'progressive' means 'annoying the Federation by advocating the massive expansion of the Community Support Officer scheme'.
The policy came first, not Blair. If you want the policy to continue, merely replace him with one of the many senior officers in the police service who feel the same way about neighbourhood policing. Peter Neyroud springs to mind, but there are others.
Chris Williams
Here's Damien: Yesterday's guilty verdict in the prosecution of the Met on health and safety grounds is a disaster for everybody except the lawyers. More than £3m of taxpayers' money has funded one arm of the state fighting another, with no one individual taking responsibility. The family of Jean Charles de Menezes have gained nothing in spite of their understandable but mistaken feeling that this is a step forward. And we now have a police service that will be so terrified of taking positive action in future potential terrorist situations that it may ultimately lead to even greater loss of life.
See what I mean?
Alex, you are confusing Damian's criticism of the prosecution on health and safety grounds (which you quite rightly say he opposed) with support for Sir Ian Blair.
You can't get much more definitive than voting "no confidence" in an Assembly meeting even though the Assembly has no power!
I think Alex has missed the point that you can both oppose the Health & Safety verdict AND believe Sir Ian Blair is the wrong man for the job. The Tories themselves described the Health & Safety case as "idiotic". As I write this, Hockney has been on the radio (again) calling for Plod Blair to go, and he was alone for two years in calling for the man's resignation, on the basis of his obstruction of the IPCC and his lack of involvement for the 24 hours after the killing.
The Orwell line is a misquote
has anyone else worked out who has funded the nuffield council report into alcohol consumption in the UK? if you want to read my piece it's on
femalepoliticalandsocialcomment.blogspot.com
do you think this is ok?
personally i think:
devious, underhand, sly, scottish cultural arrogance.
comments please
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