Is it just me?

I just thought I’d  share with readers some other recent comment on the police, which shows I’m not alone in my misgivings.  Here’s an article from the London Evening Standard, written by Sir Simon Jenkins, former editor of ‘The Times’ and (despite his mistaken views on drugs) one of the most perceptive and well-informed commentators in the country today.

 

http://www.standard.co.uk/comment/comment/simon-jenkins-londoners-pay-a-price-for-too-much-vip-protection-8806820.html

 

And here’s the ever-interesting Chris Mullin, a former Chairman of the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, (though no political soulmate of mine) writing in The Guardian

 

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/16/plebgate-andrew-mitchell-police-federation

 

I cannot link to the article by Lord Macdonald, former Director of Public Prosecutions, about the role of the Metropolitan Police in the ‘Plebgate’ affair,  as it is in ‘the Times’ and behind a paywall. But I think I can say that it is highly critical of the police.

 

Are all these people also ignorant, ill-informed and motivated by personal failings or some odd dislike of the police as such (as I am accused of being) ? Or are they voicing a more general disquiet, among thinking people of all classes and political opinions,  about what has happened to a once-loved institution?  

 

I might add that earlier this year I was considered so ignorant and ill-informed by the Police Federation that they invited me to contribute to this booklet, ‘Upholding the Queen’s Peace’.   

 

http://www.polfed.org/documents/Upholding_The_Queens_Peace_Essay_book.pdf