I guess it's the way of the world
Jun. 28th, 2005 09:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirksYou do not get to the top of any greasy pole, be it in politics or business, without knowing which way the flag is blowing at the top. But this seems particularly to be the case in the police force. Actually, being in the police force as a "proper" policeman (i.e., one who isn't in it for as much cake as he can rake as quickly as possible) seems to require a certain moral vacuity. You are there to enforce the law, not to question whether that law is right or wrong. It's a moral stance that I just could not stomach.
Anyway, to get to the top of the police force in the UK seems to require a sense of office politics unparalleled outside the House of Commons. So it can hardly have come as a surprise that the top man, Metropolitan Commissioner Sir Ian Blair, looks to have casually hung out three of his colleagues to dry when the situation suited him.
As "head of diversity" (and you thought these job titles only appeared in the Martin Lukes column) back in 1999, Ian Blair tried to get the decision of a police tribunal overturned. The tribunal had cleared three officers of complaints of racism, but this was not convenient for the Met's public profile, especially after the Macpherson Report had found the Metropolitan Police to be institutionally racist (which, of course, it was and is, but that's beside the point here). Good old Sir Ian tied to get the tribunal's decision overturned by judicial review, for reasons which some said were "because he needed to show the Met would take action against racism", while others said it was because he wanted to maintain a high profile in his campaign to become police commissioner. Sir Ian, meanwhile, said that it was all coincidence, and that he asked for a judicial review solely because of the way the case had been conducted. Race and the Macpherson Report had nothing to do with it. Yeah, right.
Yesterday Ian Blair was found guilty by an employment tribunal of prejudicing disiplinary proceedings against the three oficers and of treating them unfavourably, because they were white.
Will it make any difference to the politicking that goes on to get to the top of the police force? Probably not. Will it make it possible to say things which are undeniably correct, but which do not fit in with the world's current herd-like thinking, without being ridiculed by those who cannot see beyond conventional wisdom? Probably not.
But it was a nice small victory, for a change.
Anyway, to get to the top of the police force in the UK seems to require a sense of office politics unparalleled outside the House of Commons. So it can hardly have come as a surprise that the top man, Metropolitan Commissioner Sir Ian Blair, looks to have casually hung out three of his colleagues to dry when the situation suited him.
As "head of diversity" (and you thought these job titles only appeared in the Martin Lukes column) back in 1999, Ian Blair tried to get the decision of a police tribunal overturned. The tribunal had cleared three officers of complaints of racism, but this was not convenient for the Met's public profile, especially after the Macpherson Report had found the Metropolitan Police to be institutionally racist (which, of course, it was and is, but that's beside the point here). Good old Sir Ian tied to get the tribunal's decision overturned by judicial review, for reasons which some said were "because he needed to show the Met would take action against racism", while others said it was because he wanted to maintain a high profile in his campaign to become police commissioner. Sir Ian, meanwhile, said that it was all coincidence, and that he asked for a judicial review solely because of the way the case had been conducted. Race and the Macpherson Report had nothing to do with it. Yeah, right.
Yesterday Ian Blair was found guilty by an employment tribunal of prejudicing disiplinary proceedings against the three oficers and of treating them unfavourably, because they were white.
Will it make any difference to the politicking that goes on to get to the top of the police force? Probably not. Will it make it possible to say things which are undeniably correct, but which do not fit in with the world's current herd-like thinking, without being ridiculed by those who cannot see beyond conventional wisdom? Probably not.
But it was a nice small victory, for a change.
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no subject
Date: 2005-06-28 09:37 am (UTC)He used to work with John Stalker - strangely enough, both are now after-dinner speaker/comedians.
It's about time someone was censured for discriminating against white people. Not because white people get a hard time or anything, but because treating anyone differently because of their "ethnicity" is wrong (and illegal) - there's no requirement that the person so treated be from some "minority".
Am I in a minority when I'm concerned about "diversity" programmes within businesses? When I was at Barclays, it was possible to nominate oneself for a "Chairman's Diversity Award". But perhaps we should celebrate diversity and appreciate the strengths it brings: "Ramadan? Excellent, you can work through the lunch hour, then".