Incompetence rewarded *UPDATED*

Ken Livingston (the politician formally known as Red Ken) also defended the police.
The Police are racist, always have been, you get a sissy who can’t cut it in the real world, put them in uniform and hey you get a long history of cowardly blunders by fascist morons.

To the memory of Blair Peach.

I don't think all police are racist, I just think rewarding this officer at this time is a really bad idea which will add to an already tense situation.

Agree with you that not all police are racists but would suggest the rewarding of this officer is not simply abad idea. It is a deliberate two fingered salute to the Muslim community.

Ah, but given the way the honours system works, he'd been nominated, accepted the nomination and everything was well on tis way a long time before the raid. In fact, pretty much impossible to block it without causing a huge fuss all over.

Mat Bowles
not-little-england

Aha! This is Andy "90 days detention without charge" Hayman, as quoted at length at Downing Street Says. No wonder Blair loves him, supporting the cause for creating our own little Guantanamo Bay. The 90 days is not because of the terrorist threat; it's the amount of time you need to lock an innocent man up until the press has forgotten about him.

Had they done that to the two innocent men whom they arrested, rather than letting them out after 24 hours, there would be no scandal at the present time. Instead, the politicians would refuse to comment on this specific case, and the press would fill in the details about how their detention proved what a threat to the nation they are.

Also, I recall that it's not compulsory to accept an honour at a given time. You can refuse or delay the award if it's shameful and embarrassing -- which it should be. So no one should accept this lame excuse of "this was scheduled years in advance when we didn't know he was suddenly going to look like an idiot". Why, he could take a tip from Blair about his uncollected Congressional medal of honour.

Yes mat, but given his role in keeping London safe[sic] on 7/7, and the execution of Jean Charles de Menezes, not to mention the 90 days debate, it seems it is services to government not the community that are being rewarded.

"Several weeks ago the Independent Police Complaints Commission served a Regulation 9 notice on Mr Hayman, which is a formal warning that he is under investigation and might face a disciplinary charge. A source close to Scotland Yard said yesterday that the allegations involve a briefing to journalists on the afternoon of the shooting about the identification of the dead man and his links to terror suspects.

Mr Hayman is said to have impressed the Prime Minister with his handling of the attacks on July 7 and his performance in the Cobra committee called to deal with the emergency."

Giving him his honour before he gives his evidence to the IPCC about the de Menezes case [holidays permitting] is a little premature don't you think?

And how about the latest tidbit from the Observer:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,1800267,00.html

awards to foreign businessmen and US military officers kept secret.

Smell? What smell?

Yes, I just read the Observer piece. It really does look like Blair is taking the piss. I agree with Norman Baker MP.

'This shows that what matters in Tony Blair's Britain is those with power, money and a US accent. These awards are supposed to be for good works and those that have helped Britain. Instead it seems they are being handed out to those who have supported Blair's misguided policies at home and overseas.'

Just when you think they can't get any sleazier...

Was it Andy Hayman or some other prat whom I heard the other day offering the lamest, most crossed-fingers-and-toes "apology" I have ever heard? As I recall, he apologised for "any hurt that may have occurred". "May have"? "*May* have"??? Is he really in doubt that shooting someone in the chest from two feet away, in their own house, in the middle of the night, for absolutely no reason other than a high-strung constitution, is hurtful?

What a cynical brute.

Yup, the very same Andy Hayman. You can read his very qualified 'apology' here.

Hayman put his signature to the dodgy dossier about 90 days (which AFAIK didn't actually mention 90 days, that was done later). As IIRC spyblog mentioned at the time it was riddled with inaccuracies and only really made the case for more police resources in things like high-tech forensics. This would have been supported by all sides, but Blair (quoting Hayman) decided to go for the big headline option, with the consequences we all know (including that it still hasn't been brought in).

As for the Bechtel boys, is there a similar rule about lesser honours as for knighthoods and peerages - is rewarding rich businessmen with gongs covered by the Abuse of Honours stuff? Presumably Tony's plan to pay the mortgage off with some rich consultancies in the US when we finally get rid of him is proceeding nicely.