Assistant Killer Of The Yard Quits
Andy Hayman, who put his imprimatur on the 7 page document that didn't really prove the case for 90 days detention, has resigned, ostensibly for the usual personal reasons, but I suspect for the usual reasons anyone in high office resigns - the feeling of immunity led him to take more and more cavalier risks - misleading the press post-Stockwell, running up expenses and taking a female officer on foreign trips. It's never for the actual crimes and misdemeanors, of course.
Onions all round. It's usually the case that someone higher up than the resignee is actually behind such sudden departures (particularly given leaks - notice the marvellous irony that a senior Met officer complains about such tactics), and I do suspect that this might be the price of Killer of the Yard staying on - a scapegoat had to be found. It's been fairly proven by Alex Harrowell that the MPA is a useless bunch of rubber stampers, which leaves Blair as the only suspect. Perhaps we should send CO19 out to haul him in for questioning. On second thoughts, maybe not.
"...refute strongly" Pity so
"...refute strongly"
Pity so many of our senior officials are unfamiliar with the English language. "Refute" means "prove to be untrue or incorrect", not "deny" - that is an American excrescence that is gradually ruining a most useful word.
In the meantime, the confusion between the real meaning and the transatlantic pseudo-meaning provides a marvellous refuge for weasel-word enthusiasts everywhere. Of course you can't refute something strongly - you refute it, or you don't. What Hayman means is no doubt "deny it strongly". But then, don't they all?
Isn't it a subconscious
Isn't it a subconscious recognition that what he's actually engaged on is spin - if he shouts loudly (or 'refutes strongly') enough everyone will believe him, regardless of the facts?
Precisely. The use of
Precisely. The use of language is execrable. These people simply do not understand the meanings of words and believe that because something sounds impressive it actually is.
Then again, it seems that they simply do not understand many things - including the public distaste for their profligacy with taxpayers' monies.
I regard them as victims of the State education system. Apart from the obvious academic failure there's also a moral collapse. A 'support group' should be set up to help them - something along the lines of a State Education Victims Support Group, perhaps.
Oy, I'm a prodocut of a
Oy, I'm a prodocut of a state educkashin, so dont knock, it, OK?
I think it's just the inevitable result of having a system that promotes incompetent immoral arselickers, personally. You end up with an organisation full of really incompetent immoral arselickers. No, I don't have a solution, except to say that elected police officials certainly isn't it (although it would be nice to put a cross in the Anyone But Blair box).
As someone observed, big
As someone observed, big organizations are like septic tanks. The really big chunks always float to the top.
I am reminded of an incident
I am reminded of an incident in a Lewis Carrol book where a character says to Alice "I deny it with both hands" It makes just as little sense.
"Jonathan Powell, former