Chief Whip is rude to policemen

SimonAH

Well, he was told to get off his bike and push it through the pedestrian gate instead of riding out as a vehicle as he claims he always does.

Is it OK to call a policeman a pleb when he acts like an officious git?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19671093

greg66_tri_v2.0

Whatever he did or didn't say, the Police Federation is apparently calling for him to be sacked and accuses him of holding "the police" (all of them?) in contempt.

And that notorious bandwagon passenger Yvette Cooper-Balls claims that Downing St has a lot of questions to answer about this.

What absolute cobblers.

It is irksome that "respect" in this context has become a synonym for "unqualified deference and subservience". If a police officer gets upset at a bit of name calling, you have to question pretty seriously whether he's the right man to be guarding the entrance to Downing St.

king_jeffers

D-lock the ****

veronese68

Bloody cyclists think they're above the law.

rick_chasey

Utter bull story.

The silly season is late this year.

vermin

Reading the story actually made me LOL. As did the story on Georgian radio at the moment about the great Amish hair and beard cutting federal hate crime case; the best part of which being that the leader of the convicted group happens to be one Mr Mullett. Yup, 'tis the season to be silly.

BelgianBeerGeek

Sounds like he was being a bit of a pompous fool. Not really a resigning matter, though, is it?

dhope

BelgianBeerGeek wrote:

Sounds like he was being a bit of a pompous fool. Not really a resigning matter, though, is it?

Seems to be a prerequisite for the job tbh.

What a nothing story though.

bails87

On the one hand, it's hard to imagine someone in a car being told to "get out and push through the other gate".

On the other, it's not hard for him to just walk through the gate, rather than having to wait for the main gate and the secondary barriers to be moved out of the way.

And then there's the alleged comments "Best you learn your f***ing place.....You’re f***ing plebs" which many would suggest is the way that goverment sees the vast majority of the population.

Dellsinho

Was he wearing a helmet?

rhext

Veronese68 wrote:

Bloody cyclists think they're above the law.

After the Hillsborough report, you have to suspect that so do a fair number of policemen!

Flyingbogey

If someone's behaving like a pleb, be he in uniform or not then treat him like one.
The Tories do seem to hate the police though. They are in the process of destroying my pension at the mo, I have invested almost 20yrs of time money and effort into it. The proposed changes are, at the moment unlawful but the home sec is planning on changing the law to allow it. Feels unfair to me.

greg66_tri_v2.0

bails87 wrote:

"Best you learn your f***ing place.....You’re f***ing plebs" which many would suggest is the way that goverment sees the vast majority of the population.

In all seriousness, do you genuinely believe that of the Government?

vermin

Greg66 wrote:

bails87 wrote:

"Best you learn your f***ing place.....You’re f***ing plebs" which many would suggest is the way that goverment sees the vast majority of the population.

In all seriousness, do you genuinely believe that of the Government?

Is Mitt Romney a politician?

SimonAH

Thank heavens that Mitt Romney did open his stupid mouth the way he did - hopefully it should be enough to make him unelectable by even the reddest necked states....but then again....

If MR gains the Whitehouse then, oh, what the hell can you say? Surely it can't happen.

bails87

Greg66 wrote:

bails87 wrote:

"Best you learn your f***ing place.....You’re f***ing plebs" which many would suggest is the way that goverment sees the vast majority of the population.

In all seriousness, do you genuinely believe that of the Government?

I didn't say I did believe that. There is certainly that perception of the privilged posh boys, even from within (admittedly nutty parts of) the Tory party, and things like this don't help with that perception.

Hoopdriver

Rick Chasey wrote:

Utter bull story.

The silly season is late this year.

It's early, you mean

tailwindhome

Greg66 wrote:

If a police officer gets upset at a bit of name calling, you have to question pretty seriously whether he's the right man to be guarding the entrance to Downing St.

I think I'd be irritated if one of the arrogant pricks I was there to protect called me a f*cking pleb.

If he was a drunk outside a pub he'd be spending the night in the cells. No?

arthur_scrimshaw

SimonAH wrote:

Thank heavens that Mitt Romney did open his stupid mouth the way he did - hopefully it should be enough to make him unelectable by even the reddest necked states....but then again....

If MR gains the Whitehouse then, oh, what the hell can you say? Surely it can't happen.

yes well lots of people said that about Dubya and he got elected twice. Mood of the people and all that.

EKE_38BPM

Arthur Scrimshaw wrote:

SimonAH wrote:

Thank heavens that Mitt Romney did open his stupid mouth the way he did - hopefully it should be enough to make him unelectable by even the reddest necked states....but then again....

If MR gains the Whitehouse then, oh, what the hell can you say? Surely it can't happen.

yes well lots of people said that about Dubya and he got elected twice. Mood of the people and all that.

Thanks for that Arthur. I was all confident that Twit Romney wouldn't have a chance and then you bring me back own with a bump.

jthef

For me there are 2 people showing utter contenpt for the other.
1st the police man's contempt for the cyclist (not knowing if there was an exceptional reason why he directed the MP off his bike)
2nd the MP's response.

If there was no exceptional reason the police man should be educated/told off (I think disciplining is a bit strong for this) but I find his insistence he gets off his bike exceptional annoying and highlights the attitude of some police to cyclists!
The MP's response is more complicated.
1st the the response, he is meant to represent us and if he can't handle a bit of strife of a police man should he he in office.
2nd the contempt he holds for the police, just imagine the contempt he holds for Joe Blogs?
3rd if he has said those thing he should of been arrested there is a good chance we would of been!
and therefore he is not fit to hold a position in government.

but overall I'm still annoyed that a cyclist is told to get of his bike and walk, but if he was in a car no problem

jejv

Umm, two arseholes had an argument. That happens.

WTF is it doing on Newsnight ?

Haven't they got any stories from last year's Private Eye they can cover ?

Like money laundering on UK high streets ? Death, abuse, and persecution of whistleblowers, in the NHS ?

What's happening with CIB3 at the moment ?
Or Nadir's donations ?

greg66_tri_v2.0

TailWindHome wrote:

Greg66 wrote:

If a police officer gets upset at a bit of name calling, you have to question pretty seriously whether he's the right man to be guarding the entrance to Downing St.

I think I'd be irritated if one of the arrogant pricks I was there to protect called me a f*cking pleb.

If he was a drunk outside a pub he'd be spending the night in the cells. No?

Maybe, maybe not. Actually, I doubt it.

Nationally reported incident? No. Irritated, yes, but FFS get some perspective. (Unless he really is a bit of a pleb, and it hit a nerve. In which case: what a baby).

I guess this underlines to me how much Britain has changed in the last 20 years. Then, you would put your mortgage on the average pc being pretty right wing. Now, they seem to have assumed the mantle of public sector workers who just happen to do police work.

SimonAH

<goes off to set up the popcorn machine>

the_hundredth_idiot

That's my take on this too: a PC decides to be a pompous little shite just because he can, and an MP should have let it wash over him but instead reacts like a pompous little shite.

Without knowing the full story, I've certainly been in similar situations to the MP (but reacted differently). London Bridge Station staff are usually great, but every so often one of them decides to go all anti-bike on you and starts insisting you obey some obscure rule that has never been applied before and seems to have no purpose other than to irritate (especially when you're ordered to do it with a surly attitude rather than asked politely). It annoys me out of all proportion, but last time I just turned around and walked off muttering under my breath - it's just not worth having a fight over.

It's not just a bike thing. I've seen irate (non-cycling) commuters hauled off trains by the Transport Police for getting shirty about things. Michael Douglas, Falling Down - just lots of little things which are trivial in themselves but eventually one tips you over the edge.

rjsterry

Greg66 wrote:

TailWindHome wrote:

Greg66 wrote:

If a police officer gets upset at a bit of name calling, you have to question pretty seriously whether he's the right man to be guarding the entrance to Downing St.

I think I'd be irritated if one of the arrogant pricks I was there to protect called me a f*cking pleb.

If he was a drunk outside a pub he'd be spending the night in the cells. No?

Maybe, maybe not. Actually, I doubt it.

Nationally reported incident? No. Irritated, yes, but FFS get some perspective. (Unless he really is a bit of a pleb, and it hit a nerve. In which case: what a baby).

I guess this underlines to me how much Britain has changed in the last 20 years. Then, you would put your mortgage on the average pc being pretty right wing. Now, they seem to have assumed the mantle of public sector workers who just happen to do police work.

I think the police have always been a bit of a left/right paradox.

rick_chasey

Indeed.

Their political alignment tends to move with whatever the general employment situation is...

bails87

I thought the Met said there had been no complaint. The officer involved just told his superior what happened, presumably because his superior said "Hey, Mike, what was that pompous arse shouting about?". So it's nothing to do with a pc being "soft" or "left wing". :? It was the journos who heard it and put it in the papers.

MisterMuncher

I don't see anything particularly "soft" about being unwilling to take guff from some officious little git.

greg66_tri_v2.0

MisterMuncher wrote:

some officious little git.

Would that be the politician or the policeman?

"Soft" is going crying to your superior, and allowing the whole thing to be leaked to the press to make a political point.

"Not soft" would have been to suck it up and move on. Much like we do when some dickhead driver gives us grief/verbals/a swerve.

bails87

I don't recall reading that the PC was crying at any point.

And nothing was leaked to the press, it was said in view of journos who promptly reported what they'd seen.

You seem to be blaming the PC for allowing a newspaper to print something that was seen by it's journos. :?