The politics of police policy

LAST year David Cameron toned down his attacks on Ed Miliband in an attempt to shed comparisons to "Flashman", a fictional public-school bully. Andrew Mitchell (pictured), who, like Harry Flashman, was educated at Rugby School, has undermined Mr Cameron’s efforts. On September 21st the chief whip ranted at two police officers who refused to open the Downing Street car gate for his bicycle, suggesting he take the pedestrian exit instead. Alongside delusions of vehicular grandeur, Mr Mitchell is alleged (in a quickly leaked report to the Sun newspaper) to have called the police “fucking plebs”. The story dominated the front pages, with attention more focused on Mr Mitchell’s use of the p-word than the f-word. It fits the narrative of “arrogant posh boys” running the government.

Mr Cameron dealt with the issue in a distinctively patrician way. Like a penitent schoolboy, Mr Mitchell is said to have looked the headmasterly prime minister “in the eye” and promised he did not say the words attributed to him. He may seek out the police officer concerned for a reconciliatory handshake when they next meet. That the chief whip is a good man with an unquivering gaze has been taken as proof of his innocence.

At a time when the old Etonian Boris Johnson rides the crest of a populist wave, the media reaction has not been shaped by the government’s poshness per se, but by how it has handled its privilege. Leaks have portrayed Mr Mitchell–known as “Thrasher” at school–as a stickler for discipline. He is said to have insisted staff wear a tie in his presence, demanded tea from a mug inscribed with “Secretary of State for International Development” when he occupied that role, and even (probably humorously) described himself as the “Big Swinging Dick” of his party. A less forceful personality might have experienced a gentler fall-out.

But the most inflammatory aspect of Mr Mitchell’s outburst was its timing. It came a day after two women police officers were killed in Manchester. The wave of public sympathy that followed belied the fact that, in the aftermath of the Hillsborough Report and the Times’s uncovering of the South Yorkshire police’s negligence, coppers are under the cosh. Their relationship with the government is deteriorating. Funding cuts and the looming introduction of elected commissioners meant the Home Secretary, Theresa May, was booed at the Police Federation conference earlier this year. Labour used to invite the police to the Downing Street staff Christmas party. Under the coalition, this practice has stopped. According to the log of events leaked to the Telegraph, the police officer did not recognise Mr Mitchell: he was “a man claiming to be the chief whip”. A better relationship–both personal and political–would have prevented the conflagration.

via Blighty http://www.economist.com/blogs/blighty/2012/09/pleb-gate?fsrc=gn_ep