CRESSIDA DICK - ON HER BIKE AT LAST !

At last, Cressida Dick has been fired. Why it took so long is a mystery.

It seems that this woman was earmarked for the top job from an early age and, regardless of whatever happened during her career, she was always destined to become Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. Somehow, her involvement as leader of the operation which culminated in the public murder of a wholly innocent man, Jean Charles de Menezes, who was chased by armed police officers and shot multiple times on a London underground train, failed to derail her career. Even the subsequent lies and attempted cover up had no effect. Dick still progressed to the top.

As Commissioner, she has overseen a force which appears to have more interest what people think than in what they do. While drug dealing and murder have spiralled out of control in parts of London, time and money has been spent on investigating the nebulosity of 'hate crimes' and, even more ludicrous, 'non-crime hate incidents'. Although some see the Met's initial refusal to become involved in investigating whether or not there were parties in Downing Street during COVID lockdown as a failure, I see it as one of the few signs of any sanity within the force. Sadly, the sanity, if that's what it was, quickly vanished and a full scale operation, reportedly costing up to £1m, was established to discover the 'truth' about the Prime Minister's cake-eating habits.

While the men and women of the force were spending their hours investigating thoughts in true Orwellian style, a serving officer, Wayne Couzens, was left free to kidnap, rape and murder a member of the public despite there having been more than enough known about him to have justified his imprisonment for earlier, uninvestigated offences. Officers at Charing Cross station engaged in passing around hundreds of highly dubious and seriously inappropriate messages with no one seeming to be concerned. This and much more was what Cressida Dick oversaw during her 5 years at the helm.

Today, much is being said about the need for the Met's culture to change; for God's sake, isn't that what Dick should have addressed from Day 1 ? Much is said about the failure to solve real crimes; again, isn't this were Dick's energies should have been directed all along ? 

Cressida Dick was picked out to be the Met's first female Commissioner from an early age and she gained that appointment, not because she was the best person for the job but because her appointment had been pre-ordained. That she's been a disaster should be obvious to all. That such an appalling mistake should never be made again is equally obvious. The next Commissioner must not be an internal appointee, indeed it may even be that it should be someone from an entirely different background, perhaps the military or major business. Whoever it is will have a devil of a time re-engaging with the public and turning the Metropolitan Police Force into an organisation which is trusted and which does the job the public expect of it.