London Riots – Cameron Calls for Top American Cop to Take Over
British Prime Minister David Cameron is on collision course with London police after saying he wants top American policeman Bill Bratton as his adviser. Cameron tried to claim credit for turning the tide against rioters – but a senior police chief says his intervention made no difference.
When the London riots first hit the streets Prime Minister David Cameron was on holiday in Italy and delayed his return. By the time he got back police had regained control.
But in a statement to Parliament Cameron criticised the police for using the wrong tactics and suggested that his return had prompted a successful change. London police chiefs flatly contradicted this, saying they had already moved to clear the streets, stop the destruction and arrest rioters.
The acting chief of London Police Tim Godwin said,”After an event like this people who weren’t there will always make comments.”
Pouring more petrol on the flames, Cameron said the government would continue with its programme of cuts to law and order budgets. He said police could cope and improvements in efficiency would compensate for the cuts. Police responded by saying that anyone who thought they could operate in the same way – with 16000 less front line officers was living in dreamland.
So with the police and politicians lining up to attack each other, Cameron has looked to the US for help. He wants top cop Bill Bratton who was credited with cleaning up New York to take over. The former head of London’s police had already resigned over the Murdock phone hacking and police corruption scandal – leaving a vacancy at the top.
Bratton has indicated he is interested in the job but Cameron is playing a dangerous game by taking on the already angry London police force. Having an American arrive to take over would hit their morale seriously. There are worries that Cameron is intent on politicising the police. He believes it will help him at the polls if he is seen as the tough man who successfully took on the criminals.
The problem there is that Cameron is rightly seen as the Eton School Boy, born into the privileged elite and totally out of touch with the lives of ordinary voters. Eton is the school of the British establishment with fees that put it completely beyond the range of everyone but the super rich and royalty.
Cameron is surrounded by politicians who also went to Eton, like his chancellor George Osborne and London Mayor Boris Johnson. The head of his policy group Oliver Letwyn is another one. Letwyn has to be hidden at election times in case he gives the game away about how the conservatives are intent on dismantling all forms of social help and the prized, free, National Health Service. This is an institution every conservative instinctively hates, in much the same way as Fox News with its attacks on Obama’s health reforms.
Eton schoolboy Cameron and Fox Chief Roger Ailes make an odd couple – but they think the same way
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