SMT Online Editor's View: Quick right off the mark

24 Dec 08

The Damian Green Affair rumbles on. Brian Sims evaluates assistant Met commissioner Bob Quick’s astonishing and vitriolic attack on The Mail on Sunday and the Conservatives.

By Brian Sims

Once a fine institution respected the world over, the Metropolitan Police Service is rapidly turning into a farce. Not content with all of Sir Ian Blair’s Blunders, no sooner had he gone than we were privy to the Damian Green Affair. Now, as if to add icing to what’s a very bitter Christmas cake, assistant commissioner Bob Quick stirs up an almighty hornets’ nest with comments on the Conservatives that seriously call into question his own legitimacy as a serving officer.

Unless you’ve been imbibing on a bit too much festive grog these past few days, you’ll know only too well that Britain’s top anti-terrorism policeman seemingly sought to discredit David Cameron’s charges by accusing the Tory machinery of deliberately attempting to undermine the Green investigation (of which he is the lead protagonist).

In an astonishing attack perpetrated last Sunday and Monday, Quick suggested that the Conservatives and their backers had been “mobilised against the investigation in a wholly corrupt way”. Apparently, these stinging remarks were made to a reporter while Quick was moving his family in the wake of The Mail on Sunday’s revelation that his wife was running a luxury car hire business from their home.

“It’s a blatant attempt to undermine an investigation which is legitimate,” Quick told the reporter. “The Tory machinery and their friends in the press are mobilised against this investigation in a wholly corrupt way. I feel very disappointed in the country in which I’m living.”

Isolated figure at the Yard

With comments like that – be they ‘off the cuff’ or otherwise – it’s little surprise that, of late, Quick has cut an increasingly isolated figure at New Scotland Yard.

As head of the Home Office leaks investigation, Quick – who failed in his attempt to be shortlisted for the commissioner’s role – approved the more-than-controversial arrest of MP Green and the raid on his Parliamentary offices at the tail end of last month.

Post Quick’s outburst, the Conservatives issued an official press statement in which the party asserts it played “no part whatsoever” in the story concerning Quick’s wife. Quick’s claims of corruption and intimidation were swiftly rubbished as “absurd”.

The initial Conservative statement read: “As the officer leading the enquiry into the allegations involving Damian Green, assistant commissioner Quick should display objective professionalism and not make baseless political attacks. He should retract all of his allegations immediately.” Alas, it’s the baseless political attacks that seem to be part-and-parcel of ‘policing’ in modern Britain.

On Monday, this was of course followed by a swift apology from Quick, who claimed to be “sorry for any offence or embarrassment” caused to those who are politically blue in Britain. Nonetheless, opposition leader Cameron insisted later that day that Quick take back his allegations. What happened? A more fulsome apology was duly forthcoming by way of the Met’s Press Bureau.

It’s all a bit too familiar

“I regret and wish to retract my comment regarding corruption,” explained Quick. “The comment was made as I was in the act of having to move my family out of our home to a place of safety.”

On Monday night, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said: “Bob has retracted some of the things he said. The important thing now is that he’s able to get on with the job of keeping this country safe.” So it’s ‘Bob’ now, then, Home Secretary? All friends together, eh?

Hang on a minute. Forget the Green situation for a moment. On a wider scale, how is a man who reacts to stress in this way actually fit to be in office? The very public role held by Quick necessarily demands a cool head under pressure, the ability to assimilate facts on the spot, determine what they may or may not mean and then take appropriate action. It also means that he’ll – rightly – be open to public and press scrutiny for his actions.

What this incident shows is that Quick obviously isn’t good at dealing with pressure, and thus senior Conservative’s calls for him to be removed from the Green investigation aren’t without foundation.

If Quick didn’t mean what he said about the Conservatives then why did he say it? Indeed, why did he utter his words at all? Perhaps because it’s all-too-too easy to take a pop at The Daily Mail or The Mail on Sunday. These might be Conservative newspapers, but whatever your political leanings there’s no doubt they merely say what many people in this country are thinking but are too afraid to voice in public for fear of being shot down by the feckless PC Brigade created by New Labour in a bid to dumb down our society and destroy freedom of speech.

The ties that bind

And so much for Miss Smith’s assertion that the Labour Government and the police service must remain independent of each other. Inadvertently almost, this distasteful little episode shows them to be closer than ever – a situation that does no credit to the Metropolitan Police Service whatsoever.

That service absolutely must remain impartial, so why are so many senior officers sticking their nose into constitutional affairs where their presence is neither warranted nor merited?

Turning back to the central figure in this latest debacle, if Bob Quick is going to act like this when placed under the merest pressure, what chance is there that he might let slip another invective? One that inflames terrorist factions in this country and abroad, and could place hundreds or even thousands of lives in jeopardy?

In the very short term, the Conservatives should press immediately for his removal from what’s left – if anything – of the Green investigation. Quick very obviously has a serious problem with the Tories. For that reason, and because he plainly cannot stand the heat, he ought to be removed from the kitchen.

Until next time.

Brian Sims, Editor, SMT Online