Plebs 1 Toffs 0

[John Shelton]

You could make it up - but it would be less fun.

Just to confirm that Cameron's political instincts are indeed as finely honed as they seem, it's widely reported that Sir George Young his successor is the author of the brilliant quip "the homeless are what you step over when you come out of the opera" (though I can't find an original source) and appeared in a TV advert for the railways with Sir Jimmy Savile.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i am in no doubt that Mitchell was well and truly verballed by the plod in their fury at the toffs and their policies for the police, am i alone in wondering whether his 'very frustrating day' had involved rather too much liquid refreshment with lunch and the odd tipple after? ... and it is quite probably true was that all that Osborne did was to move away from full standard class coaches to find a seat in First .... but who cares? 'tis bliss etc .....

[An_Inspector_Calls]

. . .
presumably AIC is concerned because its an high up government person. (Maybe I have misinterpreted his post).
. . .

Yes you have, but that's par for the course.

If the police have done something illegal here, then it should be investigated. Their briefing against individuals should be curtailed. I wasn't very happy with their publicity against Mark Bridger before he was charged. If we're not careful we'll end up with the US 'system', where briefing against suspects before trial is rife and trial by media is almost the norm.

[kernelbogey]

From a piece by Polly Toynbee posted on the Guardian website this afternoon:

Did Andrew Mitchell say the dread word "plebs"? After a long month of failing to deny it, it hardly matters. Today a full set of monster headlines shriek David Cameron's class calamity. The police wrote it in their official log and that's who people believe. Plebs never sounded like a word police officers would invent in a stitch-up.

According to the Daily Telegraph deputy editor, Benedict Brogan, Mitchell's fellow MPs believed it because they often heard him use the word in everyday conversation. That's all we need to know – and everyone knows it already. That's how they think and how they talk. We all know it's true because that's how they govern – not for "the other half".

[An_Inspector_Calls]

If Mitchell did say 'pleb', who really cares? I think we've all got more important things to consider than this.

But it's still the case that, on the night, the police did not arrest and charge him. The judiciary are not moved by the offence of swearing at police (Bryn #34). Clearly, and not surprisingly, the police were not particularly offended by the word 'pleb' (as they feign they would have us believe later when they provocatively posed in 'Police Pleb' tee-shirts outside Mitchell's house a short time after arresting and charging a man for wearing an offensive tee-shirt in Manchester). That being so, the case should never have become public.

Why did the case become public?

And a nice response to the lovely Toinbee:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tomchiversscience/100185612/how-can-rudeness-be-criminal-the-best-insults-are-pure-poetry/

[teamsaint]

Yes you have, but that's par for the course.

If the police have done something illegal here, then it should be investigated. Their briefing against individuals should be curtailed. I wasn't very happy with their publicity against Mark Bridger before he was charged. If we're not careful we'll end up with the US 'system', where briefing against suspects before trial is rife and trial by media is almost the norm.

yes but how have I misinterpreted? as a humble sock puppet, I would like to have your great wisdom to draw on.
Seems to me you are bothered because one of the great and the good have been caught. The police are doing this stuff all the time. And its only now that you are complaining(on here at least).

Its fairly typical of establishment types....everythings fine, blind eye turned, until it goes against you and then everybody is to blame except themselves.

Where has the establishment been on police malpractise on Hillsborough, for instance, for nearly a quarter of a century? But of course they weren't government ministers suffering at the hands of police cover ups.

[Nick Armstrong]

as a humble sock puppet, I would like to have your great wisdom to draw on.

[MrGongGong]

If Mitchell did say 'pleb', who really cares? I think we've all got more important things to consider than this.

Indeed like locking up people who suggest that a small amount of public affray would be in order ? (and no one turning up !)
Why it does matter is that there are some folks who seem to wave their sense of entitlement around like a huge flag, the message clearly being that it's one rule for them and another for the rest of us.

[scottycelt]

I have long tended to be of the view that when the softly-spoken, 'butter-wouldn't-melt-in-my-mouth' Mz Pollee Toynbee expresses a view on anythiing, then it's a pretty safe bet that the exact opposite will almost certainly eventually prove to be very much closer to the actualité ...

Not that I'm taking sides in the seeminly endless drama between Mr Mitchell and the Police Federation over a 'who said what'... my only real opinion on the matter is that they both very likely deserve each other.

[amateur51]

I have long tended to be of the view that when the softly-spoken, 'butter-wouldn't-melt-in-my-mouth' Mz Pollee Toynbee expresses a view on anythiing, then it's a pretty safe bet that the exact opposite will almost certainly eventually prove to be very much closer to the actualité ...

Not that I'm taking sides in the seeminly endless drama between Mr Mitchell and the Police Federation over a 'who said what'... my only real opinion on the matter is that they both very likely deserve each other.

Give me Polly over your fave, Sir John Junor, any day scottee

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4728100/Mr-Angry-of-Auchtermuchty.html

[MrGongGong]

Why can't he simply tell the effing truth ????

What is it about these people who seem to prefer to squirm away
a bit like our favourite rhyming slang health secretary on R4 yesterday morning
saying that he would "follow scientific advice"
To me that means stopping the nonsense of the NHS participating in homeopathic fraud as all the scientific advice says that it doesn't work
but i'm sure he will wriggle away at that one as well ................

[An_Inspector_Calls]

Dear sock puppet,

And its only now that you are complaining(on here at least).

No, that's not the case. On the previous thread I raised the point that I thought the police had probably behaved like jobsworths. And at that point Mitchell hadn't resigned, so I thought that was quite sufficient. Or are you more pursuaded by number of posts (if so, you're doing very well!)?

An_Inspector_Calls

Why can't he simply tell the effing truth ????

Like the police? They all told the truth. The exact same truth. At the exact same time. To the exact same newspaper. Now there's integrity for you.

[MrGongGong]

Like the police? They all told the truth. The exact same truth. At the exact same time. To the exact same newspaper. Now there's integrity for you.

My dad'll fight your dad ?

[An_Inspector_Calls]

"My dad's bigger than your dad,
My dad's bigger than your dad,
My dad's bigger than your dad,
My dad"

[scottycelt]

Give me Polly over your fave, Sir John Junor, any day scottee

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4...termuchty.html

I much prefer Pennee to either of them, amsee ...