Feeding the Feds

‘ello, ‘ello, ‘ello. What’s all this, then? The Police Federation has been trying to distance itself from the three coppers who who were hauled before Parliament last week to explain why the secret recording of their meeting with former chief whip Andrew Mitchell bore little relation to their account of events. As PR Week puts it, ‘While the federation has a duty to distribute the officers’ statements, it steered clear of endorsing their contents.’ And, incidentally, beneath the officers’ statement the federation included this line: ‘The federation will not be offering facilities further than the above statement.’

However, I can reveal that Inspector Ken MacKaill, Detective Sergeant Stuart Hinton and Sergeant Chris Jones were given some select committee coaching at the federation’s plush headquarters last Tuesday. Sources within the federation seem deeply angered that the troublesome triumvirate has not been cut loose.

The meeting took place at Federation House, the federation’s ‘state of the art club house’ in Leatherhead, Surrey, which boasts a luxury swimming pool and gym. Bars serve ‘a superb collection of wines, malt whiskies and cognacs’. The closest thing that policemen have to a union has the slogan: ‘repose, assimilate, indulge’. They’re certainly indulging.

UPDATE: Federation House is funded by membership fees and supplementary income from a hotel operation, not the taxpayer (as this article originally claimed).