How the paparazzi must have groaned about Prince William’s low-key stag do, which took place in secret last weekend.
Last weekend, a relatively peaceful anti-cuts march through the capital was infiltrated by a small number of criminals armed with crowbars and intent on destruction. Their handiwork defined the march. All it took were a few iconic photographs — Santander’s windows being smashed, the occupation of Fortnum & Mason — and London looked to the world like a city under siege. The Metropolitan police could have and should have dealt with these disruptive thugs, but instead, as they wielded their weapons, they were surrounded not by police officers but by a throng of excited photographers.
The shops, hotels and banks of central London were not protected from rioters, but nor were they prepared — a sign that they had been assured by the Met that there would be no danger. It was as if the police calculated that the damage that might be done was not worth the risk entailed in sending officers to restrain the trouble-makers.
Imagine how the New York cops would have reacted if anarchists had tried to target Tiffany’s or a Wall Street bank. No one with a crowbar would have got within a hundred yards. In New York, the police are ubiquitous, highly visible, and famed for their zero-tolerance approach. In recent years, they have also excelled at infiltrating suspect groups and identifying the violent elements. It is no accident that Islamic terrorists have not laid a finger on the city since the Twin Towers fell almost ten years ago. Over the last decade, crime in New York has almost halved. In London it has soared. People living in Lambeth are now twice as likely to be murdered or raped as people in the Bronx.
What sets the cities apart is who controls the police. In New York, the Mayor is held personally accountable and can hire a commissioner to take a radical new direction if need be. In London, the Met is answerable to the Home Office, whose main priority is to avoid all controversy. After the G20 protests and the widespread accusations of brutality, the Met has now swung too far the other way. It has become a parody of a politically correct police force. On the day of the protest, members of Liberty, the human rights group, were invited into the police control room to witness just how civilised and non-confrontational cops could be. Theresa May declared the police’s behaviour last weekend was ‘a fine example of, and a tribute to, the British model of policing’. It is unlikely that many Londoners agree.
But help may be on the way, in the unmistakable form of Boris Johnson. The Mayor has used what powers he currently has over the Met relatively well. He hastened the departure of the egregious Sir Ian Blair and there are now far more police on London transport. As part of the government’s radical police reform, the Metropolitan Police Authority will soon be abolished, leaving the Mayor as the sole accountable figure. This should focus his mind, as he will be judged, come election day, on the performance of the police. If anarchists once again take effortless charge of the capital, it will be the Mayor whose reputation suffers.
Boris Johnson was rightly furious about the police’s failures last weekend. Soon, he will have the power to act on his frustrations. Given that ministers plan to make other police forces accountable to local mayors, it is an experiment which the nation will watch with interest. The Met needs urgent reform. The Mayor and the government will be judged by what happens next.
Stags at bay
How the paparazzi must have groaned about Prince William’s low-key stag do, which took place in secret last weekend. There were no photographs to be had of the future king passed out on the pavement or in a strip club. Even Prince Harry, the best man, kept his wits about him and steered clear of Bouji’s.
Prince William’s soon-to-be wife, Kate Middleton, is said to have had an equally restrained hen party, organised by her sister Pippa. There were no leaked stories, no sneaked snaps. Royal reporters were forced to rely on old-fashioned speculation about the discreet celebrations taking place behind closed doors.
But while the tabloids were frustrated, the rest of us should raise a glass to this new generation of restrained young royals. The modern British stag or hen party has become a depressing and embarrassing business which routinely damages our reputation abroad. From Rome to Riga, residents shudder at the sight of British boys and girls gathering in herds in preparation for an assault on a city centre. Stag parties are indecently expensive too: flights, drinks, unslept-in hotel beds all add up to more than most young people can comfortably afford.
So here’s to William and Kate. Let’s hope the rest of their generation follow their excellent example.
Comments