Mr Thant wrote:

Blair - the bull**** spewing on the first day and then the complete
lack of acknowledgement that there'd been any sort of **** up or that
the **** up was anything at all to do with him. It was just absolutely
astonishing, as was Ken's support of him*. One of the few good things
about Boris is the acknowledgement from day one that Blair is a
complete ****ing buffoon.

I've no idea if the new guy is any better, though the Met seems to at
least acknowledge they were in the wrong about the G20 stuff and the
image deleting story, which probably still isn't worth anything but is
a million times better than what happened with De Menezes.

(* can anyone explain what Ken's motive for this was?)


The reasons that Ken Livingstone supported Sir Ian Blair include:

(1) Blair did more than any previous Metropolitan Police Commissioner to
eradicate the institutional racism label that had dogged the force since
the Stephen Lawrence case;
(2) Blair did more than any of his predecessors to encourage the
recruitment of officers from ethnic minorities;
(3) Blair did more than any of his predecessors to encourage a paradigm
shift towards community policing (bobbies on the beat); and
(4) Blair encouraged the recruitment and retention of more capable
(better educated) senior officers rather than promoting the incompetent
on the basis of "Buggins' Turn".

Sadly, he proved to be a less than adept handler of the political side
of policing, ironically including his relationships with senior officers
from the ethnic minorities, and it was abundantly clear that his senior
staff had failed to keep him informed of the truth of the de Menezes
case, making him look a complete and utter fool.