In that subculture, of course, Ks and Big Ps could be all sorts of things...
Seriously, I think that they're actually getting frightened. No, not them. The Met (itself no stranger to the K or the Big P).
If anyone is ever charged, despite the incontrovertible fact of the sale of knighthoods and peerages over long years and including by both main parties at present, then, 18 months down the line, the Met would be looking, at best (yes at best!) at subjugation to the Mayor for London and to the Greater London Authority, and quite possibly at separate constabularies for each London Borough. And no more Ks or Big Ps.
They've been warned, and they've heeded the warning. Hence no caution when interviewing the man who must be guilty if anyone else is, as someone else clearly must be: they wouldn't dare charge him, so they can't and won't charge anyone.
Ks and Big Ps all round, then?
Are you seriously suggesting that kighthoods and peerages are not sold in this way? It's just that the Police have ignored it up to now, because no one has made a formal complaint.
ReplyDeleteAnd no one ever got a peerage without the approval (however grudging) of the Prime Minister.
The Met have given up on this (otherwise they'd have had to caution Blair), and shame on them for doing so. On reflection, it isn't even to save the Met (although there is that element): it's just because senior Met officers expect their own Ks and Big Ps as perks of the job, and have been warned that there will be no more unless this matter is dropped. So it has been.