Mitchell was forced to resign as chief whip in October after an official police log claimed that he described armed officers as "fucking plebs" after they declined to allow him to wheel his bike through the Downing Street security gates on the evening of 19 September. The claims, which were repeated in the email sent to Randall, have been strenuously denied by Mitchell.
David Cameron voiced concerns about "disturbing" developments in the treatment of Mitchell, who made what appeared to be a friendly visit yesterday to police in his Sutton Coldfield constituency. Speaking in Afghanistan during a pre-Christmas visit to British troops, Cameron told Sky News: "We must let this proper police investigation, which is supervised by the Independent Police Complaints [Commission] we must let them do their work, let them get to the truth. But it is very disturbing what happened, and I want them to get to the truth."
When asked whether Mitchell could return to a senior post in government, Cameron said: "One step at a time. Let's get to the truth about what happened. But I think it has been an extraordinary development, frankly, to find a police officer apparently posing as a member of the public, pretending to have been outside Downing Street at the time and then trying to blacken the name of a Cabinet minister."
Police injustice suddenly becomes a popular topic when a privileged tory is on the receiving end.
CCTV footage shows the then Conservative chief whip, Andrew Mitchell, leaving Downing Street through the side gate Link to this videoDowning Street turned its fire on the Metropolitan police when it called for an investigation into the "exceptionally serious" allegation that a serving police officer fabricated evidence against the government's former chief whip Andrew Mitchell. Newly released CCTV footage appeared to raise questions about some aspects of the police account of the altercation between Mitchell and officers at the gates of Downing Street amid reports that one corroborating witness, the serving police officer, was not even present at the scene.
The official police log said "several members of public [were] present" during the incident. The footage shows that only one member of the public appeared to take an interest in the unfolding event.
Other pedestrians were seen walking past. The film has no sound, the police involved have had their identifies disguised and it is not possible to see Mitchell's face during the moments the comments are said to have been made.
Mitchell was forced to resign after the police log and an email by the unnamed officer suggested he had called policemen "fucking plebs" when they declined to let him to wheel his bike through the Downing Street gates. He admitted swearing at the police but has strenuously denied the toxic charge that he called them "plebs".
No 10 told police to "get to the bottom" of the matter. Craig Oliver, the Downing Street director of communications, issued a rare public statement after Channel 4 News broadcast the CCTV footage.
In an extraordinary twist to the story, which No 10 sources insisted was entirely coincidental, the police officer the "witness" emailed his account of the incident to his local MP John Randall, who was then Mitchell's deputy in the whips' office. Channel 4 said the police officer was also a constituent of Randall's.
Sources suggested that Randall, who had a strained relationship with Mitchell when he was appointed as his boss in September, had acted properly as an MP when he forwarded the email to No 10.
The officer told Randall: "Unfortunately I write to you to complain about the absolutely disgusting behaviour I was witness to yesterday of your fellow MP in Downing Street.
"I was with my nephew and … hoping to catch a glance of a famous politician. Other tourists standing with us were also shocked and some were even inadvertently filming the incident …
"I, having a keen interest in politics and the Conservative party, knew it was Andrew Mitchell, MP for Sutton Coldfield. Imagine to our horror when we heard Mr Mitchell shout very loudly at the police officers guarding [blanked out by Channel 4] our country. He just continued to shout obscenities at the poor police officers."
But the officer told Channel 4 News: "I wasn't a witness to anything."
Mitchell said the email, almost identical to the log compiled by police on duty at the time, was designed to kill his political career. Mitchell said: "It's very convincing unless you know it's untrue as I do and it was clearly aimed to destabilise me and finish me off by sending it into the heart of government to my deputy and could easily have done so very fast."
Mitchell demanded a full inquiry into the police account of events and insisted the email was key to the loss of his job. "I always knew that the emails were false, although extremely convincing," he told Channel 4. "It has shaken my lifelong support and confidence in the police. I believe now there should be a full inquiry so we can get to the bottom of this."
The Channel 4 revelations, after an investigation by its veteran political correspondent Michael Crick, cast the Mitchell affair in a new light and raise the prospect of a political revival for the former chief whip.
But Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Met's commissioner, said he stood by the officers who claimed Mitchell called them plebs. Speaking on LBC the commissioner said: "I don't really think from what I've heard up to now that it's really affected the original account of the officers at the scene … There's nothing I've seen in this fresh information that causes me to doubt that original account."
The Guardian understands that police have found nothing to suggest the log of the incident which was leaked to national newspapers is inaccurate or been tampered with.
No 10 indicated it has grave concerns about the police account. In a statement to Channel 4, Oliver said: "Any allegations that a serving police officer posed as a member of the public and fabricated evidence against a cabinet minister are exceptionally serious. It is therefore essential that the police get to the bottom of this as a matter of urgency. We welcome Bernard Hogan-Howe's commitment to achieve that aim." A criminal investigation is continuing into an officer who was arrested on Saturday on suspicion of leaking information about the altercation and misconduct in public office. He was arrested after the Met received new information on Thursday. They would not say where this had come from.
There were also questions for the Police Federation which called on Mitchell to resign after meeting him in his constituency. In a recording of the meeting, aired by Channel 4, Mitchell admitted swearing. He said: "The incident was very brief. I picked up my bicycle. I did say under my breath, but audibly in frustration: 'I thought you lot were supposed to fucking help us.' I did say that. It is for that I apologise."
The Metropolitan police federation strongly denied any conspiracy to get rid of a cabinet minister. John Tully, its chairman, said: "The Metropolitan police federation unequivocally and categorically refutes any allegation that it was part of a conspiracy to unseat a cabinet minister."
The Police Federation of England and Wales said in a statement: "We are aware that there is an ongoing investigation into this matter, we are therefore unable to comment further at this stage." Ken Mackaill, chairman of the West Mercia police federation, who attended the meeting with Mitchell, called on him to resign afterwards on the grounds that he had refused to outline what he had said.
Speaking after the meeting he said: "Mr Mitchell once again apologised for what he did say outside 10 Downing Street. He has also repeated a denial of key elements in a police report. For us the clear implication is that police officers have been dishonest. But he will not tell us what he did say. I think Mr Mitchell's position is untenable. I think he has to resign."
The Sun said it stood by its initial story, Tom Newton Dunn, the paper's political editor, tweeted: "The Sun stands by our initial #plebgate story."
Fresh pressure on the Met came on Tuesday night from MPs on the powerful home affairs committee. The chairman of the committee, Labour MP Keith Vaz, said members were concerned about the allegations about police conduct and wanted answers. He said he would be writing to Hogan-Howe.
Vaz told the Guardian: "Following concerns expressed by members of the committee, I will be writing to the Metropolitan police for a full explanation of what happened." http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/...met-police
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
Mitchell was forced to resign as chief whip in October after an official police log claimed that he described armed officers as "fucking plebs" after they declined to allow him to wheel his bike through the Downing Street security gates on the evening of 19 September. The claims, which were repeated in the email sent to Randall, have been strenuously denied by Mitchell.
David Cameron voiced concerns about "disturbing" developments in the treatment of Mitchell, who made what appeared to be a friendly visit yesterday to police in his Sutton Coldfield constituency. Speaking in Afghanistan during a pre-Christmas visit to British troops, Cameron told Sky News: "We must let this proper police investigation, which is supervised by the Independent Police Complaints [Commission] we must let them do their work, let them get to the truth. But it is very disturbing what happened, and I want them to get to the truth."
When asked whether Mitchell could return to a senior post in government, Cameron said: "One step at a time. Let's get to the truth about what happened. But I think it has been an extraordinary development, frankly, to find a police officer apparently posing as a member of the public, pretending to have been outside Downing Street at the time and then trying to blacken the name of a Cabinet minister."
Police injustice suddenly becomes a popular topic when a privileged tory is on the receiving end.
Thanks Danny. Who'd have thought that lol! Some pigs are more equal than others.
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
"Plebgate" is now a political football, with various parties attempting to take political advantage of the former Chief Whip's foul-mouthed bullying, which is itself not disputed.
The use of the word "pleb" is disputed, but not that Mitchell swore at the cops nor it seems that he told them that there would be consequences to their refusal to open the gate of Downing St for the Chief Whip....
Quote:Plebgate: Andrew Mitchell claims he was victim of police 'stitch-up'
Former chief whip says he was accused of using 'awful toxic language' in an attempt to destroy his political career
Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent guardian.co.uk, Sunday 23 December 2012 10.58 GMT
Andrew Mitchell says email was 'concerted attempt to toxify the Conservative party and destroy my political career'. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images
Andrew Mitchell has claimed he was the victim of a "vile" police "stitch-up" to destroy his political career after a confrontation with armed officers in Downing Street.
Amid growing support for Mitchell on the Tory benches, the former chief whip says he was accused of using "awful toxic language" that amounted to a lie.
Mitchell was forced to resign last October after police officers guarding No 10 accused him of calling them "fucking plebs" after they declined to allow him to cycle through the security gates.
The former chief whip admitted swearing in the presence of the officers, though he has strenuously denied having called them plebs.
In his first detailed account of the incident, Mitchell writes in the Sunday Times: "Now I have had a taste of how extraordinarily powerless an individual is when trapped between the pincers of the police on one side and the press on the other. If this can happen to a senior government minister, then what chance does a youth in Brixton or Handsworth have?"
Mitchell's intervention came as Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Metropolitan police commissioner, broke off his Christmas holiday amid a growing crisis for the police:
Lord Macdonald of River Glaven, the former director of public prosecutions, accused Hogan-Howe of being "extremely foolish" after saying last week that "nothing" made him doubt the police account. "This speaks of an arrogance of power that we've seen far too much over the past 40 years," Macdonald writes in the Mail on Sunday.
Nick Herbert, who was police minister until September, warns in an Observer article of a "cancer" of wrongdoing in British policing.
In his Sunday Times article, Mitchell says he feels as if his lifelong confidence in the police has been misplaced. He says David Cameron initially gave him a sympathetic hearing when Mitchell looked him in the eye to insist he never described the officers as plebs. Mitchell had been summoned to Downing Street the day after the incident on 19 September after No 10 had been alerted by the Sun that it planned to break the story on 21 September.
He writes: "I looked him in the eye and gave him my word that I had not used the awful toxic language attributed to me. And I do not think that members of the Downing Street inner core believed that I did. The words reek of a bad caricature of what an ill-mannered 1930s upper-class lout might say. Alas, as I was to discover, for much of the media, they fitted the bill perfectly."
Mitchell says the prime minister started to doubt him when an account of the incident, supposedly written by a member of the public, was sent to John Randall, his deputy in the whips' office, on the evening of 21 September. It turned out that the email was sent by a member of the Met's diplomatic protection group.
The former chief whip writes: "Larded with detail, it gave every appearance of being designed to stand up the police log and the Sun's splash. It was completely untrue. I was devastated. This was a stitch-up. I heard about the precise wording the next Monday night."
Mitchell adds: "This vile email replete with capital letters and mis-spellings was utterly untrue. The sender is not a member of the public but a serving police officer and member of the diplomatic protection squad, and he was nowhere near Downing Street that night.
"For the next three weeks these awful phrases were hung round my neck in a concerted attempt to toxify the Conservative party and destroy my political career. I never uttered those phrases; they are completely untrue."
Cameron told Mitchell he would have to resign after he was briefed on the email. But Mitchell told him: "David, how would you feel in six weeks' time if this is exposed for the lie it is?" Cameron agreed to give Mitchell a reprieve and to ask Sir Jeremy Heywood, the cabinet secretary, to conduct an inquiry.
Heywood reviewed the CCTV footage and decided the email was not consistent with the pictures. But he declined to review the police log, saying it was a matter for the Met.
Mitchell's supporters pointed out last week that the email was identical to the police log, which did not appear in public until it was leaked to the Daily Telegraph on 24 September, in two key areas. The email and police log both said Mitchell had described the police as "fucking plebs" and they both said "several" people outside the gates witnessed the incident.
The two claims in the police log and the email were challenged last week when Dispatches/Channel 4 News broadcast CCTV footage of the incident.
This showed that only one member of the public was standing outside the gates for any length of time during the incident. The footage also indicates that Mitchell appeared not to be speaking to anyone as he wheeled his bike from the main gates to the pedestrian side entrance in Downing Street the time he was meant to have called them "fucking plebs".
Mitchell writes that he eventually decided to resign on 19 October after it became clear he had lost the confidence of a significant section of the 2010 intake of new Tory MPs.
Leverage.
Give me leverage.
Nick Herbert is minister of state for policing and criminal justice and Conservative MP for Arundel and South Downs
Quote:Britain's police must reform or lose respect and trust
As the Andrew Mitchell affair and Hillsborough report illustrate, Britain's law enforcers must be held to account
Nick Herbert
Nick Herbert The Observer, Saturday 22 December 2012 21.00 GMT
During the two-and-a-half years I served as police minister, I was privileged to meet many fine police officers. From the brilliant detectives who solve the worst crimes, to the committed neighbourhood teams who work hard to build confidence in their communities, to the stoic response officers who deal with drunks every weekend, I never lost my admiration for the best in the thin blue line.
Attending bravery awards only reinforced my respect, while memorial services for fallen officers were always a stark reminder of the risks that police officers take. None of this, however, clouded my conviction that the police service was in need of reform, a belief that has only been strengthened by recent events.
We haven't yet got to the bottom of the Mitchell affair and it is important that the Met and the IPCC do so as soon as possible. The idea that serving police officers might have conspired to bring down a cabinet minister could hardly be more serious. But the truth is that while corruption may not be endemic, neither is it an aberration.
Last month, five Kent detectives were arrested amid allegations that crime figures had been manipulated. In September, the Hillsborough Independent Panel found that South Yorkshire police had rewritten officers' accounts of the disaster, removing and amending material that they found unhelpful to their case.
The public reaction to the panel's verdict might have been sharper were it not for the awful killing of two women police officers that followed. Those events also heightened the pressure on Mitchell. And when he unwisely swore at a police officer, the temptation for those who were lobbying against reforms to police pay proved too great.
Anyone who doubts what was behind Mitchell's downfall need only read the blog of Inspector Gadget. A serving police officer, the self-promoted Gadget (he is not an inspector) says: "The relationship between Conservatives and police officers is not just toxic, it is over." Feelings about the reform of pay and conditions were so strong "there was bound to be trouble. Plebgate is trouble".
If the admission that Mitchell's hounding out of office was caused by resentment over police reform were not bad enough, the next lines are breathtaking: "The officer who said he was outside the gates off duty when he wasn't is a smokescreen." To the rest of us, the idea that a serving police officer might have fabricated an account is shocking, but Gadget sees nothing wrong.
Here, in one silly blog, is the epitome of the problem. Gadget and his followers can't see that the government's action on pensions and pay freezes is driven by economic necessity, applying across the whole public sector, and affecting many with far lower salaries than police officers. And their belief that they are victims "under attack" apparently justifies even the breaking of the law they are sworn to uphold, at least if politicians are the target.
I don't believe that extreme action is condoned by the decent majority of police officers. I know from personal experience that there are good people in the Police Federation itself who legitimately stick up for their members' interests. And while reforms to outdated pay and conditions are objectively justifiable, there is real concern among officers about the impact of the changes on their pay packets.
But the sensible majority need to understand how badly they are being let down by a hot-headed minority who have gone too far. Their rudeness to the impressively calm home secretary at the Police Federation conference did not deflect her determination to do what she believes is necessary and right, but it did damage the service in the eyes of those who watched.
There are wider lessons to be learned. The rush to judgment on McAlpine and Mitchell should make us all pause and reflect. Nor was it edifying that some newspapers refused to censure officers for leaking confidential material because of their worry that sources of juicy information might dry up. And cabinet secretary Jeremy Heywood's investigation of the incident, following his green light to the flawed West Coast Mainline franchise, has raised eyebrows.
But it is the police service that above all must take stock and examine its own culture. Why is it that organisations such as the Inland Revenue, which holds sensitive tax information on prominent figures, do not leak, yet police officers, with their powers of coercion and a duty to uphold the law, think nothing of tipping off the press at the first opportunity?
Last week on Any Questions, broadcast from a Buckinghamshire village, Jonathan Dimbleby gasped as the majority of his audience indicated they were losing trust in the police. Where once minority communities seemed alone in raising doubts, middle England has found common cause.
This is not a crisis, but it is serious, and it must be addressed by police leaders. Elected police and crime commissioners must fulfil their new mandate to hold the police to account. They should review how much of their police budget is being spent to pay some Police Federation officials, serving officers who are not supporting their colleagues but are agitating politically and often inappropriately.
The new College of Policing, set up to uphold standards and guard ethics and integrity, must show that it has mettle and teeth. It could begin by addressing the concern that every year more than 200 police officers resign or retire to avoid misconduct proceedings. A public list of censured officers would at least demonstrate that justice has been done and prevent them obtaining inappropriate employment elsewhere.
The quiet professionalism that ensured the jubilee and the Olympics were kept safe advertised British policing at its best. The Hillsborough report and the weak phone-hacking investigation have shown the service at its worst. The extent of wrongdoing should not be exaggerated, but the cancer must be cut out before it spreads. The police do difficult and sometimes dangerous work. They deserve our respect for that and both sides must act to keep it
"It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted...."
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War." Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta." The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war
Oh lookee. Now the powerful are threatened, it must a GIGANTIC CONSPIRACY.
Man on Clapham Omnibus: "But that's Conspiracy Theory!"
Sunsteinian Man: "It's only a Conspiracy Theory when we declare it so."
Nothing like a dash of blatant, breathtaking, hypocrisy to make one feel alive again...
Quote:Andrew Mitchell could have been victim of 'gigantic conspiracy'
Sir Jeremy Heywood makes suggestion while explaining to MPs his assessment of 'plebgate' row involving ex-chief whip
Nicholas Watt, chief political correspondent The Guardian, Thursday 10 January 2013 12.50 GMT
Sir Jeremy Heywood
Britain's most senior civil servant, Sir Jeremy Heywood, was asked by David Cameron to conduct a brief inquiry into the incident involving Andrew Mitchell. Photograph: Steve Back/Rex Features
Britain's top civil servant believes Andrew Mitchell, the former chief whip unseated by the "plebgate" row, could have been the victim of a "gigantic conspiracy" involving members of the diplomatic protection group that guards Downing Street.
But Sir Jeremy Heywood, the cabinet secretary, said he had declined to investigate in full whether allegations against Mitchell were correct amid fears that he could have been guilty of interfering with the work of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). At one point Heywood said he had conducted a "little review".
Andrew Mitchell Former chief whip Andrew Mitchell. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images
He gave his assessment of Mitchell's confrontation with armed officers in Downing Street last September during an hour-long appearance before MPs on the commons public administration committee, who expressed astonishment at his light investigation.
Friends of Mitchell said of Heywood's performance: "No 10 did not cover themselves in glory." Sources on the committee indicated they will publish a report next week into Heywood's role which is expected to be unfavourable about him.
Tory MPs were surprised at what was described as a laidback approach by Heywood last September at a time when he thought Mitchell could have been the victim of a "gigantic conspiracy". He used that phrase the sort of dramatic words rarely used by senior Whitehall officials when the backbench Tory MP Charlie Elphicke asked whether nobody in Downing Street had thought last September of the possibility that police were guilty of a "massive fabrication".
Heywood replied: "We accepted there were unanswered questions including the possibility of a gigantic conspiracy or a small conspiracy. Those were unanswered questions. But we decided, on balance, to let matters rest as they were, decide to stick by Andrew Mitchell, keep him in post and move on."
The cabinet secretary was asked by David Cameron last September to carry out a brief inquiry after an off duty police officer sent an email to John Randall, the deputy chief whip, which corroborated the official police log of the incident.
The email and the log said that Mitchell swore at police and called them "fucking plebs" when they declined to allow him to cycle through the Downing Street security gates on the evening of 19 September. They also claimed that the incident was witnessed by members of the public.
The accounts were called into question when Channel 4 News broadcast CCTV footage of the incident last month. This showed that only one member of the public stood at the gates at the time of the incident. It also emerged that the off duty officer who sent the email, a member of the diplomatic protection group, had claimed in the communication to be a member of the public despite being a member of the diplomatic protection group.
Heywood said that as part of his "little review" he examined the CCTV footage and concluded that the email was unreliable. He also said that he was "mildly suspicious" when the sender of the email declined to meet him and insisted that he would only meet Randall.
The cabinet secretary said it was impossible to judge from the CCTV footage, which has no sound, whether Mitchell had called the police "plebs". But MPs on the committee reacted with incredulity when Heywood said he could not remember whether a note by the prime minister's principal private secretary, who interviewed the officers on duty, had contained the word pleb.
Bernard Jenkin, the Tory chair of the committee, asked: "Did the principal private secretary's note use the word pleb?"
Heywood replied: "I can't recall to be honest."
After bursting into laughter, Jenkin said: "So there is a record in No 10 of a conversation with a police officer immediately after the incident that goes absolutely to the heart of the controversy and you cannot remember whether the word pleb is in that note."
Heywood said: "I can't remember whether it is specifically worded."
Jenkin said: "Because it wasn't in your remit."
Heywood said: "No it wasn't in my remit. No. Absolutely not in my remit. So there is the issue about whether the word pleb had been used. The police took one version of events and Andrew Mitchell has always maintained he never used that word. The prime minister takes that."
MPs were also surprised when Heywood said his only role was to examine the email and that he had not cross-checked the official police log against the CCTV footage. The log was published by the Daily Telegraph on 24 September, three days after the Sun broke the story and four days after the email was sent to the deputy chief whip.
Heywood said: "I haven't attempted to assess the veracity of the police account against the CCTV footage. That is not what I have attempted to look at."
Jenkin said: "Which is what we are very concerned about if you think that wasn't in your remit."
Heywood replied: "It clearly wouldn't have been appropriate to ask the cabinet secretary to start investigating the veracity of the police logs. That is a matter for the IPCC not the cabinet secretary."
The appearance by Heywood is likely to raise questions about the Downing Street operation. At one point he denied a report in the Independent last month that Cameron decided not to press the issue with the Metropolitan police for fear that it would "poison relations with the elite group of policemen who guard senior politicians".
Greg Mulholland, the Liberal Democrat MP, asked Heywood: "Is that true?"
Heywood said: "I don't think that was a consideration at all, to be honest. I can't comment on that specific report because I don't think I have read it. But if it said what you have just said, it wasn't a consideration."
This suggests that Heywood did not attend meetings in Downing Street where the Cameron team assessed their strategy in the final days before Mitchell's resignation. It was at those meetings that Cameron's advisers decided that the only way to save Mitchell was to accuse the police of lying. It was decided that would be politically impossible.
"It means this War was never political at all, the politics was all theatre, all just to keep the people distracted...."
"Proverbs for Paranoids 4: You hide, They seek."
"They are in Love. Fuck the War." Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
"Ccollanan Pachacamac ricuy auccacunac yahuarniy hichascancuta." The last words of the last Inka, Tupac Amaru, led to the gallows by men of god & dogs of war
David Davis said UK needed tougher regulator to address 'crisis of ethics' in the force, which could overrule police chiefs. Photograph: Richard Saker/Rex Features
A senior Conservative and close ally of the former chief whip Andrew Mitchell has called for a royal commission to investigate the "crisis of ethics" in the police, as three chief constables prepare for questioning by a committee of MPs over issues raised by the Plebgate affair.
David Davis said police should wear microphones and cameras to record their actions to address a decline in public trust an idea that has won the support of Nick Herbert, a former policing minister, who said the idea was "worth piloting".
The call came as Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, Britain's most senior officer, admitted the Plebgate row had clouded the public view of Scotland Yard and had taken too long to deal with.
Speaking on LBC on Wednesday, he said: "During the time this thing has been an issue, the Met has been performing better than ever. We've just got to live with the reality - the newspaper headlines, the fact that you're talking about it, clouds the fact that crime's coming down at its fastest for 30 years.
"This issue's got to be resolved and we've got to deal with it. We're all eager to see the outcome of this inquiry and that we get back to some kind of normality, because I think it's not good for the police and it's not good for public confidence. I'm determined to get to the bottom of it, we've got a thorough investigation and we really now have to await the outcome of that."
Davis, a former Conservative leadership candidate, also said the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) should be given a bigger status to become a "British Untouchables" an elite squad to weed out corruption.
Mitchell was forced to resign as chief whip last year after he was accused of calling officers "fucking plebs" at the gates of Downing Street, but he has always claimed to have been "stitched up" by police.
Several officers have been arrested on suspicion of misconduct.
The suggestion of giving greater monitoring powers to the police came as senior officers prepared to give evidence to the home affairs committee about a second aspect of the Mitchell case a meeting with Police Federation representatives days after the original row.
Three chief constables from West Mercia, Warkwickshire and the West Midlands are under pressure to explain why they have not disciplined officers from their forces accused of misrepresenting this meeting.
The three more junior officers, all representatives of the Police Federation, will also appear before MPs to explain why they said Mitchell had refused to say what happened when a recording contradicted their account.
Writing in the Times, Davis said giving police recording devices could help those who are wrongly accused.
"The police put millions of innocent people under surveillance in order to catch a tiny minority of wrongdoers," he said. "Perhaps now it is time to make officers wear a camera and microphone while on duty.
"When they tried this in California, use of force by police officers dropped by two-thirds in a year. This technology could also help to defend police officers who have vexatious claims made against them."
The senior MP said the UK needed a much tougher regulator to address a "crisis of ethics" in the force, which could overrule police chiefs if necessary.
"Earlier this year a parliamentary inquiry concluded that the Independent Police Complaints Commission 'has neither the powers nor the resources that it needs to get to the truth when the integrity of the police is in doubt'," Davis said.
"The government should respond by giving the IPCC the powers and resources to outrank and overrule every chief of police in the land to become a British 'Untouchables'. Never again should a police force be able to delay or frustrate an IPCC investigation."
He said the Mitchell case was the "latest in a long list of police investigations set up to seek the truth but conducted as clumsy coverups".
Herbert, the former policing minister, said the suggestion of cameras and recording devices was worth trialling.
"I think it's worth piloting, but of course there will be arguments either way, and the news that those who rail against the surveillance society and so on should now be urging a wider surveillance, although you can of course argue that this is a case of the citizens actually keeping an eye on state and the exercise of the state power," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Herbert said the three chief constables had a lot of explaining to do about why they have not disciplined the officers and called for them to rethink their decision.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.
David Guyatt Wrote:That's all well and good, but you have to find the ethics first...
Quote:Plebgate: David Davis calls for royal commission into police ethics
Tory calls for IPCC to become 'British Untouchables' and says police should wear microphones to address decline in trust
Hmmm - I wonder what he thinks politicians - especially Privy Council level politicians - should wear to address the same issue with them?
I must confess to being in a bit of a cleft-stick on this issue. The other day my wife opined that she 'believed Andrew Mitchell'. I replied that '... frankly I couldn't give a toss' - where abuse of trust and power are concerned, there really is little to choose between their respective cohorts.
On reflection, my sympathies - if that's the right word - tend to lie with the police on this - certainly at the levels involved in this ridiculous non-event/issue anyway. Mitchell admits to becoming irritated and being 'uncivil' in his remarks to the copper. So, what exactly DID he say? - oh dear! he can't remember - except that he DOES remember he did not use that awful word 'Plebs'. Seems it has certain connotations to which Tories of a certain ilk are particularly sensitive.
Davies is simply confirming who is boss and that the police should 'know their place' - just another way of calling them 'Plebs' I guess.
Peter Presland
".....there is something far worse than Nazism, and that is the hubris of the Anglo-American fraternities, whose routine is to incite indigenous monsters to war, and steer the pandemonium to further their imperial aims" Guido Preparata. Preface to 'Conjuring Hitler'[size=12][size=12] "Never believe anything until it has been officially denied" Claud Cockburn
Have you got that in a higher resolution Magda. I can't read it and my OCR interprets it as gobbledigook
Peter Presland
".....there is something far worse than Nazism, and that is the hubris of the Anglo-American fraternities, whose routine is to incite indigenous monsters to war, and steer the pandemonium to further their imperial aims" Guido Preparata. Preface to 'Conjuring Hitler'[size=12][size=12] "Never believe anything until it has been officially denied" Claud Cockburn
![[Image: David-Davis-011.jpg]](http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/10/23/1382518664726/David-Davis-011.jpg)
