November 12, 2007
Ian Blair and his Met Police colleagues can count themselves extremely lucky that they work in England rather than Italy, Guru muses.
As riots raged across Italy over the police shooting of a football fan, Blair woke up to a strongly worded letter from a Liberal Democrat MP in the wake of the Stockwell shooting.
Yep, shadow home secretary Nick Clegg wrote to prime minister Gordon Brown with some stirring words after the Met Police was found guilty of breaching health and safety law in the shooting of Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes.
"I repeat my firm support for the excellent work of the Metropolitan Police in cutting crime, and my respect on a personal level for Sir Ian," he wrote. "However, it is clear that his position is no longer tenable and it is in the interests of the country that his term of office comes to an end."
Shocking stuff. And meanwhile the Italian public torches vehicles, hurls rocks at police stations and invades football pitches in protest of the shooting of Gabriele Sandri at a motorway service station this weekend.
If Blair was heading a police force in Rome, he would not so much be applying for his bonus, as hiding in the hills.
