To those who say @SadiqKhan is at fault: (a) by all means question whether he has appropriately carried out his role in respect of @metpoliceuk, but (b) understand it before you comment: the Mayor’s role is very different from the Home Secretary’s, (c) read what he’s said👇
To those who think this is all much ado about very little: you are wrong.
Show some respect.
For those with the decency & courage to stand up for what’s right.
No police force can command the confidence of the public, or the country’s democratic representatives, in the face of such appalling events. As the leader of the force in question, I fully accept that my position is untenable. /2.
I have submitted my resignation to the Home Secretary & have informed the Mayor of London.
The Deputy Commissioner will take over my duties on an acting basis until a successor is found. /3.
Statement not issued by the Prime Minister, @BorisJohnson:
Resignation of Home Secretary
As soon as I saw the shocking images from Clapham Common yesterday evening I called the Home Secretary for an overnight report on what had occurred. /1.
I reviewed the material this morning. There is no excuse for the police actions captured in the photos & videos I have seen.
Everyone will understand that I must not prejudge potential cases against individual officers directly involved. /2.
However, the failure of leadership revealed by the evidence presented to me is so profound & disturbing that the Home Secretary has asked for the resignation of the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
And I have asked the Home Secretary to resign. /3.
It’s clearly a sincerely held belief. Not a glimmer of doubt. No reference, even to attempt to dismiss it, to the fact that that - as is the case for countries which issue their own currency, in the 50 years since the Bretton Woods system ended - tax has no revenue raising.../2.
... function, & there’s no requirement for deficit reduction (to the contrary, indeed), unless the economy’s at or close to full capacity & inflationary risks demand. You won’t see a clearer expression of pre-Copernican economic thinking than in this extraordinary hour. /3.
Since it’s impossible that @Jacob_Rees_Mogg isn’t fully aware of the legally binding obligations the UK entered into in the Belfast Agreement, @pmdfoster, this part must just have slipped his mind:
“... it is for the people of the island of Ireland alone, by agreement .../1.
... between the two parts respectively and without external impediment, to exercise their right of self-determination on the basis of consent, freely and concurrently given, North and South, to bring about a united Ireland, if that is their wish, .../2.
... accepting that this right must be achieved and exercised with and subject to the agreement and consent of a majority of the people of Northern Ireland”. /3. End
.@GermanAmbUK has far better things to do than read my Twitter commentaries. Still, I feel I owe him an apology. I said a tweet of his was a “direct attack ... on” @DavidGHFrost. It wasn’t.
... to some who, variously, criticised my literary style (so far as it exists - rather the point, I suppose) & expressed outrage that I should describe such a nasty world, in which the UK wouldn’t get what it wanted, allow me to share the thoughts of a former colleague. /2.
John Sawers was Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), before that UK Permanent Representative to the UN & held other senior roles.
This is a direct attack, by @GermanAmbUK - an exceptional professional who used to head Germany’s Foreign Office - on @DavidGHFrost👇
What does it tell us?
Nothing good. For the UK.
A🧵.
For anyone willing to set aside a bit of time & sit down with a strong cup of tea./1.
I first entered government service under Margaret Thatcher & Geoffrey Howe. In over 30 years I can’t remember a German official doing such a thing. In public. /2.
In private, vigorous conversations would sometimes happen, of course. But that a German Ambassador in London would go on the record in this way is either completely unprecedented, or at least absolutely extraordinary. /3.