Time to disband the Met

In the wake of David Carrick admitting to multiple rapes and sexual offences during his 25year career as a Metropolitan Police officer, the force has admitted it’s in the process of investigating 1,000 claims of sexual and domestic abuse involving 800 of its officers (News, today).

Despite this, Rishi Sunak’s government still wants to give the police even more powers to decide what the public can protest about and exactly how they can do so. The police should not be given more powers to enforce this government’s political agenda. It’s time to disband the irredeemably corrupt Metropolitan Police force.

Sasha Simic London

I find it perplexing that of all public services in our country the police have managed to avoid the obvious necessity of the CRB check. It is now almost impossible to carry out any employment or indeed voluntary work without a “police check”. Any work involved with children or vulnerable people requires this as a mandatory condition. Why does a police officer not come into this category?

A CRB report would certainly have included almost all of the accusations that had been levelled against David Carrick, and surely led to him being removed from the force 15 to 20 years ago. Instituting this would seem to be an obvious and fairly easy way to address some of the dire problems of rooting out inappropriate people from the force.

The problem, not the solution

Steve Barclay’s assertion that an NHS pay settlement will “take billions of pounds away from where we need it most” (News, yesterday) is an accomplishment squarely attributable to his own party – a political boulder that has gathered its destructive momentum over a period of nearly 13 years.

The ongoing billions of Brexit losses, billions lost to Covid mismanagement, billions lost to a ruinous “fiscal event”, and billions lost in windfall tax opportunities, have all been squandered by Tory governments and frequently for the benefit of their own. The cost of strikes to the economy is presently estimated at £6bn. The Centre for European Reform estimates tax losses attributable to Brexit alone in the year have been £33bn.

Pay settlements in the public sector could have been met with ease and without the necessity of strike action. The magnitudes of the claims are themselves a direct result of Tory austerity. Tory policies have made the majority poorer and are directly responsible for the unaffordability of Barclay’s “unaffordable pay hikes”.

His answer lies in making the NHS “more efficient”. But it is the Tory party that is the problem, not the solution. The public is suffering from a crisis in the NHS, and difficulties elsewhere, because of them. The electorate has a further two years of this and is powerless in the meantime. The Tories run the country; the country pays the price. It is regrettable that we are not in a position to appoint a government that is “more efficient”.

David Nelmes Caerleon Newport

Grant Shapps’s comments to the opposition party, suggesting they are risking lives by opposing anti-strike legislation, shows some breathtaking arrogance. The Conservative Party has

starved the NHS and other public services of funds for the past 13 years, resulting in record wait times for treatment, risking the lives of patients. They have cut benefits to the neediest in society resulting in near Dickensian levels of poverty and inequality, leaving children cold and hungry.

They presided over the catastrophic Covid response and PPE scandal, which resulted in the deaths of healthcare workers, and resulted in billions of pounds of the taxpayer’s money being paid to their mates. Now, they refuse to negotiate with the unions and think that blaming Labour for opposing their strike-breaking law is the way to go.

Such staggering arrogance. Even for the party that holds the gold standard award for arrogant behaviour!

Karen Brittain York

Border dispute

The quarrel between Holyrood and Westminster about Scotland’s proposed gender recognition bill will benefit no one (News, yesterday). The political and legal wrangling will take time and energy; it’s likely to do the leaders of both parties no credit. Nicola Sturgeon will probably claim that it strengthens the case for Scotland to leave the Union. Was that her intention all along? If so, it was a cynical use of the transgender issue. If not it was politically inept because the Conservative government’s reaction could and should have been foreseen.

A reasonable, grown-up discussion might have brought forth some compromise. We, the ordinary mortals, are left wondering whether there were any such talks. Whatever the outcome, it’s unlikely to improve our views about politicians. The whole thing is a mess, and probably an avoidable one.

Susan Alexander South Gloucestershire

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