Hands off the police

FIRST it was the Government floating an idea that the police should be accountable to a local, political figure. Then it was Sir Robin Wales, the elected Mayor of Newham, responding favourably towards the idea. Now it s Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London,... » MORE

Sir Humphrey, we need you again

OUTCRY at 13 Labour chiefs in line for a huge pay rise, screamed the headline in one paper. No honour in the House trumpeted the leader column. And there, named among the guilty, were Newham s three MPs: Stephen Timms, Lyn Brown and Jim Fitzpatrick. Wra... » MORE

Style comes first in list

THE Saturday Guardian published a selection of readers reactions to a woman who said her husband s season ticket for West Ham had set them back about £800. I think the money would be better spent on the family, she said. Should I let him enjoy his one... » MORE

Questions that won't go away

CONTROVERSY continues over a Government proposal to give locally elected leaders more control over the police, which I have already said I find totally unacceptable. Attempts last week by the Mayor, Sir Robin Wales, to justify those proposals has drawn th... » MORE

Power is best shared

LAST week I criticised the Government s plans to make the police more accountable to local politicians. In Newham s case that would be the elected Mayor, Sir Robin Wales. Today, on the letters page, he answers my view that the police, once appointed, shou... » MORE

Keep politics out of police

A LIVELY debate has opened up on the role of an elected mayor and whether there are sufficient checks and balances to ensure too much power is not placed in one person s hands. Only a dozen local authorities have so far gone down that road and one of thos... » MORE

Take fear away as first step

TWO Stratford families this week joined the spiralling number of those torn apart by the scourge of knife crime. At the same time a court in Brighton heard how a youth from East London, with a history of violent knife attacks, had murdered 22-year-old Dav... » MORE

Hug a knife thug? No thanks

THE controversy leading to the resignation of Ray Lewis, which is reported in full elsewhere today, would be laughable if it were not so serious. Even the flimsiest checks would have revealed that appointing him as a deputy mayor of London was, to say the... » MORE

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