Here is an embarrassing incident that just won’t go away.
Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell has been officially logged calling serving officers of the Metropolitan police “plebs”. It was leaked to the press on Monday and today and following two apologies from Mr Mitchell, you would think that would be the end of it.
Not in this case. Is there more to this than meets the eye? Could it be because Mr Mitchell refuses to tell what he exactly did say? Could it be that the use of the word “pleb” demonstrates just how out of touch with the British public the government are or are we all just so insulted that the people who meant to serve us, who were voted in by us think of us as lower than them. Will this story only end in the resignation of Andrew Mitchell?
Even Boris Johnson today said that Mr Mitchell should have been arrested for abusing a police officer and thinks he should resign. Personally, I think the police have far better things to do than arrest every person who swears and calls them names. Stick and stones and all that…..
I am not condoning what Andrew Mitchell said. Far from it. I think in his position he should know better and really, why is such vocabulary even in his language? Is this how he insults those he sees as a lower class than him? Papers have referred to him as bullish, aggressively ambitious and at school he was named “thrasher”. The gentlemanly image that many of his peers have tried to paint of him just don’t ring true.
Could it be possible that in a crazy moment, Mr Mitchell, revealed his true self and that of the government and it is this that the media have hung onto and will not stop until they have broken the man. A full public inquiry can only be a waste of money. I think he has learnt an embarrassing lesson and will keep his mouth in check in future.
Jeremy Hunt was responsible for far worse earlier this year in the Murdoch scandal and if he can become Health Secretary, then Andrew Mitchell’s job has got be secure.
Surely….
Bunty
