previous plebgate
Laugh, I nearly fell off my bicycle! In a ruling that finally draws a line under Andrew Mitchell’s antics, the High Court has neatly put the finishing touches to the scandal/debacle known as ‘plebgate’ and left him with his reputation in tatters and upwards of £3 million in the red. Admittedly we’ll never know the exact phrase of “Best learn your f*cking place; you don’t run this f*cking government, you’re just f*cking plebs” but with his ‘previous’ being brought into play, the presiding judge, Mr Justice Mitting, decided that the ‘balance of probabilities’ indicated he had.
Throughout the case Mr Mitchell apparently did nothing to dissuade all present that he was indeed a blustering, arrogant and self-opinionated Tory grandee, and one with little, or no respect, for those he considered beneath him. It became known that he had insulted police officers on no less than 16 reported times, including one incredible outburst to his personal protection officer who advised him not to intentionally cross over into war-torn Libya of “a bit above your pay grade, Mr Plod”. I suspect many Mr Plods would be happy to see him make the journey now.
But if you think the patronising & self-serving metropolitan elite (David Mellor, Emily Thornberry anyone?) are going to leave with their tail between their legs get this: in passing his judgement, Mitting described PC Rowland, who has always resolutely stuck to his story, as “not the sort of man who has the wit, the imagination, or the inclination to falsify the words spoken”. Ouch and a case of being damned with faint praise if there ever was one. I’m only surprised by the fact that it wasn’t followed by ‘once a pleb, always a pleb!’
