Don’t Menshn Manchester Police

Last week’s Tory Party conference in Manchester saw protests against the Government, and by extension a great deal of the verbals being given to delegates. The thankless task of keeping order, while allowing the legitimate right to protest and the equal right of conference goers to go about their business unmolested - all the while allowing the city to function - fell to Greater Manchester Police (GMP).

(c) Doc Hackenbush 2014

Chief Superintendent John O’Hare posted to the GMP website after the conference had ended to express his gratitude for the hard work done by the force’s officers, and note that only 19 arrests had been made, despite the protest march attracting at least 60,000. But this cut no ice with (fortunately) former Tory MP Louise Mensch, who wibbled ad infinitum (indeed, ad nauseam) at the time, and has used her Sun column for afters.

“Frontline cops are fine but top brass lets them down” reads the headline, as Lou-You-Know-Who tells “the story of the conference wasn’t Boris’s jokes or Theresa’s strong stance on immigration. It was hordes of vicious ‘protesters’ outside the venue — whom police did NOTHING to stop. A young woman was threatened with rape. A 16-year-old was abused and shoved. Journalists were spat on. Boris Johnson was pelted with balls. And a Jewish Tory wearing a skullcap was told to ‘f*** off back to Auschwitz’”.

There’s more: “[Chief Constable Peter Fahy] let abusers close enough to women for rape threats, close enough to Boris to throw balls at him … Despite young women tweeting of their rape threats and Tory women ministers posting photos of themselves complaining to police, Fahy pretended no complaints were received”.

Enough. What Fahy said was that no formal complaints had been received. And women ministers talking to Police officers is not a formal complaint. This is a relatively simple concept to understand, and should certainly not trouble someone who went to Oxford, even if they did only go to clean the drains [OLD GOON SHOW JOKE, FOLKS]. But let me also tackle some of Ms Mensch’s more serious allegations.

The abuse given to the Jewish delegate was totally out of order. But the Police did not receive a complaint about it. Ms Mensch will know that Young Dave told the party faithful “Twitter is not Britain”, and one cannot expect the Police to monitor social media discussions and then haul someone off the street on the say-so of a few Tweets. That also applies to threats made against female delegates.

Moreover, however large the “ring of steel” around the Tory conference - or any other gathering - there has to be an access point, and the city has to be able to function. And if you don’t report bad behaviour to the Police, you can’t then start whining when they rightly say they’ve had no formal complaints. It is telling that Ms Mensch lays into Peter Fahy and Bernard Hogan Howe of the Met, yet clearly declines to engage with either organisation.

That is just cowardice on top of dishonesty. And remember, they allowed her to become an MP.