A solid honest copper

I know Chief Constable Andy Parker. He is a measured, serious and deeply committed police officer with many years of experience. I highly recommend that you read his letter (dated 4 November) to Rt. Hon. Keith Vaz.

You can access it here, on page 241.

He ends his letter with these words:

I would ask that you publicly correct the misleading statements that have been made, which I consider damaging to my reputation and that of the force. 

Throughout this matter I have endeavoured to act with integrity and transparency - I will continue to do so and look forward to your response.

You need to read the letter to understand the power of these words.

For myself, I worry that the whole #Plebgate saga is now turning into an endlessly intricate and baroque maze of 'he said, she said, they said' etc. I used to get angry with journalists, politicians and tweeters offering up opinions that were well short of the facts. Now I am more sanguine. Unless you are wearing three anoraks, you cannot hope to follow the weaving and dancing around this issue.

In the meantime good police officers like Andy are having to spend their time writing letters like the one referenced above. He had to write it of course. But I suspect he would agree there are better uses of his time.

So where do we go from here?

• We await due process of the CPS while it considers the fate of the police officers who were involved in the original incident.
• The fresh IPCC investigation (of questionable legality) into the three Federation Reps who met with Mr Mitchell will roll on 
• And police officers and staff up and down the country will talk on camera with even more circumspection than hitherto