Dear Editor, Hypocrisy or what? On the one hand we have a coalition government committed to introducing legislation making it easier to sack working people, on the other we have the Right Honourable Andrew Mitchell MP, a government Chief Whip and Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury, who has (albeit belatedly) admitted launching an expletive laden rant at the police officers responsible for maintaining the safety of our parliamentary representatives at Downing Street. Yet he keeps his job.
Ironic then that Mitchell’s parliamentary role, for which WE pay his salary, includes the responsibility for maintaining discipline and ensuring appropriate behaviour from his party’s MPs. Paradoxically however, he has ably demonstrated that he exercises very little control over his own behaviour, language and conduct. Still, he keeps his job.
Home Secretary, Theresa May told her party conference that Conservatives needed to change from being seen as “the nasty party”. Mitchell’s tantrum and broadside at the police officers for simply doing their job suggest there’s a long, long way to go yet and despite his parliamentary seat being the closest tory held seat to his party’s annual conference venue, Mitchell is being kept away due to the embarrassment his presence will cause.
On the other hand, perhaps with all those bobbies around, Cameron’s worried he’ll go and do it again.
Then of course, there’s the vagueness of whether Mr Mitchell used the word “pleb” or not. Despite combing dozens of newspaper articles, this question does not seem to have been satisfactorily answered.
Now like most folks, I don’t believe everything I read in the nationals, so I wrote to Mr Mitchell – very courteously, with no insults or bad language – asking him clearly and simply if he called any police officer a pleb.
Despite receiving receipts for my emails from his constituency office, I have yet to receive a response to my question, despite writing on four occasions.
Oh well, given that he’s procured a week off work, having been effectively barred from his own party’s annual conference, perhaps he’ll deal with a straightforward reply then.
Mick Teece
Nottingham
