From Bad To Diverse.

This week and last week on the BBC's Question Time programme the issue of whether Ian Blair should resign over the De Menezes or not has come up. My own view is that he is the very epitome of post MacPherson politicised policing who should never have been appointed, however you can't hold an individual in an organisation as vast as the Metropolitan police responsible for every operational failiure. The IPCC report on his personal wrong doing in obstructing their investigation is a legitimate cause for dismissal though.

On Question Time, Blair's principle defenders were Tony McNulty this week and former police Commander Brian Paddick last week. Both of them when giving reasons why Blair should remain in his post gave his commitment to diversity as the main reason he should stay. Both Paddick and McNulty brought up diversity before they mentioned his record on crime and terrorism etc. Coincidentally the police officer who led the De Menezes team was Cressida Dick who rose to prominence at the head of the Met's "Diversity Directorate".

Maybe this is all a coincidence but it does seem possible that (a) Focusing the attention of senior officers on crap like diversity comes at the expense of improving operational competence and (b) The kind of abilities of a person who can rise through the ranks based on their ability to promote the politically favoured theories of racism and homophobia are not going to be the most appropriate people to lead important missions that require good judgment and leadership skills.

As Mark Steyn has said "The great thing about multiculturalism is that it doesn't involve knowing anything about other cultures", similarly despite all the efforts by the police to promote racial sensitivity and awareness of 'institutional racism', the leading exponents of this stuff are unable to spot the difference between a white Brazilian man and a black Ethiopian.