I don't believe he would have taken it to court with the high risk, if he had said "F'fing pleb" So the judge decides on the balance of probability.....that's tough for him. The more I saw of him over the last couple of years in the news coverage, the more I felt he'd been well and truly set-up and was not a bad guy. Hell, even Bob Geldof stood up in court to defend his character and said that whenever he was always good to his word. Sets him apart from most politicians. I support the police generally but think this was a very black mark against them.
Alister (me copper mate) if you read that i was only messing, you know how i like to play with words.:smile:
Witnesses like this one? BBC News - 'Plebgate' PC Keith Wallis jailed for a year The whole thing is baffling.
And then there is the other point of view which makes me think he did say it. He is such an arrogant twat that he just couldn't believe a judge would take the word of a pleb agsinst that of a fine upstanding politician who runs the country
If it's any consolation, think on this: British politicians may be a bunch of dodgy an corrupt people, but that is only par for the course. They are every bit as bad in France (if not worse) and currently the biggest party in Spain is engulfed in a massive financial scandal. It may yet be shown, however, that the British political establishment leads its European partners in terms of a strange penchant for child abuse. The foolish copper who got jailed wasn't even there when it happened according to a copper who was, interviewed on R4 this morning.
As far as I am concerned all this affair has achieved is to entrench an already rock-bottom opinion of an incompetent and self-serving political establishment and a politicised and ineffectual police "service".
Is it that as a nation we are now more aware of child abuse? And consequently we are more open to giving victims a voice? I can't believe that child abuse isn't perpetrated by European politicians and that it is unique to this fair isle.
Baldy - nope coz in Europe its fine to knob a 14yr old...altho in th states its 'go on, son' to an 88yrs old taking in 18 yr olds into his houseon condition he knobs them. 21 yr old shags a 15 yr old, peodo, 88 yr old knobs a 18yr old , well done son Go figure
Fine line isn't it, I know the age of consent differs between european countries and they do have conditions attached e.g.; an adult cannot have a sexual relationship with a 14 yr old but another child can. U.K. law will cover anyone having a sexual relationship with a child under 16 yrs irrespective of whether this is in this country or travelling abroad, so a citizen of this country travelling to spain where the age of consent is lower will still be deemed to have committed an offence. There are other conditions including possession of indecent images of children defines anyone under 18 as a child, or if the perpetrator is in a position of trust over a child the age of consent is stated to be over 18. A child in this country is deemed to be anyone yet to reach their 18th birthday.
Also think we have made it far easier, with less stigma, than it was to report abuse. quite right too.
To get back to the point of this thread: Mr Mitchell could have saved himself an awful lot of trouble and expense if he had simply had the common sense to call them "cnuts", and then to confirm that he had done so, should it have become necessary to argue about it.
The legal teams...everyone else lost. Plod, politicians, public, taxpayer. We all knew plod make stuff up We all knew politicians are full of self importance and make stuff up What we didnt know was the depths the police federation will fakl to, or the acceptance of leaking private and privileged data, by the police to the media to score a point of two against the govt
Mitchell was reported as facing a legal bill of £2-3 million, over what was a relatively simple case with few witnesses, did he or did he not call plod a pleb. How can a legal team run up a £2-3 million bill ? WTF have they been doing ? Where have the thousands (?) of man hours gone ?
Andrew Mitchell will stand for re-election to Parliament to rekindle ministerial career - Telegraph Poor thing might have to sell one of his houses.
