Boris Johnson: cops, claims and funny numbers

I texted Team Ken last night asking if John Biggs's earlier "barefaced lies" attack on Boris over the quantity of London cops had been an individual initiative by the Labour group's ankle-biting number two or part of a cunning plan to launch a long term campaign attack theme. You know: say something really rude in a high profile public meeting, get thrown out by the chair but as a result be all over the BBC London News saying, in effect, "This Tory Mayor is no lovable comic rogue, he's a cocky chancer taking the piss," and hope it catches on.

Far fetched? Almost certainly, worse luck (though Team Ken didn't reply). Even so, there's a few bits of evidence strewn about the place should Labour want to dog whistle up such thoughts in voters' minds, and not only in the law and order realm.

Remember the very odd saga of Veronica Wadley? Remember the recent observation of financier Pierre Rolin about the jovial TV humourist? He told the Standard:

I think he has no moral compass. He thinks he is completely entitled and thinks he's above it all...one day the truth will catch up with him.

Arrogance? Cronyism? Treating his office as a personal fiefdom? Ring any bells? Biggs's words at Progressive London on Saturday now look like just a warm-up for yesterday's assault. Let's admire their sweet temperance once more:

I think Boris is a smug, complacent git.

Biggs also said on Saturday, disagreeing with Jenny Jones, that the personality cultism of the mayoralty meant it was OK to get a bit personal when pitching in to the man in charge. Given that Boris's carefully-protected public image as a cheery comedy act who means - and does - no harm helps to deflect hostile scrutiny of what he actually does - and doesn't - do, perhaps it is. And knocking a bit more shine off Mr Jolly of City Hall would certainly do the Labour cause no harm.

And so to that entry portal to the News Of The World private dining club, better known as the Metropolitan Police Service. It being school half-term I was parentally-engaged during yesterday's City Hall ding-dong and so am grateful to others for clarifying the fight about the figures. Mayorwatch summaries thus:

City Hall says there will be 32,510 full-time Met police officers in post next year which Johnson says is higher than the number he inherited from Ken Livingstone in 2008 and is the result of an extra �42m being invested in the force.
Labour accuses the Mayor of "spinning" the figures and says official Met figures show numbers are set to fall from 33,258 in February 2010, a highpoint it credits to Livingstone's final 2008/09 budget.

I'm now almost as bored with saying I don't care about small variations in "police numbers" as I am with the unending "police numbers" debate itself, though the torpor is at least a bit relieved by this arithmetical trench war becoming a row about the Mayor's integrity. Boris has form for craftiness about crime. His 2008 manifesto misrepresented trends in reported crime by quoting selectively from stats released by Mayor Livingstone in January of that year (see footnote, page 2) and asserted:

[W]e all know that we are suffering from an epidemic of unreported crime. Bitter experience has taught us that too often the police do not have the time or the resources to deal with our case.

I emailed City Hall yesterday at 2.37 pm with two questions: does the Mayor still believe there is in London "an epidemic of unreported crime" and does he consider that the police now have more time and resources to deal with the public's concerns than when he was elected? There's been no reply so far. Don't know about you, sarge, but that blond bloke looks a bit shifty to me.

Update, 13:03 City Hall says it's only just received my questions. I await a response with interest. Meanwhile, the Standard reports:

Boris Johnson came under pressure today over his claims that police numbers in London are rising, amid a growing row over spin. The Mayor was urged by members of the Metropolitan Police Authority to explain how officer levels had gone up when official figures suggested they were falling....
MPA member Jenny Jones said ahead of a meeting today: "I just want the Mayor to be open with Londoners about what the cuts mean for their services. He spun a positive story about increasing police numbers which was misleading, and yesterday refused to discuss the specific figures backing up his claim." Mr Biggs added: "The Mayor's assertion about police numbers is a bare-faced lie and it is a disgrace that he keeps repeating it."

Now read on.

Dave Hill

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