A slightly different weekend roundup for 2 October
For obvious reasons, we don't really feel like writing about restaurants right now
On Thursday morning we listened to Radio 4’s Today programme as they broadcast the whole of Susan Everard’s victim impact statement (read by an actor). After hearing that, there was no way we were going to condense everything that’s happened into a few bullet points. So instead, we’ll send ‘part two’ of this issue (with the food, drink and arts news) on Monday, then we’re taking a few days break, so we’ll see you next on Wednesday 13th.
On Thursday Priti Patel described Wayne Couzens as a “monster”. But that’s just not true. Wayne Couzens is not some supernatural creature who was able to kidnap, rape and murder a young woman because of his incredible strength or size. He is a man. A man whose only ‘powers’ were gifted to him by the Met and the government. Powers that he was allowed to abuse in the most terrible way imaginable.
Here’s the Met Police’s statement that was released after Couzens was given a whole-life sentence. In it Cressida Dick describes the murder of Sarah Everard as “one of the most dreadful events in the 190-year-history of the Metropolitan Police Service.” She says he has “brought shame on the Met” but that “our dedication to you, our public, remains undiminished.”
Almost immediately people began to remind Dick that just four months ago she described Couzens as one of the “occasional bad’uns,” then, yesterday, it emerged that Couzens had “exchanged ‘discriminatory’ messages with other police officers in a WhatsApp group in 2019,” and the Independent Office for Police Conduct was “conducting an investigation into five officers from three separate forces over the WhatsApp group” (later in the day it was reported that two of those officers “have been left on duty after being placed under criminal investigation”).
It was also reported that Couzens may have committed other crimes in the days leading up to Everard’s murder and that, during the trial, The Old Bailey was told that Couzen’s colleagues at the CNC knew he was “attracted to violent pornography”. Meanwhile The Sun reported that he had been given the nickname ‘the rapist’.
Steve House, the Met deputy commissioner, was quoted as saying that “He [Couzens] was one of us and we need to look at ourselves very, very carefully to understand … how was he allowed to be one of us, and what does it say about us as an organisation. Organisationally, we own this guilt.”
On Friday the Met gave themselves another chance to address people’s concerns and try and restore some modicum of trust in the organisation. They released their “response to issues raised by the crimes of Wayne Couzens” but, after many paragraphs explaining why they couldn’t possibly have known one of their own was a potential rapist and murderer, there was a small section headed What to do if you have concerns an officer is threat to you / How do you prove an officer is genuine? Part of the advice is:
“If after all of that you feel in real and imminent danger and you do not believe the officer is who they say they are, for whatever reason, then I would say you must seek assistance - shouting out to a passer-by, running into a house, knocking on a door, waving a bus down or if you are in the position to do so calling 999.”
Harriet Harman wrote to the Commissioner this week asking her to resign. She also wrote to Patel with a list of Met reform policies including, “All serving officers against whom there is an allegation of violence against a woman must be suspended.”
As we write this Dame Cressida is still in a job and Kit Malthouse, the policing minister, has described her as “a dedicated and talented and committed police officer who is driving the Metropolitan Police to ever greater standards of care and improvement and fighting crime.”
🪧 In related news, earlier this week the High Court set dates in January of next year for the full hearing of Reclaim These Streets’ judicial review of Met Police decisions on “whether we and many other women could lawfully gather to mourn Sarah Everard and express our solidarity and frustration over the ineffectual policing of violence against women and girls.”
⚖️ This week also saw activist Kate Wilson win her tribunal case for breaches of her human rights after she was deceived into a relationship with undercover police officer Mark Kennedy while he was posing as an environmental campaigner.
🚓 At the Labour conference this week, Sadiq Khan defended that recent story about him travelling in a convoy of three vehicles for four-and-a-half miles, to walk his dog in Battersea Park. He told a fringe event at the conference ,“The Mayor of London needs police protection 24/7 because of the colour of his skin and the God he worships.” He also said that he initially rejected police protection back in 2016, but he had relented since then because of the risks to those around him.
😷 Official figures have confirmed what anyone who has been on the Tube recently already knew: fewer people are wearing face coverings on the Underground. Health Secretary Sajid Javid gave an interview to the Standard in which he gave this rather woolly statement, which will make no difference at all: “If the policy of Transport for London is wear a mask, which it is, people should respect that and absolutely wear a mask, I certainly would on the Tube.”
👛 Research by the Institute of Fiscal Studies has shown that Londoners are likely to be “disproportionately affected” by the end of the furlough scheme. Furlough rates were 8% in London this summer, that’s 3% higher than the average in the rest of the UK. On top of that, “London has already recorded a disproportionate number of redundancies - around 180,000 between March 2020 and June 2021,” and “re-employment prospects for those made redundant in London also look particularly bad: just 44% of those made redundant during COVID were in work six months later, compared to 58% in the rest of the UK”.
🚈 On top of all this, there could be a Tube strike in the works. The RMT put out a statement this week in which they “warned… of a campaign of action” because the Government has placed “adverts for a consultancy contract to explore the introduction of driverless trains.”
🏗️ In other travel news, the Northern line ticket hall at Elephant and Castle station has closed “after demolition workers on the adjacent shopping centre site accidentally knocked through into the station.” The SE1 community blog has the photos.
🚗 Forbes has reported on a planning document to be discussed in a transport committee next month, which will see the introduction of a “blanket speed limit of 15mph” in the The City of London (that’s the Square Mile, not the whole of Greater London).
🎓 The Ark All Saints academy in Camberwell has produced a list of words and phrases pupils should no longer use in the classroom. The list includes using “basically” at the beginning of sentences, as well as phrases like “oh my days” and “he cut his eyes at me”. Some linguists have criticised the policy, describing it as “crude and shortsighted … a disservice and discredit to young people”.
🏡 The Mirror picks up on a 140 square foot room (you can’t really call it a flat) in Bayswater, which has has been listed on Rightmove for £250,000.
Long read of the week
Here’s a few to choose from:
Slamming the cell door on Wayne Couzens won’t fix women’s fragile faith in the police says Gabby Hinsliff in the Guardian.
The Met must face the truth about Sarah Everard’s murder says Julie Bindel in the Spectator.
If the Met police are serious about rebuilding trust after Sarah Everard, they should actually talk to women says Parm Sandhu in The i.
Kate Wilson’s column for the Guardian in which she says the Met is beyond redemption.
