At a time when our public services are supposed to be under enormous financial pressure, I've read with not a little incredulity that the Metropolitan Police Force has dedicated some 30 officers to investigating the issues surrounding whether or not the former Conservative party Chief Whip, Andrew Mitchell, called another policeman a 'pleb'.
Pardon me for clearly being out of touch with the world inhabited by those who understand the importance of such matters far better than do I, but I fail to see how an investigation into who said what to whom can possibly require such a committment of scarce resources. The only unusual element in this case is the fact that a politician was involved; if I had been the supposed offender I would, by now, have been dragged up before the local magistrates, pronounced guilty of something such as 'committing an offence likely to cause a breach of the peace' and sentenced. There would have been no police investigation and I would have been allowed no real opportunity to defend myself.
If there was ever an example of the difference between the ruling class and the rest of the plebs in our society, this is surely it.
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