Richard Rhodes is the Police & Crime Commissioner for Cumbria. This waste of space piggy wiggy was claiming up to £385 a night in travel expenses, using a chauffeur to ferry him around for a social night out. Three of his staff felt unable to use official channels so dobbed him into the local paper.
Sleazy Rhodes initially claimed he needed the chauffeur for “personal safety”. Like hell he did. And so he has now agreed to repay £700, not to do it again and to publish his expense claims in full. In other words he admits that he was wrong. He was and is a sleazy pig. It is just that now he cannot act in that way.
But the Old Bill in Cumbria have now raided the local newspaper, threatened its editor with prosecution if he does not hand over emails and have arrested the three whistleblowers on suspicion of “misconduct in public office.” The actions of this Orwellian Police Force shows exactly why these three public spirited individuals were right to have no faith in internal whistleblowing procedures.
Anyone with half a brain cell would know that the whistleblowers have done a good thing and corrected a palpable wrong. Only a total fascist would try to bully the press in this way and stop good citizens from acting for the public good to rein in those who govern us.
Welcome to UK policing in 1984, I meant 2013.