On the morning of January 26, Sir Ian reported back to his police authority on the state of crime in the Metropolis one year after his appointment
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- The Resignation of the ‘Gaffe-Prone’ Commissioner
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full complement of newspapers, but a significant and substantial sample representing tabloid and broadsheet, conservative and liberal – around the notion of Ian Blair not only as a politicised Commissioner, but as a time-limited liability. The Commissioner’s attempts to push back against the news agenda had unequivocally backfired. His ‘natural’ position in the ‘hierarchy of credibility’ was being shredded, even, it seemed, in the eyes of his news media supporters. The press were firmly in control of the news agenda, and were speaking with an increasingly coherent and consensual voice. A dominant ‘inferential structure’ had now crystallised around Sir Ian Blair. His initial news media construction as a ‘politicised’ Commissioner, and then as an ‘operationally compromised’ Commissioner’, was consolidated into and superseded by a ‘master status’: the ‘Gaffe-Prone’ Commissioner.
Our research indicates that the crystallisation of a common news media vocabulary provided the framework within which the Commissioner’s future activities would be ordered and interpreted as ‘news’. Furthermore, it offered journalists a means of historicising and retroactively making sense of Blair’s past words and deeds. The caricature of Blair as unfailingly ‘gaffe-prone’ established a dominant inferential structure within which previously isolated incidents could be re-visited, re- connected, and re-presented as an essentialising narrative with plenty of room for further development. Journalists were also on the lookout for anything that could trip up the Commissioner. Newspapers across the political spectrum, in addition to police officers and politicians, converged around one amplifying and de-legitimising question: ‘When will the gaffe-prone Sir Ian Blair go?’.
By the end of January 2006, headlines were declaring that the ‘Gaffe Prone’ Commissioner was not only haemorrhaging cross-party political support, but had lost his grip on the MPS and was bearing the brunt of rank-and-file dissatisfaction. The Metropolitan Police Federation, representing some 25,000 officers in London, had been asked by then Deputy Commissioner (and Blair’s successor as Commissioner), Sir Paul Stephenson, to issue a public statement of support for the Commissioner. They declined, and a series of off-the-record briefings appeared to confirm that Blair 22
had been ‘placed on notice’ by his own people (Daily Mail, 3 rd February, 2006: 13). The nature of the leaks from insubordinate officers indicated that Scotland Yard was riven with personality feuding more rancorous than any fictional police drama. Blair’s much-feted ‘Together’ reform programme had not survived his first year in office. Further reports disclosed that, whilst the Commissioner had received the backing of Prime Minister Tony Blair, his ‘Soham gaffe’ had prompted three Conservative MPs to sign an early day motion calling for his resignation and demanding that he ‘put an end to his 'thoughtless self publicity’’ (Daily Mail, 3 rd Feb, 2006: 13). Blair’s press construction offers a stark illustration of what can happen when metropolitan news media politics, party politics and police politics coalesce:
‘Is it time for Sir Ian Blair to quit the Met?’ (Daily Express, 30 th January 2006: 45) ‘Is Sir Ian fit to be top cop?’ (Daily Mail, 30 th January 2006: 17) ‘How did this idiot become Commissioner? (Sun, 30 th January 2006: 19) ‘Plod off: Britain’s number one cop faces revolt by 140 of his senior officers’ (Daily Mirror, 31 st January 2006: 1) ‘Officers call for Sir Ian to quit’ (Times, 31 st January 2006: 2). ‘Blundering, arrogant and out of touch.. he must go'; Exclusive met chief faces coup by furious officers’ (Mirror, 31 st January 2006: 5) ‘Plod off…again: Now MPs call for top cop’s head’ (Mirror, 31 st January 2006: 18) ‘MPs want PC Blair to be sacked’ (Daily Express, 1 st February: 2) ‘MPs Want Sir Ian Out’ (Daily Mirror, 1 st February: 13) ‘Met chief’s hardest task may be to justify actions to court of public opinion’ (Financial Times, 1 st February 2006: 8) ‘Met chief must quit for Soham gaffe, Say Tories’ (Independent, 1 st February 2006: 6). ‘Policing London: Why Blair must not quit’ (Guardian, 1 st Feb, 2006: 32). ‘Don't be paranoid, Sir Ian, but they are out to get you’ (Guardian, 1 st February 2006: 30).
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Even the Guardian appeared to be giving mixed messages, insisting that Blair ‘must not quit’ but cautioning that he must ‘raise his game’ to survive those forces that would drive him from office (Guardian, 1 st February 2006: 30). A senior MPS officer was quoted: ‘We cannot have another fuck-up. We cannot have a Commissioner who is viewed as a chump and a laughing stock’ (ibid.). Though Blair remained MPS Commissioner for more than two more years, the ‘Soham gaffe’ and its immediate aftermath resulted in an escalation of news media attacks. What followed was a prolonged period of symbolic news media annihilation that relentlessly forecast and demanded his departure. The dominant inferential structure established through Blair’s ‘trial by media’ was gaining coherence and momentum as the ‘Gaffe-Prone’ Commissioner’s ultimate downfall became – in the eyes of the press at least – a matter of time.
The unexpected election of the Conservative Party’s Boris Johnson and the removal of Ken Livingstone as Mayor of London in May 2008 compounded Blair’s political problems, and probably sealed his fate, in three inter-related ways. First, Johnson was a mediagenic character and was highly adept at news media politics. Second, the new Mayor had publicly stated that Blair should be removed from office. Third, he had been granted new legislative powers to assume the chairmanship of the Metropolitan Police Authority. Johnson soon came under pressure from Blair’s critics to exercise his Mayoral power. Stories began to circulate that London’s new Conservative administration was exploring the constitutional possibility of removing a discredited Commissioner. Blair continued to resist the increasingly vociferous calls for his resignation, and at least publicly dismissed the continual speculation that his political support was draining away. This generated further press attacks on Blair’s refusal to step down, and on the government for refusing to remove him. A defiant but politically isolated Blair remained in office, but not in power.
After two years of relentless news media attacks on a variety of public relations and operational ‘gaffes’, the resignation finally came on 2 nd October 2008. On the day that the Daily Mail ran a front-page story detailing financial irregularity charges Yüklə 1,04 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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