Tim Godwin is not a leader

The police hate the idea of elected commissioners. They want to keep their "operational independence".

Against this background, Tim Godwin, acting head of the Met, is the last person we are likely to feel sorry for in the present situation.

Officers have been angered by accusations that they held back during the crisis, says Sky News, and Mr Godwin said these claims were "extremely hurtful and untrue".

Poor diddums! Go to Ealing and tell them that. Go to Croydon, go to Tottenham, go to Clapham.

Mr Godwin has been showing what an inspirational leader he is.

When asked whether his officers had been scared to "go in hard" in the wake of allegations surrounding the G20 and student fees protests, Mr Godwin said: "That is a debate I've been having with some of our politicians in the sense that there is an inconsistency of guidance from Parliament in terms of their expectations."

Expectations? I think everyone expects the police to keep the streets safe. I don't even know what Mr Godwin means by his obfuscation. Do the police want operational independence or don't they?

Two things we can say for sure. First, senior police don't deserve operational independence. (Well we knew that anyway from the bureaucracy and political correctness they have persisted with.)

Second, if Mr Godwin feels able to protest that the criticism is "extremely hurtful", it is plain that he still doesn't get what a failure his policing has been.

It beggars belief how any police can be unaware of the extent of their failure, but Mr Godwin, it seems, has managed it.

One for the scrapheap.