Seems to me no one comes out if this well. Priti Patel was primarily responsible for the appointment, she's no longer in position so I expect she will quietly slip away from this. One suspects Khan approved it as at the time he didn't delve too deeply into details, there was no reason not to and it was the path of least resistance - probably easy to do when there's numerous other things to do? Something obviously spooked him to take such sudden, immediate action without making contingency arrangements? Difficult to tell from a distance, perhaps it will come out in the meeting Sue flagged up?What interests me is that Ms Dick was in the police for nearly forty years, around thirty five of those in the Met, where she moved up the ranks. Does one believe that in that time she didn't become aware of some of the undesirable culture and attitudes in the Met, or was it expedient at times to ignore it? Patel and Khan didn't have the advantage of having worked within the Met and presumably had only limited time to assess its senior staff. They may have made bad decisions but wasn't it up to the Commissioner to have better knowledge of the organisation she led and been responsible for addressing its deficiencies?As I say, difficult to judge from a distance...
Michael Ixer ● 972d