Government must revamp vetting rules to enable police to...

IT is farcical yet grimly predictable that our human rights laws would find AGAINST the public interest and FOR potential predators in the police. Met chief Mark Rowley is rightly outraged. The clearout of rogue cops his force desperately needs is thwarted. Indeed 96 fired after failing the vetting scheme brought in after Sarah Everard’s murder by PC Wayne Couzens will be reinstated and paid to do nothing.

Image Credit: The Sun [Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley speaking outside New Scotland Yard.]

It is fair to point out that anyone accused of wrongdoing is innocent unless proven otherwise. And it is vital that vetting is comprehensive and fair. But cops are a special case. They wield far more power than ordinary workers. They have to be 100 per cent trusted, for example, to enter the homes of women or the vulnerable. Their records should be impeccable or close to it. If not, they clearly cannot be on the force.

Sgt Lino Di Maria had his vetting removed over two complaints of rape and others of indecent exposure, domestic abuse and inappropriate behaviour — all denied. But the Human Rights Act loved by the Left has vetoed his sacking and, as Sir Mark says, “left policing in a hopeless position”. He plans to appeal — but he will always run up against the HRA. If the Government won’t alter that, it must rapidly revamp vetting rules to enable police to root out rotten apples.

FEW things reveal a country economically on its knees quite as visibly as pock-marked roads. Many of ours would shame the Third World. Drivers forking out for increasingly eye-watering road tax have a right to ask where the £8.3billion annual proceeds go. A small fraction builds or fixes roads. The rest is tipped into the Treasury pot. So drivers supposedly paying to use our crumbling highways end up funding unrelated services used by non-drivers.

It is increasingly unfair for motorists to be used as cash cows while the Government contributes such a tiny percentage of what our roads actually need. Meanwhile negligent or skint councils have the brass neck to refuse compensation when potholes wreck vehicles. A party genuinely putting drivers first will clean up at the polls. A HILARIOUS Father Ted episode manages to mock racists — and those hyper-sensitive fools who see racism in everything.