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I have absolutely no idea whether Bob Quick, former Chief Constable of Surrey where he made or allowed a total Horlicks of the Deep Cut Barracks investigation to happen, is any good at his job as Head of Anti-Terror but I suspect that he has made the decision to take the ‘early bath’ and retire before the next General Election.

In some ways this is hardly a surprise, he seemed very close to Sir Ian Blair who was possibly the worse Head of the Met ever seen and was effectively sacked by Boris Johnson when he became Mayor so, he may have felt that his number was ‘up’ if the next Government was Tory anyway. But all that said a curious tale seems about to unfold that raises a number of issues…

The Press Report…

As this seemed to break later in the day, I’m not sure whether it was published in the Mail on Sunday or is to be published in Monday’s Mail however, it is an extremely odd story that regardless of anything else brings Assistant Commissioner Quick’s judgement into question. In brief terms, apparently his wife is running a wedding car hire business from their home using former Policemen as drivers. There is no question of there being any impropriety in this so, his wife runs a business from home, so do many and what is the issue ?

Well in my time and over the years and particularly because of their shift patterns, I have known of many Firemen who ran building and other such businesses “on the side” from their main jobs but for a senior policeman to do this displays either greed or total personal stupidity or perhaps a combination of both. What is to stop a terrorist ‘hiring out’ a Rolls Royce and bringing it back packed with explosives which are then detonated killing all of the Quick Family and no doubt, a number of their neighbours ?

I’m sorry but this man has been in post since last March and nobody picked up on this and Mr Quick never paused to think about it – how extraordinary !

The Early Bath…

Apparently it was Bob Quick who authorised the use of Anti-Terror Police to carry out the Damien Green arrest and search which whilst not illegal has been called heavy handed by an internal enquiry and the likelihood that no further progress will be made on the investigation let alone any charges being bought.

The interesting thing is Quick’s reaction to The Mail story which was to accuse the Conservative Party and their friends in the Media of putting his family in danger, the latter claim being extraordinary to say the least when clearly it was his personal greed that put his own family in peril by running a business from their home, a business that involved large cars perfectly capable of being filled with explosives… Our dear Queen has few motors, can you imagine the outcry if she was running a car hire business from Buck House ?

Next Moves…

So the real question is did Bob Quick react in a calm and measured way ? Did he deliberately attack the Tories on the basis that he has already made the decision to ‘jump ship’ at the next election because otherwise and anyway, they would ‘push him out’ ?

Or did he react like a fat boy caught with his fingers in the fridge ? Did he start name calling because the moment the story broke he realised what a total prat he had been and just how it would look to anybody with even just half a brain ?

If he has applied for the Met Commissioners job, this must rule him out of the running on ‘poor personal judgement’ grounds alone. Caesar’s Wife must be above suspicion and Quick should have used some common sense concerning basic security issues, whilst not illegal it is psychologically like fiddling your expenses or having a personal ‘John Lewis List’.

On top of that and however “Tribal” the Labour Party is by nature, could even Jacqui Smith appoint as Commissioner of the Met someone who has already attacked the Conservative Party who may well be the next Government and who would have to work with Mayor Johnson ? Forget all the noise made by Sir Ian Blair and the mumblings of the Home Secretary, the Blair decision was not reversed.

But it goes perhaps even further than that: Can Smith even keep him in his current post right now ? Following the heavy handed tactics used in the Green Affair and now one of the most Senior Policemen in the UK running a car hire business from his own home like some smart arsed barrow boy… very, very silly but then again, perhaps on a par with ‘Flash Gordon’ saving the Universe, who knows ?

As a Footnote and just using Google, I was able to locate the business and as it is operated from home, the Quick families home address complete with map – totally ludicrous and this man is in charge of Anti-Terror… Lord help us all !