Opinion
The Fall Guy and the Bobbies
LONDON — A year ago today, Andrew Mitchell, a Conservative member of Britain’s governing coalition, resigned from the cabinet. Twelve months on, his case still transfixes Westminster and dominates the national headlines. What began as an alleged verbal altercation between a senior minister and a police officer at the gates of Downing Street has escalated into an institutional crisis and something I never expected to see: a Conservative-led government ranged angrily against the police.
Britain enshrines its national identity in political institutions and traditions, rather than a written constitution or a Bill of Rights. The monarchy and the National Health Service express irreducible aspects of the British character. So too does the police service — 45 territorial forces, most famously London’s Metropolitan Police, at New Scotland Yard — which is why this is as much a snapshot of social crisis as it is a tale of political intrigue.
A brief recap: In September 2012, Mr. Mitchell was the recently appointed chief whip, the cabinet minister charged with maintaining coalition discipline in Parliament. Trying to exit Downing Street by bicycle, he was told by a police officer that the main gate would not be opened and that he would have to push his bike through the pedestrian exit. “You guys are supposed to help us,” he muttered, inserting an expletive. This was his clear recollection, which I and other journalists duly reported at the time.
A few days later, however, a very different account emerged. According to other news reports, and a police log, Mr. Mitchell had let rip with a class-based tirade. “Best you learn your place,” he was alleged to have said, using a string of expletives (one per noun) that can’t be printed here. “You don’t run this government. You’re plebs.”
Mr. Mitchell …