Non PC Tom Winsor

Last updated on July 22nd, 2023 at 07:23 pm

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I have been away. I have been enjoying myself at the coast. I completely missed Tom Winsor’s latest antics until I got back last night.

tom-winsorIt seems that in my absence there has been a shitstorm over Tom Winsor’s decision to attend the National Police Memorial Day.

I was shocked, I was outraged, I was nigh on apoplectic.  What kind of man, who has been the catalyst for Camoron and Cruella’s deconstruction of the Police Service, would wear such a uniform to an event such as that.

I do do not deny him is right to be there, he is, after all, Head Fred of HMIC, but a Police Officer he most certainly is not.

I have read that the uniform shown above is NOT a Police Uniform but the ceremonial uniform of Head Fred HMIC, and that gives him the right to wear it, because his predecessors have previously enjoyed the same right to wear that regalia. His predecessors, may I point out, had ALL been Commissioners or Chief Constables and had served their time at the coalface so to speak.

Has he taken his Oath? Has he actually crept in under my radar and become a Police Officer without me noticing? I had begun, just begun mind, to forgive some of his excesses as I have been re-reading articles from last year and reminded myself how Independent his Independent Review had been. However, to turn up at the National Police Memorial Day in fancy dress, as one commentator put it, dressed for all the world as a Police officer, must have been like a slap round the face with a wet haddock to those officers, or bereaved relatives present.

I’ll be generous for a minute. It was not a Police Uniform, but is surely INTENDED to resemble one, and I thought that was a no-no. I have also seen another commentator ask the question “Does the Minister for Defence wear a military uniform?”  NO and quite right too.

Is HMIC a uniformed service?  Presumably not if a civvie can be Head Fred, so no need for a uniform of any kind for any occasion then. Smart grey suit will suffice thanks Tom.  I could have been less offended if he had turned up in full ceremonial Masonic regalia, finely pressed Apron and Compasses gleaming.

At the very, very least I think we are all due an apology and a reassurance that there will not be a repeat of this misguided act.

I wonder what the HM part of HMIC thinks of it?  But she’s too gracious to ever let us know.

PS

I’m not quite sure whose photo I’ve borrowed so if it’s yours and you’d like it taken down please let me know and I surely will.

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24 thoughts on “Non PC Tom Winsor”

  1. Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Constabulary, including Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary, are appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Home Secretary, under section 54 of the Police Act 1996. As independent holders of public office under the Crown, appointed under Royal Warrant, they are neither civil servants nor police officers.

  2. Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Constabulary, including Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary, are appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Home Secretary, under section 54 of the Police Act 1996. As independent holders of public office under the Crown, appointed under Royal Warrant, they are neither civil servants nor police officers.

  3. Since when did he hold the Office of Constable?
    Police Act 1996 Impersonation
    (1) “…..does any act calculated falsely to suggest that he is such a member [of a pollice force] or constable…”
    (2) Any person who, not being a constable, wears any article of police uniform in circumstances where it gives him an appearance so nearly resembling that of a member of a police force as to be calculated to deceive shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.

  4. Since when did he hold the Office of Constable?
    Police Act 1996 Impersonation
    (1) “…..does any act calculated falsely to suggest that he is such a member [of a pollice force] or constable…”
    (2) Any person who, not being a constable, wears any article of police uniform in circumstances where it gives him an appearance so nearly resembling that of a member of a police force as to be calculated to deceive shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.

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