James Cleverly: On Bob Quick

22 December, 2008

On Bob Quick

Could I really get away with not commenting on the Bob Quick story? No, not really.

I have had a chance to work with Bob Quick over the last few months via the MPA, I have always found him to be a very switched on and effective officer. I was surprised by the arrest of Damian Green and the fact that there were clearly procedural mistakes made. I was amazed and deeply disappointed to hear the comments made by Bob last night.

The Damian Green arrest was always going to propel Bob into the spotlight, when that happened the media was always going to look for the man behind the story. Finding out that his wife ran a car hire firm wasn't going to be the toughest bit of investigative journalism in the world and once the media found out that it was run from his home address, the story wrote itself.

What is saddening is that Bob's first reaction seemed to be to blame the Conservatives, although he has now withdrawn the remarks and apologised. I feel that the party has been fair and even handed in it's criticism of the Met's handling of the arrest, never personal. That he assumed the natural reaction of politicians is to initiate a personal attack through the media is a sad statement on his view of politicians, or at least of Conservative politicians.

I still have complete confidence in Bob's ability to run the Met's counter terrorism operations but I now have a big question mark in his my mind about whether he is the best person to complete the investigation into the Home Office leaks.

12 comments:

Andrew Allison said...: He made an error of judgement in the Damian Green case. How he could let his wife operate a business from his home address baffles me. Surely he could see the problem there. He was under pressure when he made those remarks to a journalist, although he should be accustomed to pressure.

I think it is fair to say he has hit the ceiling as far as his career prospects are concerned and I don't think retirement is far away.; 22/12/08 22:27
Excalibur said...: Yet more appalling behaviour from the someone in the Conservative Party and their lapdogs in the national media.

James, you are a clever man and as such you must know that this story definitely came from within the Conservative party. It's a real shame that our once great party is lowering itself to the despicable levels that the Labour government have been operating at over the last decade - anyone who criticises or crosses them has had to endure a sustained campaign of disinformation within the national media in an attempt attempt to smear them.

Bob Quick is the top anti-terrorist officer in the country and all of the terrorists Christmases have come early with this disgraceful Conservative-generated media attack on him.

Since the arrest of Damian Green on suspicion of committing a CRIMINAL offence, some of the anti-police invective in the Conservative press has been nauseating. By the very nature of police work, the police seldom deal with clearly identified "convicted criminals". Much of their work involves dealing with "suspects", that is people who might be guilty of some crimes, or who might turn out to be "innocent". These investigations must be allowed to run their course unhindered if justice is seen to be done. Any interference in investigations will result in the man on the street believing that politicians are "above the law" and they will therefore be held in even more contempt than they are already.

It would be nice, for a change, if the Conservative Party started demonstrating that it is the party of "Law and Order" once again and stopped undermining the authority of the Police. Lady Thatcher must be so disappointed on what has happened to our once great party.; 23/12/08 07:41
John Moss said...: I'm sorry, but Bob Quick made a serious error of judgement in March, when, on taking up the most senior, anti-terrorism post in the police, he failed to ensure that his home address was not available to anybody with an internet connection and five minutes to spare.

0845 telephone numbers and PO Box addresses are easy to organise and provide a simple level of security. If anything more serious was required, then his wife should have rented an office to run her business from.

His intemperate and ill-thought through outburst suggests he does not have the right attitude for the job either.; 23/12/08 08:43
Donal Blaney said...: John Moss is correct. It is not just his absurdly emotional response and Mandelsonesque attack on "the Tories" that calls his position into question.

He is the head of counter-terrorism. A target for jihadists. And yet he lets complete strangers use his car as part of his wife's business. IS HE MAD? It's an open invitation to jihadists to try to blow him up.; 23/12/08 09:02
Blue Eyes said...: I don't know the whys and wherefores of this matter, but nobody high profile should put their home address on the internet!

I think the problem here is that the Green investigation should never have been a criminal one. Lurching around pointing fingers isn't going to solve that.; 23/12/08 09:10
Excalibur said...: Unfortunately the old 'sleeze' problem that haunted the Major government of 1992 to 1997 has returned to haunt the Conservatives. I thought the party had shed this vile part of it's history and moved on - unfortunately it would seem not.

'Mandelsonesque' is a very appropriate description of this affair - it seems that the Conservatives have decided that "if you can't beat them, join them" and taken a leaf out of the 'smear via your press lapdogs' book that Labour live by.; 23/12/08 09:23
judith said...: Excalibur - do you have proof that this story was planted by the Conservative Party? Pray, do disclose!

Had you even considered that someone entirely unconnected with the Party may have had the teensiest, weensiest personal grudge against Officer Quick-Temper, and therefore contacted a journalist at a wonderfully opportune moment?

Given that his wife's business details are instantly available via Yellow Pages, and that business is weirdly based at Officer Quick-Temper's home, and that the business is manned by ex-coppers (who are known to love a good gossip), who are you to accuse the Conservative Party of sleaze?; 23/12/08 09:45
archroy said...: Excalibur, I don't think you're fooling anybody with the 'our party' schtick.; 23/12/08 10:17
Excalibur said...: Oh Judith, unfortunately the Conservatives will continue to follow this path and make themselves unelectable all the time that people like you make excuses for them.

And that's a tragedy that this country just can't afford.

With what the Labour government has done to the country over the last decade, the Conservatives should be a shoe-in at the next election. Unfortunately - and read into it what you will - this is not the case. My take on it is that the electorate is seeing the games that our party is participating in and not liking them one bit!; 23/12/08 11:23
James Higham said...: I agree with Andrew here. It was an error of judgement.

And Merry Christmas, James.; 24/12/08 15:00
Thatsnews said...: How did the paper get the story?

Well, if a neighbour of mine was using his/her home as a taxi firm/used car lot, I think I might have been tempted to phone the papers.

And had I been a journalist working on a daily paper I might have been tempted to see what facts I could Google about Mr Quick.

Some stories write themselves. And this was one of them. An expose waiting to happen, in fact.; 9/1/09 00:07
Irant said...: Bob Quick showed his lack of understanding of the dangers to himself and the question asked by one responder was "is he mad"? Maybe the answer is not mad - just not very smart.
Then he has top secret documents on display for photographers instead of in a brief case - in fact he has no brief-case. If he were in a business he would now be sacked.
The reason there are these constant blunders is no one ever gets the sack.
When was the last time a minister resigned without being pushed? All politicians are proud to say "I take the responsibility for x, y or z"; often when there is no one else that it could possibly have been at fault but them. But if they are taking their responsibility - they should resign.
The same with the head of anti-terrorism like something out of Rowan Atkinson's "Johnny English".; 9/4/09 02:54