ṀẠƮƮ⚇

[ṀẠƮƮ⚇ @Barn377]

🔥

https://t.co/XhYvdmMjCI

[ṀẠƮƮ⚇ @Barn377]

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[DailyAFC @DailyAFC]

Arsenal players & staff celebrating as Premier League champions at the training ground tonight… ❤️🥺

[Arsenal @Arsenal]

This belongs to all of us.

[Arsenal @Arsenal]

The Arsenal. Your Premier League champions.

[ṀẠƮƮ⚇ @Barn377]

New boc 3pm tomorrow

[The Fraud @StarmertheFraud]

Whatever one makes of Zack Polanski's retweet, Sir Mark Rowley's letter to @ZackPolanski is a needless and reckless political intervention during a highly competitive local election period and distraction during a time of considerable agitation, fear and upset.

I have submitted a complaint to the Independent Office for Police Conduct. I encourage everyone who is concerned about Sir Rowley's conduct to do the same. I will post a template letter separately.

You can make your complaints at: https://t.co/3zpYEnAMW7

MY COMPLAINT

I am writing to complain about the letter from Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to Zack Polanski, the Green Party leader. The letter was posted to X at 5:35PM on the 30th of April 2026.

I do not repeat the text of the letter here.

This letter constitutes a serious intervention by the Police Commissioner in a manner that will raise concerns about the political impartiality of the Met Police. I believe it violates the Met Police's requirement to act in a politically impartial manner.

The letter was directed to a party-political leader in response to retweet that the leader was entitled to make, even if it was ill-informed or ill-conceived. It was made a week prior to major local elections taking place in London, in which the Green Party is actively campaigning. Mr. Polanski is a prominent figure in this campaign. The Commissioner must know that during election periods it is anticipated that civil servants and other public officials will observe customary ‘purdah’ principles.

There was no reason for the letter to be made public. Mr. Polanski is part of the London Assembly, which regularly liaises with the Metropolitan Police on operational matters. The Commissioner’s concerns could have been raised constructively in private first. But it appears no effort was made to do so.

Instead, the Met Police addressed an open public letter and then posted it on X without any consultation or discussion with the Green Party or Mr. Polanski. It did so when a private letter would have sufficed. If Sir Rowley had done so, it may have created an opportunity for the Metropolitan Police and Mr. Polanski to address these operational matters calmly, soberly and collaboratively, and to do so in ways that built public confidence in the Met Police. But to make it public during a time of considerable political turmoil was needlessly inflammatory and counter-productive.

There is already significant public concern about this intervention. The proof of this is the response on X. On simple inspection, I identified a large number of posts expressing serious alarm at the tone and content of this letter, and widespread comment that this raises material concerns about police impartiality. Many commentators fear that the Met Police has intervened in this way because of Mr. Polanski's political views.

Many have noted that the Commissioner has not made such interventions in the past, even where prominent politicians have made comments about police conduct or perceptions of ‘two tier’ policing (or made comments that might inflame political situations and give rise to violent disorder, including towards the police).

I note that Sir Rowley appeared on Sky News on the morning of the 1st of May. He was asked whether his letter constituted an unfair political intervention. He has defended himself in robust terms. But the very fact that this question is being raised indicates that the Commissioner has created an impression he must rebut.

He was also interviewed on Times Radio on the same morning. The interviewer plainly stated that Sir Rowley ‘intervened in politics.’ Sir Rowley thereafter sought to defend his intervention. But this plainly shows the political nature of Sir Rowley’s intervention is now a matter of significant public debate.

It is appalling that in a moment where the country requires time to reflect, commune and heal in the wake of a terrorist attack, the Commissioner has created needless political scandal, spectacle and controversy that distracts from these concerns.

The letter was sarcastic and condescending in tone. It made pointed and immature comments about 'armchair critics' that brings the Met Police into disrepute. This is an inane and dangerous formulation, and it does the Met Police significant discredit.

Most people are 'armchair critics.' Most citizens do not serve, nor have they served, in law enforcement. This sort of language demeans legitimate civilian concerns. Can an ordinary citizen now feel confident to raise issues about police conduct without being criticised for being an 'armchair critic?' Or will citizens now fear being humiliated in public for a presumed lack of expertise?

The letter is additionally inflammatory because of its tone-deaf and distasteful comments about Mr. Polanski in relation to the Jewish community. The letter refers frequently to the legitimate fears of the Jewish community and attacks Mr. Polanski's comments as insensitive to this community. It strongly implies that Mr. Polanski has failed to take these community concerns into account.

But Mr. Polanski is Jewish. He is currently the only Jewish leader of a political party in this country. The text, as read, strongly implies that Mr. Polanski, in the Commissioner's view, falls outside of the Jewish community or is insensitive to its concerns. It certainly does not acknowledge his ethnicity or acknowledge that Mr. Polanski is part of the Jewish community that the Commissioner invokes. It does not even contemplate that Mr. Polanski might also feel the same fear that the Commissioner correctly notes is being felt by the Jewish community.

Making comments about Mr. Polanski and the Jewish community would be entirely legitimate comment for a newspaper columnist or a user on X or an ordinary member of the public. I expect it will be robustly litigated in the court of public opinion and in the media. But is not the sort of comment that should be made by the Commissioner during a period of heightened inter-community tension.

In the wake of a significant antisemitic terrorist attack emotions are running extremely high. The Met Police and the Commissioner must no doubt be alive to how community cohesion is threatened in these sorts of circumstances. Any intervention that the Commissioner makes must seek to calm fears and provide assurances of safety.

But the Commissioner's letter has done the opposite. It is seriously inflammatory and will likely cause political controversy. It is reckless, undignified and provocative.

The Commissioner should withdraw his letter and find a way to constructively resolve a needlessly controversial situation of his own making.

[Gaza Notifications @gazanotice]

🚨BREAKING Massacre in Gaza | Israeli warplanes bombed a building inside the Islamic University in western Gaza City.
After the first strike, displaced families returned to collect their belongings, then Israel dropped a heavy bomb on the building, collapsing it and killing entire families under the rubble.

[Harriet Williamson @harriepw]

Steve is an RAF veteran. Here’s his arrest by the @metpoliceuk as he holds a paper sign in London today. @novaramedia

[greg davis @gregdavismusic]

July episode of Raga Vibrations is now up on @NTSlive

https://t.co/wbBrgNzb9I

[ṀẠƮƮ⚇ @Barn377]

@djrap Kiss fm, your show 🙏🏼

[ṀẠƮƮ⚇ @Barn377]

Braintax - The Grip Again

https://t.co/vxBsXKMLVm

[ṀẠƮƮ⚇ @Barn377]

@jimthegiant Is he selling all his uk assets?

[Gary Stevenson @garyseconomics]

What @RachelReevesMP's Spring Statment actually means for you

[Hind Khoudary @Hind_Gaza]

We may be next

[Rosie P 🦇 🦎 🕷️ 🦭 🐌 🍃🌳🚲💧 @RosieP4]

I'll be on BBC 6 oclock national news and Times Radio at 8.30pm talking about the patronising and poorly planned 'pounds for pylons' proposals.

[ṀẠƮƮ⚇ @Barn377]

Why Growth Is Stupid

@garyseconomics

https://t.co/paHfDkN5Qs

[The Secret DJ. @SecretDJBook]

Thanks folks yes I know the Arts Council are seeking to get the 400,000 back Sacha Lord had off them fraudulently, cos it was my work that alerted them to it.

You can stop messaging me. When they've got our money back we can celebrate.

https://t.co/geRfbI0eYO

[Gary Stevenson @garyseconomics]

Why you need to own your home.

[Kat ♱ @albertcamslut]

I miss him already

[414EvanRytlewski @Evanryt]

Shoutout to everybody at Netflix who decided not to move forward with all the projects David Lynch wanted to do in his final years. I'm sure all the other stuff you greenlit instead was much better.