dr martin king

Author,academic,bricoleur, one of the two Doctors,Memorial Device ANT,fan of the Beatles,the eight track cartridge ,Wishbone Ash,Mr Quorange,Dirty Leeds.

[dr martin king @drmartinking]

George Best.

[Epik Spor Anları #WC2026 @epicsp0ranIari]

Yaşayan ya da ölmüş hiçbir forvetin repertuarında böyle bir gol yok.

[Tanita Tikaram💙 @tanita_tikaram]

Every time Trevor Philips does his UK moral conscience act just remember self -styled Prince of Darkness Peter Mandelson was his best man . Philips must have been gutted when he read Mandelson called Epstein his ' best pal ' & not him . Nice people.
https://t.co/9M5WQhL7cL

[Frances 'Cassandra' Coppola @Frances_Coppola]

Apparently we are not supposed even to mention the fact that a Muslim was stabbed because that might "snatch away Jewish people's current trauma".

These people are mad.

[Philip Proudfoot @PhilipProudfoot]

This will not stand up legally.

Zack retweeted — did not issue a statement — a questioning of the seemingly excessive use of force.

The head of the Met, during purdah, wrote a two page attack as if Zack had said it.

It is clear involvement in politics.

[James Foster @JamesEFoster]

@BethRigby @SkyNews @ZackPolanski He is getting involved in politics and it was deeply inappropriate.

Zack wasn’t “undermin[ing] their confidence to act”.

Like many who watched that video, he saw a mentally ill man being booted in the head after being tasered and on the ground.

Mark Rowley should apologise.

[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.

[Philip Proudfoot @PhilipProudfoot]

Mark Rowley doing media rounds, during purdah, attacking Zack Polanski for retweeting a very reasonable questioning of the excessive use of force.

This is only going to magnify the damages The Met will need to pay out for this; I suspect quite an astronomic amount of money.

[dr martin king @drmartinking]

@BethRigby @SkyNews @ZackPolanski He is tho! Where was the response to Farage about 2tier policing?

[Harry Eccles @Heccles94]

A message to @ZackPolanski

Keep going. We have your back.

The establishment is in full scale melt down and are throwing everything they have at you.

The more they throw, the more ridiculous they look.

The Greens are still growing. Every day.

Keep going💚

[Saul Staniforth @SaulStaniforth]

The clamour to ban people from marching against Israels genocide is becoming deafening

Oh & when Rowley states "Many of these marches, they set out with an intent to march near Synagogues etc", the London marches organised by @PSCupdates have never done that, & he knows that.

[dr martin king @drmartinking]

@DPJHodges Last week drinking at work and the smell of alcohol was fine🤨

[Patriotic 🇬🇧 Nation @HoodedClaw1974]

In a world where the media report on and sensationalise literally everything, you would think the trial of 3 young Ukranian men, held in custody at Belmarsh for a year, accused of arson on former residences of the Prime Minister would be headline news.

Why the complete silence?

[Orikron 🇵🇹 骆培思 @orikron]

If drawing an Israeli soldier stepping on the skull of a dead Palestinian is anti-Semitic, what do you make of this photograph of an Israeli soldier doing precisely that?

[dr martin king @drmartinking]

@LewisDeighton17
https://t.co/nNr3VfjkoO

[James Foster @JamesEFoster]

BREAKING:

UNITE the Union have suspended Angela Rayner.

They have also said they will "re-examine its relationship" with the Labour Party.

🔥 #LetsGo

[Parody Nigel Farage @Parody_PM]

Kemi Badenoch makes a bold statement about her values by nominating Toby Young for the House of Lords. A man who promoted covid misinformation, likes to comment on women's breasts on social media and is a big fan of eugenics.

[Sunk Cost Pharisee @Liamjsm]

what a headline

[Thelma Walker @Thelma_DWalker]

If you need help this Christmas 👇

[Memorial Device @memorialdevice]

This is outstanding 🙏

https://t.co/0az83MHhee

[Prof Cheese Fisher @Fishing4Cheese]

Israel slaughtered 86 people today. It does this every day for hundreds of days. That's the #Terroristattack that people never talk about. Because those dead are brown and don't matter. Only dead white people matter. It's sick. Depraved. Stop killing people.