Ken Livingstone tells the world he is getting the police to investigate he senior adviser Lee Jasper.
Except that he doesn’t then give the police any specific criminal allegations to investigate.
Result? The police say
To date there have been no criminal allegations reported to us in connection with this individual.
All a bit odd you might think. Why tell the world you are reporting to someone to the police if you don’t then give them something proper to investigate?
The answer may well be in this bit of spin on one Labour blog, that of Tim McLoughlin:
The police have decided that Ken Livingstone’s suspended race advisor Lee Jasper hasn’t committed a criminal offence.
Sounds good doesn’t it? Perhaps it’s a soundbite due to be repeated in media interviews, leaflets etc? But just one problem. It isn’t exactly true.
The police haven’t cleared him of committing a criminal offence, rather they’ve simply pointed out they haven’t been given an allegation to investigate. It’s a bit like saying the police have cleared me of wearing unsuitable socks on a Wednesday just because no-one has made that allegation.
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The thrust of this post is that you aren’t accusing Lee Jasper of being corrupt. Fair enough, we’ll put that on leaflets: “Lee Jasper is not accused of doing anything wrong. The police have checked and they find he didn’t do anything wrong”.