Patricians at the Gate

Britain's Head Boy has criticised as "wrong" the hissy-fit thrown by his newly-appointed class monitor, Andrew Mitchell. Self-evidently, the behaviour patterns of a self-important bully are singularly inappropriate in a Conservative chief whip, much as the manners of a purple-faced Bullingdon blimp are inappropriate in the First Lord of the Treasury. The Sun claims that Mitchell called police officers "fucking plebs" and told them to learn their place. Given the general quality of Daveybloke's appointments, this is not altogether implausible; still, it would be prudent to maintain a certain scepticism, since whatever words Mitchell did use were spoken face to working-class face rather than sent over a mobile phone. In any event, it was no doubt an inexcusably incompetent way to manage the servants, and it seems quite likely as a result that Mitchell will only keep his job for as long as there is nowhere to promote him.