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Met chief Blair hit by further allegations about his drinking
Last updated at 10:52am on 16.08.07One of Sir Ian Blair's most senior officers reported him to the police watchdog after the Met chief repeatedly appeared the worse for wear for drink in public.
A high-ranking Scotland Yard colleague told a senior Metropolitan Police Authority official he was concerned about the commissioner's drinking habits at official events.
Worse for wear? Sir Ian Blair has been accused of being drunk in public on several occasions. Here he is pictured with David Blunkett on the left and Sir John Stevens in the middle.
The Conservative deputy chairman of the London Assembly also claimed yesterday that he had seen Sir Ian drunk at several functions.
Brian Coleman said: "The Met commissioner has appeared somewhat the worse for wear at a number of official functions, most notably the London Mayors' Association annual dinner, where he needed assistance from his protection officers to manage the stairs."
Ken Livingstone, whose own drinking was also criticised in Mr Coleman's blog on the magazine New Statesman's website, accused him of 'putting out all sorts of smears and gossip' to undermine Sir Ian.
But Mr Coleman hit back: "This is not a smear. I saw Sir Ian drunk. When he finished his speech, he drank a whole glass of red wine virtually in one go."
The Daily Mail has learned of increasing concern among senior police officers about Sir Ian's drinking over the past 12 months.
Brian Coleman, Deputy Chairman of the London Assembly
He is said to have slurred his speech or been unsteady on his feet at a number of social events, including one at Buckingham Palace. Sources said he also appeared inebriated six months ago at the Jewish Community Security Trust's annual dinner in London, where he sat on the top table with then home secretary John Reid.
Earlier this year, one of his senior officers raised the issue of his drinking with Catherine Crawford, chief executive of the Metropolitan Police Authority, the watchdog which oversees the running of Scotland Yard.
A spokesman for the watchdog refused to comment last night.
Colleagues fear the pressure of running Britain's biggest force may have prompted Sir Ian to drink more than might be considered a sensible amount in public.
Although the Met's performance has improved markedly under his leadership, his two and a half years in charge have been mired in controversy and insiders believe the latest allegations about his drinking will further undermine his dwindling authority at the Met.
One said: "Unfortunately there continues to be a drip drip of negative stories about Sir Ian. Whitehall officials will be concerned about these latest revelations."
Garry Newlove was killed by a group of youths
Two weeks ago, an official report revealed Sir Ian was kept in the dark about the blunder which led to the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes in July 2005 until the morning after the incident.
Yet scores of others - including offduty policemen, Government officials and even secretaries - were all aware that police had killed the wrong man the same afternoon.
He was also criticised for secretly recording telephone conversations with the Attorney General and three police watchdog officials.
The Metropolitan Police Authority described Sir Ian's conduct as 'totally unacceptable'.
He also prompted a row by questioning why the killings of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman attracted so much media interest.
Perhaps the most serious blow came last year when rank-and-file officers said they had no confidence in his leadership.
Sir Ian took over as Met commissioner in February 2005.
He succeeded Sir John Stevens, a CID stalwart popular with junior officers, who nicknamed him Captain Beaujolais because of his fondness for fine wine.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "Sir Ian is on holiday and it is unlikely that he would comment on a blog of this kind, either now or in the future."
Reader views (21)
Perhaps a chief of police needs to be drunk: to blot out the realization that he is, as yet, unable to tackle British binge drinking among others properly!
- Peter Seekings-Foster, Mildenhall, Suffolk, England, 16/08/2007 20:10
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If everyone who fancied a tipple was drummed out of their job, the dole queue would be even longer than the 10m quoted in a different article!
- Nobby Clark, London,, 16/08/2007 16:10
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I do not like this guy. Poor leadership - not so much about the drinking but the police is disappearing too much in general.
- Georgie, London, 16/08/2007 12:00
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So he had a drink or two. Did he behave in an anti-social manner? No. Did he start a fight? No. Did he urinate in the street? No
SO in fact he is an example that you can drink and not break the law or behave in an anti-social manner.
I would rather the police run by a human, with a few warts, than a robot with no vices and a distorted view of the world.
- Stuart, Dunstable UK, 16/08/2007 10:40
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Bring back National Service. Seriously.
- Richard Pearce-Higginson, Caterham, 16/08/2007 08:11
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The police has become a joke in London - if you see them they are at a party or hiding behind a desk. Should this guy not be out?
- Jacqueline, Hampstead, London, 16/08/2007 07:00
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It is a tragic story. In our country, our drinking laws is 21 in every state and we have problems like you do but the police have more powers to arrest kids caught drinking underage and the kids lose their license for a long while I think up to a 6 year first offence. Any adult caught buying beer with their own license to give to the kids also lose their license for a year in my state and parents are usually in trouble when kids get caught.
- Scott, Ludlow, Mass USA, 15/08/2007 23:12
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On the continent where children are actually allowed to be children, and also allowed to break the myth of alocohol at a young age, they dont have quite this problem. So bringing in more draconian laws will only make these kids worse!
- Daveb, london, 15/08/2007 20:01
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I have frequently seen kids as young as eleven or twelve drunk and/or smoking. It is unlikely that they are buying their own supplies and they reek of drink/cigarette smoke. Those that supply them and their parents, who do not seem bothered, are just as guilty. Putting up prices and age limits punishes the innocent more than the guilty! If parents can't control their offspring or will not take responsibility perhaps the children should be elsewhere.
- Grumpy Old Man, London, 15/08/2007 17:51
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Here in Canada we have 3 legs to this stool: drinking age 21, minor-in-possession laws, supplying laws.
Minor in possession means that if caught under 21 with ANY amount of alcohol, you get hauled in, your parents hauled in, and you stay there until you confess to who supplied you. Then the supplier gets nailed.
Sell alcohol to a minor (under 21) once, 24 hour suspension of selling licence, 2nd time, a week suspension, 3rd time, permanent loss of licence - you are out of business. Bootleggers, and parents, can get stiff fines.
Result: we DON'T have an underage drinking problem or a "yob" problem.
- James, Vancouver Canada, 15/08/2007 17:34
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How many crimes are committed by people who have been drinking, who are OVER 21?
- Trunk, US, 15/08/2007 17:13
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Raise the age limit as children in this country are out of control and fuelling it with alchol does not help matters. Parents should also be held more responsible for their childrens actions - they should know where their children are. Sentences should also be a lot harsher and stricter. Its about time we stopped a few idiots from ruining this country and brought back hard work and abiding by the rules.
- Jk, London, 15/08/2007 14:39
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Where I live, I have witnessed kids drinking every single day this summer, they drink more than the adults. Also, their parents turn a blind eye, and of course blame society. Responsibility starts at home! They have to start treating teenagers as adults, and start charging them as adults (like they do in the US now), then maybe the parents will get the message, when their son gets put away for a crime instead of a slap on the wrist, or an asbo.
- John, London, 15/08/2007 09:42
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This has nothing to do with drinking. This has all to do with the lack of respect youths have these days. And this lack of respect has stemmed from all the 'do gooders' and 'politically correct' brigade who think that a simple slap on the wrist will be enough to deter these thugs from crime and lack of respect. Personally, nothing short of hanging them will deter them. I can't wait to sell up and leave this country. It's the pits these days.
- Tony Simpson, London, 15/08/2007 09:36
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Yes. Yes. Yes. Some pro-active common sense for once! Drastic times require drastic measures. Wake Up Britain!
- Philip, London, England, 15/08/2007 09:13
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In the text it says that "violent attacks in pubs and nightclubs increased by 55 per cent in the Devon and Cornwall police area after 24-hour drinking was introduced. " This suggests nothing to do with young people acting violently and also raising the age limit is a pointless waste of time as "youths" are the kind of people that won't take a blind bit of notice and will still act violently at 21. Yet again this is another example of our nanny state as everyone (under 21) is stopped from drinking when the police and the government should be targeting the few that are violent abusers of alcohol. This shows a lack of proper action from the police and the government and so it is not fair to punish everyone else so they look as if they are doing something about this issue. Also in other countries they have lower drinking ages and yet they don’t seem to have these problems as bad if at all. Also I cannot believe how anyone could have thought that 24hr drinking would solve the problem before. On a final note I would like to say that I think peoples' rights are slowly being taken away in this country and we should not just let this happen without doing something. We live in a democracy and it seems pointless that we should be voting to have our rights taken away.
- Mr S Flowers, Age 15, Northampton, England, 15/08/2007 01:43
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I agree with the Police Chief. This is not a problem in America, where the drinking age is 21, also US parents have a much more responsible approach to the upbringing of their children.
British parents just 'go with the flow' and allow their children to drink because their friends are also allowed. I recently had a friend, who has a son the same age as mine, say "Oh, you know, you just have to go with the flow," she thought I was being harsh in not offering my son alcohol.
- Lynda Jones, Bangor, Gwynedd, 15/08/2007 01:26
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Why not raise the age of parenting to at least 30, and punish the irresponsible idiots who bring kids into this world but take no responsibility for them. If the parents get punished when their kids do something that they wouldn't tolerate, perhaps they'd start discipline their offspring. But of course the do-good brigade wouldn't allow that, would they?
- Lezli, London/UK, 15/08/2007 01:21
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"His comments came as figures showed that violent attacks in pubs and nightclubs increased by 55 per cent in the Devon and Cornwall police area after 24-hour drinking was introduced. "
How is this associated to youths drinking? If it is kids which cause these attacks then its the pubs and nightclubs fault for not checking IDs. America has loads of problems with underage drinking. The more you restrict people from things the more they want to rebel.
I went for a holiday is Switzerland when I was 16. It's legal to go out and drink there so my mates and I did. We caused no violence and what’s more, the people who did drink there were all older adults, the kids didn’t care about that sort of thing. If anything the drinking age should be lowered and introduced as a social activity with families, schools etc.
- Mr M, Manchester, England, 15/08/2007 01:20
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A few more cops on the beat could do a lot to stop this sort of thing too.
- Stan, Expat, 15/08/2007 00:26
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I am a non-smoker and never drink so I would like to know what has caused the most proven damage of the two? Counting all the violence etc I would say DRINKING comes out top by far, so how come there’s a smoking ban and not a drinking ban? That’s politicians for you!
- Raymond Jennings, GB, 15/08/2007 00:10
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