I have many problems with his actions in this. Some of that is about doing nothing when a brother is in mortal danger; some of that is about his lack of what used to be taught at RMAS as officership - command, example, responsibility; he didn't take command, he didn't show a good example and he didn't take responsibility. But in a way that pales when I read his excuses.
He said: "I could see PC Palmer moving backwards and him going down...
"The thing that still shakes me about the attack is that it was 80-plus seconds in total. It didn't feel like that, it felt an awfully long time."
Almost like he was watching telly, in all this his estimate led him to
"That's when I thought: 'I have got to start putting everything we need in place. We have got no protective equipment, no radio, I have got two colleagues with me who are quite distressed,' so we moved out."
This sounds like prevarication to me, defecting from the actual incident and busying himself with something that make feel he's doing something. How does distressed compare to being attacked by a nutter wielding two big FO knives? There is also shifting the problem from what is he going to do to it being a collective responsibility of everyone with him. He was the senior officer and should have taken command. As someone else has suggested he should have gone out and tried to calm it down, warn others around then put himself between civis and the threat if that became necessary.
"If anyone had got out, the way this Masood was looking, anyone who got in his way would have been a target."
This is awful, everyone out there can get hurt but not me, i'm alright jack. At that point did he forget that he was a copper.
The armed forces and the police are unique in that we know that when we sign on we have given up certain rights that everyone else takes for granted. Certainly for the armed forces that includes, if necessary, being called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect our people and our nation - I am pretty sure tis fundamental to the role of the police. It's a part of the job and if one of the most senior officers in the police doesn't understand that at the most basic they are there to put themselves between the people and danger then the system has allowed the wrong people to get to the top.
Cressida Dick needs to grip this. I think her silence is rather poor and I suspect the damage done to police morale at a time when it is already pretty low is going to be difficult to repair.