Hollow Point

So Jezza is getting it in the neck again, not least from his own party, over his response to a question about "shoot to kill". It has to be said that he didn't play the ball very well and in hindsight he was naive not to ask for the question to be posed in a much clearer way so that he could give a more precise answer. 

It's now possible to portray him as believing that the security services should not try to kill Kalashnikov toting lunatics who are picking off passers by. If he meant that, then clearly he can't be Prime Minister and shouldn't be leader of the opposition. But I don't think that is what he meant at all. 

Actually he is right to say that we don't want a "shoot to kill" policy if in practice it is equivalent to the set of "procedures" that led to the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes. In other words poorly controlled armed police, desperate for a result, running around our large cities targeting ordinary people going about their business because they think they look a little suspicious. And then lying about what they have done.

Jezza should be thinking twice before he speaks and we should be careful about what we wish for. Next time whose son or daughter will it be that gets the hollow point?