Spycops Public Inquiry resumes live
evidence in July amidst growing crisis
The Undercover Policing Inquiry, is about to
resume hearing live evidence. The week starting 1st July
will see Opening Statements from Core Participants delivered
online. Live witness evidence will begin on 8th July (and
victims of police spying will be holding a Press Conference – see below).
This
second tranche of hearings will cover the 1980s and 1990s, which saw a massive
escalation in the use of abusive police tactics, as police
spying expanded to include civil society groups such as CND, London Greenpeace, Freedom Press and the
Socialist Workers Party, who will all be giving evidence this summer.
This
period also included some of the most controversial deployments, including (but
not limited to) officers such as Bob Lambert, Andy Coles, John
Dines, and ‘Matt Rayner’, who all deceived women into long-term intimate
relationships. Lambert fathered a child whilst undercover, and is accused
of planting an incendiary device in a department store to further his
undercover legend, before withdrawing from the field to take over management of
the entire Special Demonstration Squad (SDS). Coles went on to write
the training manual for the SDS and train officers
in the later undercover unit, the NPOIU.
However,
the Inquiry is facing a growing crisis. Hearings about the most controversial
deployments in Tranche 2 have already been postponed due to the inquiry’s
ongoing failure to provide full disclosure of the underlying police documents,
and tens of thousands of pages of evidence are being published at the absolute
last minute, making it impossible for the victims (or indeed for you,
the journalists) to effectively respond, or properly analyse
the material to expose the full extent of police
wrongdoing, which was the original purpose of this Inquiry.
After
spending nine years and over £82 million on lengthy
processes behind closed doors (plus Metropolitan Police spending of
£62 million to defend the indefensible1), Britain’s
most secretive ‘Public’ Inquiry appears to be running out
of time and political will.
Having
heard only the first decade’s worth of evidence in an investigation that ought
to span fifty years, the Chair published
an interim report2 in
June 2023. His findings were absolutely damning. The secret political policing operations were
unjustifiable and should have been shut down in the 1970s. Instead they were
covered up and sanctioned at the highest levels of government.
Following that report, the government is
bringing intense pressure to bear on the Inquiry
to bring its investigations to an end. The Inquiry is
now required to hear all remaining evidence and deliver a final report
by the end of 2026, leading to an apparent rush to judgment. Corners are
being cut, and
the victims of these police abuses are being held to impossible deadlines, or
simply squeezed out altogether.
Core
Participants are becoming increasingly restless. It is clear, as we move
towards the investigation of more recent police practices in the 21st Century,
that the Inquiry barely intends to scratch the surface. Tranche 3 disclosure
has already begun, but the inquiry has stated it intends to focus on
individuals and will not be providing disclosure or seeking
evidence about spying on some of the most influential political groups:
environmental direct action groups such as Climate Camp, Earth First!, Greenpeace
or the the Newbury Bypass and other Road Protest campaigns; Disarm DSEi and
anti-war campaigners; social centres, such as the Sumac Centre or squatters social
centres in London. All will be excluded from the investigations despite having
been specific targets of multiple undercover operations over many years.
At
the start of this Inquiry, Lord Justice Pitchford, the original Chair, said:
“My overall duty in the conduct of the Inquiry is to act fairly.” That duty of
fairness has now been sacrificed to a new Home Office imperative of closing the
book on uncomfortable revelations as fast as possible.
However,
we, the victims of these abusive policing operations will not allow the truth
to be sidelined, so if you are finding it all a bit hard to follow, do not
despair.
Campaigners
and victims of spycops abuses will be picketing the inquiry venue and on the
first day of in person hearings, and we will hold a Press briefing at 9am
on 8th July, outside the International Dispute Resolution Centre, 1 Paternoster Lane, St. Paul’s, London, EC4M 7BQ.
Comment
from Blacklist Support Group (core participant group in the public inquiry):
The
1980s and 90s saw the Prime Minister of the time, Margaret Thatcher, infamously
describe trade unions as 'the enemy within'. The full repressive apparatus of
the state, including spying by undercover police officers was deployed against
the labour movement during the miners strike, the News International dispute at
Wapping and mass movements such as the Poll Tax. Activists weren’t just kept
under surveillance, the police shared intelligence and colluded in blacklisting
workers from construction, docks, Post Office, education, NHS, civil service
and even the BBC. This is an outrage in a supposedly democratic society.
Blacklisted
trade union activist and core participant in the undercover policing public
inquiry, Steve Hedley commented:
"The
spycops public inquiry increasingly looks like a classic British establishment
cover up. But just like the Bloody Sunday campaign we will continue until
justice is done and those responsible will be brought to account".
Notes
to Editors:
To
receive regular press updates from the campaign please contact: media@policespiesoutoflives.org.uk
1Response by the MPS on 11th June 2024 to Freedom of
Information Act request number FOI-8602-24-0100-000
2 https://campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com/2023/06/29/spycops-should-have-been-disbanded-50-years-ago-public-inquiry/
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