Cressida Dick’s anti-terror cock-up should have disqualified her from the Met’s top job

Well, on the bright side, it seems that the Home Secretary and the Mayor of London are forgiving people, at least concerning offences that don’t concern them personally. Amber Rudd and Sadiq Khan have, as was universally predicted, decided that Cressida Dick should replace Bernard Hogan-Howe as head of the Met, the biggest policing appointment in the country, which includes its important counter-terrorism brief.

It would seem, then, that no mistake can be too grave – not to say fatal, no error of judgment too egregious, no apparent loss of control in a crisis too serious, to disqualify someone from taking control of London’s police force. Ms Dick was, of course, in charge of the anti-terror operation that led to the death of an innocent Brazilian plumber, Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005; police chased him into the Underground and shot him at close range. The man who was keeping watch on his home for the genuine suspect to emerge was unfortunately unable to identify him properly, because at the crucial moment he went behind a tree for a pee.