Where do the terrists begin and the forces of Laura Norder end ?

It is quite evident that when Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke of the Metropolitan Police "The Sphincter of the Yard" entered the quaintly named "The Ideas Space" at the Policy Exchange on Tuesday night at 6.30pm this was part of a carefully hatched and well executed publicity coup.

A large Press element thronged the place and BBC were filming this curious event which had not been advertised nor appeared in the events lists of the Policy Exchange ... even more curiously a thorough site search for said Plod yields, Zero, nada, nothing.

He spoke for approximately one hour, as the first of annual lectures to commemorate Colin Cramphorn (pic), a former Chief Constable of West Yorkshire (Died Dec 1st 2006 aged 50 of prostate cancer) known by has men as "The Gazelle" - Clarke and Cramphorn worked together on the 7/7 bombings - a somber and wide-ranging assessment of the threat facing his country according to the New York Times today ,which must have been the equivalent of Valium - because the assembled throng of Press picked up only on the one item to report. (Full text only available here courtesy Lord Patel)

Petulantly the scourge of Terrists remarked on unidentified persons leaking “highly sensitive operational intelligence, often classified.”

He cited as an example police raids in Birmingham last February when reporters in London knew details of an alleged plot to behead a British Muslim soldier “almost before the detainees had arrived at the police stations to which they were being taken for questioning.”

Well, well, well, the Press have sources ... Mr Clarke ...... do Bears shit in the woods ?

The relationship of the Press / Police might be benignly describe4d as symbiotic or more ma;ignly incestuous. Editors love a good murder / rape / paedophile attacke and memebers of the force are not averse to the odd pint or two. Evidently knowledge of this relationship has come rather late in the life of "The Sphincter of the Yard".

From this oracular, remark, loaded with zero information and devoid of substance David Cameron hounded the Prime Minister - the papers nudge nudge wink wink that one of John Reid's myrmidoms or maybe even a top cop had spilt the beans.

Yet the public are public are reminded again of a case where it was alleged without a scrap of evidence, in which no charges were laid, that the taking of a Muslim UK member of the armed forces was to be kidnapped was planned. It is to be hoped that no ambitious amateur drama company re-surrect Brendan Behan's comic tragedy, "the Hostage" lest they be charged with fomenting and supporting terrism.

All this display of naivete is quite charming when one considers his counterpart (as they say in these circles) at MI5, Mr Evans in the 80's and 90's armed, guided, supplied arms to and arranged for destruction of evidence in supporting terrorists (both Catholic and Protestant) who killed, maimed, sold drugs and bombed, all with the support of the State.

Which is, let us face it, somewhat more serious than someone letting slip to their favourite newdesk some gossip.

But of course it all helps us take our eye off the activities of the Lady Dame Pauline Neville Jones Fan Club.

It may be of interest that at Colin Cramphorn's funeral mourners were led by Sir Ronnie Flanagan, Chief Inspector of Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary and former Chief Constable of the then RUC, under which Mr Cramphorn served as Deputy 1998 to 2001 and took over when Flangan became an Inspector of Constabulary in 2002. The Guradian obituary spoke of Cramphorn's grasp of the bigger picture which was completed by his interest in religion and faith communities. He studied theology and law as a mature student at King's College London, and"was a voracious reader, especially of work which engaged with ethics and the impact of religious belief on the secular world".

UPDATE Mid Day

Radio 4 "World at One" spent 20 mins (out of 30 mins) on this topic and revealed onlythat ex Home Office Employee Shami Chakrabarti, the gamin , doe eyed Director of Liberty had asked John Reid in a letter at the time of the raid about leaks, which he said were "nuthin to do with me guv", Liberty have and outstanding Freedom of Information request with the Home Office which they have sought 2 delays on responding on the same matter.

The BBC report that it is also alleged that a national newspaper sent 3 journalists to Birmingham (which they no doubt saw as a great trial) the evning of the raid after having been tipped off by a nameless source.

The Guradian today make one of those worthless claims that they have been told that an aide to John Reid, the home secretary, was responsible for one of those leaks, and has also learnt that there is strong suspicion among the highest-ranking police at Scotland Yard that one of their own officers also briefed the media.

(Full text of Peter Clarke's lecture is only available here, courtesy Lord Patel - WARNING only for those with high boredom threshold and a fondness for the banal - eg " He (CC) realised that if the public are to have confidence, it is vital that policing is properly understood by those who represent the interests of citizens at both local and national level, by local and central government, by the judicial system, and of course by the media. " or "But it is important to understand that this analysis of the changing nature of terrorism did not come to us in a flash of inspiration on 12th September 2001. It came about as a result of us doing exactly what the title of this lecture suggests we should do – Learn from Experience. ) Not having learnt presumably that you do not begin sentences with a conjunction presumably.

Lord knows how many hours of Radio / TV time and acres of forests were felled to print the story that the Press were alerted to a Police raid on alleged terrists and the boss is upset. More veiled references and unpointed innuendoes than a post match briefing by Mourinho.