Sorry, it’s policy.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley had a bruising encounter with the BBC’s Emma Barnett on the Today Programme this morning over the arrest of comedian Graham Linehan. Rowley refused to say the arrest was a mistake, instead blaming “national policies” and Home Office rules. Rowley said he wouldn’t “pore over one case”.

How interesting. This “one case” is a matter of grotesque police overreaction and bullying, and the Comish sneers that he’s not going to bother paying attention to it. Bro it’s your job to pay attention to it. It’s also probably your job to say something less stupid in response to questions.

Barnett went on to ask whether the officers were “scared” not to arrest Linehan, to which Rowley said:

“I don’t think scared is the right word… officers are making judgments in thousands of cases. The national guidance is very clear about following through on what the victim alleges, taking that at face value.”

Really? Really? So every time a victim alleges that someone said something unkind on TwitX the police will send five armed cops to arrest that someone as publicly as possible?

I don’t believe that for one single second. To start with we know it doesn’t apply to women. The police don’t stir when a woman says a man raped her, so why would they stir when a woman says a man said something unkind to her? But we know it doesn’t apply to men either. It doesn’t apply at all; it’s complete fantasy. There aren’t enough cops on the planet to do that, let alone in the UK, let alone in London.

No. Come on. This was no boating accident.