Patel and Dick strike again

The confiscation of the Daniel Morgan murder report by the home secretary and the Met chief suggests, yet again, that they work to their own set of rules

The independent report on the murder of Daniel Morgan was nearly published on Monday, as we reported it would be, only seven years late. But at the last minute the home secretary waltzed in and said she needed to vet it, giving wholly unconvincing reasons.

Now it transpires Cressida "Terrible" DIck is involved. Perhaps we should have guessed.

I am instinctively distrustful of anyone who feels themselves equipped to dispense justice to others — and Cressida has by all accounts been an insufferable clever dick since her schooldays — though I accept it is a necessary evil. However, Priti Patel and Cressida Dick are unnecessary evils.

Terrible was the gold commander at the Metropolitan police who authorised the killing of a blameless electrician in July 2005. In most circumstances shooting an innocent man in the head seven times at point-blank range would be called "murder" and the person who ordered the hit would be in prison for the rest of their life. Terrible has instead risen to become the country's most senior police, receiving awards along the way.

If it had been me who had a man killed because of slipshod police work and elementary miscommunication, I'm not sure I could have carried on with my own life. I certainly should have concluded that my career choice had been a terrible mistake. Not the unassailably self-righteous Dick.

And now we find she is also involved in Met's other greatest disgrace: the obstruction of numerous investigations of the murder of Daniel Morgan, a private investigator and father to two young children who was found dead with an axe in his head in a south London pub car park in 1987. His family believe he was on the verge of blowing open a huge corruption ring in the Met in cahoots with organised crime.

The Morgans have singled out Dick for blame this week, for her past involvement in the case — she was up to her neck in it — and for being behind the latest delay to the report. Better make sure the Met isn't criticised for rank, chronic corruption, eh?

Daniel Morgan's brother, Alastair, said: “I hope that the commissioner is criticised in the report, because it has taken too long because of the activities of the police, and most of this time it was on her watch.” That's putting it mildly: I salute his tact and understatement.

There is no acceptable reason to delay the report's publication. According to Baroness O’Loan, chairwoman of the inquiry panel, Patel's intervention is “unnecessary and not consistent with the panel’s independence”.

More than that, these two awful people, Patel and Dick, could not make it clearer that they consider themselves far too brilliant to be troubled by piddling notions such as honesty, decency and humanity. When can we get shot of them?