How the Metropolitan Police treated Lord Bramall

The police have a very difficult job. They deserve our co-operation and our general support.

But nobody in a free society should be above scrutiny and criticism.

Allegations of child abuse should be investigated in a careful and sympathetic way: if we fail to deal with a real case of child abuse we fail to help vulnerable people when they need it, but sometimes there is "smoke without fire" and it is important not to destroy the lives of innocent people when allegations turn out to be the result of a mistake or worse, the work of a fantasist.

This is the difficult balance the police are trying to strike and they will not always get it right. When they don't an apology is called for.

There is a Radio 4 report into the case of the investigations into allegations against WWII hero Field Marshall Lord Bramall at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06z56m7

I'm told the police are going to apologise to the widow of Leon Brittan. There is a strong case that one is equally due to Lord Bramall.

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