Sir Bernard Hogan Howe delivered the highest level of criminal asset recovery outside London while Chief Constable of Merseyside
Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe QPM, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, will anticipate what 2020 holds in relation to security and conflict challenges in a public lecture hosted by the University of Liverpool, and supported by Merseyside Police.
The commissioner, who was Chief Constable of Merseyside for seven years and received a knighthood in the 2013 New Year’s Honours, is the first of five eminent thinkers invited to consider possible future states for 2020, with respect to the issues of global security and conflict and their impact on terrorism.
What does 2020 look like?
Each speaker will consider what the future holds with particular reference to their special interests – policing, human rights, defence and media.
The lecture series, ‘What Does 2020 Look Like?’, also features Maajid Nawaz, the co-founder and Executive Director of Quilliam, the world’s first counter-extremism think tank; Colonel Tim Collins, the military commander best known for his speech on the eve of the Iraq war; General The Lord Dannatt, British Army Chief of General Staff from 2006-2009; and Rageh Omaar, the Somali-born British writer and world affairs correspondent.
Sir Bernard Hogan Howe took over as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in September 2011. His career began with South Yorkshire Police in 1979 where he worked in uniform, CID, traffic and personnel. In 1997, he joined Merseyside Police as Assistant Chief Constable for Community Affairs and took responsibility for Area Operations in 1999. He became Assistant Commissioner at the Metropolitan Police in 2001.
He became Chief Constable of Merseyside in 2004 where he introduced the ‘Total Policing’ model focusing on crime, victims and professionalism. This resulted in a reduction in crime by a third, a 26 per cent reduction in anti-social behaviour, and the highest level of criminal asset recovery outside London (more than £20 million over three years)
Rhys Jones shooting
He was appointed to Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Constabulary in 2009, having received plaudits for his uncompromising stance against anti-social behaviour and gun crime following the fatal shooting of 11 year old Rhys Jones. Sir Bernard set up the specialist Matrix team to tackle gun crime – the first of its kind outside London.
Sir Bernard has an MA in Law from Oxford University, a diploma in Applied Criminology and was awarded an MBA in Business Administration from Sheffield University. He is a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute and has been awarded the Queen’s Police Medal.
Tickets for the lectures are free and available at the website: www.liverpool.ac.uk/events/2020 or by telephoning the ticket line on 0151 794 2650. All lectures will take place at 6pm at St George’s Hall.
Sir Bernard Hogan Howe
6pm, Thursday 24 January
Maajid Nawaz
6pm, Wednesday 27 February 2013
Colonel Tim Collins
6pm, Thursday 25 April 2013
General The Lord Dannatt GCB, CBE, MC, DL
6pm, Thursday, 17 October 2013
Rageh Omaar
Date to be confirmed
My reaction to the Tim Collins at the Security and Conflict Seminar series – Dr Alexis Makin – School of Psychological Sciences
There are many ways of looking at the world. Humans tell stories, with goodies and bad guys, heroes and villains. A character’s status can switch easily depending on which facts we attend to, on who gets a chance to rationalize their deeds and on who is invited to appear in prestigious places.
One way of understanding the world is as follows:
In 2003, the UK government participated an unprovoked, violent invasion of Iraq. The war was cynically planned by a fanatical US regime hoping to consolidate and expand its control over the strategic energy reserves of the Middle East. It was sold the UK public based on a deliberate, conscious lie. It was illegal under international law and killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. According to prominent figures such as the ex-head of MI6, the Iraq invasion significantly increased the risk of revenge terror attacks on UK cities. One commander of the British troops, who was responsible for seeing that this crime ran smoothly, was Colonel Tim Collins. He is most famous for his pre-war speech on 19th March 2003, where he provided various predictable platitudes about entering Iraq as liberators, but also encouraged British troops to fight fiercely, and to ‘wipe out’ the enemy, if ‘that’s what they have chosen’. Here is one of the more chilling passages from his celebrated speech:
‘The enemy should be in no doubt that we are his nemesis and that we are bringing about his rightful destruction. There are many regional commanders who have stains on their souls and they are stoking the fires of hell for Saddam. He and his forces will be destroyed by this coalition for what they have done. As they die they will know their deeds have brought them to this place. Show them no pity’.
It is interesting to consider that Tim Collins is now a headline speaker at the well-advertised University of Liverpool ‘Security and Conflict Seminar Series’, rather than standing trial for war crimes. Perhaps he was only doing his job, following orders from above? But then, that’s not an excuse he allowed for Saddam’s underlings, whom he judged to deserve ‘no pity’. He has subsequently become critical of the Iraq war, but that’s really too little, too late for me.
There is a danger in legitimizing the murderous military establishment by inviting them to our university as keynote speakers. I would argue that war is little more than organized crime made respectable by deceitful public relations campaigns, and the University of Liverpool might be playing a part in this deadly game. It is debatable, but I would encourage people to attend the seminar in a very skeptical frame of mind.