Lawrence fallout

The endless fallout of the Stephen Lawrence murder (your reports) has, perversely, made the police both the coercive arm of political correctness and promoted its tendency to cover up mistakes.

The main driver of this schizophrenia was the Macpherson Report, whose toxic assertions made it one of the most perfidious documents ever issued by a western democracy. Its suggestion that any incident the victim – or someone else – perceives to be racist is in fact racist regardless of the intention of the perpetrator is beyond absurd.

This idea spread to the rest of criminal law, including sexual assault, with negative results we can clearly see in the Scottish Parliament’s decision to bin corroboration. Institutional incompetence, rather than institutional racism, lies at the heart of this mess – something legendary US police chief Bill Bratton could have sorted had he been allowed. 

Dr John Cameron

Howard Place,

St Andrews, Fife