Bill Carmichael: Race relations under the cosh

Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact the rise of Dizaei to one of the top jobs in British policing and his eventual fall for attempting to frame an innocent man, has been an unmitigated

catastrophe for bright and ambitious ethnic minority people in the police and other top professions.

Dizaei, jailed this week for four years after being condemned by the Independent Police Complaints Commission as a "criminal in uniform", is a swaggering bully who disgraced the police service.

Although undoubtedly cunning and ruthless, he was entirely unsuitable in terms of aptitude and temperament to any position of authority requiring probity and a sense of duty.

Dizaei wasn't a trail blazer for ethnic minority officers in the police – he was only ever in it for himself, despite getting the support of the Metropolitan Black Police Association.

From the beginning of his career, he sailed close to the wind, drawing repeated accusations of corruption and concerns from the security services about his high-level contacts in the Iranian Embassy.

During one investigation into his conduct, he was recorded making vile, misogynistic threats to a former mistress who had dumped him after discovering he was already married. That alone should have been enough to earn him a criminal record and end his police career.

But Dizaei seemingly led a charmed life and saw himself as untouchable, even at one point being awarded 80,000 compensation from the taxpayer and a fast track to promotion.

How did he get away with it? The answer is simple and can summed up in one word – race. Whenever Dizaei was caught out, he played the race card. When, as a young recruit, he performed poorly at an aptitude test, he complained that the questions had been racist. It was a pattern that he was to repeat throughout his career.

And every time he made this ridiculous accusation senior police

officers and even government ministers capitulated.

There is a rich irony in that it took a penniless web designer – and an Iraqi immigrant to boot – to finally have the courage to stand up to him. Dizaei attempted to frame Waad al-Baghdadi for assault after the young man asked for money he was owed. The race card was finally trumped! Now Dizaei's career is in ruins, but his poisonous legacy lives on.

Because of the way he was continuously indulged by the authorities, other talented black and Asian people who have reached senior positions because of genuine talent and hard work, may have to labour under the suspicion that they only gained promotion because of – not in spite of – their race. That is terribly unfair.

Isn't it about time the divisive and unnecessary Black Police

Association was disbanded – or at least cut off from public funds?

Imagine for a moment the furore if a White Police Association was created.

Going bananas

With the economy in meltdown, the euro about to implode, national debt reaching stratospheric levels, a general election looming and British troops dying in Afghanistan, guess what the Number 10 press office talked about this week?

Bananas! Yes indeed, Westminster was apparently alive with rumours that Prime Minister Gordon Brown was eating nine bananas a day after being persuaded to give up KitKats by his wife, Sarah.

With the Press pack in hot pursuit, the Premier's press officers issued a statement with the stunning revelation that "a balanced diet is very important" and "fruit and veg taken on a daily basis can lead to good health". So now you know.

Unfortunately, they refused to be drawn on precisely how many bananas a day Mr Brown eats. Somehow we'll have to manage without that vital piece of information.