So who should get fired for such a waste of police resources?
According to Google the average salary of a police man in England is £30,000 and they work about 40 hours per week. So it should cost £126,000 station one person for 24/7. Now I understand that real costs will be higher for various reasons, but 100x?
I'm not sure why 8 officers would be required to keep an eye on one door for one person, but that's a tangential question...
People who are far less well known are routinely arrested by the police for failure to turn up in court. There was no need for this expensive 24 hour guard.
This outcome was predictable from day 1, yet they still spent £12M. It wasn't to seek justice, it was to maintain appearances.
Edit: Can someone explain the downvote - the UK government spend 12M GBP to monitor a person that Sweden wanted. It is up to Sweden to decide if such prodigious waste of resources is warranted.
And by removing that police protection, perhaps they are trying to entice him to provide some £12m or more of information in light of the likelihood of that wetwork?
But then again, I like to see government incompetence used against itself rather than against innocent people, like what happens here in the US.
Some of the shenanigans that went on with diplomatic bags shows that some countries are prepared to do this.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1132544.stm
The Soviets using one to transport a tractor shows the bags can be big enough to get a person out. http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2234/is-there-such-...
A. interview him via Google Hangout / Skype / etc.
or
B. fly somebody to England to interview him at the Ecuadorian embassy?
B. Because the Ecuadorian government required guarantees the Swedish government cannot provide (because it'd be overriding the judiciary).
I had thought that one possible outcome of the interview with him would be a decision to not arrest him. If that's the case it seems they'd want to get the interview out of the way by any means, and then if the need to arrest him stands, deal with that then.
B. Because the Ecuadorian government required guarantees the Swedish government cannot provide (because it'd be overriding the judiciary).
Interesting, I don't remember that bit, but that sounds likely. Oh well... what can ya do? shrug
...the MPS will deploy a number of overt and covert tactics to arrest him.
