Andy Coulson’s arrest by Strathclyde police differs dramatically from the other arrests in the great Murdoch scandal. Rather than been asked to come into the station by appointment, he was lifted at zero-dark-thirty without anyone hearing about it in advance. Obviously, 0630 isn’t exactly a dawn raid at 53 degrees North in late May, in much the same way as dancing until dawn is harder on New Year’s. But still, it looks like they wanted to grab him with no notice.
How often do out-of-town police forces run arrest operations in the Met force area? The Met sends people out of London quite often, but then this is because it has some special national-level responsibilities, notably in terrorism cases.
I really have the feeling that Strathclyde didn’t trust the Met not to leak – especially as Coulson famously lives not far from the scenes of the Daniel Morgan and Stephen Lawrence murders, on the same patch as the dodgy Catford detectives he recruited. Perhaps that’s the answer – assign Glasgow the ACPO National Lead for Axe Murder/High Politics Issues. Taggart would have been delighted.