'Ello 'ello 'ello

Telling porkies, are we?

... in an interview last year, Sir Ian [Blair, Chief Constable of the Metropolitan Police] recounted how, as a young constable more than 30 years ago, he had come face to face with a fearsome gang of IRA terrorists.

They shot at him before taking refuge in a flat in London's Balcombe Street, to which the police laid siege for almost a week before the hostages were released unharmed and the gang surrendered.

But like many stories over a long period, this one may have been somewhat embellished.

An academic researching the siege of December 1975 was intrigued by the interview as it did not seem to correspond with other recollections...

This, it turns out, is because Blair was "embellishing". In fact, it's not clear he was present at the incident at all.

We need elected chief constables.