Sir Paul Stephenson, a very down to earth sounding Lancastrian, was explaining to the metropolitan police authority this morning why counter terrorism officers were involved in the arrest of an MP
It is just an organisational thing – the old special branch was merged into the new more macho sounding counter terrorism division. There is no suggestion that the MP was involved with terrorism in any way
But surely there was no need to change the name of Special Branch? That began life in the 19th century as the Special Irish branch, set up to deal with the Fenian threat, so it was countering terrorism from its very inception
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