Sir David Thompson Knighthood

The request was refused by Cabinet Office.

Dear Cabinet Office,
It was announced in December 2020 that the current Chief Constable of the West Midlands, Dave Thompson,was due to be knighted in the Queen`s New Year`s Honours list for his services to policing and society.Quote " The 51-year-old father-of-two - who joined WMP in 2010 as Deputy Chief Constable before taking the top job six years later - said he was “genuinely humbled” to have been honoured" also "David Thompson becomes a Sir in recognition of his services to policing over a 30 year career spanning Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and West Midlands Police".
Obviously, particularly in these times of Covid restrictions, ordinary people have no knowledge as to how the system is now authenticated as traditionally the knighthood is validated by kneeling before a senior member of the Royal Family and having a ceremonial sword dabbed on both shoulders.During the Covid pandemic it is difficult to imaging such rituals being carried out in the traditional way so I would appreciate knowing more about how he was actually knighted.

FOI Q1.David Thompson has spent most of his career in Manchester,outside of the West Midlands, and he has listed Stockport as his home address, so please clarify who put forward his nomination for a knighthood and from what region of the Country did it originate, also when was the nomination made and who scrutinised and approved it?End of FOI Q1.
FOI Q2.When and where was David knighted and who performed the sword ceremony of knighting and gave him his medal?End of FOI Q2.

I know there is a certain ritual and protocol involved in validiating knighthoods and I am interested in knowing how the validation has been achieved in times of Covid restrictions and if the Royal Family can delegate out the knighthood process to her Lord Lieutenant or some other person.

Thanking you in anticipation,
Yours faithfully,
Dennis Fallon (BSc Hons)

Cabinet Office FOI Team,

Dear Dennis Fallon

The date that the response is due for your request, FOI2021/05474, has
been changed to 13th May. Please see the attached letter.

Kind Regards

FOI Team

Cabinet Office

Dear Cabinet Office,
There is no attached letter?
Yours faithfully,

Dennis Fallon BSc Hons

Cabinet Office FOI Team,

1 Attachment

Dear Dennis Fallon,

Please find attached our response to your recent Freedom of Information
request (reference FOI2021/05474).

Yours sincerely,

Freedom of Information Team

Cabinet Office

Dear Rachael Anderson, Head of FOI, Cabinet Office,
Thank you for your for your detailed response in which you confirm it is an established protocol that the people who operate the Honours system should be protected from public scrutiny although,ironically, the public would have anticipated, by definition, it would be an honourable process requiring no secrecy.However, your obfuscation is totally acceptable to me as it demonstrates the reality of the situation, and you may consider this request as closed, requiring no further attention, and as part of the closure process on this public website I will simply reiterate parts of the response, to avoid having to open the document, plus add my own considerations as to why a senior police officer has achieved knighthood status.
RESPONSE QUOTATIONS,"in reaching our decision to withhold this information, the Cabinet Office has taken into account that there is a public interest defence to an action for breach of confidence. I am satisfied that disclosure of the information requested would constitute an actionable breach of confidence and that the Cabinet Office could not rely on the defence that an overriding public interest justified breaching its duty of confidence. The courts have maintained that there is a very strong general public interest in protecting confidences and this could only be superseded by an
overriding public interest in disclosure. I do not consider that there is such an overriding public interest in disclosure of the information withheld, for example if the information revealed iniquity or fraud or disclosure was necessary to protect the public from harm. These are among the conventional public interests that the Courts have accepted as outweighing the public interest in maintaining a confidence. Though other public interests may also outweigh the public interest in maintaining confidences, I do not consider that the general public interest in having information made available is a compelling public interest capable of overriding the very strong public interest in maintaining the confidentiality of this information. For your information, the location listed publicly when an honours list is published is the correspondence address for the recipient, and not necessarily their home address. Nominations for honours are considered by one of ten independent honours committees (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/honours-comm...). Their recommendations are scrutinised by the Main Honours Committee before being submitted to the Prime Minister and HM The Queen for approval".
BACKGROUND CONSIDERATIONS. Crime in the West Midlands is now seriously out of control,crime in my area is UP 65% compared to last year, in past 12 months there have been 2 murders and at least one attempted murder (not heavily publicised) within ONE mile of my house, numerous local carjackings, I have been visciously attacked and robbed near a cashpoint and have been threatened with a big stick, thankfully not using one of his traditional weapons, by a fellow jumping over his garden fence onto private land.It is dangerous to leave the house or talk to anyone, there are no visible police patrols,the local police station, as well as many others, has been closed down, the police response time after my assault was 15 minutes and there was no real interest in finding the assailants.The region has been going to the dogs and Chief Constable Thompson has been in cahoots with the Labour Police Commissioner David Jamieson, an ex-Government Transport Minister, to concentrate on raising money from motoring offences (nothing to do with protecting the public) and have a politically correct staff profile independent of abilities. It`s all pretty bad so I was surprised that the Chief Constable, who has no particular interest or loyalty to this area and has maintained his family home in Stockport for retirement and correspondance purposes, has somehow been nominated by some deluded anonymous person as being deserving of the top title of Knight of the Realm. Obviously I am interested in whether it is asssociated with his freemason or common purpose contacts, but despite the machinations of the `Honours`system causing me great concern I can well understand why it must remain secret.
Thank you for attending to my request, this request is now closed.

Yours faithfully,

Dennis Fallon (BSc Hons)

Dear Cabinet Office,
Just to update this completed request, the updated crime figures for my postcode area for March 2021 now show a crime increase of 119%, the
65% increase related to February. I thought things could not get much worse but I was wrong. There were 156 incidents of violence or sexual assault, which calculates at 3 per day on average. I am concerned that the Law and Order business is being run by out of touch individuals. This request is closed, thank you.
Yours faithfully,

Dennis Fallon BSc Hons

dennis fallon left an annotation ()

Interesting comment about a crime seen on the Daily Mail website "The state wants more criminality. More criminality means more police state powers. That's why the effectiveness of our Police have been reduced over the past decades. It is problem, reaction, solution. First Engineer the problem. Wait for people to demand the state take action, then impose the police state and laws you wanted in the first place ".

Dear Cabinet Office,This email requires no further attention from yourselves, just to put on the record that this morning another person has been stabbed twice in the shoulder, within 1 mile of my house. This used to be a good and safe area but population change has had a seriously adverse result. That is why I have justified worries about the quality of police leadership and the dishing out of awards.
Yours faithfully,Dennis Fallon BSc Hons

dennis fallon left an annotation ()

Another stabbing within 1 mile, a 21 year old victim, May 20th 2021.
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/mi...

dennis fallon left an annotation ()

Finally the truth is out.Despite calling himself a Knight on his twitter account for many months it is only now the police website states "Our Chief Constable @DaveThompsonCC said he was “genuinely humbled” after receiving his Knighthood at Windsor Castle today. Mr Thompson received the honour from Prince Charles for his services to policing, with a 30-year career spanning @gmpolice and @WMPolice".Coincidently Knighted officially just in time for the few days of Commonwealth Games in Birmingham this Summer and his prompt retirement, although based on other chief constable retirements, will continue working behind the scenes using his contacts to boost his police pension.It`s fascinating how and why these awards are really given out.
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dennis fallon left an annotation ()

Latest update, a photograph taken at a local lodge reveals that Sir David is a Freemason which may explain the reluctance to disclose anything about his career or awards. Why can't they be proud of their Brotherhood links, what do they have to hide from the public?

dennis fallon left an annotation ()

The Cabinet Office response contained virtually no info but Sir David allowed posting of a publicity photograph showing kneeling before Prince Charles for the ceremony, no group photo with his wife and two children however, but I presume they travelled down from Stockport for the event and can now expect priority treatment for restaurant bookings.