Broken Yard cover art

Broken Yard

The Fall of the Metropolitan Police

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Broken Yard

By: Tom Harper
Narrated by: anonymous
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About this listen

Broken Yard is a riveting, eye-opening account of corruption, racism and mismanagement inside Britain's most famous police force. The book charts Scotland Yard's fall from a position of unparalleled power to the troubled and discredited organisation we see today, barely trusted by its Westminster masters and struggling to perform its most basic function: the protection of the public.

Barely a week goes by without the Metropolitan Police Service plunging into a new crisis. Steeped in ignominy and depleted in numbers, the Met is a shadow of its former self.

From the Stephen Lawrence case to the murder of Sarah Everard, Tom Harper examines the most notorious cases involving the Met over the past thirty years. The result is a devastating picture of a world-famous police force riven with corruption, misogyny and rank incompetence.

As a top investigative reporter at the Sunday Times and The Independent, Tom Harper covered Scotland Yard for fifteen years, beginning not long after the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent Brazilian killed by Met police officers after being mistaken for a terror suspect in 2005.

Since then, reporting on Scotland Yard has been akin to witnessing a slow-motion car crash.

©2022 Tom Harper (P)2022 W. F. Howes Ltd Europe Freedom & Security Great Britain Politics & Government

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All stars
Most relevant
A fascinating and insightful narrative. Erratic narration performance was distracting however and didn't do justice to this excellent analysis of the decay in the standards and performance of the Met, in particular.

A depressing insight into the state of UK policing

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Just when you thought you knew how corrupt the police are, your eyes get opened further still. How the hell Cressida Dick and a whole raft of Tory MP’s aren’t in jail, I’ve got no idea. Absolutely useless.ñ and corrupt.

Enlightening

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Really enjoyed the text of the book, Fascinating to hear more about huge stories from years ago to present day. The corruption of the Met is truly shocking. The narration was a bit annoying, really didn’t need all of the accents!

Shocking insight into the Met Police.

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I was raised in the world of "If you want to know the time, ask a Policeman." This world of trust in authority was brought on by the middle-class experience of WW2. Dixon of Dock Green and the phrase "Evening all". Many things have shaken that misplaced faith - Sir Robert Mark and his bleakly successful inquiry into corruption within the Met Police, the disgraceful conduct of Dame Cressida Dick while in post as Commissioner, toadying to the Tory Party by refusing to investigate obvious breaches of the law if they involved members or funders of the Party; e.g. breaches of COVID regulations. These things saddened me. This book puts, for me, the final nail in the coffin. It coherently sums up the conduct of the Met in a series of cases and I am bereft. This is, sadly, an important book.

Devastating

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