Editorial: Not only is Simon Byrne unfit for the PSNI top job but it seems the Northern Ireland Policing Board might be too

​The Ulster Unionist Party last night called for the chief constable of the PSNI to go.​This means that the DUP, TUV and UUP all now agree about the bias at the heart of policing – a determination to appease a republican movement that showed in the Bobby Storey funeral that it expects to be able to operate outside the norms of the law.

Then the police and other bodies including Belfast City Council did somersaults to give an IRA terrorist special treatment, including closing Roselawn cemetery for him.

In his welcome statement last night, the UUP leader Doug Beattie highlighted another point: “Ulster Unionists are also of the opinion that the Policing Board itself needs reviewed. I am calling on the Department of Justice to commission an independent review, with particular focus on the efficacy of the way the board and its main sub committees hold senior officers to account.”

The policing board certainly needs reviewed. In his ruling this week, Mr Justice Scoffield said: “Later that day the chief constable met with the chair and the chief executive of the Policing Board. They too watched the relevant footage. The [deputy chief con] later joined them. They too were deeply concerned and expressed the view that the PSNI needed to quickly examine the duty status of the officers...”

If the board chair and chief executive had still been in place they should have been suspended pending an investigation of the saga. They were assessing how police should respond to the Ormeau Road incident alongside the chief constable. If Mr Byrne could not see the inappropriateness of that then for that alone he is unfit for the job. Likewise key board members. Yet last night Mr Byrne pledged to try to overturn the ruling and the board itself put out a feeble statement. Observers could be forgiven for thinking chief constable and board have common cause in playing down the scandal.