BOOK REVIEW NO ORDINARY DAY:
UNRAVELLING A HOME-GROWN GLOBAL SPY RING
The authors, one who held WPC Yvonne Fletcher in his arms as she bled to death from automatic gunfire in the heart of London on 17 April 1984, provide shocking insights into growing political control of policing; effects of which are increasingly visible today
Photo from the Metropolitan Police
All memorial photos from The Police Memorial Trust
No Ordinary Day by Matt Johnson is an account of the murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher, the promise her colleague PC John Murray made, and the shocking cover up and deal making by the British Government in the months and years after the murder. Matt’s research shines a light on political attitudes towards policing and reveals a direct thread that links the terrorist murder of a WPC in 1984 to the politicised state of policing we are witnessing today . Yvonne was shot in the back by Libyan gunmen shooting at protesters outside the London Libyan People’s Bureau. The gunmen, inside the building, shooting out into a London Street, were Libyan
44 | POLICE | AUGUST | 2023
nationals. Twelve demonstrators were also hit by the bullets, but Yvonne was the only fatality. Two weeks after the shooting everyone inside the building was deported, including the gunmen. No arrests, no prosecution, no charges of murder or terrorism were bought to bear on anyone.
Matt has painstakingly complied as
detailed an account of the events as possible in writing the story of Yvonne’s murder, bringing to fruition the promise her friend, PC John Murray, made as he held her in his arms as she lay bleeding, to bring the shooters to justice. His forensic examination reveals UK
government duplicity, secret service deals between UK and foreign agents, and links efforts to defeat the National Union of Mineworkers with anti-Gaddafi groups who had brought their campaign to the streets of London. This common ground would lead to a UK government putting political interest over that of justice, running a campaign to bring policing under political control, and deal making so Yvonne’s killers would get away with murder, not to mention an entwining of political, business and secret service intrigue that is normally the preserve of fiction. What Matt has uncovered is as shocking as it is disturbing and leaves the reader in no doubt this is one of the most important books written about policing in the past 40 years.
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