Robert Buckland Weblog

I was delighted to hear about the resignation of the pusillanimous Sir Ian Blair as Metropolitan Police Commissioner this week.  Even the manner of his going was lamentable.  Instead of taking responsibility for his mistakes and errors of judgement, Sir Ian chose to use the lack of support from Boris Johnson as an excuse.  Once again, this most political of Commissioners allowed Labour Home Secretaries current and past to attack the Mayor of London.  An utter disgrace, quite frankly.  It is being suggested that the relationship between senior police officers and politicians has been changed by these events.  I disagree; Sir Ian and those who think like him have already done as much as they can to suborn the role of the police to the political interests of the Government of the day.  They should not be surprised when politicians of a different political party take the strongest objection to their continuance in office.

The return of Mr. Peter Mandelson to domestic politics provided another shock in an eventful week in politics.  Is the Prime Minister going to use him to placate the turbulent Blairites in his party?  Probably so, I think.  To bring a man whom he despises back into Government can only be a sign of weakness.  Mr. Mandelson has done well in the European Commission, hardly noticed by the UK media.  This illustrates my belief that his skills as a front line politician are sadly lacking.  Was his arrival wearing a red jumper under his suit some sort of attempt to be portrayed as an elder statesman, returning to help his embattled party?   We would do well to remember that although Messrs Brown and Mandelson dislike each other, they dislike the Tories even more.

The creation of a National Ecomonic Council is a complete non-event.  It is a pale echo of the NEDC, created by MacMillan in the early 60s.  The NEDC had union and employer members as well on it.  After twenty unremarkable years it met its end during the Thatcher years.  I suspect that this new body will be equally unlamented when this Government meets its end.