Monday, August 22, 2005
The football manager syndrome
There is a tendency in football for the Chairman of a club to publicly offer his full and unequivocal support for a beleagured manager just before he sacks him. I wonder therefore if that is what is going on here.
Most politicians are waiting for the outcome of the independent police watchdog's confidential probe into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes before expressing an opinion on the future of Sir Ian Blair or his political masters. This is despite the damning evidence that is leaking out from the inquiry. No such restraint seems to apply to the Prime Minister, his Deputy or the Home Secretary:
The government yesterday entered the dispute to give Sir Ian its full backing. Asked if the prime minister had full confidence in the Met chief, a Downing Street spokeswoman said: "Yes."
John Prescott, the deputy prime minister - in charge of the government while Tony Blair is on holiday - and the home secretary, Charles Clarke, also both insisted Sir Ian, the most senior police officer in the UK, retains their full confidence.
In many ways the Government finds itself between a rock and a hard place. If they equivocate in any way, then they will have effectively hung Sir Ian out to dry prematurely. If they offer their full confidence, as they have done, then they have become inexplicably linked to his fate. One wonders if, having chosen the latter course, whether the Prime Minister and his Cabinet will find it so easy to let Sir Ian go if the inquiry finds that the buck really does stop with the Met Chief and public opinion demands his head. If they do subsequently sack him, then what does that say for their political judgement now?
Most politicians are waiting for the outcome of the independent police watchdog's confidential probe into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes before expressing an opinion on the future of Sir Ian Blair or his political masters. This is despite the damning evidence that is leaking out from the inquiry. No such restraint seems to apply to the Prime Minister, his Deputy or the Home Secretary:
The government yesterday entered the dispute to give Sir Ian its full backing. Asked if the prime minister had full confidence in the Met chief, a Downing Street spokeswoman said: "Yes."
John Prescott, the deputy prime minister - in charge of the government while Tony Blair is on holiday - and the home secretary, Charles Clarke, also both insisted Sir Ian, the most senior police officer in the UK, retains their full confidence.
In many ways the Government finds itself between a rock and a hard place. If they equivocate in any way, then they will have effectively hung Sir Ian out to dry prematurely. If they offer their full confidence, as they have done, then they have become inexplicably linked to his fate. One wonders if, having chosen the latter course, whether the Prime Minister and his Cabinet will find it so easy to let Sir Ian go if the inquiry finds that the buck really does stop with the Met Chief and public opinion demands his head. If they do subsequently sack him, then what does that say for their political judgement now?
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Experience over Soham seems to indicate that the Home Secretary can direct the Police Authority to sack him.
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