Skipper

I'm never one to call for the head of a minister- unless it's a Conservative one, I suppose-as so many of these campaigns are orchestrated more by political and media opportunism than by the merits of the case. However, in the case of Charles Clarke I think he must go. Clarke has always struck me as a powerful, formidably able figure, who was always succinct to the camera and no nonsense in the House. It is true that the period over which the 1000 odd foreign criminals- including sundry rapists, murderers, violent robbers, drug dealers and paedophiles- were released back into British society rather being than deported, covered the period by three Home Secretaries. But he was told about the problem ten months ago and still nearly three hundred were released on his watch.

To say this resulted from lack of communication between the Home Office and the Immigration and Nationality Inspectorate and to compare the situation to navigating slow moving oil tankers is just not good enough. It really does seem as if the Opposition jibe that New Labour have mastered spin but not to trick of making the government machine deliver desired outcomes, is substantially correct when this sort of thing happens. Clarke has admitted 'unacceptable failure' but says it's not a resigning matter for him or anyone else. And all this after his Monday evening attack on leftwing media critics of his heavy handed policies on security. When even his existing policies are being carried out so ineptly, how can he expect the nation to trust his new ones to succeed?

If Clarke does not resign over this, a total mockery is made of the idea of the always tenuous idea of ministerial accountability. Blair will not wish to lose a staunch Cabinet ally but the parlous position of his party as it enters the local elections- a Sun poll puts it as low as 30 per cent- this is exactly what Blair did not need. Nor did he need his Deputy PM, John 'Two Shags' Prescott being caught with his pants down, but that's another story.