Publicity-seeking politically correct policeman, Sir Ian Blair, had a ball playing politics and that was his downfall. He's quit but the Force won't go with him.
Since he was shoe-horned into the top job by his namesake, Blair has been instrumental in helping the Met become just another puppet of the New Labour propaganda machine.
The dislike for Blair in the Met was widespread and rampant. The only real question is why did it take him so long to be forced out.
Announcing his resignation after three years in the job, Blair said he would stand down "in the best interests of the people of London and the Metropolitan Police Service". Add to that in the best interests of democracy and he would be getting closer the mark.
Blair became just too political, cosying up to his government masters and making quite a few gaffs and enemies on the way. He just got too big for his policeman's boots. Everyone saw him as Blair by name and Blair by nature. Secretly taping conversations with the attorney-general was just a bit too Nixon.
That may be fine in a banana republic where the police and politicians are one of the same but it not the function of the police in a modern democracy.
Blair was fingered for his handling of events surrounding the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. And was at the centre of a very public spat over a racism row involving the Met's most senior Asian officer.
On top of that, he is at the centre of an inquiry into awarding contracts to one his pals.
The silly man is still playing politics. Blaming it all on London mayor, Boris Johnson, saying he'd lost his backing, is a pathetic and lame excuse for his own aloof arrogance. Johnson had the guts to stand up to him.
Now he's going to quit, the question is who is going to replace him. It's time for a copper's copper, someone who will try to put some clear blue water between the police and the politicians, not the Watergate tapes guy in the cartoon.
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