BBC News: Blair ‘warns Clarke over respect’

Tony Blair has criticised the home secretary over a lack of action on the “respect agenda”, according to a leaked report in the Sunday papers.

Only in a reality created by Blair or Philip K. Dick (or maybe in 1970s Argentina) could a bigoted anti-intellectual headkicker like Charles Clarke be described as soft. As Nosemonkey puts it:

The Safety Elephant? Soft on crime? The guy’s quite happy to lock us all up without trial, confine us to our homes, electronically tag us and keep our DNA on file in a technologically substandard take on Minority Report - the only way he could get tougher is sending out Brazilian-style death squads.

As in most of these cases, Blair’s solution to the problem is to hand greater powers to unelected “advisers” (see also Lord Adonis at the Department of Education and John Birt):

In a humiliating snub to Mr Clarke, Mr Blair has ordered Louise Casey, the national director of the Government’s antisocial behaviour unit and a hardline Home Office figure, to report directly to him.

But wait, who’s this coming to save democracy? A shadowy figure has appeared on the horizon to put these democratically unaccountable Johnny Come Latelys in their place. Why it’s Charlie the Safety Elephany himself! As the Observer reported in a short, out of the way story last Sunday:

Home Secretary Charles Clarke has mounted a campaign to silence ‘celebrity’ civil servants such as the head of the anti-social behaviour unit Louise Casey. Clarke, whose father was a Whitehall mandarin, is known to believe that ministers, not civil servants, should be the mouthpiece for government policy.

An early shot across Louise Casey’s bows? Looks like Clarkie tried unsuccessfully to get his retaliation in first. He’ll be lucky if it cuts any ice with Tony though. He’s now as popular on both sides as a ginger-haired stepson.

Still, hooray for Charles, defender of democracy! Er, hang on…