I like this, very much:

Tony Blair has said he will not order a sleaze investigation every time an allegation of wrongdoing is made against a minister.

And he said it was “important you take action on the basis of evidence and not on the basis of whatever story is in the media from time to time”.

The punchline to this, if we’re honest, writes itself, doesn’t it? But what the hell.

You have to wonder what his answer would be, if after a terrorist bombing, the head of MI5 turned up at Downing Street and, when asked why more hadn’t been done, said “I am not going to do that every time someone makes an allegation”. As it turns out, the security services do seem happy to act on mere allegations as the chimp’s tea party that was the Forest Gate raid showed.

What you’ve got here is a Prime Minister unwilling to investigate his own ministers when allegations are made against them. Why is that? Is it because he’s worried what he might find if he starts digging into some of these allegations? If that’s not the reason then what is it? Is it because he’s seen what happens when even half-arsed investigations are conducted into ministers’ conduct (Mandelson and Blunkett each disgraced twice, Jowell made a laughing stock…)?

There’s only 23 members of the cabinet and not all of them have had allegations made against them. It’s not going to take too much time or money to appoint enough (independent) senior civil servants to investigate claims made against ministers. Write a list of allegations and tick them off one at a time.

If Blair doesn’t think his ministers have done anything wrong, why not police them properly rather than have the Daily Mail do it? The media are chasing these stories because Blair won’t. Instead of a clear cut independent inquiry with an exoneration or an execution at the end of it, we get the steady drip of stories in the papers, which whether true or not, further depict this government as venal, rutting and, above all, unaccountable little shits.

If news reports and “net rumours” are to be believed, national embarrassment John Prescott’s days could finally, mercifully be numbered. And when he does eventually go, with his tail between his legs, the story won’t be how of Blair kept his house clean and his ministers accountable. It’ll be of how he let a serial sexual harasser and carpetbagger limp on in “office”, smearing more excrement not just on the name of New Labour but on politics in general as he went.

In this instance, Blair only has himself to blame if people condemn him and his ministers without a trial. Sauce for the goose and all that.