It’s a common aphorism that every Home Secretary is the most authoritarian – until the next one.
Jack Straw was banned from his (and my) old student union back in 2000 for introducing policies as Home Secretary (such as limiting trial by jury) that “undermine basic principles of freedom, liberty and democracy”. “He has done things even Michael Howard would not have done,” said one of the student union officers at the time.
Until David Blunkett came along and made Jack Straw look like Roy Jenkins.
With Straw, Blunkett and Charles Clarke all fallen by the wayside, it’s now time for serial Cabinet member John Reid to bow out, after just 13 months in post. So who will end up replacing Dr Reid as the most authoritarian Home Secretary yet?
Home Office Watch is having a poll to find out (being too impatient to wait a couple of weeks). Click here to cast your vote.
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A year or so ago I suggested the scariest phrase in the English language was “Home Secretary Hazel Blears today announced….”
To be fair on Charles Clarke, he didn’t outdo David Blunkett. For that matter, I don’t think Reid is as bad as Blunkett, and that’s saying something.