Yesterday's triple whammy will surely be one of the defining moments for this Labour government (see newslinks), one week away from the local elections.
Amid the furore over the accidental release of prisoners, compounded by John Prescott's misdeeds and the heckling of Hewitt, John Hutton denied a Labour meltdown.
Today, the Home Office reports a 21% rise in drugs offences and 6% rise in reported robberies this year.
Some voices have tried to pin its ineptitude down to structural problems, rather than New Labour mis-management. The Guardian blames what David Cameron called "systemic failure" on the Home Office over-stretching itself, despite having at least 15,000 civil servants at its disposal. It hasn't had to manage ID cards yet.
The Home Office claims to be undergoing transformation right at this moment, but the reforms are rather piecemeal compared to what the Financial Times advocates today:
"Once the present mess is under better control, the department's functions should be separated into a ministry of justice and a ministry of the interior. The Home Office is a Whitehall conglomerate that would do better broken up."
The Conservatives are already planning reform of the Police and prisons, David Davis may now be looking at extending this further across the ministry.
Deputy Editor
If the Home Office was a company, it would be ripe for a takeover by now (or liquidation).
Posted by: Andrew Woodman | April 27, 2006 at 11:23
What every Tory in the country must be asking is, how come one backbencher (Richard Bacon) doing his homework and being dogged, can do more damage to the present government: than William Hague, Ian Duncan Smith, Michael Howard, David Cameron, every single member of the various shadow cabinets since 1997, all the other backbenchers, all the conservative columnists, the entire tory press, put to together, makes u think!
Posted by: J w Tozer | April 27, 2006 at 11:35
Does Richard Bacon support EU withdrawal?
It doesn't matter how effective he is, and he clearly is very, very effective, there would be no place for him on the front bench if he advocates withdrawal.
Posted by: Chad | April 27, 2006 at 11:45
Labour's 'all talk and no action' policies are being to come back to haunt them.
David Davis needs to set out the case for REAL reform and then get on the TV and radio every day and every weekend and advocate it. It may be boring, but as Michael Howard said, some of politics is.
Posted by: Chris Palmer | April 27, 2006 at 12:00
I think its great that a backbencher has done the spadework here. For many years they have done little other than carp about Europe and brief against the leader.
Bacon should be an example of where backbenchers can make a real difference in bringing a Conservative Government to power.
Posted by: wasp | April 27, 2006 at 13:59
Another example of timidity by our Prime Minister, I'm afraid.
I was a press office at the Lord Chancellors Dept on the day of that infamous cabinet reshuffle in 2003(?) that was delayed endlessly as Ministers fought for their turf and their prestige. Eventually that evening we discovered (watching the BBC - FOR REAL!) that Lord Falconer had taken over from Derry and that we had changed into the DCA.
Much more to the point however, Blunkett had successfully fought off an attempt to break up the Home Office and create a Justice Ministry.
We all felt then that Lord Falconer had been brought in to oversee the ground work that would enable this to happen.
However, pratting around with Ministries does not make the Agencies involved function any better.
What we need are Ministers and Agency leaders who tell their staff everyday - "We are here to protect society from criminals through detection, prosecution, incarceration and rehabilitation. If you are doing something that does not contribute to this aim, stop doing it and do something that does."
Posted by: Richard Bailey | April 27, 2006 at 14:00
"Does Richard Bacon support EU withdrawal? "
I take your point but can we please try and stop this discussion revolving around the EU!
Posted by: Richard | April 27, 2006 at 14:59
The Lib Dems have launched on their website, a Clarke Must Go petition - let's hope Sir Ming can manage to sign his name correctly after getting everything else WRONG at yesterday's PMQs.
Posted by: michael | April 27, 2006 at 16:02