How greed and hubris led to Blunkett’s downfall

At least this time we were spared the self-pitying squealing about only doing what he had for the ‘little lad’. But even though David Blunkett walked the plank he still refuses to accept that he’s done anything wrong. Maybe the Viagra has gone to his head. It was obvious as early as Tuesday morning that he couldn’t survive. In the end, Tony Blair sacked him for a second time, just as he had been forced to jettison twice-disgraced Peter Mandelson. Blunkett had become an embarrassment, so he had to go. All the usual New Labour guff about this being just an unfortunate lapse in judgment, time to move on, draw a line, blah blah, wouldn’t wash. So after a final group hug, it’s ‘personal tragedy’ time again, ten months after Blunkett last left the Cabinet ‘without a stain on his character’.

This wasn’t about breaches of ministerial codes of conduct. It was about greed and hubris. And we all know what follows hubris. Had it been purely a matter of Blunkett using his political position to fill his boots financially, he might well have survived. Blair is in no position to condemn any of his colleagues for abusing their office for profit, given that the Prime Minister and his wife behave like truffle hounds whenever there’s a whiff of a freebie or a fat cheque.

New Labour doesn’t think the usual rules apply to them and Blunkett is no exception. Codes of conduct are made to be broken.

Blunkett might have clung on had he not alienated so many of his colleagues. Even old mates like Peter Kilfoyle were queueing up to put the boot in by the end. To say Blunkett lost the dressing room is an understatement. And when you’ve already lost the board room, as Blunkett managed to achieve so spectacularly when he comprehensively trashed just about every single one of his Cabinet colleagues to Stephen Pollard, your chances of staying in the Premier League are less than zero.