Who, and what, should follow Sir Ian Blair?
With the departure of a Commissioner who is seen as an intellectual New Labour-style cop, there will be a desire for a copper’s copper at the head of the Met: someone who has risen up through the ranks, commands respect on the beat and is seen as focused on crime, not convention. But the Commissioner’s job has become very political, requiring not only the support of one’s Bobbies but of a range of ‘stakeholders’. There are, of course, serious inside candidates who fit this bill – like Northern Ireland’s Hugh Orde or the Met’s own Paul Stephenson – and outsiders such as David Veness, who used to work for the
