Why is Charlie Clarke still drawing his ministerial salary ?

In naive fairness to the man he did offer to resign. However, wait a minute, as a politician he understands timing - even if his grasp on the workings of the criminal justice system is a bit weak. I'm guessing he chose the moment to tell Tony 'they're not going to hound out ministers like they did with John Major' Blair - when he expected support ( and before the full impact of letting violent and dangerous foreign ex-cons wonder the streets to harm the public was understood ).

But the real culprit here is Mr Blair - who appears to have no shame. He should have sacked Clarke - its his duty as prime minister, even if its inconvenient as Labour Party leader. This failure shows him to be "weak weak weak" - if your remember where that quote came from.....

Update:

Simon Heffer says all this much better than I have in todays Telegraph .....

Just in from Sky News !-

Was Killer Freed Prisoner?

Updated: 17:17, Tuesday May 02, 2006

The Home Office is investigating whether a suspect in the killing of PC Sharon Beshenivsky was a foreign criminal released from prison without being considered for deportation.

As Guido says - if this is true he's toast