You would think, after 18 months in government that the Tories would have another song to sing rather than the inheritance they got from Labour.  It is as obvious as the nose on your face that Teresa May is done.  Even the demise of  Liam Fox was not as obvious as this.  The plain and simple truth is Teresa that you are the Colonel of this particular regiment and if one of your company commanders makes a hash of things its usually the Colonel who gets canned.  Why –  because you have the accountability – to Parliament and to the British People.  The old Forces saying, “Big Boys games Big Boys rules”, always applies to ministers – that’s why they are Ministers.  You get to take all the decisions but then have to account for them

May’s sanctimonious slamming of Beverly Hughes, in 2004, after  Hughes attempted to blame civil servants in Sheffield for allowing a backlog of immigrants to build up, resulting in some being admitted to the UK without the correct checks, has been   quickly unearthed and used.    May told Ms Hughes at that time that she was sick and tired of ministers in the Labour government who blamed other people for their mistakes.    That May had the expectation that she should be be treated any way different to Ms Hughes speaks volumes about the arrogance of this coalition.

The missed fact in all this wind and fury is  that if you are in charge as a minister the buck stops on your desk.  The very least Teresa May should have done was to accept that she had failed to supervise her department properly and as a result, whether Brodie Clark had overstepped the mark or not,  the Border Agency failed in its main task – the security of our borders, on her watch! If she had told Parliament that then she might, just might, hope to survive.  But she didn’t, and anything from now on that disproves even the smallest point her statement to the house on Monday and today is now magnified tenfold.

Additionally, she seems to have taken a leaf out of the Ed Balls handbook of personnel practice and castigated Brodie Clerk in public before the outcome of any proper disciplinary process. Any junior manager would have been able to tell her that one is a recipe for an Industrial Tribunal or has she forgotten the name of Sharon Shoesmith?  The question will now be being asked in the corridors of Tory Central office is ” Two mistakes in as many days is this going to be a running sore for us and is she no longer the safe pair of hands that she seemed a month ago”  When you add the Border Agency to the countrywide rioting of the summer and the laughable present concentration on “Gang Culture”, it would seem that in comparison to Liam Fox, Ms May is living a charmed life.

Her tactical ineptitude so far is in sharp contrast to the actions of  Brodie Clerk, who astutely resigned his position and is looking at constructive dismissal.  He can now fight his  corner without hindrance to the disciplinary process of his employers and exercise his right of free speech whenever he wants.  I am certain that there are a few skeletons in his cupboard that Ministers thought they could lock up and now realise he has already left the building with them.

The wider repercussions for the coalition are obvious.  The Euro zone let down is what should be concerning government together with an obvious downward revision of any UK growth figures in Osborne’s Annual Statement.  I always thought it would be the Tories who would break this coalition because of the lightweight nature of their press ganged Lib Dem allies.  I was wrong, there seems to be slightly more bottom about the  Party of Clegg.  That makes me really worried about the Party of Cameron.  Still Taxi’s are allowable as expenses for MP’s so after DC’s resounding backing for the erstwhile Home Secretary, I wonder how long it will be before we get the shout “Taxi for Ms May”