What on earth is going on?

I've never really understood the attraction of Tony Blair - I've certainly never really managed to understand how he's managed to win three elections on the trot. Living in Brentwood which is as blue as the home section at Roots Hall probably doesn't help that, and of course before that I was living in Ireland.

Gordon Brown boasted recently how Britain had had 54 consecutive quarters of economic growth - which is almost certainly true. However, it's dishonest in its presentation - it's an attempt to imply he's responsible for the growth, wereas in fact the 54 quarters brings us back to 1993, when the Tories were in power.

But how on earth can you justify keeping in office a home secretary who thinks that 288 cases is only a "very few" cases. We can only conclude that Charles Clarke was misleading the public, not that that's exactly news for New Labour - they've been doing it for years. The precedent for keeping politicians who mislead the public in power was set by his boss and the infamous "45 minutes" claim. Presumably that's why his resignation wasn't accepted - Blair was concerned it might set a precedent.