Doctor in the House

RATHER like a company which is forced to make redundancies then faced with the decision whether or not to help fund the staff Christmas Party, the Home Office often finds itself damned if it does, and damned if it doesn't.

If it doesn't listen to a campaign from the media, it's accused of being arrogant. If it agrees to look into the call of the campaign, then it is accused of pandering to tabloid headlines.

When it is constructing plans to merge police forces, it is accused -rightly, I believe - of over-the-top meddling. When it scraps the plan, it is berated for doing a massive u-turn.

But within the obvious chaos which is the Home Office at the moment, there is some good news. And it comes in the form of Dr John Reid.

Ridiculed by some as 'the enforcer' after he hit the ground running in the wake of the Charles Clarke debacle, he appears to be putting the fear-of-god up the Home Office stooges who appear to be concerned at the close scrutinty they are coming under.

To me, here is a man who has realised he is in the 'damned either way' situation and has responded by being very open, very honest and very up front about the problems.

In such a situation, denying there is a problem only ever makes things worse - and Dr Reid knows that.

He's taking the flack, but has bought himself time from the critics by promising to sort it out.

Whether he will or not remains to be seen - but how honestly refreshing for someone within the Labour leadership admitting faults have existed in the past.

Arguably, he had no choice, but how many times in the past have ministers made covering up for each other their primary task to ensure the grip on power remains tight.

That is, of course, until they find themselve cast into the wilderness - Mr Blunkett anyone - and they suddenly become the font of all knowledge for the ills and problems of government.

The word 'crackdown' has lost all meaning since Labour came to power, in the same way that 'prestigious' did when Public Relations companies began starting sticking it before every awards ceremony going.

To me, it appears we've had a succession of Home Secretaries passing through who've been distracted by the latest attention-grabbing stunt dressed up as a crackdown on anti-social behaviour, drug-dealing, immigration or whatever.

The window dressing may have changed over the years, but people aren't fooled by that. Do they feel safer knowing that a troublemaker may get an ASBO? That children causing problems may get a dispersal order and move a few streets on? Do the figures on immigration suggest any previous crackdown on illegals has worked?

I think the answers, in order, are No, No, and No.

When tinkering of the department has taken place, it never appears to have been those in charge who have been tinkered with. Think about police reforms. Merging authorities would do what? Make people feel safer? Give more bobbies on the beat? No and no again - all the talk was about 'strategic strength' against terrorism. At what cost? Staart-up costs were estimated at £100million across the UK.

That £100m could easily have beefed up anti-terrorism defences across the UK.

Of course, to people in the Department of Health, Dr Reid's 'shake, rattle and roll' stance is nothing new. I remember meeting Dr Reid when he was still at the DoH. He was touring a £100m hospital that was being built by a Trust which was £5m in debt. Its chief executive had been off sick for a year. Those covering for him did not have the authority to make the changes to sort out the overspend - at the time, it was quite high.

I get the impression your Blairs, Clarkes and Blunketts would happily have talked about how wonderful the new hospital would be - indeed it is - but brushed other problems under the carpet.

Not Dr Reid. He said publcily it had to be sorted out. Within days, a rather shellshocked Trust had acted. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.

Either way, it showed to me that by sticking his nose in, refusing to be played for a mug, and being honest with the public, Dr Reid gets results.

I hope he doesn't stop at the Home Office. I also hope Gordon Brown is looking over his shoulder.