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 Met and is shortly leaving his job as the UN’s security chief. But perhaps it’s time to think a little differently about the post. Not only about whom the Met Commissioner works for – the Mayor or the Home Secretary? – but what kind of person is needed: a cop or a manager?