At the Independent, Ben Chu quotes Tarique Ghaffur writing in the Daily Mail:
"The [cash for honours] inquiry gave him [Blair] leverage over the Home Office. He needed its ongoing support as he dealt with the aftermath of the de Menezes affair and, with cash for honours hanging over the Government for a year or more, nobody in Whitehall would want to antagonise him."
Chu concludes:
So the de Menezes disaster was what changed everything. Sir Ian didn't suddenly become apolitical over cash for honours; he was playing a political game for his own survival. Now Ghaffur is obviously not an objective source...but his analysis would certainly make sense of Sir Ian Blair's switchback relations with his political masters.
Food for thought, I'd say. And it sort of fits my pet theory that the main problem with Sir Ian was that he did a pretty good job rather badly (if you see what I mean.)
