What is the reason for undermining Sir Ian Blair? Is it his progressive views on race? Asks Darcus Howe

Isn't it strange that the tape recording of Sir Ian Blair's phone conversations with the Attorney General was found while the police chief was on holiday?

Some internal detractor from Scotland Yard must have ransacked his office without his permission (no legal stop-and-search here) and passed the booty to the press. What astonishes me is that journalists ask why he did it. The answer is obvious - he did not trust Lord Goldsmith. Why should he? He knew he was dealing with a man who advised the government on the legality of the Iraq war, and to this day Goldsmith has tried to muddle the nation by not giving a clear answer about the advice he gave.

Tape him? Of course, but the next time the Commissioner would be advised to remove the tape from his office and put it in a vault somewhere. And should he have taped his conversation with the Independent Police Complaints Commission? Sir Ian is surrounded by a nest of vipers at the Yard, some of whom appear to be on the staff of the tabloids. He has only to sneeze and the next day it is a front-page story in the Daily Mail.

What is the motive for this undermining of Sir Ian by his own people? He is progressive on the issue of race. More blacks in the Met is his first policy plank. Second, those blacks who are accepted must be treated fairly. And last, the black and Asian population should be dealt with according to law.

And yet his force is failing him. A television reconstruction of the de Menezes killing showed a gang of policemen storming down the escalator at Stockwell Tube station, leaping high and screaming like banshees, or Millwall supporters, before pumping several bullets into his body. This is not a trained organisation. The Israeli army, from which the Met borrowed the shoot-to-kill policy, is.

This behaviour doesn't surprise me. I have seen it before in their dealings with the black community, but at least without guns. Hence, so many deaths in police custody. This gung-ho bunch needs to be tamed and Blair is slipping and sliding because he refuses to come down on the side of sanity and order.

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