Sofa government is not for Sir Ian Blair. The chocolate Dralon seating nook favoured by his predecessor, Lord Stevens, has been banished from the office of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner. In its place is an austere table and some hard chairs. It looks more businesslike, I say, and Blair appears to take this as a compliment. Round here, any plaudits must seem scarce. The 24th commissioner is in the third [...]

A woman sits in a police station. Beside her is the man who tried to rob her of her wallet. He says he is sorry; she is afraid and sceptical. But her assailant looks less menacing now. He has brought his baby and his girlfriend, who tells the victim that she is livid about what her partner did. An accident had stopped him working as a builder, she says. They [...]

So, Anne Owers, are you fit for purpose? As John Reid castigates the failures of his new domain, the question must be levelled at every section of the Home Office. Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons, who regards her department as fully competent, has no fear of scrutiny. Besides, she sees herself as separate from the floundering mother ship. "I have my own logo," Owers says, tapping a report. Not, [...]

Thomas Matussek, German ambassador to the Court of St James, is moving on, headed for unknown terrain. He had expected New Delhi and a ringside seat at the birth of the Indian superpower. But the new German chancellor, Angela Merkel, reshuffled her diplomatic pack, with the result that he is now bound for the United Nations in New York. Goodbye, Taj Mahal. Fraught deal-making beckons. Not that Matussek would be [...]

Truly, there is much work to be done on improving national literacy. "Visitor's please sign in," instructs the clipboard on the reception desk of the Department for Education and Skills. No doubt the Secretary of State's previous guest was allowed to bypass this oddly apostrophised formality.

The Prince of Wales had been invited in by Ruth Kelly's predecessor, Charles Clarke, who lambasted the prince for his "very old-fashioned" view of [...]

Jack Straw is heading north to his Blackburn constituency while eating a railway fry-up. This is a rare indulgence. On normal days breakfast is porridge, which he cooks himself. Porridge sounds a very Straw-like dish. Its qualities - safe, solid, but never fairly to be seen as stodgy - are also those that have helped keep the Foreign Secretary at the top of British politics for so long.

So, his [...]

The Home Secretary was on the deck of the May-flower in Plymouth, Massachusetts, when the Prime Minister rang to discuss his 12-point plan to counter terrorism. Britain was about to be told, in one of the most controversial announcements of his premiership, that the "rules of the game were changing". What did Charles Clarke say to Tony Blair?

"I said I'd been on a fantastic whale-watching trip the day before, [...]

Lord Falconer of Thoroton has never shirked controversy. Hence his idea, announced just before we meet, that judges need no longer be drawn from mainstream lawyers. All you require, according to media reports, are four GCSEs. While the judiciary may worry about school-leavers dithering over whether to become an aromatherapist or Master of the Rolls, the Lord Chancellor is unrepentant.

"Somebody with no GCSEs could apply now, because there are [...]

Handbags are where we start. Tessa Jowell admires mine, but hers is smarter. It is black with purple piping, and her suede shoes have small mauve bows to match. The handbag has rather slipped from political discourse since Margaret Thatcher brandished her armour-plated version and argued that women were "better at wielding the bag than the bayonet".

While Jowell would never use such sexist jargon, she is keen on presentation. [...]

Another perfect relationship crumbles and a prurient public picks through the debris. There is nothing new about such post-mortems, other than the venue. Once the divorce court was the national peep-show for private feuds; now it is the employment tribunal.

The latest example featured the Prince of Wales and Elaine Day, a former personal assistant who asked the prince whether talented recruits might aspire to top postings. Although Day claims [...]