Obviously it's fantastic news that Blunkett has gone, but I hope I am not alone in feeling a degree of sadness, too: sadness that he has been replaced by another Blairite bully-boy who will push on with ID cards, evil asylum policies, etc; sadness that Clarke has in turn been replaced by a woman described as "one of the breed of younger politicians that takes a consciously strong moral line on issues such as parenting and antisocial behaviour" (ie, the inevitable slide of Labout under Blair into religiosity and 'family values' continues). Most of all I feel sadness that Blunkett will in all likelihood never be called to account for the suffering he has caused, or the contempt that he has shown for the victims of his own and his colleagues' policies.

In an otherwise insightful piece in the Guardian today, Roy Hattesley talks about "the sympathy which all decent people feel", or rather should feel, for Blunkett. Leaving aside the appeal to the concept of 'decent people' (which is always reactionary), I would say that it is vitally important that should we feel any sympathetic sentiment creeping in with regards to Blunkett's emotional distress and loss of career, we harden out hearts to that emotion, and remember instead the victims of his policies and their much more considerable suffering. He is a mentally unbalanced man, it's true, and he does need help: but at least he has now been removed from a position in which he could continue to harm others.