Why Sir Ian Blair was right in his fight against racism

There are few who mourn the passing of Sir Ian Blair as commissioner of the Metropolitan Police; his time in post is now widely perceived as an era of unbridled politicking, with principle sacrificed to ambition at almost every turn.

Blair's New Scotland Yard became a snake pit writhing with spin and disinformation as senior officers vied with each other to dish the dirt on their colleagues - hardly what you want from those tasked with cleaning up the sullied streets of London.

You can take your pick of the cock-ups that led to Blair's downfall, but undoubtedly the most egregious was the killing by armed police of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell tube station in the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings.

Whether Blair was being disingenuous when he made his famous statement to the media, identifying de Menezes as a terrorist suspect, remains to be decided - and perhaps never will be - but the fact is that from then on the commissioner's days were numbered.

While one of Blair's chief accusers - the equally media-whoreish Brian Paddick - has ended up squatting in the Australian rainforest chomping on kangaroo testicles, the ex-commissioner has been vilified for his generous pension pay-off.

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule that black child killings are ignored

In philosophical mood, Blair has been heard musing on the gaffes that blighted his time at the top, but although he confesses to regretting two or three things that he said to the press, his infamous remarks concerning the Soham murders are not among them.

According to Blair, his contention that he couldn't see what 'all the fuss was about' - referring to the media circus that got going in the aftermath of Holly and Jessica's deaths - is something he's determined to stand by.

What Blair meant by this - and he was happy to elaborate - was that a disproportionate amount of attention was paid to these particular murders because the victims were young, white girl children, while the media are considerably less exercised by the death of young black males.

Blair says that in the wake of his remarks - viewed as incendiary at the time - people from ethnic minorities have continued to come up to him in the street,