Ken Livingstone's comment on this afternoon's resignation of Sir Ian Blair as head of the Metropolitan Police strikes a curious note.  This most political of ex-Mayors appears to regret that Sir Ian's departure has been effectively forced upon him by a politician - Boris Johnson.  His subtext appears to be that policing should be above politics.

In truth, policing neither is, nor should be, above politics.  The manner in which the police conduct themselves, their priorities, their spending, their approach to enforcement are all matters that should form part of the political discourse.  They are matters on which people do and should have differing opinions.  It thus seems odd that policing has been screened off from direct policitcal discourse - or at least approached only through the medium of th only semi-political police authority - for so long. 

 It is thus much to be welcomed that Boris Johnson has taken a more proactive role in the capital's policing, and it is right that he should seek to place his own stamp on it using whatever (formal or informal) means he has at his disposal.  Boris Johnson will be judged at the polls on what happens to crime rates in London.  That's why policing is squarely in the realm of politics.  And that's why, whatever one thinks of Sir Ian Blair's tenure, its no bad thing that politics has intruded on his turf in this way this afternoon.