Jacqui Smith "not up to being Home Secretary"!

Jacqui Smith told Total Politics magazine that she feared she was not up to being Home Secretary and wished she had been better trained for the role. She said she had "never run a major organisation" before accepting the job in 2007. "I hope I did a good job but if I did it was more by luck than by any kind of development of those skills," she adds. A great scoop for Total Politics but I'm afraid she's given politics a totally wrong impression.

A Cabinet member is not there to "run a major organisation". They are there to effect the collectively agreed policy of the government. Civil servants run government departments. Jacqui Smith's role was to see that policy was implemented and that the Home Office was run properly - by other people. But heaven help us, it was NOT her job to micro-manage it!

If we are drifting into the realms of career politicians who see themselves as hands-on CEOs we will all be the poorer. As it is, this lot leak stuff to the press before the House of Commons hears of it. If Jacqui Smith was at fault it was because she had policies that were hopelessly inadequate, because she didn't ask the right questions or because she appeared not to be in control of her brief all the time.

Getting hook-handed terrorists off the streets is the job of a motivated politician. Whether one has run a whelk stall or the largest business in the world is neither here nor there.