Has John Reid failed?

Whitehall watchers have been observing the bitter battle over the Home Secretary's ambitions to become the Government's Intelligence Supremo. Peter Riddell of The Times reports:

He [Dr Reid] has won the battle to be the chief ministerial co-ordinator of counter-terrorism, but that does not mean that he will be Mr Intelligence. Sir Richard Mottram in the Cabinet Office will remain chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee in charge of assessment as well as co-ordinator of the intelligence agencies. Moreover, the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and GCHQ, the signals and code breakers, will retain their current status, reporting through the Foreign Secretary.

Although Mr Riddell does not appear to have noticed, if SIS and GCHQ are to remain outside his immediate remit, then Dr Reid's bid for supremacy has dribbled away into the sand. He can call himself 'the chief ministerial co-ordinator of counter-terrorism' if he likes, but that won't alter the facts on the ground. Even worse, the proposed transfer of prisons and the probation service away from the Home Office to a new Ministry of Justice would diminish his responsibilities, leaving him with fewer staff and a reduced budget. So Dr Reid has been comprehensively stuffed; his bid for power will leave him worse off than before.

As some of us might say, a damn good thing, too! Nothing is more terrifying than the thought of Rambo Reid as Britain's security supremo.