BLUNKETT CHALLENGED

by RAY FLEMING
IT is rare for a senior civil servant publicly to challenge the recollections of a former minister. But then it is rare for a former minister to publish his detailed memoirs as quickly as David Blunkett has done when many of his former Cabinet colleagues are still in government. In the part of his memoirs dealing with his time at the Home Office Mr Blunkett writes about the riot at Lincoln jail in October 2002 when prisoners took control of the building. He criticises Martin Neary who was Director General of the Prison Service for “dithering” over counter measures to quell the riot and implies that if he had not been Home Secretary the trouble might have spread to other prisons. Martin Narey had a distinguished career in Britain's Prison Service; he was promoted during Mr Blunkett's time at the Home Office (after the Lincoln riot) but eventually left public service to take up the post of director–general of the charity Barnado's. Yesterday Mr Neary contributed his version of events to The Times, making clear that he did so only because of Mr Blunkett's misleading account. He claimed that the Home Secretary was “hysterical” and suggested bringing in the Army and using machine guns; he says he ingored his minister's instructions and oversaw the ending of the riot within a matter of hours. No doubt Mr Blunkett is benefitting financially from his memoirs but whether they are enhancing his reputation is another matter.