Should you take the 7/1 that Cameron will get his way?

Overnight I put a bet on with Ladbrokes at 7/1 that the American who as been boss of several US police forces, including New York, Bill Bratton, will get the job as Metropolitan Police commissioner.

This appointment is reported to becoming becoming a trial of strength between Number 10 and the Home Office with the latter making it a job requirement that the post goes to a British citizen. In an interview in the Guardian Bratton says he’ll change citizenship in order to comply.

The Spectator’s James Forsyth says that dealing with the fall-out from the riots has become central to the success of Cameron’s premiership.

“…. He cannot allow ministers, the bureaucracy or vested interests to stand in the way of the necessary policy responses.

To that end, Cameron needs to tell Theresa May that Bill Bratton — the world’s most successful policeman — must be allowed to apply for the top job at the Met. May’s decision to bar Bratton from even sending his CV in by unnecessarily stipulating that all applicants must be British is exactly the kind of obstructionism that Cameron can’t afford to tolerate in the current circumstances.

I am increasingly coming to the view that the success or failure of Cameron’s premiership depends on whether or not he is prepared to move from being a chairman of the board-style figure to being a chief executive. Whether or not he makes May back down on the Bratton question, is an early test of whether he understands that this is what he has to do..”

When the usually well-connected Forsyth is writing in such terms you have to back Dave – and that 7/1 looks very tasty.

@MikeSmithsonPB