When faced with the choice of who to promote to the head of the biggest paramilitary organisation in the UK, who would you promote to the post?

Would you go for someone new, unsullied by politics and quietly competent? Well, so would I. But there was an absence of such candidates, so they went and appointed someone entirely different.

Sir Paul Stephenson is to become the new Metropolitan Police Commissioner, BBC News understands.

Sir Paul, who was deputy to the previous chief Sir Ian Blair, was chosen ahead of Sir Hugh Orde, the Chief Constable for Northern Ireland.

Oh dear. This would be the same Sir Paul that ordered/authorised the raid on Parliament offices without a warrant? Who was fully immersed in the running of the Met while the last lad was fucking up royally?

Charming. Meet the new boss, apprentice to the old boss…