> Just about everyone who has become Home Secretary in my adult life has moved in that direction The Home Sec position is a revolving seat used as a political

> Just about everyone who has become Home Secretary in my adult life has moved in that direction The Home Sec position is a revolving seat used as a political parking lot, so the only people who stayed more than a year and had time to move in any direction in this century were T. May and Blunkett. And the latter started in a position where he regarded civil liberties as "airy fair" and expressed the aim to make the previous law&order hard liner "seem liberal". It seems to me that the causation is the other way around - the only people really really craving that sort of position with immense secret powers but little public spotlight are those who are intrinsically authoritarian and power hungry.