A WEEK in politics is a long time, according to the famous words of Harold Wilson - and doesn't Home Secretary Jack Straw know it today?

For Blackburn's MP, the man with the reputation as the Cabinet's Mr Cool - the "safe pair of hands" seen as a potential successor to Tony Blair as Prime Minister - sees out this week as the minister everyone is trying to knock down.

His week had a bad start when he tried to gag the Press to stop a leak of the Lawrence inquiry report, a move seen as pique-driven and pointless and which, deservedly, turned a usually-admiring Press against him.

But if Mr Straw defended himself against those blows with typical confidence, the ones being landed on him today as a fresh political row broke about his head were, surely, somewhat unfairly below the belt.

For as the Macpherson report into the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence - delivered to parliament with notable dignity on Wednesday by the Home Secretary - disclosed a catalogue of incompetent blunders in its investigation, the dreadful bungles which have followed are being blamed on innocent Jack.

Shockingly, the memorial to Stephen at the spot were he died is vandalised by racist morons, and the police security camera there had been replaced by a dummy. So the scum who did this evil deed may get away with it. Worse, it emerges that the appendix to the Macpherson report gives the names and addresses of witnesses and informants who helped the police in their inquiry, making them potential targets for revenge attacks.

But how can Mr Straw be held responsible for these blunders? The blame for the camera fiasco lies a long way down the line with some bungling police officer, not with Jack. The responsibility for the foolish disclosure of identities in the report's appendix lies not with him, as he and the Home Office were only the recipients of the report, not its author. Quite rightly, inquiry chief Sir William Macpherson accepts and carries the can.

Even so, Jack might have done better to coolly face up to the flak in person in the Commons today, instead agreeing with his Opposition counterpart, Sir Norman Fowler, to let their respective deputies handle the ensuing debate.

Yet, if it has been a bruising week for him, particularly if much of the criticism of him is misdirected, he has, perhaps, been toughened by the experience.

For if he did not know before, at the end of a long week he now knows that every senior politician is there to be shot at, even ones that have been built up in public esteem beforehand.

And that, peculiarly, as in particular his predecessor Michael Howard found out, the job of Home Secretary is one that more than most lands the foul-ups of others smack on the incumbent's desk.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.