SO David Blunkett has resigned for the second time in 11 months. It is a shame that it took him so long (yet again) to do the decent thing.

But the key questions should be for the Prime Minister (PM) and his lack of judgement in bringing back Mr Blunkett so quickly after his last transgression. This has been an extraordinarily bad week for the Labour Government as a whole and for the PM in particular.

This latest debacle appears to have further weakened Tony Blair's authority.

This very week, Mr Blair is at odds with everyone over his proposal to ban drinking on public transport while he thinks it a good idea to introduce 24-hour drinking in our pubs, and he scraped a wafer thin majority on the Terror Bill of only one vote.

Last week, the Education Secretary was squabbling with the Deputy Prime Minister over school reforms.

The Health Secretary and the Culture Secretary were at loggerheads with the Defence Secretary over the ban on smoking.

As Mr Blair struggles to reassert his authority over both his Cabinet, his party and Parliament, it looks as if we are seeing the beginning of the end of his premiership. Or is this just wishful thinking on my part?

Nigel Adams,

York Road, Malton.

Updated: 10:29 Friday, November 04, 2005