Perhaps, under Communism, the only Western culture available was an illegally imported batch of Get Carter videos. Ask a Czech the time in English, and he’ll say “You’re a big man, but you’re out of shape,” and throw you off the top of a multi-storey car park.But there is another story that calls into question the racism of our immigration policy. So maybe the government should have written to those carrying out the attacks: “Dear Fascists, It has come to our attention that your policy of burning down Romany houses is creating something of a backlog in our asylum process. You might ease our burden if, instead of burning them down you just singe them a bit. Failing that, we would politely request that you persecute them one at a time rather than all at once. Thanking you in advance…”The origins of the policy may lay in a series of articles that appeared just prior to its adoption, condemning the refugees as cheats and gangsters. For example, one Daily Mail reporter told us he’d seen crowds at Prague airport, eager to come and “exploit our generosity” etc.

And when he questioned one of them, he was told, “Oy mate, shut it.” Because when you go to school in Prague, that’s the first bit of English you learn. Downing Street is rarely off the phone to the Home Office demanding new anti- crime initiatives No doubt Mr Blunkett will be supportive on the backbenches. Political crises extend only when a disillusioned minister resigns This is not the case now. He was always careful not to commit himself in advance of other ministerial crises. John Major never fully recovered his authority after he had backed vulnerable ministers who were still forced to resign.But Mr Blair has bounced back from traumatic resignations before. His closest cabinet ally, Peter Mandelson, has stood down twice; in both cases the resignations were highly charged theatre.

On the second occasion Mr Blair appeared in the Commons looking pale and drawn as Mr Mandelson made his last appearance as Northern Ireland Secretary. But Mr Blair has extraordinary resilience and politics will soon move on.When they happen, cabinet resignations seem overwhelmingly signifticant, but in most cases they are not. The new Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, will move in and implement the legislation in Mr Blunkett’s in-tray. Mr Clarke will seek also to be as tough on crime as Mr Blunkett Mr Blair will make sure that happens. It is also always embarrassing for a leader to protect a minister, only for the minister to resign within weeks This has never happened to Mr Blair before. He is a more rounded figure than the reactionary stereotype, a genuine progressive committed to eradicating poverty and building a more community-based politics. Having led Sheffield council, he also knew more about administering than most of the inexperienced cabinet that nervously came to power in 1997.

But he is also highly pragmatic, seeking to please his various leaders. He was a Kinnockite and a Smithite before becoming a Blairite. He sought too hard to please Ms Quinn as well, which is evidently why he landed in trouble over the visa.In the short term, his departure is a big setback for Tony Blair who had defended him so vehemently when this crisis erupted Mr Blunkett delivered for him as a minister. I have known him since he became local government spokesman in the late 1980s.

There are only two types of contemporaneous political biographies: they either cause mayhem, harming their subjects, or they are not noticed at all. Senior ministers, like the rest of us, are probably too vain to learn this lesson. It takes a lot to say “I would rather you didn’t write my biography”. Still, ministers would be well advised to exercise such restraint in future.Mr Blunkett’s departure leaves a gaping hole in the Government The Queen’s Speech was virtually Mr Blunkett’s one-man show. It was entirely his responsibility that he succumbed to the charms of a biographer and told him what he thought of his cabinet colleagues Ministers should have learnt by now. He was going to play the tough guy in New Labour’s pre-election repertoire.