Leaders: Coalition government are tripping up on a range of issues

The Home Secretary took the setback in good part, recovering her shoes – and her poise – before walking into the Prime Minister’s official residence. After a week in which she faced embarrassment over the government’s unsuccessful attempt to deport radical cleric Abu Qatada, Mrs May must wish that it is as easy to extract herself, and the government, from the mess they are in over this issue as it was to extract her footwear from the flagstones outside No 10.

Unfortunately for Mrs May it has not proved to be so simple with Abu Qatada being allowed to appeal to the European human rights judges against deportation after the Home Office apparently erroneously thought the deadline for such a move had expired.

It may be that this was a simple mistake by an official. And it may be that Mrs May will eventually get her way. The problem for David Cameron is this incident has overshadowed his attempt to explain what he is trying to achieve. The row over Abu Qatada, for example, overshadowed a challenging speech by the Prime Minister in Scotland earlier this week.

On a host of issues, the Tory-led coalition appears to be drifting, dictated to by events not controlling them as most governments hope to do. On everything from extraditions (including to the United States as well as Jordan), through reform of the Lords to changing the way the NHS is run in England, the government gives the impression of being on the back foot, not the front.

This has been particularly true of George Osborne’s budget. Hailed at the time as a series of radical measures, balancing tax cuts for the less well off with a clamp down on tax avoidance by the rich, it turned into what serious commentators, borrowing from the fictional world of The Thick of It, are now calling an “omni-shambles”. From the “pasty tax” to the “granny tax”, from the curbs on charitable giving to the changing of the tax on hair dresser chair rental – yes, really – the budget has unravelled before the eyes of an increasingly incredulous public.

Inside the Tory party, this state of affairs has been blamed both on the coalition with the Liberal Democrats, which has forced the Conservatives to make concessions which many of their backbenchers oppose, and on the government’s failure to communicate its message. In the case of the first, short of ending the coalition, there is little that can be done beyond finding a way for both parties to work better together. On the second, it seems the Tories are missing the hand of former News of the World editor turned spin-doctor Andy Coulson who was able to keep them in touch with ordinary voters. Both are problems for Mr Cameron. He needs to bring his government together to present a coherent set of policies, and better explain what it is he is trying to achieve to voters.

Driving home a political point

Ed Miliband has become the latest politician to add his voice to the demand by Amnesty International for the Grand Prix in Bahrain to be halted with the Labour leader yesterday citing “human rights abuses” as the protests against the gulf state’s government continue. On the face of it, Mr Miliband has a point. Bahraini security forces have been firing stun grenades at pro-democracy protesters in the capital Manama. There have been disturbances and unrest for several weeks. And last year’s race was cancelled after 35 people were killed during demonstrations.

Yet there is an element of easy political point-scoring here. Why, for example, was there not a demand for the recent Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai to be cancelled? China, after all, suppresses protest and imprisons dissidents. Is this super-power perhaps too important to take the high moral ground against?

If the case for halting the race lacks moral consistency, F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone is not helping his own case with remarks yesterday telling reporters they should be covering the civil war in Syria instead of the problems in Bahrain.

Possibly joking, though it is hard to tell with Mr Ecclestone, he added what was really needed was “an earthquake or something like that” so journalists would have something to write about that was, in his view, more interesting.

While the case for cancelling Bahrain does not hold water on any other grounds than fears for the safety of both racers and protestors, Mr Ecclestone should not play down human rights concerns in the Gulf state with such flippancy. Mr Ecclestone’s crass comments have damaged his own cause.