Step forward another high-profile Yank who is being measured up to fill the ample shoes of Sir John Stevens, due to retire as commissioner of the Metropolitan police next year.
The possible contender is none other than Bill Bratton, the crimebuster whose zero-tolerance policing is credited with reducing New York's punks to snivelling wimps under mayor Rudy Giuliani. Muggings in London are twice the rate of New York's.
Bratton, now running the police in Los Angeles, says we need to use intelligence like radar in the battle of Britain, when "you were able to respond rapidly with your Spitfires". A wizard idea that Stevens's ambitious but politically correct deputy, Sir Ian Blair, may find hard to prang.
'Suspect' Ted Kennedy sets terror alarms ringing
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There was nothing overtly suspicious about the portly airline passenger with wavy white hair, red cheeks and a Boston accent. The alarm bells only began to ring when security officials read his name: Edward Kennedy.
Protest as he might, the famous senator from Massachusetts was unceremoniously turned away from the airport - not just once, but five times. His name was similar to an alias used by a suspected terrorist who had been barred from flying on American airlines.
Being fingered as a possible fanatic came as a terrible shock to Teddy, the late JFK's youngest brother, whose fondness for the Irish republican movement extends to welcoming Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams whenever he's in Washington.
The great man recalled his indignity before the Senate judiciary committee last week, recounting his conversation with the implacable agent. "He said, 'We can't give it to you. You can't buy a ticket to go on the airline to Boston.' I said, 'Well, why not?' He said, 'We can't tell you.' "
What a shame.
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Cripes - Miliband has been reading too much Jennings
David Miliband has had a busy week telling us that A-levels are "jolly" hard, no really they are! If only he wouldn't use words such as "jolly", someone might believe him.
But the education minister's schoolboyish turn of phrase circa 1955 is apparently genuine. The other day he was playing for the new Labour footie team, Demon Eyes (while wearing strange-looking skiing gloves). When an opposition player claimed a corner, Miliband raged: "Oh, don't be a clot!"