I am sure that many of my readers will have had an "Is it him?" moment - perhaps in a restaurant, or queuing in a supermarket, or maybe simply strolling through sunny North Oxford. OK, so he's not wearing his fancy hat and epaulettes (they will have said) but surely that is none other than Sir Ian Blair.

All in this position can be assured that they were almost certainly correct in identifying the gentleman concerned. For the beleaguered Metropolitan Police Commissioner chooses to live, for a good part of the time, in Oxford. This fact, I think, is not widely known. Though the national press often refers to his being an Oxford graduate (Christ Church, English, 1974), his continuing residence here is not mentioned.

No doubt he has very good reasons for choosing Oxford over London. There will be those, however, who will wonder if he does not prefer the gentler pace of life here, away from the appalling levels of violent crime in the capital city for whose policing he is responsible.

A real cynic, I suppose, might ponder the threat all citizens of London face from the attentions of the Metropolitan Police. Lest there be any doubt about this, ponder what Commander Stuart Osborne, the Met's director of professional standards, told the legal representatives of Mohammed Abdul Kahar, an innocent man accidentally shot by police in an anti-terrorism raid and later stopped by armed police, one of whom allegedly shouted "shoot him, shoot him".

Osborne wrote: "The Metropolitan police service is unable to provide any guarantees to your clients or any other members of the public that they will not be involved in any police incident, armed or otherwise."

Yes, it's definitely safer in Oxford.