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Hello and welcome to political thinking, a conversation with, rather than a newsy interrogation

of someone who shapes our political thinking about what shape theirs.

Now, you may wonder, what's the nation's top copper, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police,

got to do with politics?

Well, the truth is, I suspect my guest this week, Sir Mark Raleigh, wishes not very much at all,

but he is shaped by the political divisions in this country,

or the policing of the great capital city of this nation, certainly is,

and he comes under extraordinary pressure in this divided

age from all sides to do his job rather differently from how he'd like to do it.

So Mark, welcome to political thinking.

Thank you, Nick.

You came out of retirement to rescue the Met.

I read that you were walking the Himalayas in the year before. You're

earning a decent amount of money as a consultant. What on earth the way you think of?

Spending more time with family and friends as well. So regularly friends and family would say to me,

do you think you'd ever go back into policing? And I was like, I'm not sure I would. And my wife would always say, no, he's still going to. And I think it was in, my wife could see it was in my, it was in my heart.

It's what I've done pretty much my whole working life.

I love the policing mission.

I love police officers and what they're prepared to do.

And when the commissioner's job became available, I just felt I, I wanted to step back into

the ring and contribute again. And that sounds very

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