There were two burning questions to be answered at Boris Johnson’s first meeting as chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority.

The first was whether or not Sir Ian Blair, the man Boris had forced out of his job as Metropolitan Police Commissioner, attend? That was immediately answered by the presence in the Commissioner’s seat of Sir Ian’s number two, Sir Paul Stephenson.

The second question was which Boris Johnson would turn up? Would it be Boris the Buffoon - you know, the one who waves the Olympic flag above his head and says things like “ping pong’s coming home”.

Or, would it be Boris the executioner - the ruthless politician who summoned Sir Ian to a “routine meeting” last week then told him to clear his desk. The view behind Boris’s chair, across the Thames to the Tower of London, that famous place of execution, suggested we might be getting the axeman.

Instead, however, the mayor who turned up was the Boris the Charmer - self-deprecating, smiling, apologetic and humble.

Eight minutes into the meeting, he insisted on “renewing” his tribute to the absent Sir Ian who had done such a marvellous job.

Unfortunately, however, the mayor had come to the “reluctant conclusion” that the wonderful Sir Ian had to go and the Metropolitan Police needed new leadership.

Boris even appeared to agree with a procedural motion - tabled under rule 5.8.1e - that criticised him for usurping the powers of the authority and daring to get rid of Sir Ian on his own.

The mayor said he was sorry, they were unusual circumstances, Sir Ian had made his own decision to resign, the constitutional position hadn’t really changed and it wouldn’t happen again.

If Sir Ian had had any supporters on the police authority they were not staging any protest about his departure. No-one said he had been the right man for the job, just that the mayor had gone about the business of getting rid of him the wrong way.

Boris promised: “The chances of anything like this happening again are extremely, vanishingly remote.”

And it was done. The expected row over the sacking of a Scotland Yard commissioner had been soothed, the dissenters were disarmed and everything moved smoothly on.

The new chairman promised he would work “hand in glove” with anyone and everyone from now on, especially in finding a successor.

Boris did, however, seem to indicate a preference when he twice referred to Sir Paul, the Deputy-soon-to-be-Acting Commissioner, as “the Commissioner”.

The remainder of the meeting was dominated by a diet of crime figures - all going down, it seems, except for sharply rising the teenage murder rate - and the concerns of black police officers about race discrimination within the force.

The seemingly interminable meeting was only enlivened by a question from one of the authority’s new members, a Mr Dick Tracey. Now there’s a name to conjure with if the mayor is looking for a copper’s copper to be the next commissioner.

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