THE DAY after the threat of criminal charges is removed from Ray Mallon, the Prime Minister Tony Blair arrives in Middlesbrough to shake his hand.

It looks like the final act of rapprochement following Mr Mallon's embarrassing defeat of Labour in the mayoral election. The clock is turned back to 1997, when Mr Blair rushed to shake the hand of "Robocop" who chimed perfectly with the "tough on crime" soundbite.

And the intervening five years are brushed under the carpet along with the estimated £7m of taxpayers' money.

It is positive that Mr Mallon and Middlesbrough MP Stuart Bell, who only a few short months ago was Mr Mallon's implacable opponent, work together. They have to, if Middlesbrough is going to move forward.

But can you really airbrush history? Can you really reconcile the fact that the man who the Cleveland Chief Constable thinks ran an "empire of evil" is now running the town? Can the £7m Operation Lancet really just fizzle out into nothingness without any questions about what has been happening within Cleveland Police being answered?

Can we say we have learned anything about the way the police investigate themselves? Can we say we have learned anything about the way power in a town like Middlesbrough is allowed to be concentrated in too few hands? Can we say that we have learned anything about zero tolerance - which is still talked about as a cure for our crime problems?

Sadly, yesterday's handshake suggests it is too painful for the establishment, from Tony Blair downwards, to ask these questions, and so the Cleveland public can go and whistle for their £7m and an efficient local police force.