Welcome to the G8

It is rumoured that world leaders attending the G8 will be concentrating on climate change, the global economy, aid to Africa and foreign affairs.  Well maybe.

Old man Silvio Berlusconi has chosen Mara Carfagna, the 33 year old former topless model and now Italy’s equalities minister, to co-host the submit.  The two of them have a bit of history (guess the rest).  Berlusconi said in 2007:

If I was not already married I would have married her immediately.

Due to a security considerations the sleeping arrangements of world leaders and their official or unofficial spouses have not been disclosed.

Nixon and Brown: Similar but not the same

Who is who?  You may very well ask.  Jonathan Freedland is not the first person to make the comparison between Brown and Nixon, although his article suggests that he is.  Here is Peter Morgan, author of Frost/Nixon and The Deal, who noticed similar personalities between the two men:

They are people who are hard to like, people who have complicated emotional inner landscapes, and somehow have had trouble accessing them.

People will hate me for saying this, but there are emotional similarities between Gordon Brown and Richard Nixon. Gordon Brown finds it hard to be liked and yet he's a brilliant man. But people don't warm to him, they don't like him. Tony Blair is liked, and David Frost is liked, because they have a charm – an ease.

As Freedland says:

Nixon committed great crimes – and Brown has done nothing of the sort.

Indeed not.

It is just both, in their different ways, have been rather too economical with the truth.  Oh, and Nixon did win two elections.

Brown’s premiership and his road to it resembles that of Anthony Eden, but that is another story.

A badly timed resignation

The usual weasel words is use describe Malloch Brown’s resignation, "personal and family reasons".

Hmmm.  If this was planned, as he says, why wasn't announced at the time of the Cabinet reshuffle?  Why announce it at 23.00 hrs?  Why on the same day as the Brown faced yet another rebellion in the Commons?  Why announce it now when he is not going until the recess?

All rather odd, like so much that goes on in the Brown bunker.

The PM’s Willie is lost for words

Classic.  Did you ever think you would see a speechless Mandy?

Into the long grass we go

Not taking decisions.  It is what Brown does best.  To stop any Labour decent or meaningful debate this side of the election we are to have a "root and branch" review of defence policy with just platitudes being produced before we go to the polls.

Into a wonderful vacuum we all go pretending everything is fine with UK plc until after the election.

Brown should have seen this coming

The lack of basic management skills relative to all things Brown never ceases to amaze me.  Surely, today’s expected rebellion by Labour MPs over 10p tax could be been foreseen?  No doubt there will be a last minute compromise, as Frank Field indicated in his interview on the Daily Politics.

The point here is why have Brown and the whips let it get this far. Our Dear Leader’s authority just takes another nosedive due to this little difficulty receiving more than enough publicity already.

Perhaps Brown needs a new Chief Whip?  What he doesn't need is further evidence of his weakness to get major pieces of legislation onto the statue book.

So much for the experts!

Oh to be an economist!

1. The British Chambers of Commerce says the worst of the recession is over.

2. Official data showed that manufacturing output fell 0.5% in May. Analysts had forecast a rise of 0.2%.

3. Industrial production, a wider measure which includes energy supply, mining and oil and gas as well as manufacturing, fell 0.6% against forecasts of a rise of 0.2%.

4. Last week, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) sharply revised its GDP data for the UK, saying the economy shrank by 2.4% in the first quarter of 2009, compared with its earlier estimate of a contraction of 1.9%.

The experts are one thing, the facts are something completely different.

Is this the true size of the planned cuts?

How I love a Tuesday morning and reading Rachel Sylvester .  She never disappoints and The Times should make more use of her.  Today’s piece is all about public spending cuts and a meeting that Sir Gus O’Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, had with senior officials and Tory frontbenchers:

In 1994 Canada was running a deficit of 9.2 per cent of GDP, about the same as Britain’s today. It had tried “efficiency savings”, public sector wage freezes and departmental budget cuts with little success.

Then the Liberal Government launched a fundamental review of the role of the state. Public expenditure was cut by a fifth across the board, and the number of state employees reduced by 23 per cent. Although health had only a small reduction in funding, defence spending was cut by 15 per cent, the transport budget was halved and industrial, regional and agricultural subsidies slashed. Within three years the deficit had been reduced to zero and the Government re-elected. “There was blood on the floor everywhere, but at least everyone could see that others were hurting too,” said Marcel Massé, the minister responsible. Voters told him: “This is butchery, but at least you seem a good surgeon.

The Conservatives were impressed. Philip Hammond, the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and Francis Maude, the Shadow Cabinet minister responsible for policy implementation, requested a private breakfast briefing with the Canadians. But what was perhaps more interesting was that the civil servants, including Sir Gus, were in broad agreement that there were lessons for Britain from Canada. The consensus was that even a 10 per cent cut in spending — the figure used by Labour to attack the Conservatives — may not be enough.

Even Brown has now climbed down on his investment versus cuts lark:

The battleground for the next general election is now clear: it will be cuts versus cuts rather than investment versus cuts. At last week’s Cabinet, Gordon Brown agreed that the Government’s message had been too simplistic and that Labour could no longer continue to deny that there would be spending constraints whoever won the next election. It was an important climbdown for the Prime Minister and a victory for Alistair Darling and Lord Mandelson over Ed Balls and Shaun Woodward. According to one minister the new dividing line will be “nice Labour cuts versus nasty Tory cuts”. That is much more dangerous for the Tories.

In conclusion:

It could be tricky. Nice cuts or nasty cuts; old or new cuts, amputation or keyhole surgery — either way it’s not going to be fun. It is telling that the Canadian Liberal Party did not tell the voters before the election precisely what it had in mind.

Bear in mind that the Canadian system of government is different where much of the expenditure can be off-loaded to the provinces, which can’t happen here.  Also taxes could rise to offset the public expenditure cuts, but make no mistake our fiscal position is dire.  Whether cuts of this scale are required or political palatable remains to be seen.

The Brown bunker will be over these proposals and no doubt will have it up in neon lights what the Tories are planning.  Moreover, Cameron will not be best pleased that news of this has leaked.  Leaving the politics aside, for senior members of the civil service to identify themselves with such meeting can only mean there is some truth in the size of the cuts required.

We are in for a very bumpy ride folks.

Sir Alan Sugar to be ennobled but when?

It seems that Brown has got his way with the Lords Appointments Commission and Sir Alan Sugar will be ennobled later this month.  In Brown’s new age of openness and transparency, the ceremony will take place at the last possible moment before Parliament rises for the Summer recess.  However, The Times can’t decide when this will be.  The headline states 21st July but then deep inside the article:

The entrepreneur will be ennobled on July 20.

Perhaps the paper of record would like to put us all out of our misery and clear up the confusion.  Sir Alan will not take kindly having to turn up on the wrong date.

UPDATE: The Times has now corrected the story.  It is on 20th July.

Learning to love Mandy

Apparently the government's car scrappage scheme has been such a rip roaring success that funds will run out six months early in October.  Mandy has said:

We must allow the scheme to end - take its course but then it will be back to normal.  Anyone who wants to argue that will have to take on the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Which is precisely what Mandy is going to do and win.  Can you imagine populist Mandy allowing this to end in the run up to the the election?

The nation is slowly learning to love Mandy.

Meanwhile back in the old country

In his rush to save Parliament from itself, Brown is ripped apart by the House of Lords Constitution Committee over the Parliamentary Standards Bill:

The Parliamentary Standards Bill is a significant piece of legislation which raises complex constitutional matters. We think rushing the bill through Parliament is unacceptable.

Parliament and the public need to have the opportunity to look carefully at the implications of what is being proposed. If the aim of the bill is to restore public confidence in Parliament and show that it is listening to legitimate public concerns it seems odd to do that with a bill that has not undergone any sort of consultation process.

Delusional Brown does it again, believing he is the only one who who can sort out the shambles caused by the expenses scandal.

Question: Just who does Brown listen to before he makes these unworkable rushed announcements?  Answer: no one but himself.

Did Brown get his lines wrong?

Our Dear Leader has met with Nicolas Sarkozy.  Brown described Nicko’s leadership of the EU as:

truly a force of nature

Shouldn't that be for Carla to say?  Just asking.

Dave is having a bad Monday morning

The boy wonder appears to be off-form this morning.  We have had the splash in The Times, which thankfully he back tracked on during this interview.  Then we have the posturing about quangos, which Nick Robinson sums up well.  However, it was his comments on public sector pay that are a worry.

In his interview on Today, he declined to back calls for a freeze in public sector pay, but said that said the level of pay would be much tighter in the future and it should all be left to the independent pay review bodies.

All very well and it is obvious why he will not wish to get on the wrong side of millions of public sector workers this side of an election, but this simply will not do.  On the one hand he calls for Brown to be honest about public spending, and then when asked about the pay element he ducks the issue.

Cameron can’t have it both ways.  Brown is side stepping the public sector spending issue for the same reasons Cameron has now ducked the pay element.  He is going to have to clarify his position otherwise Mandy & Co will be all over this.

The boy Dave is going to have to be consistent in his approach to the public sector issue otherwise he will be left rather exposed.

Brown is off to blame everyone else

Fresh make-up will be applied as Brown leaves his problems behind this week.  He is off on a lecture tour of Europe to meet the leaders that wish to sustain him in power.  Today he meets Sarkozy and then later this week he attends the G8 submit.  However, the message he gives on his “Save the World Part II” trip will be somewhat different to the one he paints at home:

As he begins a week of meetings with world leaders, the Prime Minister will strike an unexpectedly gloomy note about the prospects of an upturn and will demand that fellow heads of government “sound a second-wake up call for the world economy”.

Soaring oil prices, rising 75 per cent this year, protectionist measures contributing to a 10 per cent drop in trade and the failure of banks to start lending again could all put the recovery at risk, according to Downing Street.

Darling yesterday admitted the that economy was worse than at the time of the budget and growth may not return until early next year.  So, Brown's game plan is rather transparent.

You can just hear him now:

It is not me gov. It is all Europe's fault.  If the UK economy doesn't recover its all down to others not listening to what I know to be right.

Blah blah blah.

This week will be a dress rehearsal for what is to come.

Mandy’s dream

Julian Glover, who penned the famous Guardian leader at the time of the European elections, spills the beans and tells of Mandy's recent dream.

Perhaps Mandy did listen to what Blair told him last week after all.

Could it happen?  It is just a bit too cynical by half but you never know, do you.

They love Brown in Europe

They all love him.  They can’t get enough of him.  It doesn't matter what us poor beleaguered voters think or want.  The Cabinet may be at war but no matter, Brown is safe and secure in his job.  Well, at least until the Lisbon treaty comes into force:

European leaders are so desperate for Gordon Brown to stay in power until after the Lisbon treaty comes into force that they are willing to make compromises to shore up his political position.

Diplomatic sources have told The Times that Mr Brown’s negotiating position with other European leaders is enhanced because they fear that a leadership challenge and early general election this year could sink the treaty, due to come into force by Christmas. The Conservatives are committed to a referendum on Lisbon if they are elected before it is ratified.

What a carry on.  No wonder Europe’s leaders can’t work out where to stand.

Careful Dave, we need substance not gimmicks

The Times is reporting the Tories have a proposal that Google or Microsoft could hold patient health records:

Patients will be given the option of moving their medical notes to private companies after the Conservatives said that they would replace Labour’s “centrally determined and unresponsive national IT system”

The Tories hope that users will be able to choose from a range of private sector websites, possibly including those operated by Bupa, the healthcare provider. This has raised issues of privacy and security, with MPs and health professionals warning it could hamper doctors’ ability to access medical records quickly in an emergency.

This all sounds like a PR stunt to move the health debate on from Andrew Lansley’s recent embarrassments.   Is cloud computing presently robust and mature enough to hold sensitive data securely that could be assessed in an emergency?  I have my doubts.

This may come over as fresh thinking, but Cameron & Co. should stick to substance.  Chasing headlines with forgettable gimmicks is New Labour's job.

Are Brown, Darling and Mandy heading for a split?

Superb opening to Alan Watkins weekly piece in the Indy:

Old-fashioned biographies of great men used to come out in three volumes. If the fashion were to be revived, which seems unlikely, the first book would be entitled Gordon Brown: The Years of Promise, and would cover the years up to 1997. The second book would be subtitled The Years of Fame, and would take us up to the great non-election of 2007. We are now coming to the end of the last book. It would be called The Last Phase.

Indeed we are coming to the end of The Last Phase, whether it be at the general election or sooner.  Clearly, a split is emerging in the bunker as I highlighted earlier, and it could become very dangerous for Our Dear Leader.  This from Matthew d'Ancona:

….Alistair Darling, who has been asserting himself impressively since fending off Ed Balls's pitch for his job. The still-Chancellor understands, as he told the Independent on Friday, that "we have to be clear, as we go into an election – and the Tories will have to be – which choices we are prepared to make". It is all, as Darling notes, about "the big differences in priorities and attitude".

Lord Mandelson is widely reported to sympathise with this position, and to be deeply concerned by the Prime Minister's insistence that the "dividing line" between the two main parties is still between Labour "investment" and Tory "cuts". If that is so, His Lordship is not making much headway in persuading the PM to embrace reality: namely, that the Government's own statistics show that, under Labour, public spending would be cut in real terms by no less than 7 per cent between 2011 and 2014.

We can dismiss Shaun Woodward’s views as he carries no weight, but the other players are key, Brown, Mandy, Balls and Darling.  Are we beginning to see a divide right at the heart of new Labour?  As d'Ancona says, Mandy appears not to be making much headway in getting Brown to modify his tactics.  So, what we have here is a potential split between Brown and Balls on the one hand and Mandy and Darling on the other.

The danger for Brown is not so much Mandy but Darling, who is unsackable.  However, what happens if Darling doesn't get his way and Brown refuses to budge?  Not only could we see the Chancellor being forced to resign, but Mandy could be left isolated.  That would complete The Last Phase, not only for Brown but for the Labour party.  Under these circumstances not even Alan Johnson would be able to turn matters around.

A compromise there may certainly be, but it could all get very messy with leaks galore over the coming weeks.  This Sunday’s revelations may be a foretaste of what is to come.

The real problem with Woodward

It seems that Brown’s judgement is lacking yet again.  The real problem with Shaun Woodward is the wrong advice he is giving Brown over public spending:

However, a Downing Street insider has revealed that Woodward’s influence has triggered a bitter row behind the scenes, with senior figures including Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, blaming him for a “calamitous strategic miscalculation”.

At least two senior aides last week warned Brown that Woodward was making their jobs “untenable”.

“Shaun is causing mayhem. Gordon trusted him to give sensible advice, but he has been a disaster. There are people who are ready to walk out if he doesn’t go,” the insider said.

Insiders say Woodward has undue influence over the prime minister, because “he is telling Gordon what he wants to hear”.

There are fears at the highest level that Woodward is jeopardising Labour’s election chances by encouraging the prime minister to stick to his mantra that Labour will continue to invest in public services, while the Tories will make cuts.

No free food hamper from Sainsbury’s for guessing who will win this little battle of ideas.  Good-bye Shaun.

Exclusive news: Mandy shops at Tesco

Ever wondered where Mandy does his grocery shopping during the spare moments when he is not propping up Brown or rubbishing George Osborne?  It can he revealed that Mandy is no lover of Sainsbury's and takes this out on Shaun Woodward (married into the Sainsbury family) at every opportunity.

Wouldn't life be dull without the Mail on Sunday?

If Alan Johnson….

….wears the wrong socks, wears the wrong tie or no tie at all, raises an eyebrow, rolls his eyes, starts to wear suede shoes, doesn't eat with a knife and fork, keeps his head down at PMQs and takes the right policy decision without consulting Downing Street, people will ask:

What did he mean by that?

Is Brown gearing up for a hung parliament?

There is a fascinating and very civil discussion between Geoffrey Robinson and Michael Heseltine on the Week in Westminster.  Robinson, who is supposedly close to Brown, admits that the the biggest mistake was the non-election of 2007 and says explicitly that best Labour can hope for is a hung parliament.

Hmmm.  If Labour is calculating that the swing the Tories need is too great to guarantee them a majority, which is not unrealistic, it will be interesting to see if Brown and Mandy do anything to woo the LibDems.  A referendum on PR on the same day as the election could well be a likely option.

Together they could bring Brown down

Taken yesterday when Blair, sporting a black eye, was presented with the Fenner Brockway medal for his contribution to British-Indian relations.

You wouldn't have thought the man on the right had sacked the one on the left twice.  What would a body language expert make of the direct eye contact?

During the applause they have a short conversation

TB: How can you stand him?

PM: I can’t but I have him by the balls.

TB: It should have been June.

PM: I know.  I am just not that sure about Alan Johnson.

TB: Agreed and Miliband has blown it.

PM. Fancy standing in Glasgow North East?  Your mate Woy [Roy Jenkins] made his comeback in Scotland.

TB: I mentioned it to Cherie and finished up with a black eye.

PM: What are we to do?

TB: You will have to give up your peerage?

PM: Never.

The applause dies down as ‘never’ echoes around the room.

Andy Murray would have won…..

….if Brown had kept his mouth shut.

PS. If Alan Johnson was now PM and without saying a word, Murray would have walked it .

A poll that missed the vital question

PoliticsHome has a poll that confirms that voters minds are made up.  Even if the economy improves it will make little difference to Labour's prospects:

What would be an interesting question to have answered, and it would certainly focus the minds of Labour MPs, is this.  If the economy improves and Labour change their leader, would you be more or less likely to vote Labour?

After the Norwich North by-election some bright young thing will start to ask the right question.

Gordon to lower the voting age

News reaches me that the under 2’s will be allowed to vote at the next election.  You never know they may even teach him the words.

Nappy changing lessons to follow.

It is Gordon Brown who is dishonest

This is a part transcript of an interview that Brown has given to Channel 4 as he tours the UK:

If someone is called dishonest, there is an assumption that there is some wilful desire to mislead and that there is some corruption involved.  I don't think that is the case.

What we are trying to do at the moment is to get the country through a very difficult period and the language of politics is sometimes not well suited to the need for the country to work together to get out of recession.

There is a crudity developed in the language that people use in politics that people are now accepting as almost everyday language. People have got to think twice before they make accusations.

I do not make personal attacks on people. I have tried to avoid doing that during my political career. But equally I understand that the language of politics can sometimes descend into people making quite crude accusations.

This follows Mandy saying this about Osborne:

There is a very unattractive pattern of behaviour that is starting to emerge with George Osborne, of innuendo in pursuit of a smear.

As Brown attempts to rise above the mud slinging, just remember this is the same man who employed McBride; the same man who called off the election saying it was nothing to do with the polls; the same man who denied that that he wanted to move Darling; the same man who personally undermined Blair in September 2006; the same man who was responsible for misleading voters over 10p tax; the same man who sanctioned the Tory ‘toff’ campaign; and the same man who is misleading the Commons over public expenditure cuts.  Anything else?

I wonder if Brown ever sits back and wonders why the electorate is so disillusioned with politicians and the political process.

If the atmosphere is unpleasant now and begins to turn nasty, just imagine what the election campaign is going to be like.

Osborne: Is Mandy behind this?

That didn't take long!  As I was saying earlier.

The chairman of the Tatton constituency Labour party, Laurie Burton, has written to John Lyon, the Parliamentary commissioner for standards, to complain about Osborne’s expenses, which will be investigated.  Burton said:

I am doing it not on a party-political basis; I am doing it as an ordinary member of the public who shares the outrage and disgust that people have throughout the country over the actions of MPs.

Pull the other one comrade?  How many calls have you taken from Mandy lately? 

Welcome to a truly dirty and filthy pre-election campaign.

Brown has taken to crime

There is no stopping the man.  Our Dear Leader is obviously going to make it as difficult as possible for the Tories when they eventually come to power by putting off all those hard decisions.  He is even going to make Cameron’s job of addressing the House from the Treasury bench problematical.  The despatch box has been vandalised by Moses recently.  Apparently he has previous:

In August 2008, the Daily Telegraph reported that French polishers repairing damage to the despatch boxes complained about being unable to remove black felt pen marks, only to discover that they had been made by Mr Brown.

Not flash.  Just a vandal.

Lord Hush Hush of Gorbals

It can be exclusively revealed that former disgraced Speaker, Michael Martin, will be known as Lord Hush Hush.

The Mail has the details.  There is only word for it.  Pathetic!

The worst possible announcement from Brown

Oh no.  I did warn you.  A nation should prepare itself for bad news on Friday.

Why Mandy is after Osborne

Mandy is after a big fish.  He spent yesterday morning trying to rubbish Osborne in the hope that is would cause a reaction and that it would deflect from his his climb-down over the part sell-off of Royal Mail. Neither worked but this will not worry The Master Spinner.  There will be more and boy George needs to look out. 

Osborne is a pivotal member of Cameron’s team and clearly Mandy is determined to cause trouble in the hope that it will destabilise the Tories.  Fraser Nelson has the details:

The extent of Mr Osborne’s importance to the Cameroon project was revealed this week in a report by Conservative Intelligence, a new group headed by Tim Montgomerie.  A former Tory staffer himself, he spoke to 50 of the party’s key players in order to produce a diagram of where power lies.  Mr Osborne’s name was mentioned to him far more often than that of Mr Cameron himself. On an operational basis, all roads do seem to lead to the shadow chancellor’s office.

Osborne’s other jobs include that of general election co-ordinator, which means he has accrued many powers previously held by the party chairman. He is also de facto policy chief.

Nothing new here except it highlights how indispensible Osborne is to Cameron.  Mandy, of course, has worked all this all out.  Be prepared for further dirt to fly in Osborne’s direction.  After all, Mandy has no policy work to keep him occupied after the humiliation of yesterday.

Brown and the silly smile: I have always told the truth

Smiling Brown gets rather annoyed with Nick Robinson.  The fun starts about 1 min 30 sec in:

I have always told the truth.  I have always told people as it is. I have explained we have a deficit reduction plan for the future. But you cannot do that without growth and employment in your economy.

The honest thing to do is to say we have to get back to growth and jobs. The dishonest thing is to say this will happen without taking any action at all.

Whatever Brown said to Nick Robinson he still isn't telling the truth.  The cuts have already started.  Student grants have been frozen grants and financial support for trainee teachers has been cut.  There are also large cuts to be made in major transport projects.

Not flash.  Just not the whole truth.

Brown gets away from it all

Our Dear Leader has taken a break from the Downing Street hot house and is on timely 3-day rail tour of his Kingdom.  The man needs a change of scene after his authority is further undermined:

1. The part sell-off of Royal Mail is officially abandoned.  Mandy’s excuse was the recession but we all know the real reasons.  It would only get through the Commons with Tory support;

2. Brown defeated on a clause to the hastily produced Parliamentary Standards Bill after Malcolm Jack, the Commons clerk, had warned the move would have a “chilling effect” on MPs’ freedom of speech; and

3. We had the 0% moment.  Enough said.

Tip 1 for Brown:  When you get back to bunker call Alan Johnson in for a chat.  He will teach how it is done in an efficient way, with little spin and no hype.  Listen to what he says as this guy may cause you a bit of bother in a few months;

Tip 2 for Brown:  Whatever you do during your break please don't mention Andy Murray or wish him good luck.  The nation is relying on your restraint.

Have a good trip.

Brown played a blinder at PMQs

He did.  He did.  It was marvellous stuff.  He was spot on about two things.

One, he said spending will rise by 0%.

Two, by not wishing Andy Murray luck the lad should have no trouble winning this afternoon.

Nobody could have got both things so right.  What a man.

Mandy gets his claws out

Yesterday George Osborne said the prime minister had intervened to stop him seeing a database which would help the Tories with their public spending proposals.

Mandy has issued a statement this morning:

There is a very unattractive pattern of behaviour that is starting to emerge with George Osborne, of innuendo in pursuit of a smear.

Yesterday George Osborne issued a very serious allegation that the Prime Minister had intervened to deny the opposition of information they were entitled to. This claim has been flatly denied by the Cabinet Secretary. I suggest George Osborne withdraws this deliberate untruth to avoid embarrassing his leader at Prime Minister’s Questions today.

Mandy has just been on Sky repeating that Osborne has said an untruth.  Boys will be boys inside the Westminster village.

Old Mandy wallows in this mud slinging that gets absolutely nowhere apart from deflecting attention from the fact that Brown is telling falsehoods over public spending.  Hopefully Osborne will not rise to bait.

PMQs should be a lively session where the real issues will once more be overlooked.

One to watch.

How we are not governed

According to Sue Cameron, the FT’s Whitehall watcher, the government and Mandy’s department are in a state of utter chaos:

Whitehall is in despair over its latest crop of ministers. I am told hardly any of them can be persuaded to concentrate on governing. "Even the new ones who have just been promoted are not doing any work," complained one civil service knight as we tucked into scaloppine al limone . "All they're interested in is their expenses - or in election manifestos or an autumn rebellion."

First secretary Lord Mandelson wanted to discuss what the various parts of his new empire would be doing now he has added DIUS - Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills - to his old department of BERR - Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. The trouble was his permanent secretary, Simon Fraser, was not too sure. Not only was the latest reshuffle a last-minute stitch-up - normally top officials can expect about a week's notice of any changes - but Mr Fraser, a career diplomat who worked as Lord Mandelson's chef de cabinet in Brussels, has never worked in a domestic department before.

We all know that the Cabinet reshuffle was a last minute stitch up but is appears that the civil service are none to happy with Brown and how he spends all his waking hours.

Not flash.  Just incompetence at the heart of government.

How Brown manages borrowed money

What a mess.  In Brown’s rush to ‘Build Britain's future’ the funding over the social hosing programme is descending into complete farce.  They proposals must have been put to together on a back of a fag packet in blind panic by Brown and Mandy.  The Times follows up from the report of yesterday:

Seven Whitehall departments were in a standoff with the Treasury over how a £1.57 billion social housing programme announced by Gordon Brown will be funded.

A string of ministries disputed figures in a revised breakdown given to The Times by the Treasury of amounts that departments would be contributing to the policy. One Whitehall official said: “I have never known an announcement like this where money is so off the wall.”

Staggering stuff on how Brown runs Whitehall.  Not to worry folks.  All of us will pay dearly for this gross incompetence on ‘how not to it’ for years to come.

Alan Johnson quietly goes about his work

No spin, no rants on Today, no hype.  The man who should be prime minister, but probably never will be, gets on with his job in an efficient way with another U-turn.  The difference being this one is totally justified and will win all party support.  The details matter little.  The point being that ID cards will not happen and Alan Johnson is the man that will be identified with their cancellation.

No doubt will we get a another flurry of speculation about Johnson’s motives with blog posts galore asking, ‘What did he mean by that?’  My guess is Johnson meant very little apart from showing that can he act decisively and is quietly getting on with the job.

Yes, I do wish June had turned out differently and Johnson was now in No10.  Looking back I bet Labour MPs now wish it as well.  As I have discussed since the European and local elections I can’t see it happening.  There will be no plot, no coup and Brown will not go with dignity.  The word is not part of his DNA.

John Rentoul still wants Johnson but it will take more than one sentence from his weekly article to make it happen:

I assume that the Labour Party will recover from its current trough of unpopularity, by which I mean that it replaces Brown with Alan Johnson.

Replacing Brown weeks before the election is too cynical and John knows this.  The only way it could happen is if the polls stay as they are at present, but time is running out for a smooth transition.

The coup should have happened in June with an election in October.  Regretfully, Labour and the rest of us are stuck with Brown.

All I can do is hope that I am wrong and that one of Rumsfeld's famous unknown unknowns will suddenly develop and that Alan Johnson will lead Labour at the next election.