A Labour Party memo emerges suggesting that the party DID intend to take questions at its local elections launch today. They didn't - in case you haven't heard. "Who cares?" you may scream. And you would have a point. "Isn't this the sort of dull Westminster village process story that switches people off politics?" you may ask.
Maybe. And yet and yet…it does tell you something when a party can't agree about how to run an election launch and briefs against each other about whose fault it is. Now that is a story that is hard to ignore.
So, am I "a squeaker, a scribbler or a snapper" or, perhaps, it's a case of all three?
That was the Labour Party chairman's description for what John Prescott described rather more directly as the "damned media" this morning at Labour's local election launch.
We, in return, sulked and whinged that reporters were not allowed to ask questions at the event. Yes, we TV guys did get to ask the PM a question or two, but the newspaper hacks got shut out and none of us could ask
- Gordon about Tony,
- Tessa about David (her husband who thinks his Italian trial is such fun);
- Ian - the party chairman - about loans;
- John - the DPM - about how plans for a "stable and orderly transition" were going;
- or anyone about the cut in the £200 council tax benefit paid to pensioners.
Read that list and you can see why they fixed it the way they did.
My growing sense is that Tony Blair regards these past few weeks as an unpleasant storm which will eventually pass overhead. He looks remarkably untroubled by it. It's Gordon Brown who looks edgy (he does, mind you, have a cold).
Perhaps the PM is calculating that despite all the sound and fury there is simply no appetite in his party to turf him out against his will. Gordon Brown will never wield the knife and the rules make it nigh on impossible for his enemies on the left to run a "stalking horse" to trigger a wider contest.
It's still possible that the electorate in May will alter that calculation but, if not, Gordon Brown is going to have to get used to another long wait.
A couple of comments to deal with. Reader David Richards wrote:
Nick, why is it necessary, on your part, to trivialise this important debate by characterising it as a soap opera?
Not my phrase, David. The prime minister dismissed it as a "soap opera" - hence the inverted commas.
Reader Shug wrote:
Nick, Do you feel this latest spat between TB and GB is based on political principles or is just political posturing.
Both. Gordon Brown is dubious of the claims that a big increase in the state pension is the way to solve "the pensions crisis". He believes that the stock market's bounce back and the strength of the housing market will underpin private savings. He's also genuinely worried re the long term cost and would rather spend the billions involved on others things - such as his aim to increase spending in state schools to the level in private schools.
