New Labour's Bankruptcy

If you doubted that Gordon Brown's government is already exhausted, consider the nonsense being peddled by Stephen Carter, the former PR supremo brought in to salvage something - anything! - for Gordon.

From Iain Martin's column today:

A couple of takes on Carter's actions are being briefed: either a justified clear-out of the team that brought you the election-that-never-was, or another example of outside experts misunderstanding tribal Labour. Probably, it is a bit both.

What is clear is that on Tuesday, in scenes redolent of The Office and David Brent, Carter divided up the Cabinet into "break-away" groups of six or seven, where they were given problems to solve - such as how the next election might be won. They then had to report back to Brown and Carter.

What a picture the faces of grey beards such as Jack Straw and Geoff Hoon must have been as Her Majesty's ministers were ordered to play management games. It is difficult to imagine anyone under Churchill, Attlee, Thatcher or Blair agreeing to take part in such activities.

Ghastly. Clearly the Tories have to keep their eye on the ball, but there's no reason for them not to play the man too.