Peter Hoskin

Ok, I know - deckchairs, Titanic, and all that.  But a reshuffle rumour in this morning's papers is still worth mentioning.  Both the Sunday Telegraph and the Sunday Mirror are reporting that Brown could take the "nuclear option" of moving Alistair Darling to the Home Office, and installing someone else as Chancellor.  As the Telegraph puts it: "If Mr Darling was moved, sources said, the new Chancellor was likely to be either Ed Balls, the Children's Secretary; David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary; or Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary. The source said: "Alistair will have had two of the toughest years one could possibly imagine as Chancellor.

James has already highlighted the latest batch of expenses revelations - which include Barbara Follett and her private security patrols; Keith Vaz and a handful of refurbished properties; and Margaret Moran and a £22,500 dry rot treatment.  As you'd expect, it's just the thing to make your blood boil on a Saturday morning.  Beyond that, three things strike me: 1) Despite the outrageousness of the original claims, the "begging letters" sent by MPs to Commons authorities are perhaps more damning.  In many cases, they reveal an arrogance and pomp which contrasts grimly with the sactimonious TV appearances MPs are putting in at the moment.  The Telegraph are running a best-of selection here.

They just don't get it, do they?  Listening to Harriet Harman being interviewed on the Today Programme just now, and she's sticking to the kind of response pioneered by Sir Stuart Bell last night.  The emphasis, as this quote shows, was on evasion and blame-shifting: "My judgement is this: our system does not have the corruption that obtains in other countries.  Most MPs enter politics for public service, with obvious exception of MPs like Derek Conway." Hm.  I expect the court of public opinion will feel differently.

Ben Brogan charts the growing debate about the future of the Labour party in his Telegraph column today.  I'd suggest you read the whole thing, but it's this passage which stood out to me: "Plans are afoot for a gathering in the coming weeks that will bring together Cabinet ministers, Labour grandees, policy thinkers, and – crucially – Liberal Democrats to flesh out a common ground on how to decentralise the state. The idea is nothing short of presenting Mr Brown with a liberal manifesto for the next election. Funding has been secured and a suitable venue is being sought before the invitations go out. To outsiders this must all seem a preposterous game of deckchair arranging on the Titanic.

The politics of the Government's plan for Royal Mail are becoming more and more confused.  The latest signs from Downing Street are that they may make one or two concessions to the backbench rebels, but that they'll stick with the main thrust of the part-privatisation package.  Yet Nick Robinson points out another option that may present itself to Brown, as potential partners look warily on at the brouhaha in Westminster: "I have been told that both political and economic factors may delay the implementation of part-privatisation. TNT, the company most likely to be a partner for the Royal Mail, has recently announced a sharp drop in its own profits, a redundancy programme and wage cuts in the Netherlands.

Hm.  Whom to believe?  In one corner, we have a source telling the Sunday Mail that the chief whip and Downing Street enforcer, Nick Brown, has drawn up a hit-list of "lazy" (aka rebellious) Labour MPs, who could well be whacked (aka deselected) ahead of the next election.  Allegedly on that list are eight of the Gurkha rebels, including Diane Abbot, Kate Hoey and Bob Marshall-Andrews.  In the other corner, there's a "spokesman for Nick Brown," who denies that any such list exists. Given the way Gordon Brown's gang of bruisers and nutcases operates, the hit-list story doesn't sound implausible.  But, either way, both sides should take it as a warning.

Nick Clegg does seem to be keeping busy.  After his excellent work during the Gurkha vote,  which incorporated the first outing of the Clegg-Cameron coalition, today's Telegraph contains this revelation: "Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader, has privately authorised secret approaches to unhappy Blairites, trying to persuade them to join the Lib Dems instead of forming their own breakaway party. One Lib Dem said: 'There is nothing imminent or even concrete, but there have been conversations with people on what you might call the moderate side of the Labour Party. They look at the likely outcome of the election and worry about the direction the party could take.' Another Lib Dem source said at least six Labour MPs had indicated that they could be prepared to leave the party.

One of the opportunities that the resurgent Labour infighting presents the Tories is to portray the Government as too caught up in dirty politics to deal properly with the economic crisis.  It's a message that keys directly into the "headless chicken" charge, and it's boosted by stories like this, via today's Indpendent: "The Government's £200m mortgage rescue scheme has helped just one household stave off repossession in its first three months of operation, official figures have revealed. The slow progress in rolling out the measure, which was launched in January amid claims it would help 6,000 families, comes amid criticisms that the Government has failed to follow through on other plans to help people in financial trouble.

Over at Comment Central, the Times pair of Danny Finkelstein and Philip Collins - who, for my money, have written perhaps the two finest comment pieces for a UK newspaper so far this year (Finkelstein on Israel; Collins on Brown's political positioning) - have published their exchange on whether Brown will go before the next election.  I'd recommend all CoffeeHousers read it. Finkelstein summarises the main reasons why it now makes sense for Labour to topple their leader: "Now I feel differently [from last autumn]. First it is hard to think that any [other potential candidate] would be inferior or do worse politically. Second, the scramble would be undignified but Mr Brown is looking just as undignified.