No hole deep enough

Fabulous quote in the Mail on Sunday in its article on Gordon Brown's rage on Harriet Harman:

One former Minister said: 'When he calms down, he will know he cannot realistically kick her out of the Cabinet. That would play into her hands, with more freedom to boost her support among party members.

'But he may find another way to clip her wings and demote her. Harriet has no eye for detail so he could burden her with a job which is completely detail-driven and let her sink.'

It's not so much the touching use of the word "when" in relation to Gordon Brown calming down. It's more the cheerful cynicism of this quote.

The Prime Minister is being advised to appoint her to a major job, involving detailed work and therefore making an impact on daily life. He should do this, you understand, deliberately so that she should fail.

In other words, just to dish Harman, the Government is being urged to fail in an important area on purpose. They do well enough merely by accident.

Harriet Harlot

Brown must be sitting in his smallest room as a place of refuge with his head in his hands saying "What more Oh Lord? What more?"
I can, quite literally, not believe what I am reading here. A senior minister of the government of the United Kingdom is brushing aside the rule of law and opening the door to the rule of the wishes of the Prime Minister and/or that of the baying mob.
I am stunned. Is this what has come of more than two thousand years of British history? A bunch of spivs have walked in, brushed aside centuries-old rights and turned us into some sort of bizarre feral tyranny ... is that really it?
With an introduction like that, I have to include the words of the woman who will do anything to improve her leadership challenge:

"Sir Fred Goodwin should not count on being £650,000 a year better off because it is not going to happen," she told BBC One's Andrew Marr show. Ministers have said they would be prepared to take legal action and other unspecified measures to recover some of the money, saying the pay-out is inconsistent with the disastrous state that Sir Fred left the bank in. Ms Harman declined to say how the government would achieve this but made it clear it would not tolerate the award as it stands. "The prime minister has said that it is not acceptable and therefore it will not be accepted," she added. "And it might be enforceable in a court of law, this contract, but it is not enforceable in the court of public opinion and that is where the government steps in." (My emboldening)

What next - fellatio with the copper at the door of Number 10? "I'm a sucker for punishment" said the Labour deputy leader.
Meanwhile ................
Meanwhile, conversion of the official residence of the Justice Minister has now been finalised.