Alistair Darling in Treasury Questions this morning appeared to have taken his boss’ instructions to be open and honest perhaps a little too seriously. When pressed about Gordon Brown’s premiership, he said: “I think it’s safe to say that the honeymoon has come to an end.”

While we are on the subject of his boss, what happened to “an end to Sofa Government?” Wasn’t it only last week, during the Brown honeymoon, that we were told that Gordon believed in Cabinet government and the merits of the Civil Service? So did the cabinet discuss the major policy change that is the Casinos U-turn? No.