From January to June 2007 HM Treasury staff took an average of 166 days off per month due to stress-related illnesses. From July to December 2007 HM Treasury staff took an average of 106 days off per month due to stress-related illnesses. The stress levels dropped off dramatically from the moment when Gordon went from the Treasury to No. 10.

Fiona Gordon, Political Secretary to the PM, is leaving this summer. The spin is because she wants to do other things. In fact, Guido is reliably informed, it is because she bears the brunt of most of Gordon’s mobile phone flinging tantrums. It was she who procured and failed to secure David Pitt-Watson for the General Secretaryship of the Labour Party. Some Labour activists suspect she is now the real acting General Secretary of the Labour Party. As Gordon’s henchwoman it should be remembered that, if the Crewe campaign ends in disaster and Gordon tries to deny his active direction of it, Steve McCabe, the orchestrator of the campaign, is Fiona’s other half. The nasty party campaign comes directly from Downing Street…