So pleased are they with the functionality of their Flickr photo album they had pictures of flowers from the garden up today – oh and a picture of an undercover police officer. Doh!

Dizzy has the scoop.

UPDATE : Guido knows the identity of the officer (blurred in the picture above), his commendation was related to him receiving a baseball bat beating when on surveillance .

Caroline Flint on Newsnight last night was hilarious – “Kirsty, Kirsty, Kirsty” she kept forlornly shouting on the two-way to studio.

In all fairness she has the worst job in government right now – Housing Minister. It can’t have helped that some moronic briefing to the Sun has brought a stagnant property market to a complete halt – why exchange now when if you wait until September you can save thousands in stamp duty? Which genius clumsily leaked the plan scheduled for September?

Damian McBride has the hotline to the George Pascoe-Watson…

Colin Byrne, CEO of mega-spin merchants, Weber Shandwick, is a former protege of Mandelson and was the Labour Party’s chief press officer from 1988 to 1992. He has his own blog and has, judging by his latest post, had enough of the team of second raters around Gordon.

Quite what prompted the incompetents – as they clearly are these days for all their fat salaries and big job titles and egos – in the No. 10 bunker to have the PM telling us to eat up our crusts one day and be photographed waving a glass of wine around the G8 dinner table as he tucked into the conger eel the next is beyond this simple communications guy’s understanding.

Guido has been patiently waiting for the anti-Brownies to come out and openly attack Gordon. Blairites and ministers are briefing anonymously, the rank-and-file on LabourHome are in open revolt. Expect more of this all summer…

Guido asked where were the promised answers due at the end of last month on Sunday, and again on Tuesday. Today, after Guido’s prompting and some prolonged dithering, we have the “answers” – basically the usual platitudes.

The best questioner asks the PM why should he be PM? Asks him to sell himself to us and answer the question why is he the best man for the job? He simply is unable to answer the question. He tells us what he wants to do, not why he is the best man for the job.

The polls tell us that voters don’t think he is the best man for the job. Tragic.

There was a lot of talk when David Muir was appointed from WPP that he would turn the Prime Mentalist into a digital leader superior to WebCameron. Advertising “guru” Muir even wrote a paean to the power of YouTube in his WPP days. The YouTube “Ask the PM” initiative was presumably his idea – dozens of people have asked the PM, with no answers despite them being promised and now well overdue.

Things actually seem to be getting worse on the digital front. If you are unable to get an answer from Downing Street’s YouTube channel emailing the Prime Minister should be easy – that was set up during Blair’s time. Alas, for weeks now Gordon’s public email has been out of order:

This service has been temporarily suspended for maintenance work. Don’t worry, we are still accepting faxes and letters, and you can still let us know your opinions via an epetition or on our new Twitter service.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused. We hope to be back up and running in a few days.

23 June 2008

Maintenence work for email? Eh? Basically Downing Street, digitally speaking, is in broadcast-only mode. They can send you messages, but you can’t tell them anything. A metaphor for the bigger picture…

Andrew Porter reports that Martin Sheehan, Gordon’s Head of Strategic Communications, is making the dash for cash to PR firm Portland.

Martin Sheehan says: “The opportunity to join Portland at this stage in the company’s growth is one I couldn’t refuse. Working for two Prime Ministers has been a fantastic experience. After spending eight of the last ten years in Downing Street, it’s time for a new challenge.” Translation: a year of the Prime Mentalist is enough for me…

As Guido pointed out yesterday, the captain is taking down the Labour ship with him and as this email from Fiona Gordon (his Downing Street political secretary) shows, the rats are doing the proverbial:

Dear Colleague,

Tomorrow will be my last day as Gordon Brown’s Political Secretary. It has been a privilege to work for Gordon and the wider team here at No 10 and I consider myself very fortunate to have had the opportunity. It has been a fascinating and hectic year.

I have also been lucky to work closely with you, not only in my current post but as the first women PLP Secretary. I will be taking away very many happy memories, particularly of the evening we gathered in the Chamber for the photograph to mark the Centenary of the PLP.

My next venture is to start my own communications business which I am very excited about.

My mobile number will remain the same xxxxxxx, my new email address is xxx@xxx.com Joe Irvin has been appointed to replace me. Joe has for the past year worked as a special adviser to the Prime Minister on trade union, employment and housing issues.

He is a lifelong Labour Party member and previously worked as special adviser to Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott 1996-2001, and was for many years a trade union official. I know you will give him all your support.

With my best wishes
Fiona

Spot the difference : Naomi met Gordon in Downing Street today. Known to be hot-tempered, she was once charged with second degree assault after allegedly hitting her assistant. The assistant needed four stitches to her head after being hit by a mobile phone following a row according to NYPD. The other has so far missed his target.