Ruth Kelly and the P.E. teaching pervs went off the front pages yesterday, on went the “LEO KIDNAP PLAN”. Downing Street’s spin machine returning to top form with a genius move worthy of Alastair Campbell in his heydey. The Sun front paged it, all the other papers ran with it.

A “clever wheeze” according to Adam Boulton. The rest of the Lobby, cynical as they are, asked the PMOS about the contact Downing Street had with The Sun before the story was placed. The PMOS repeated the formulaic response “We never comment on security matters”. Except to Rebekah Wade when we are desperate to bury bad news.