Campbell telling Boris Johnson that Blair will go in 2007 means that Blair definitely intends to stay longer. If he can…

If the Labour party believes Blair is going to go imminently, why bother to push him out and take the risk of regicide? This is a trick that Brown has fallen for since the beginning, encouraged by his calculating cowardice. Perhaps the best hope for the Brownites is to make sure that Yates of the Yard has the evidence to charge some of No. 11’s neighbours for corruption and conspiracy, which Guido believes will happen despite what the commentariat reckon.

Talking of Brownites, watch how the younger Blairites are being briefed against in the press in an organised fashion. Milband first, now Ruth Kelly, the king is weak and the ministerial barons too must be wounded. It will be a scorched earth inheritance if Brown takes the crown.