The Twitching corpse stands outside Number 10.David Cairns (who?), a Labour minister, has resigned in protest at Gordon Brown's leadership.
Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, when asked about Mr Brown's problems said: "I have no wish to kick a twitching corpse". What a change from sticking the knife into Ming's back and kicking him when he was down.
The Chancellor, Alistair Darling, defended the Prime Minister, delivering a message "to my colleagues in particular" that they should "get behind" Mr Brown, who he described as "the right person to lead the country and our party". This is the problem, they are lining up behind him to stick their knives into his back.
Number 10 maintained that Mr Brown was not being distracted by the continued disquiet about his leadership. Is he really that cool? I would have thought that he would be worried to the point of distraction.
A Downing Street spokesman said: "The Prime Minister is focusing on the big issues facing the country". I would be interested to learn what they might be.
