[efoods]The Home Secretary is resigning, the Chancellor of the Exchequer is expected to be replaced and allegations of impropriety hang over several other Cabinet members. There has rarely been a more turbulent time at the apex of government, probably not since 1962, when Harold Macmillan sacked seven ministers in what became known as the Night of the Long Knives. That was done in an ultimately fruitless attempt to save his political skin, and it inspired a famous put-down by Jeremy Thorpe: “Greater love hath no man than this; that he lay down his friends for his life.” Mr Brown’s friends are a dwindling band.

Jacqui Smith was one of his closest political allies, and her tenure in office, and the manner of her departure, symbolise everything that is wrong with the current administration, now almost two years old. She was simply not up to the job, yet she was appointed to one of the great offices of state – not because she had earned her spurs in a succession of successful ministerial posts, but because she was part of the Brown tribe, one of a number of acolytes promoted way beyond their merits to the detriment of good governance.

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