Policeman ? - Send for the Marquess of Queensberry

The House of Commons' Public Administration Select Committee has sagely observed that the rules on Ministers' conduct need a proper 'policeman,' as the BBC puts it.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party seem badly in need of a version of the Marquess of Queensberry's rules for their ongoing leadership contest. One wonders whether their two Statements (see here for Blair and here for Brown) were deliberately so different.

The BBC's analysis of 'why Brown v Blair ?' is curiously coy about the story of the 'Granita Guarantee' - that in that (former, I think) Islington restaurant Mr Blair promised Mr Brown that he would serve two terms and then step down in Mr Brown's favour. One guesses the problem to be that only the two men really know what (if anything) was said.

Charles Clarke's intervention, meanwhile, may not have harmed his chances of emerging as the 'unity candidate' to succeed Tony Blair - a role perhaps also coveted by his successor, John Reid.

The BBC's comment that 'loyalty is a habit of mind' is acute, and it would be ironic if Mr Brown were to rip the party apart in order to get the premiership, only to find that it was unable or unwilling to unite under him. The nightmare scenario for Mr Brown, I suppose, is that he is followed swiftly by Prime Minister Cameron, and then by a Blairite counter-coup of the sort that her declining health (even if she ever thought of it) made impossible for Mrs Thatcher.

While I'm giving advice to Mr Brown, I'd stop worrying about whether you're "too Scottish" (is there a dividing line between acceptable and unacceptable levels of Scottishness, then ? Where, exactly ?) - if you keep making speeches about Britishness (I mean, you are Chancellor of the Exchequer), people will start to think that you think that there's a problem, even without Alex Salmond of the SNP's artful encouragement.