Just when things were looking up for Labour

Alan Johnson, their Shadow Chancellor, has resigned out of the blue, citing 'family reasons'.

Presumably this means that the tabloid press has got something juicy to spend the weekend splashing over multiple pages with breathtaking hypocrisy. It may, of course, be a genuine family tragedy.

Either way, it's a shame. There's been a whispering campaign against Johnson because he's slipped up a couple of times and isn't an economist, but I thought making him shadow George Osborne was a very smart move: Johnson's a relaxed, personable working-class man who's done manual work for a living - everything George Osborne isn't. Labour desperately needs good communicators who've lived normal lives, and it needs some stability.

I wonder if Ed Miliband knew this when I saw him earlier - he seemed very relaxed, so it must be a complete surprise to him too.

Update: it appears that Johnson's bodyguard had an affair with his wife and other sources claim he had an affair with a civil servant, and the story was leaked by Ed Balls' special adviser. Obviously all relationships are complicated and we should resist tabloid-style moralising, but I think a period of leaving them alone would be in order. Poisonous.

Sweet Caroline

Hard-faced rightwing, selfish careerist and mediocre minister Caroline Flint has stabbed Brown in the back, leaving the cabinet in a huff because she didn't get a promotion. In her resignation letter she tells GB 'You treated me as window dressing'. It's true that Brown et al. are a lads' club, but let's remind ourselves of Ms. Flint's recent media appearances: a multipage fashion shoot in Observer Woman while declaring that she didn't want to be judged by her appearance.

Will the reshuffle save the party (and therefore the country)? No. Same useless, failed faces, plus Alan Bloody Sugar (after Brown declared the end of Blair's celebrity-run regime).

Meanwhile in St. Ives, the Labour Candidates finished significantly behind Lord Toby Jug of the Monster Raving Loony Party.