The photo here is, as far as I'm aware, the only one in existence of me with the Prime Minister. It was taken a couple of years ago and look, there in the background on the right is the [insert adjective of your choice] Damian McBride.
Anyway, back to this week's events and it would seem that now that Mr McBride is no longer there to dispense advice (though I bet Gordon hasn't deleted his number from his mobile), Gordon Brown has been taking soundings from a wider set of advisers.
And he must have been reading ConservativeHome for ideas, because this is what I wrote yesterday morning:
The correspondents popping up on television today have seemed genuinely taken aback by the PM's decision to say the S-word this morning - not least because Downing Street had apparently still been briefing earlier that he had no intention of doing so.
Even Kevin Maguire at the Mirror - Brown's cheerleader-in-chief in the press - suggests that his belated apology may actually have "reinforced the Government's problems".
Maybe - but if the Prime Minister wants any more advice, I'll be happy to dispense it, as I'm sure will ConHome readers.
P.S. James Forsyth at Coffee House still reckons this apology isn't enough and that there are "still a few more shoes to drop"...
