Today the former Transport Secretary Stephen Byers has announced his intention to quit the Commons at the next election.
He's the latest in the line of uber-Blairite ex-Cabinet ministers throwing in the towel - joining the likes of Alan Milburn, John Reid and Ruth Kelly who have already announced their retirements.
Given the fact that Charles Clarke is looking on distinctly shaky ground with his notional majority of 3,000 or so in Norwich South and you potentially end up with a pretty small coterie of disaffected Blair acolytes bothering to hang on in Parliament.
I have also heard some wonder recently whether James Purnell still has the thirst for House of Commons life after his resignation from the Cabinet earlier in the year and that he may yet call it a day and leave politics to go and make some money.
As a matter of fact, the only remaining members of Tony Blair's first Cabinet from 1997 who are currently expected to seek re-election next year are Gordon Brown, Harriet Harman, Alistair Darling, Jack Straw, Margaret Beckett, David Blunkett and Frank Dobson.
