Lay on, Macduff

Being innocent - like, probably, Alistair Darling - is no protection in these evil times. True to his thuggish, tribal ways, Brown looks likely to use the non-expenses story to sack his Chancellor and install the thuggish, tribal Balls. Or Darling is guilty. I don't know. My instinct is that he's been Brown's fall guy from day one of his chancellorship. Meanwhile, check out the face of Peter Mandelson. Wrecked, I'd say. The irony is that this 'mastermind' of political virtuality is now about the only member of the Cabinet who is actually dealing with something real in the shape of the car industry - he has sound instincts on this matter and precisely zero power to do anything about it. I'd guess he told Brown not to appear in public and the Deluded One decided that must mean he should appear at every opportunity, flaunting his Prestbyterian conscience and worrying about Susan Boyle - some cognitive dissonance there I would have thought. It's like the last days of the Hapsburgs or Hitler or Saddam Hussein or somebody. I am no historian. Macbeth, perhaps, with Blair as Banquo or Duncan. This makes the times, though evil, interesting. What matters now is the condition of Alan 'Macduff' Johnson's soul - iron or rubber? It's the one big chance he will have in his political career. Grab it, Al, get the thugs out of our lives. 'Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow...'