Anyone seeking proof that Gordon Brown's authority is crumbling need look no further than the Labour party's splits over Royal Mail.
A leaked email has just pinged into my inbox showing exactly how serious things are getting.
Already, around 120 Labour MPs have signed a Commons motion opposing Peter Mandelson's plan for part-privatisation.
But it's worse than that.
The email was sent recently by Dave Anderson, ministerial aide to Foreign Office minister Bill Rammell, to a large number of fellow PPSs – otherwise known as parliamentary private secretaries.
These ministerial bag carriers are the lowest the form of government life, but they are still important. Collectively they serve as a weathervane of government unity.
Anderson writes to fellow aides in the email:
In line with meetings that we had with Alistair [Darling] on the 10p tax changes, I am hoping to get a meeting with Lord Mandelson and Pat MacFadden and worried PPSs. I hope that we can find a way forward that is acceptable to all parts of our party and in line with our manifesto commitment [which said Royal Mail would stay in public ownership]. If you are interested in attending such a meeting can you let me know as soon as possible?
When phoned, Anderson confirmed the email's authenticity. He said he wanted to find a "sensible way forward" and certainly did not think whipping up opposition to a core government policy was reason to quit.
Such defiance does not bode well for the Mandy/Brown/McFadden masterplan.
Unless of course they are prepared to rely on Tory votes to get the proposal through the Commons and put two fingers up to the rebels – which is not impossible.
