There was a school of thought that Alistair Darling's interviews – one last year with the Guardian, one this week with the Daily Telegraph – were so outspoken that they made him unsackable. To shoot Darling would be to shoot someone who relaxes on a Scottish island sufficiently to be able to take a journalist away with him – to sack Darling would be to sack a normal man.
It seems that school of thought does not include pupils in Downing Street.
At the risk of stating the obvious, there is displeasure at how the chancellor has been telling the economic story; when he could have been talking about helping keep families in their homes he has got bogged down in the technical minutiae of credit lines between banks.
Necessary process, but not politics.
"Reading the runes, I would bet on Alistair being out by summer," said a Downing Street source. Ed Balls is the most likely replacement, but this decision will probably depend on Lord Mandelson. Which is why their new friendship is so important.
