Did you realise that Labour party dissent had burst into the open today with "a public attack on Gordon Brown from the second most important person in government"?
No, I didn't notice it either. It sounds as if it should be leading the news. But what on earth is the speaker referring to?
It turns out this is George Osborne's interpretation of an interview Alistair Darling gave today. Just for the record, this is what Darling said:
We have also got to make sure that in other areas we sharpen ourselves up, that we have a clear message of what we are about.
This is quite interesting. But, by no stretch of the imagination could you describe it - as Osborne did in a press release this afternoon - as "an unprecedented attack on the prime minister by his most senior cabinet colleague".
And then, as if that wasn't enough, Osborne added: "Even Gordon Brown never criticised Tony Blair in public."
I'm not sure that's the way the Blairites remember it. I suppose when Brown delivered his "at our best when we're Labour" conference speech, he was not technically criticising Blair in public. But it certainly felt like that at the time.
One of the reasons David Cameron and George Osborne have performed effectively is that they have tended to avoid making implausible criticisms of the government. Oppositions need to build up credibility.
Issuing comments like this won't help.
