A thorough investigation

The Guardian was first (last night) to report that the home secretary has asked the attorney general to investigate possible "criminal wrongdoing" by the MI5 and the CIA over its treatment of a British resident held in Guantánamo Bay.

They may just be going through the motions. The Guardian quotes lawyer Richard Stein as saying that the government had little choice once the evidence, which foreign secretary David Milband had sought to suppress, was aired in court.

Doesn't it make you proud?

He would say that

"Now we know why it was so dull" says Andrew Neil on BBC2's Daily Politics, referring to David Miliband saying out loud that he toned down his speech yesterday to avoid a "Heseltine moment".

It seems like a great excuse for a crap speech. With spin like that Miliband will go far...

Cobbled together

The Telegraph has a story claiming that David Miliband is lining up Alan Milburn to be chancellor. I don't know if there's anything in it but I can't think of anything worse.

I'm beginning to see typographical errors as a sign that stories have been cobbled together. What does this mean?

At the weekend a leaked memo by Mr Blair criticising the "vacuity" of Labour under Mr Brown.

Of course, the confusion conceals the fact that the memo was from last autumn. Is this bad journalism or bad journalism?

Miliband grows up

David Miliband has a piece in the Guardian today, in which he argues, according to Patrick Wintour, that Labour needs a "more mature relationship with the electorate". These words don't actually appear in Miliband's piece but they do encapsulate what he says here:

When people hear exaggerated claims, either about failure or success, they switch off. That is why politicians across all parties fail to connect. To get our message across, we must be more humble about our shortcomings but more compelling about our achievements.

There's no doubt that Wintour would like Miliband to take over:

Miliband cannot afford to be seen to be involved in any manoeuvring against Brown, but his willingness to write confidently about Labour's mistakes, and how he believes David Cameron, the Conservative leader, can be defeated, will be seen as a reminder to a demoralised party that there are figures in the cabinet capable of making a compelling analysis of Labour's political challenges.

The Times says Miliband is positioning himself for the leadership:

The Foreign Secretary fires the first salvo in a deliberate challenge to Mr Brown in a newspaper article that outlines a blueprint for defeating David Cameron without mentioning the Prime Minister once by name.

The Times somehow can't bring itself to mention the Guardian by name.

Pots, kettles, etc

It's not clear why Patrick Wintour in the Guardian has reheated yesterday's story about Tony Blair saying bad things to Lord Levy about Gordon Brown. Perhaps it's so he can promote Blairite favourite David Miliband to the front of the story.

It has to be said that Tony Blair calling anyone a liar takes some nerve...

In typical BBC style, the state broadcasting service presents the story from the government's point of view:

The prime minister has dismissed suggestions by Labour's former chief fundraiser, Lord Levy, that Tony Blair believes he cannot beat David Cameron.

Please go away

The Independent's John Rentoul is so predictable, you wonder why he bothers. The unreconstructed Blairite is touting David Miliband to challenge Gordon Brown. I watched Miliband in the Iraq debate a couple of weeks ago. Admittedly Miliband was defending an entirely indefensible position but he looked hopeless, quite out of his depth.

Knives out for Malloch-Brown

The Sunday Times is reporting that Foreign Office officials have turned on Lord Malloch-Brown, their minister, describing him as a “liability” for the government. Malloch-Brown upset people when he said that Britain and the US should no longer be "joined at the hip". It's hard to find many people, apart from Blair, who think we should be.

Aparently, Malloch-Brown has also upset Labour friends of Israel.

This pretty well sums up the received wisdom around UK foreign policy that whatever you do, you mustn't upset the US or Israel.

But why are Foreign Office officials, with the apparent connivance of David Miliband and the help of the Sunday Times, engaging in a whispering campagn against a minister?