Tell all, do

Great blog post (yesterday) from Sam Coates of the Times. He points out that cabinet secretary Gus O'Donnell's "hysteria" about the release of pre-Iraq war cabinet minutes is badly undermined by a "fetish for full disclosure" of last week's cabinet meeting by ministers briefing the press.

In the Observer yesterday, Andrew Rawnsley had what purported to be a blow-by-blow account of the discussion on bankers' bonuses. Collective cabinet responsibility and confidentiality in all its glory.

How many agendas?

Andrew Rawnsley's film The Rise and Fall of Tony Blair seems to have gone down well enough. I saw the second part last night and was disappointed to see one Blairite after another excusing Blair and having a kick at Brown. Peter Mandelson trotting out the old line that the the Ecclestone affair was just a presentational issue. David Blunkett suggesting that Blair only got things a little bit wrong, in an unforgiving environment. Very little serious dirt dished.

At least Lucy Mangan in the Guardian has seen through some of it.

With so many contributors' agendas to keep track of, it was hard to answer the question at the forefront of our minds: why is this particular bastard lying to me (or at least putting a seriously revisionist spin on things)?