Ben Brogan has drawn attention to Alastair Campbell’s appearance on Daily Politics earlier during which he said:

"The Labour party have had one unelected Prime Minister come in and I think to start playing around with two is not a very clever way to go"

Brogan contends that Campbell was trying to be helpful, but that his choice of words was more likely to add to Brown’s woes.  I wonder though…

Alastair Campbell is best known for his genius in the field of political communication; a man who uses words like weapons in the war to seize the political agenda.  As such it would be surprising indeed if his words were not uttered with a purpose in mind.  And given the context in which the statement was offered it would be particularly surprising if the purpose in mind was not to undermine Brown. 

In an aside it’s worth noting that Campbell’s appearance on Daily Politics breaks something of a media black-out (a black-out Campbell’s publicist intended to keep in place until his novel is published later this year).  I wonder what provoked him to step into the light…