Resignation, resignation everywhere

What a couple of days. Yesterday it was Alan Johnson, today it's Andy Coulson. It seems to me that both were pre-emptive before news leaked. Maybe there is some new information coming out which would have forced Andy Coulson's hand? I guess we'll find out shortly. It is true to say that his position had become a distraction, similar to Lord Ashcroft's.

If the papers are to be believed Alan Johnson's departure was triggered by his wife having an affair with a protection officer. Gives a new meaning to "better hope she used protection", but enough smut. It sounds like Mr Johnson has been going through a tough time lately, and with the added focus on his position of Shadow Chancellor, it would have been extremely difficult to keep his mind on the job.

When he was appointed, I, like many people, was surprised. With Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper both having had jobs in the Treasury they seemed like the more obvious choices as Shadow Chancellor. Maybe Ed Balls' outspoken criticism of Alistair Darling's deficit reduction plan or maybe the rivalry with Ed Miliband from their time together as Gordon Brown underlings, counted against him. Maybe Yvette Cooper's popularity in the Shadow Cabinet elections counted against her. Hence why Ed Miliband chose to put Ed Balls at the Home Office as an attack dog so that he could have his own economic policy, and Yvette Cooper in the invisible role of Shadow Foreign Secretary so that she doesn't steal the limelight.

Now that has been undone. Yvette moves to the Home Office to hound Teresa May, that should be fun. More fun will be the exchanges between George Osborne and Ed Balls. As in Hart to Hart, "when those two get together, it could be murder".

Maybe Labour is the winner, but it looks like Ed Miliband is the loser. His plan has come unstuck. The two people at the Treasury when the banks and spending let rip, are at the head of the Labour party as 'deficit deniers', and the Tories will stick that label on them ad nauseam. Maybe George Osborne is a little more worried now, but he's faced Gordon Brown before, and now he has his mini-me.

Should be fun.

Squiffy.