Another bad spell?

It could be said that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. There have been no Government crises over the last week, no big revelations in the proxy cash affair and even Gordon Brown wasn't as bad in PMQs. (He may have even had the upper hand on DC).

So maybe the Government is on the up? There have been some announcements on policy, such as the children's plan.

But there have been some bad moments too. The Home Secretary seems to be heading for some more bad times. Today, the 5 thousand illegal immigrants cleared to work in the UK has been upgraded to 11 thousand (including those that hadn't been checked yet). I wonder if the Home Office has worked out how to release this information!

Also in the select committee on the 42 day detention plan, Ms Smith conceded that Parliament might meet after a detainee has been detained for 42 days to agree that they can be detained up to 42 days. If that sentence does not make sense, it's like the policy. What happens if Parliament says no? What a joke!

Ms Smith may also regret having a go at David Davis, he's knocked down 4 ministers and I think Ms Smith is putting herself in position to be the fifth.

Finally for Ms Smith, denying independent arbitration for a public service which does not have the right to strike is bad. And doing it for the sake of £30 million which has already been accounted for by the police authorities just looks stupid. It will have a miniscule effect on inflation but not on other public service pay claims, after all the headline figure is 2.5%.

The PR blunder of the timing of the signing of the constitution reform treaty is small beans but indicative of how this Government's spinning machine has stopped working. Alistair Campbell would have this sorted. Gordon Brown is going to make a speech saying that the EU should now reform economically, I think I've heard of that one before. They're not interested in it - only in more regulations and harmonisation. There will be another treaty in a few years, taking more powers away.

So I don't think the Government is out of the woods yet, although I expect Labour to creep up slightly in the polls. If they don't then maybe they have had their 'Black Wednesday' effect.

Squiffy.