Damian McBride - Day three.

The blogosphere and the traditional media are still going daft over the Damian McBride/Derek Draper e-mails. I've just finished doing a commentary on Radio nan Gaidheal about the story and because it's Bank Holiday Monday (no other news around) the row will continue to rumble through the day.

Although the story broke over Easter, when newspaper readership is almost as low as Christmas Day, Downing Street knows that if this continues to fester it will alter the perception of Mr Brown.

Just as the public changed their mind about the Prime Minister when they saw him first playing, and then dithering, over whether to call a general election in 2006 they won't be enamoured by this other side of his political personality.

The other danger, apart from the Tory counter-attacks, is that there are a large number of Blairite ex-ministers out there who were done over by the McPoison team around Mr Brown when he was a chancellor at war with the Prime Minister. Some of them will be sharpening their blades for revenge and an ill-disciplined party is something the Prime Minister can do without. So, expect that to be the story of the day. Alastair Campbell's four day rule - if a story produces nothing new in that time it moves off the front pages - still applies. The government will be desperate to move us onto something, anything, else and the Tories will be looking to stoke the embers.

There's a cabinet meeting in Scotland this week. The meeting in Glasgow will be the first of its kind in Scotland since Lloyd George summoned his colleagues to Inverness in 1921 to discuss plans for the Irish Free State. So, I guess we'll look at that too. Now less talk about work and more getting on with it. The tube system is being repaired this weekend so it's a walk to Westminster on what is a pretty grey day here.