Lunchtime comes and goes and no cabinet minister on the airwaves

Still no sign of a cabinet minister on TV saying "I love Gordon" and it has now gone two o'clock? Where are they?

This lunchtime has been the witching hour, the cabinet have to decide to stand by their desks or join the rebels.

By six pm the BBC should have rounded them all up and this putsch will be over and we can move on to discussing how low Labour's poll rating can go, or the ball will be on the slates.

What happens then? There is no mechanism for a referendum on Gordon Brown's leadership. Labour elects leaders through an electoral college of trade unions, party members and politicians so this Hoon/Hewitt move could be dismissed out of hand.

There could be challenge to Tony Lloyd though, the chair of the parliamentary Labour party, at any time and his heavy defeat at the hands of a Kamakazi rebel candidate would be a symbolic message for Gordon Brown.

Number Ten are said to be relaxed (ha!) and feel that some Blairites have simply lost the plot completely. Gordon's old spin doctor Charlie Wheelan, looked equally at ease as he watched Patricia Hewitt explaining on Sky TV that this was not a coup attempt(Nice Harris Tweed coat by the way, Charlie).

Journalists and pundits queuing up for the camera but no sign of Peter. Come on Lord Mandelson, bring Act 1 to a dramatic climax.