No, not West Ham against Tottenham, but yesterday's other unlikely finale. 

Following Ming's decisive intervention in the Trident debate on Saturday, it seemed his fortunes and reputation were, finally, on the up.

What a difference a day makes.

A quick perusal of the broadsheets this morning does not augur well. According to the Indy, "the party was in a state of confusion over its commitment to proportional representation" (Campbell drops Lib Dems' insistence on electoral reform), the Grauniad follows suit with "PR precondition in reversed then reinstated" (Campbell sets Brown tests for Lib-Lab coalition)and the ever impartial Telegraph announces that "the party was plunged into disarray" (Campbell is ready to make a deal with Labour). Probably not the media reaction the leadership was hoping for. 

The source of this confusion? The eternally anonymous "senior official".

This does all seem a bit bizarre. Did anybody actually come out of Ming's speech in the certain knowledge that he was preparing for coalition talks, the price of which was dropping electoral reform?

It now seems likely that, barring another remarkable turnaround, the Harrogate conference will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.