Anatole Kaletsky does a good job summing up the Government's current difficulties in his piece in The Times today ("It all looks like Enron Government")

In it he not only gives reasons why Gordon Brown is in the position that he is - but also suggests that things are likely to get worse rather than better:

"...if Mr Brown's fiscal rules could be ignored so easily this year to accommodate a £2.7 billion tax cut... why shouldn't they also be ignored to satisfy fuel-tax protesters and pensioners and underpaid public sector workers and bankers demanding bailouts and homeowners struggling with their mortgages and multinational companies threatening to pull out of Britain and farmers complaining about the weather and indeed you and me, since we would all prefer to pay less tax and get more out of government? In short, this week's U-turn could presage a summer of discontent in which every possible claimant and lobby demands its extra share of taxpayer funds."

He also gives a useful summation on what other commentators have been saying about the Draft Queen's Speech and addresses why, having been a good Chancellor, he's having so many problems as PM.

Also in today's news

For our take on John Edwards backing Barak Obama - see our today's other blog entry.