Will Gord’s actions contain the damage

Another day and another affair that Gordon has had to answer questions on – this time not just about himself but also including his deputy, Harriet Harman who also benefited from the Durham donor.

It is had to see what else he could say today even though the move will add further to Labour’s financial problems.

But how can he and his party break out of this downward spiral of terrible stories? What can he do to recover the situation?

The challenge at the moment is that everything he does is seen in the context of the run of bad news. Any new initiative is presented as him “trying to recover the situation” thus reminding people of the problems he is having.

There’s a challenge too for Cameron in all of this. I gather that last week’s PMQ strategy of not over-playing the missing disc affair was deliberate. The Tories cannot be seen to gloat

Mike Smithson