The Stephen Carterisation of Cabinet

There are more people having a pop (especially final paragraphs here) at Brown's new all-powerful man Stephen Carter. But brave is the man who challenges the authority of a man who can make the Cabinet copy a kindergarten classroom:

Gordon Brown and his new chief of strategy, Stephen Carter, yesterday made ministers split into groups to refine ideas on big issues at a cabinet meeting ahead of Labour's local election campaign launch tomorrow.

As the government prepares for a difficult set of local elections in London and across England and Wales, ministers were put into groups of six and seven to look at how the party is to raise cash to campaign.

Other problems posed were the difficulties of going into a general election as the party of government, and how to turn more than a decade in power to the party's advantage. They were also asked to examine dividing lines with the Tories and how to sharpen them, and how to improve "messaging". Each group then reported its findings to the overall cabinet.

The novel format, common in business but less so round the cabinet table, is undoubtedly a product of Carter, the former Ofcom chief and now a dominant political figure in Downing Street.