Hard times for in crowd

Both John Prescott and Cherie Blair have a book to sell, so here's the story of the two squabbling architects of new Labour and the former prime minister's wife putting the boot into his successor.

And then there's Lord Levy, who always denied any link between ennoblement and rich donors offering seven-figure loans to Tony Blair's secret election fund, even though one always followed the other. Thank goodness for coincidence.

Now, he insists that Gordon Brown must have known of this slush fund, about which Labour treasurer Jack Dromey was kept in ignorance.

And, for good measure, his Labour-loyal lordship vouchsafes that Mr Blair believes that Mr Brown has no idea how to win a general election.

Not true, declares Ms Blair, who insists that her husband, in between well-remunerated big business advisory posts, continues to guide the PM on matters electoral.

Well, that must enthuse what remains of Labour's activists and voters - advice from the man whose war and privatisation fetishes sent Labour into a popularity tail spin.

Not to be outdone, current EU commissioner Peter Mandelson chucks in his twopenn'orth, pointing out that Labour's only hope is to press ahead more vigorously with the neoliberal policies that have come close to sinking the party.

Given his creative approach to alternative mortgage methods, most Labour supporters would probably opt for him to spend more time with his money and keep his beak in the EU gravy train rather than in British politics.

But money - and, preferably, oodles of it - is the common factor for all these people.

When working out how to persuade working people to accept his economic strategy of stretching the gap between rich and poor, Mr Brown hit on the ruse of telling Labour MPs to reject a 26 per cent pay rise recommended by an advisory committee.

Mrs Blair lets us know that she was incandescent at this rejection of a £26,000 annual uplift for her husband.

"How dare Gordon do that? What did he know about financial commitments? He was a bachelor living on his own in a flat with a small mortgage," she railed.

And quite right too. She was only bringing in about half a million quid a year and his pay was pegged at just over a hundred grand.

How could they become seriously rich, to the extent that they could afford to own six pricey properties, as they do now, with that kind of penny-pinching?

Surprisingly, there were no media reports of single parents, whose modest income had just been slashed by social security secretary Harriet Harman, marching in protest at Mr Brown's action.

And they are still not marching or, indeed, voting for what looks more like a get-rich-quick mutual help scheme than a people's party, with former ministers Ian McCartney, Dick Caborn and Patricia Hewitt - all one-time leftwingers - pulling down company directorships of £110,000, £75,000 and £65,000 respectively, on top of their MP salaries.

If Mr Brown needs advice - and he does - his fellow new Labourites aren't the people to ask.