More tales from the Downing Street nursery…

The Prime Minister and the Chancellor are feuding so poisonously that attempts to stage shows of unity between the two only highlight how divided they are. It is a commentary on the state of the relationship that it is regarded as remarkable that they managed to share a car journey to the launch of their party’s local elections campaign last week.

More revealing about that tortured relationship is what actually happened when the two men were forced into each other’s company on the back seat of the limo. The Prime Minister tried to engage the Chancellor in conversation. I’m told that Mr Brown responded by taking out some papers and burying himself behind them, refusing to reply to every overture until Mr Blair finally gave up trying to make conversation. The journey passed in a bitter silence…

Well, according to Andrew Rawnsley anyway. A sceptical reader might ask: how does Rawnsley know this? There would have been four people in the limo — the PM, the Chancellor, a driver and a minder. So who told tales out of school? The driver? The Minder? Blair? Or Brown? I hate this kind of phoney know-all journalism.