Tribal warfare and dysfunctionalism in Whitehall

Do try and read Sue Cameron in this mornings FT

Is the government imploding or does it just look that way? Downing Street advisers have their heads in their hands, I'm told. Tribal warfare has broken out in Whitehall with the Treasury and Number 10 indulging in more or less open war. Insiders say Prime Minister Gordon Brown has a multi-billion pound shopping list of plans, including state-backed mortgages, which he is saving up to announce in his speech to the Labour conference later this month.

Again,if true it looks as though Alistair Darling has been bypassed yet again.But the worrying thing is the message that seems to be coming out.As Sue puts it,

What worries Whitehall is that nobody seems certain what to do about the problems crowding in on the government. "If you think this lot have a Baldrick-style cunning plan you are flattering them," says Professor Peter Hennessy of London University. "A lot of the people in Number 10 - notably the spads or special advisers - aren't house-trained. They don't know what everyone is meant to be doing."