LONDON LETTER: Tony Blair has been badly wounded, and Gordon Brown will be (privately) delighted as he savours a shifting balance of power and a now seemingly inevitable succession, writes Frank Millar
Froth? Fiction? Tittle-tattle and tabloid trash? If it wasn't that they have pronounced "spin" officially dead, that might well be Number 10's "line to take". Indeed it wouldn't be hard to sympathise with Mr Blair's complaint that the people out there, beyond the Westminster village, have rather more on their minds than arcane arguments about hierarchy and protocol at a royal funeral.
On Tuesday, the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, was forced into humiliating retreat over plans to massively extend the state's capacity to "snoop" in what was widely seen as an unwarranted assault on civil liberties. The same day saw the Health Secretary, Alan Milburn, accused of trying to block publication of disturbing statistics detailing the scale of "adverse incidents" or medical blunders inside the National Health Service.
A sudden heatwave meant even more misery for commuters, sweltering in cattle-truck conditions on the London Underground, certain only in the knowledge that Britain's public transport system won't significantly improve much before the end of the decade. New figures showed crime going up while elsewhere debate continued as to whether a never-ending property boom can only end in spectacular bust.
That said, there are good grounds for thinking that the occupants of Blair's bunker share the fear that the prime minister has indeed paid a high price - in terms of credibility and public trust - for the right royal row over whether he tried to hijack the Queen Mother's lying-in-state.
What a difference five years can make. Incapacity reduced your correspondent to couch potato for the golden jubilee weekend. But the BBC did her majesty proud - as did her subjects. On two successive days the Mall and surrounding royal parks hosted more than a million people resolved to salute Queen Elizabeth's 50-year reign. A seamless weave from classical to rock gave way to a spectacular display of pomp, pageant and carnival, which dramatically highlighted the multi-culturalism and inclusivity which have been central to the queen's single-minded leadership of the Commonwealth.
What is more, the whole thing was virtually a politician-free zone. New Labour's Cool Britannia was abandoned in favour of Rule Britannia, a sea of union flags seeming to mock any suggestion that Britain is a "young country" in search of a new identity. There was even a hint of a cheer for Camilla Parker Bowles. And we could only wonder if her majesty ever once reflected on the fickle nature of public opinion.
Five years before, very different crowds had filled the Mall in an outpouring of grief following the death of Princess Diana. Angry and vengeful, the public and press demanded evidence that the House of Windsor shared their pain. Courtiers feared that if the queen responded, returned to London and went among her people, she might be booed in the streets.
That it didn't happen owed much to the intervention of Number 10, and the prime minister's formidable press secretary, Alastair Campbell. The brilliant presentational skills which helped propel Mr Blair into office were brought into play on behalf of a royal household grown dangerously detached from the public mood. Ironically, now - as the jubilee celebrations, and the growing public acceptance of "Charles and Camilla" show - the royal spin doctors have themselves mastered the black arts.
At the same time, Mr Blair and Mr Campbell are impaled on a royal row rooted in the perceived obsession with spin and presentation, which has now become a byword for everything deemed wrong with this government.
Of course Mr Blair was hurt by suggestions that he sought a larger role for himself - as he might have been by the readiness of so many to believe it of him. But Number 10 has "form" in such matters, and they certainly should not have picked a fight with the press unless certain they could win it. In the end they were forced to back off, and with resultant damage many outsiders may think wholly disproportionate to the alleged offence.
The commentator Peter Kellner - known to have an inside track to the heart of New Labour - suggests that if voters acquire the firm conviction that this government is not to be trusted (and the polls suggest it) this will seriously impinge on Mr Blair's famed "big picture". That is to say on everything - from "the terms of trade" between the prime minister and chancellor right up to Mr Blair's calculation on winning a euro referendum. A right royal mess indeed.