Sorry seems to be the hardest word

The story involving senior government advisors attempting to smear the Tory Party seems to have developed a life of its own because of the word "Sorry", and it seems to me that this has as much to do with the Tory attempts to get Gordon Brown to apologise for the economic mess we find ourselves in as it does to do with the smear story.

In itself, getting Gordon Brown to apologise for something beyond his control seems utterly ludicrous. Why should he apologise for somethig he did not sanction and why should he be responsible for the actions of every member of staff ? But when you read what the smears were, the seriousness of the false allegations that were to be spread, it does make you wonder if Gordon Brown might have received less flak if he had simply said he personally apologised that his staff had acted in such a way.

The big problem is though that for a Prime Minister to admit errors is seen as a weakness, and whilst it might seem to Gordon Brown that to admit an error would undermine him, what he fails to realise is that his government is already fatally holed beneath the water line. There is no chance now of a Labour recovery and his inability to kill this sort of story off by making the wrong political decisions simply makes the crisis his party faces much worse.

Personally, I would be very surprised if Labour did not suffer a total meltdown of 1997 proportions at the next election and smart money should be on any Labour MP with a majority of less than 6,000 to lose.