Butler has found Scarlett guilty — so why has he been promoted?

You can tell when high summer comes to Westminster. Smartly dressed groups, lost and ill at ease — the women in hats and best frocks — wander through Westminster Hall in search of Buckingham Palace garden parties. The Catalpa trees in New Palace Yard burst into bloom, and their viscous, sickly scent spreads everywhere. These are always dangerous, fretful weeks. The whips hate them; they sense trouble, and yearn to close politics down and send their MPs away to the safety of family holidays.

Last week MPs and ministers moved about in little groups. The Blairites clung to each other for protection against the supporters of Chancellor Gordon Brown, angry and dispossessed. Monday belonged to the Brown faction. Their hero — the man they want in Downing Street by October — set out his spending plans in a demonstration of raw power. The Chancellor ranged massively beyond his formal Treasury brief, announcing not only the sums his Cabinet colleagues have been awarded, but how they were going to spend them too.