Mary Ann Sieghart attacks. quite rightly, the tax credit fiasco. And she calls on Dawn Primarolo to resign:

Shockingly, particularly for a Labour minister, she has presided over a system that has condemned hundreds of thousands of our poorest citizens to great anxiety and distress and, in some cases, virtual penury.

...The Chancellor was allowed free rein with his tax credits, even though No 10 always had its doubts about their cost and efficacy. And he has resisted repeated attempts by the Prime Minister to demote Ms Primarolo, who is clearly not up to her job. As well as being incompetent, she has also proved astonishingly complacent in the face of repeated complaints about the system.

If Mr Brown is still shielding her from the sack, he should examine his conscience. Which does he care about most? The plight of the poor? Or the plight of a time-serving, over-promoted, inept ministerial supporter?

No objective reader could disagree with a word of that.

But surely Ms Sieghart is missing the bigger picture. Ms Primarolo was responsible for implementation. The wider - and greater - responsibility lies with Gordon Brown. Tax credits are his 'big idea', and it is Mr Brown who devised the system which Ms Primarolo was charged with implementing. If this is a resignation issue - and it is - then the first to go, surely, ought to be the Chancellor.

Fat chance.