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FRIDAY 13 OCTOBER: The prime minister's working out his notice; and in the process, he is disappearing before our eyes. You know what it's like after you resign but before you leave the company? People stop talking to you. You become a nuisance, a burden. There's no point in gossiping to you because you won't know anything. No point in starting something with you because you won't be there to finish it. 

The PM's performance on Wednesday deeply depressed his Government friends and enemies alike. That didn't help. Authority drains from him daily. The army's chief of staff feels free to say things that would have caused his execution in many other countries.

The British Army Rumour Service (www.arrse.co.uk, the unofficial site for the armed forces) is running hot with the CGS' remarks: "It is about time that our senior generalship actually stopped being part of the government and stood up for what is in the best interests of the Service," is typical.

What happens now? The tea rooms remind some observers of the urgent narrative action of Waiting for Godot. There is nothing to be done. There are those who say he can't hang on; others find it inconceivable to force him out before May. They can only wait for him to go "in his own time and in his own way". The prime minister's stubbornness is a complex psychlogical phenomenon right at the core of his character, so that doesn't suggest anything prompt.

The Go-Now faction has suffered a crushing defeat; the  Ultras no longer demand "Three! More! Years!" In a feat of Pyrhhic brilliance, both sides have lost.

NB: The Parliamentary Committee reports that John Reid has been invited to address the PLP on Monday week, the 16th. This may help put his leadership strategy back on track, doing his press-ups in front of an appreciative audience. 

FRIDAY 13 OCTOBER: At close quarters, the Tories have been an aimiable bunch of people these last five years. The further from power that politicians are the nicer they become (to us, if not to each other). But following Cameron's triumph on Wednesday, they are starting their inexorable mutation into an incarnation of George Osborne. They're back. There's a new swagger in the shoulders.

This may be fatal. Tories acting like Neil Kinnock are a very unattractive proposition for modern voters.