Omigod! Forget about Gordon Brown upsetting the generals. Ignore the misery he is causing to sidelined ministers and Whitehall knights.
I now learn that Mr Brown has committed the ultimate prime ministerial solecism, a breach of Whitehall etiquette so severe that those of a delicate political disposition should read no further. Mr Brown has upset members of one of Downing Street’s most important institutions, those mainstays of any government – the garden room girls at Number 10.

The garden room girls are the elite cadre of Whitehall secretaries who serve the prime minister. Since the time of Lloyd George early in the past century they have worked in the rooms overlooking the Number 10 garden – hence their name. They have to be ready to work through the night, as they did with Sir Winston Churchill during the second world war, and to accompany the prime minister anywhere and everywhere – one was with Margaret Thatcher the night the Brighton bomb exploded in 1984. There are about 20 of them and some are not as girlish as they were – they often stay in Downing Street for decades – but they are always utterly loyal. Yet it seems that Mr Brown has upset their applecart.