The trouble with Gordon Brown's Number 10 is that you never know whether you are watching a farce or a tragedy. The Downing Street machine is so elaborate as to be positively baroque - yet somehow Mr Brown cannot find the levers that will give it lift-off. He and his minions - there are well over 200 people in the prime minister's office - appear as characters in search of a strategy. Which is where the farce emerges.

Consider: Mr Brown has just appointed outside communications expert Stephen Carter as his chief of strategy. Beneath Mr Carter is Spencer Livermore, who is director of political strategy in the prime minister's office. Then there is Nick Pearce, who is head of strategic policy at the PM's policy unit, which is based in the Treasury and is answerable to both Mr Brown and to Alistair Darling, the chancellor. ( Do concentrate at the back.) There is also an entire strategy unit - with 42 staff - headed by Stephen Aldridge. This outpost of the Cabinet Office, housed in Admiralty Arch, provides strategy and policy advice to the PM. It assists other departments "in developing effective strategies . . . including helping them to build their strategic capability".