Is nobody, not even the prime minister, safe from the buggers? I learn that Gordon Brown has been sending his officials into a top spin by using Hotmail and unencrypted mobile phones to contact people. This means that neither his civil servants nor the intelligence services can easily listen in to his calls - which is why he has been doing it. I am told that he finds going through the Downing Street switchboard "constraining". Civil servants hate it because a) they cannot keep tabs on him and b) they cannot ensure that outsiders are not eavesdropping.

This week brought shadowy claims that the French bugged the offices of Paul Drayson when he was minister for defence procurement. Yet maybe Lord Drayson is not the only minister who has been at risk. I am told that another minister has been warned that if he wants to discuss country X - I don't know which country it is - he should not use the Whitehall e-mail system. Maybe Mr Brown knows something that the rest of them do not.