To lose four people in a handful of days would be bad at the best of times, but the chaos surrounding the departures only deepens the mess Labour is in.

We’ve already had the failing-to-sack-someone-because-it-turns-out-he-has-already-quit-but-you-didn’t-notice-manoeuvre.

And then today brought us not only the departure of a minister, but a departure in rather chaotic circumstances. The story starts last night when the BBC ran a story that a minister was set to quit. This morning the Daily Telegraph named him as David Cairns. Then a “source close to” the Scottish Secretary of State Des Browne said David Cairns had, “no intention of resigning.” And then David Carins, er…, resigned.

Just to add to the fun, fellow minister Tom Harris explained that David Cairns had “no intention of resigning” and only resigned because the Daily Telegraph had named him as someone who was going to resign.

My head now hurts … but useful tip to any newspapers: it would appear therefore that you can make any minister who has “no intention” of resigning do just that by reporting that they are going to. Ooooh, the power…