It was Tony Blair, in another context, who said that the ‘kaleidoscope had turned’. Britain’s political kaleidoscope has certainly turned in the past 48 hours.

Tony Blair will be remembered for lots of things, and I need not list them all here. But I ask you to reflect on the following: Tony Blair is perhaps the second most successful politician in post-war Britain. It may be three election wins each, but Thatcher changed Britain whilst Blair has left us as pretty much as he found us. And whilst history may focus on his foreign policy adventures, or the corruption and love of money that swirled around him, it is incompetence that stains his domestic legacy. For although he was a very successful politician, he was an appalling Prime Minister. As he confessed today, he was never much of a ‘House of Commons man’, nor was he a ‘details’ man. Fonder of taking decisions on the Ikea sofa than at the cabinet table.

And therein lies the weakness of the Blair Government. They are simply incompetent when it comes to domestic politics. I could list, for page after page, the cock-ups due to political maladministration – not merely tiny errors by civil servants, but great thumping bloopers that have cost taxpayers millions caused by bad ministerial decisions. Anything which required new, large computer systems has hit the buffers – the NHS, Single Farm Payments, Child Support Agency, Tax Credits … to name but a few. They simply cannot manage projects.

And Gordon cannot stand innocent in all of this. A lot of his Treasury schemes have gone wrong. But he has always done a good job of acting the coward, going to ground, and hiding for a few days. If the Tories raise it in the House, he lets his deputies take the flack. Voters seem to think he is competent – but then why should they think him incompetent when he disappears from the scene the moment the lights come crashing down?

But now he’s Prime Minister. He can run but he can’t hide. In the era of 24 hour news media, there is no going to ground. He looked like a startled rabbit in the headlights today. That is as nothing compared with what is to come. And it will take more than his nine-second-wonder Quentin-who? defections to make the political weather.

The great test for the Brown Government will be one of competence.

And as for Quentin who? If ever there was a man peeved at not being made a fuss of by all around him, it was him.