On Wednesday the new Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow told MP’s that he demanded they give important Government announcements to the House of Commons first. It was absolutely implicit that they were to desist from the pattern of behaviour they have got into of dashing off to the Today Programme’s studio before having the courtesy to inform their elected colleagues.

I wrote on my blog then, that I wondered how it would be before this spin addled  Government broke this new expectation.

The answer is 36 hours.

This morning and afternoon Ed Balls the School’s Minister has been flouncing around the news rooms (and no doubt his people have been briefing the written media) talking about  his plan to scrap one of Labour’s key school polices; it was going to be announced in a white paper to be publsihed next Tuesday.

Read more here.

So this is Mr. Bercow’s first test. He had a very good time at Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQ’s) on Wednesday, does he have the balls to tackle Balls? I hope so.