More importantly, they will do Clarke no harm at all with the hidden fourth section of the electoral college – public opinion as mediated by opinion polls – which will have a decisive influence on the way the first three sections vote. His comments about the Prince will have gone down well with all three sections of the electoral college that will elect the next Labour leader – MPs, party members and the four million trade unionists who support the Labour Party. It is becoming noticeably more difficult to maintain discipline.That is not to say that Clarke was, in the florid language of headline writers, launching a leadership bid. The atmosphere in Cabinet is beginning to resemble that in Year Six of primary schools around the country.

The pupils know they are leaving next summer, and that they will never have to see their teachers again. One of his advisers admitted that Clarke’s language was “florid”, but wondered whether it was going to continue to be the case that “people in public life will not engage with the Prince”. Compare this with the touchiness of Blair’s inner circle about the monarchy in opposition and in the first term of government, when Ron Davies and Mo Mowlam were given the third degree for deviating from the New Labour, New Royalist script.There is a cool draught of the fresh air of liberation drifting into the Cabinet room. I am told that Tony Blair was not really bothered by the fuss.

He refused to be drawn into the fun.Downing Street had gone into firefighting mode to try to cool the story down, but without the urgency of yesteryear. It was not until Peter Hain, the Cabinet minister best known for his republican sympathies, took to the Today programme on Friday that the old restraints started to be reimposed. But it was interesting that John Reid, another combative politician, joined in the next day, publicly agreeing with his Cabinet ally in a pre-recorded interview shown on Channel 4 last night. The Prime Minister’s announcement that he will not fight the election after next has lifted the constraints on ministers – not much, but appreciably.Clarke is a naturally combative politician, and might have gone for the Prince anyway. That’s what I really think.”Marvellous stuff, which forced the Prince to rewrite tomorrow’s speech to “clarify” his views But there is more to this than knockabout entertainment Politics is changing. “To be quite frank, I think he is very old-fashioned and out of time, and doesn’t actually understand what is going on in the British education system at the moment.