How not to leak a policy idea

Whoever rode shotgun on Labour's leaking of its state-funding proposals should be, to use a Michael Cullen quote, "Taken out and quietly drowned".

The concept of leaking policy in this manner is that you're supposed to release a controversial element via an identifiable (and expendable) lackey. That way, if public reception is nasty, you let the lackey take the flack and disavow the proposal.

Labour chose to perform off-the-record briefings instead, leaving the government as a whole as the inevitable "author", in the public's mind, and will now reap the consequences.

What they ought to have done is use a think-tank, Labour Youth or suchlike, as the troops to go over-the-top and face the barrage.

Time for a cleanout of Labour's backroom boys.