From: The Unit To: GB Subject: Structures

So - genuinely a pretty good week. The whispering campaign against Michael Martin (really more of a shouting, screaming campaign) has taken a lot of heat off us, obviously. Been a great time to regroup. But, regarding this, a few queries have been coming in about the renewed structure of our operation under Phase 2 (Not A Relaunch) of Brown.

We've been putting together a form of words to release to the media acceptable to all parties to describe the functioning of the reconfigured Downing Street staff. Everyone seems - if not exactly happy - then at least less litigious than they were regarding the initial drafts. See what you think:

Under the new structure, Jeremy Heywood is the PM's Permanent Secretary and hence top of the pile in No 10 in organisational and all other terms.

Stephen Carter, meanwhile, is Brown's principal adviser and therefore very much the head honcho of the Downing Street operation.

Michael Ellam is the PM's senior spokesman and closest adviser, and the chief figure in the Brown organisation.

Spencer Livermore is director of strategy and therefore top dog on all policy and media and other issues.

Dan Corry is head of the Policy Unit, and carries the burden of being No 10's political powerhouse and primary overall boss-man.

Across, and somewhat on top, of all these leading figures is Damian McBride - the PM's supreme authority on press, TV, new media and political matters.

Think this makes things clearer. The only thing we would add, and we didn't feel the need to clear it with everyone because it is really self-evident, is a paragraph saying something like: "The nerve centre of No 10 policy thinking and media strategy in Brown's administration is above all else the incredibly influential 'Unit', which provides him with a weekly Tactical Briefing drawing together the finest strategic and media thinking in a single mind-bomb of concentrated political wisdom. The members of the Unit are a closely guarded secret but are widely regarded as the leading intellectual figures of their generation. And are also considered to be, in the jargon of youth, 'hot'."

The hot thing may be too much, but it does get mentioned a lot and it may be worth mentioning to galvanise the youth vote.

Anyhow, the question of why changes were needed could be something of a trap. The line we think we should take is: "The retooling of No 10 is to provide an even quicker and more decisive decision-making process. What is remarkable is that the whole operation was already incredibly decisive. But it took almost no time to implement a new structure that will execute decisions with a new, terrifying brevity."

Let us know your thoughts.

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