SIR Brian Moffat is the ''most hated man in Wales'', screams one newspaper headline in the Principality. Don't suppose the boss of steel company Corus is the best-liked bloke on Teesside just at the moment.

And believe you me, it'll take a whopping donation to Labour party funds to get Sir Brian back on Tony Blair's Christmas card list.

The Prime Minister and Trade Secretary Stephen Byers are hopping mad that the Corus chairman refused to take them into his confidence over where the axe was going to fall in this week's huge wave of redundancies.

Sir Brian's response? If he'd told them, it would have leaked straight out through the Westminster colander to worried workers ahead of the planned, co-ordinated com pany announcement.

He's right. There's no way you can start butchering jobs in Labour's heartlands and not expect a minister to have a word with a local MP who then has a whisper with The Northern Echo.

Much better to give your workforce a wonderfully anxious Christmas, followed by a month of sheer hell worrying if the next day will bring a redundancy note through the post.

BUT there's a delicious irony to Sir Brian's patent lack of trust in Her Majesty's Government.

This week, Darlington MP Alan Milburn unveiled the harrowing Redfern Report into the children's organs scandal at Liverpool's Alder Hey hospital.

The giant 530-page report has been in the Health Secretary's office since before Christmas. The Press world and his wife have been desperately trying to get their grubby paws on a leaked copy.

Posh dinners have been offered to Mr Milburn's special adviser Darren Murphy to induce him to squeal on details of the report, although I don't think it's necessary to name the importuning hack.

But, apart from the merest of advance mentions in last Sunday's papers, the Health Secretary kept the lid on the grim findings until the report was formally presented to Parliament on Tuesday.

I'm told Alan gave his word to the families affected by the awful events on Merseyside that they would read the report before any lurid details were splashed across the front pages.

Alder Hey Families 1, Press 0 was the satisfying result for Mr Milburn this week.

GILES Radice is not known for his biting criticisms of Gordon Brown. So it was a bit of a shock to see the Durham North Labour MP and the Commons treasury committee he chairs sticking the boot into the Treasury this week.

The Chancellor and his team were spending too much time interfering in the work of other government departments, said a new committee report.

Now I know Giles is stepping down from the Commons at the next election but this was strong medicine from a New Labour loyalist.

No surprise, then, that shortly after the report hit the news wires, Mr Radice started ringing round the newspapers toning down the attack. Only cynics would say that Giles was lent on by the Treasury thought police. But I take it the peerage isn't yet quite in the bag.

THE wheels may not be coming off the Tory pre-election battlebus but the signs are.

Billy Hague was this week setting out more exciting pre-election party policy in another keynote speech. And behind the Tory leader was a big sign denoting his hosts for the day, the Social Market Foundation.

Half way through the speech, down it came with a clatter, to a nervous titter from Mr Hague.

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