This time last week, Sunday newspapers were dropping their weighty presence onto doormats across the country, proclaiming a Cabinet rift over the Middle East crisis.
For the people of Edinburgh, this was not not 'new' news. The evening paper in Scotland's capital, the Evening News, broke news of this rift via a chat with former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw the Friday before.
A day later, via a 'statement' to Blackburn's Muslim community, the Lancashire Evening Telegraph carried a similar story. Quite how an MP makes a statement to one particular section of his community without first doing it through the media confuses me, but that's not the point.
It has been suggested since that Mr Straw made his remarks because he is worried about some sort of Muslim/Asian rebellion within his own constituency, Blackburn, over the Government's rather lack-lustre response to calls for an Israeli ceasefire.
It's true that Blackburn does have done of the highest ethnic populations in the country - percentage-wise that is - but it's total tosh to think that is what was bothering Mr Straw.
As Foreign Secretary during the Iraq war - one Britain instigated in the face of massive public opposition - Mr Straw went through a very sticky patch in Blackburn. An ex-ambassador turned up to stand against him in the general elections, the Tories and the Lib Dems sought out the anti-war vote and Mr Straw suffered abuse on a day to day basis.
But he still survived. His share of the vote, and indeed number of votes, fell. But so did the votes of the Tories. If ever there was a time Mr Straw was going to buckle to fears government policy was going to cost him his elected political career, it was then.
Certainly not a year later, and some four years off the next general election. And anti-government sentiment in Blackburn on the issue of Israel is by no means as strong as it was on Iraq - an issue which incidentally cost Mr Straw's agent his role as leader of the local council in 2004 thanks to the fact he stood in a largely Asian ward and chose to align himself closely with his mate in the Foreign Office.
So if that's not the reason, then what is it? Well, what's changed significantly since Iraq began? Ah yes, Mr Straw's job. Weeks after pictures of him showing Condoleezza Rice around Liverpool and Blackburn been shown around the world and he was a shock loser in a Cabinet reshuffle. Out went his trips around the world and in came the prospect of Parliamentary reform courtesy of the Leader of the Commons role.
And no matter how much gusto and spin is put out by Mr Straw and Number 10 about what an important role it is, it simply isn't the same - and Mr Straw is smart enough to know that.
Having diligently backed Mr Blair's line on Iraq, at the possible cost to his support on the ground in Blackburn, it was an odd way to be rewarded.
And I think Mr Straw's very open concern at what was going on in Israel and Lebanon, contradicting the line from the PM, was designed to show Mr Blair that he mess with Mr Straw at his peril.
Mr Straw didn't opt for some off-the-record briefing to make his comments. The papers weren't littered with 'senior minister concerned at' blah blah - it was an on-the-record statement made to one of the lobby correspondents he knows best.
The Sundays picked up on it, and it appears to have inspired other ministers to become more vocal - at least behind closed doors - about the Government's line on Israel.
Margaret Beckett has shown herself to be thoroughly useless in this crisis. At least when Mr Straw was towing the party line you got the feeling he knew what he was on about. Pushing him out of the way for Mrs Beckett is rather like asking your granny to take over running a kitchen when Gordon Ramsay has been in charge - you may not agree with Ramsay, but you know he knows what to do. And so it was with Mr Straw.
She has seemed totally incapable of explaining why a ceasefire can't be called for now. Almost every other country has called for one, and Britain should have shown teeth to America and done the same. This nonsense about a lasting ceasefire is just that. Get them to stop now and work out a longterm plan then. That's how it should have been done.
But no, instead of condemnation of both sides, we have a Prime Minister who relishes his role as an international statesman making global calls to other world leaders to try and find a solution. When not drinking with rapper Snoop Dogg.
And while he is searching for this lasting solution, bombs are falling on homes on both sides of the border. Some of those bombs actually stopped in Scotland en-route from America. So much for seeking out peace, eh?
What it boils down to is not concern for those dying in the Middle East, but those seeking political capital out of it. That's my opinion. Mr Straw uses it to show he has teeth, and isn't afraid to nash them. Blair uses it to strengthen his relationship with Dubya while playing international statesman. Other members of the cabinet see a crisis coming and distance themselves from it, but won't go public for fear of retribution in the future. And Mr Blair ends up delaying his holiday because, in a nutshell, he doesn't trust anyone else to do his bidding while on a 10-hour flight to sandy shores - such confidence in Mrs Beckett - and because no-one wants to follow his line.
And while all this is going on, people continue to die. Kind of makes you sick, doesn't it?
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