Martha Kearney's week

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By Martha Kearney Presenter, BBC Radio 4's World at One

The alliance forged against the PM over the Gurkhas provided formidable

It begins with a few mild symptoms, attracting little attention.

It then spreads unnoticed and unremarked.

But once a few high profile calamities hit the news, the sense of an unfolding disaster is hard to avoid.

Political panic is transmitted in a manner very like that of a pandemic. There has been a long list of symptoms indicating a poor state of health at No 10.

Labour MPs were troubled by the McBride emails.

There was incredulity about the home secretary's claim for porn videos.

The prime minister's appearance on You Tube provoked both sneering at his performance and anger at his failure to consult.

Then came the Gurkha vote - "catastrophic" according to Stephen Pound who told me why he had resigned his government job over the issue.

And finally Thursday's chaos over the votes on expenses.

Cumulative blows

The cumulative effect of all these bad news stories has transmitted depression and panic amongst Labour ranks like a contagion.

Gordon Brown himself is attracting public criticism.

Former Home Secretary Charles Clarke is a long term adversary of the prime minister but he spoke for many when he told me on Tuesday: "I thought this kind of diktat that came from the YouTube video simply was not the right way to go. I think it's very damaging."

The prime minister himself is frustrated by the nervousness of Cabinet colleagues, especially those who aren't "battle hardened", who weren't in politics for the long, bloody years of opposition when the fear was that Labour would be wiped out.

He told friends last week that in 11 months time all that will count is whether the economy is turned round.

He doesn't regret the YouTube initiative on expenses as he realises how terrible the headlines will be when MPs' receipts are published in the summer.

"Some people are frankly fiddling" one Cabinet minister told me.

One particular sin is fiddling the car allowance with claims of up to 50,000 miles a year.

Labour is also expecting bad results in the June elections.

All the county elections in the past have been held on the same day as the general election so turnout has been artificially inflated. Not so this time.

So could disaster then mean another leadership challenge?

At this stage that still seems unlikely.

But then political forecasts, a bit like predictions about the spread of swine flu, are bound to be unreliable.