Alligations of misconduct surrounding shadow chancellor George Osborne's meetings with a Russian oligarch aboard a yacht come at the wrong time for the Tories as they attempt to go on the attack on the economy, says Atticus. At the moment George Osborne should be free to take the battle to Labour, but instead of being able to talk rocketing Government dept he's being forced to defend his actions.

Even Tony Wright, the Labour MP who heads up the Commons Public Administration Select Committee (PASC), see no reason for an investigation as no money exchanged hands and no laws were broken.

However, the Prime Minister is gleefully calling for that most use handy of political tools, "an independent investigation," to weaken his erstwhile counterpart's power to challenge him on the economic crisis.

A bigger issue that may be facing the Tories is whether their bounce has come too soon, and if Gordon can pull off a similar political feat to Major's election victory in 1992. Either way, he's going to leave an incoming government - red or blue - with a huge public deficit to deal with and some very hard decisions to make.