By Nigel Morris

For the first time David Davis has publicly admitted what most of his former front bench colleagues believe – that he has probably thrown away his career.

He quit as shadow Home Secretary in June to force a by-election in his Haltemprice and Howden constituency in protest over proposals to allow terrorist suspects to be locked up for 42 days without charge.

On the face of it, he has been vindicated. Mr Davis won the contest with ease and the detention plans have been abandoned by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. And yet he has acknowledged: "This could have been a mistake."

By Nigel Morris

It's amazing to recall that, just six weeks ago, Labour MPs widely believed that tomorrow's by-election in Glenrothes would drive a final nail into Gordon Brown's coffin. Although the Scottish National Party remains likely to capture the Fife constituency, the atmosphere surrounding the by-election contest has completely changed.

The collapse of plotting against the Prime Minister as the global financial crisis gathered pace has turned the prospect of a Labour defeat from a fatal blow to Mr Brown's survival prospects to mild embarrassment for him.

By Nigel Morris

The worse it gets, the better he is. Weeks after his political obituaries were being written, Gordon Brown appears to be enjoying his best spell as Prime Minister for a year - thanks to the financial meltdown.

After suffering so many kickings in Prime Minister’s Question Time, Mr Brown was in commanding form in the chamber today. He almost seemed to be enjoying himself.

By Nigel Morris in Birmingham

David Cameron was always going to receive a standing ovation from the Tory faithful – regardless of whether he delivered a speech that was good, bad or indifferent. But activists left Birmingham this afternoon knowing their leader had closed their annual conference with a speech that was as good as possible under the circumstances. It came against the backdrop of the crisis on the world’s money markets that had relegated the Conservatives to the margins.

By Nigel Morris in Bournemouth

Maybe it’s the sunshine, but the Liberal Democrats are in remarkably good mood at their annual conference.

It’s a marked contrast to the introspection that gripped the party faithful last year during the final days of Sir Menzies Campbell’s leadership.

By Nigel Morris

John MacDougall, a Scottish Labour Party stalwart who died today, was a close friend of Gordon Brown’s since the 1970s, so the Prime Minister’s fulsome tribute to him came from the heart.

His death also leaves Mr Brown with another political headache after a month when his problems have piled up.

By Nigel Morris

Despite the gathering clouds of the credit crunch, you've managed to convince the building society to offer you a mortgage. You've found your ideal home - and if you're not a first-time buyer you’ve somehow managed to sell your old place. It's been a bit of a pinch and it's always daunting to sign an agreement that could last until the 2030s. But you’ve decided to go ahead anyway.

And then Alistair Darling and the Treasury come along.

By Nigel Morris

Some of Gordon Prentice’s colleagues on the Labour backbenches regard him as a maverick who speaks only for himself and not any of them. So when he called today for the Prime Minister to resign, it was little surprise when Tony Lloyd, the chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, insisted he did not reflect the views of most MPs.

The label ‘maverick’, however, is sometimes used in politics to describe those who are brave enough to say out loud what others privately believe.

By Nigel Morris

There’s a mood of cautious optimism in Labour ranks that the party will hang on to power in the Glasgow East by-election tomorrow.

MPs who have been on the stump in the party’s former stronghold privately predict a win by 1,000 to 1,500 votes, which means they are secretly expecting a victory of 2,000 or more.